Footnotes to a Conversation, July 22, 2024

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” – Jane Austen

Taking a Step Backwards

I have a relatively long hallway in my apartment – the perfect spot to walk backwards without worrying about tripping or running into other people. I started out walking backwards to improve my balance, but I’ve discovered it has numerous other benefits. Experts say “it’s a low-impact way to burn calories, strengthen your legs, test your coordination, and even improve pain”. Walking backwards creates new challenges for muscles in the abdomen, lower legs, and back and has been found to relieve back and knee pain. [Time]

Bonus. Here are some fun exercises for improving your sixth sense of proprioception, the physical sense of where we are in space. [The Guardian]

For Rent: Vegetarians Only

I’ve been a vegetarian for over 40 years, and there have been times when I’ve been frustrated by the jokes or lack of vegetarian options in restaurants. But dietary choices are creating a much more serious problem in India where Hindus are refusing to rent to meat-eating Muslims.

“Even though it is against the law to exclude potential renters because of their background, real estate agents and landlords - who are often dominant-caste Hindus - use diet as a way of refusing homes to Indian Muslims and other people from historically meat-eating communities … These repeated acts of diet-based discrimination eventually become a part of everyday life for Indian Muslims, in which the seclusion of spaces, and their consequent isolation, becomes a condition of the mind. Aliza, a Mumbai-based journalist told me that ‘This constant vigilance around food signifies the pervasive fear and discrimination Muslims face in cities. We’re always walking on eggshells.’” [Vittles]

Solitude

“Everybody should be quiet near a little stream and listen.” – Maurice Sendak

Rose Macaulay recalls the pleasure of being left alone after entertaining visitors: “An exquisite peace obtains: a drowsy, golden peace, flowing honey-sweet over my dwelling, soaking it, dripping like music from the walls, strowing the floors like trodden herbs. A peace for gods; a divine emptiness … The easy chair spreads wide arms of welcome; the sofa stretches, guest-free; the books gleam, brown and golden, buff and blue and maroon, from their shelves; they may strew the floor, the chairs, the couch, once more, lying ready to the hand… The echo of the foolish words lingers on the air, is brushed away, dies forgotten, the air closes behind it. A heavy volume is heaved from its shelf on to the sofa. Silence drops like falling blossoms over the recovered kingdom… It is a gift, a miracle, a golden jewel, a fragment of some gracious heavenly order, dropped to earth like some incredible strayed star. One’s life to oneself again.” [The Marginalian]

The Miso Miracle

Miso is a paste made from soy beans fermented with a kind of mould called koji that is also used to make sake, soy sauce, and rice vinegar. I add it to soups and casseroles as well as enjoying instant miso soup with pieces of seaweed and tiny chunks of tofu. But miso can also be used in cocktails, flavoured butters, and desserts – from an intense chocolate ice cream to an apple Danish with a miso caramel glaze. “Anything tastes better with a bit of miso in it.” [The Guardian]

Footnotes to a Conversation is a weekly Monday feature covering an assortment of topics that I’ve come across in the preceding week – books, art, travel, food, and whatever else strikes my fancy. I also post occasional articles on other dates, including frequent book reviews and travel tales.

If you share my love of nature, check out EcoFriendly West, an online publication encouraging environmental initiatives in Western Canada, and Nature Companion, a free nature app for Canada’s four western provinces.