People That You Admire

[Phil Carter]

Hello Maria,

Nope, wrong end of the stick I'm afraid. Admiration isnt hero worship. She is far from being hero worshipped from here. Perhaps some people have traits that are not generally known to the outside world?

best wishes

Phil

[Steven Russell]

I'm assuming Jesus hasn't appeared on any lists because he's generally (and appropriately) thought of in a class all his own, even by misguided atheists. Regarding Mary Magdelene, the reason why she should certainly be included is because had her role in the forming of Christianity not been played down so much by the early church, there probably wouldn't have been a need for 20th century feminism as we know it.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

Hello, Tom.
Jesus has made it onto someone's list, I think. Rightly so in my opinion as he was obviously a man of great principles and ahead of his time in terms of his ideas of how we should treat our fellow man. It's all the nonsense about God I object to and suggest that it is you and your fellow believers who are misguided (I am assuming you believe in God and apologise if you do not).

I find it interesting that God has not made it onto anyone's list despite his predeliction for praise. If He is reading this, He is probably not too happy.

Best wishes,
Steve.

[mariab]

I'm surprised Annie Besant and the match strike girls haven't come up. Or W.T. Stead. Or some of the other people who come up a lot in Ripper studies who truly did change the world.

Well, in my list (post #4) I've included Ripperologists (SPE, Rob Clack, and the team who put up casebook), but I concentated on the people I consider to have been most beneficial for humanity in the most substantial fashion (like the inventors of antibiotics and of the internet), or of people I admire to death on a more “personal“ level, like influential athletes in the sports I engage in, and favorite artists whom I admire entirely, without any reservations whatsoever.
If I mentioned all people I respect, approve, like, or moderately admire for their selfless engagement and achievements, the list would turn into an encyclopedia.
The reason I didn't mention Jesus or Mary Magdalena is that I concentrated on historical figures about whom we really know the facts about if they existed and in which substance exactly. The reason I didn't mention any politicians (besides Nelson Mandela) is my reservations pertaining to the questionable aspect of political power. Apostels and prophets belong to the same category as politicians, with the questionable aspect of religious power bringing even more reservations. Thus, it's entirely NOT an accident that my list contains only scientists, artists, and athletes. I wanted people 100% pure.
Also I chose to concentrate on what Phil Carter called “hero worship“ vs. the heroic, ethical, and selfless moments we all (hopefully) have in everyday life.

PS.: FINALLY someone else who decided to include a Ripperologist. Thanks Michael for bringing up SPE.

On another matter, I've tried to research Mary Magdalena-centralized Christianity, and am I right to detect Baptist Evangelicalism here? This is a trend that clearly does not exist in Europe, at least not in Protestantism. I've also found out that there's been a Mary Magdalene cult in medieval Catholic monasteries in the South of France (Provence and Burgundy), for whatever that's worth.

[Natalie Severn]

Emily Bronte

Kate Millett [her early writings]

Angela Davies

Marilyn Monroe

and of these Marilyn is the one I admire most---for forbearing as long as she could!

[c.d.]

Yo Good Michael,

If you appreciate a good scam and a good crime as well we need to include that scumbag Bernie Madoff, D.B. Cooper (major league cojones there) and the perpetrator of the Great Train Robbery (an absolutely great book by the way).

c.d.

[The Good Michael]

CD,

Well MacGregor really only shafted the English who shafted his family in the first place... oh and the French too, but they really should have known. The founding of an imaginary kingdom called 'Poyais' is just brilliant. He also married Simon Bolivar's daughter as reward for helping him win a war. He was a hero in many ways. He didn't use violence or threaten violence, in his scam so I think he must have been a pretty cool guy.

Cheers,
Mike

[Sister Hyde]

“Feminist“ is more of a historical term. I'm not sure I should be called this. (How about...Amazonian?)

that's much better, that's what all the men in my life have called me when they used to make lame jokes about me, and the sisters use it a lot too, when getting chat by a guy i always say that i have one tit cut off

[mariab]

I've been called an "Amazon“ (fits with the fact that I buy a lot at the amazon sites), I've been called of “living my life like a man“, but there's an Arab proverb going “Dogs bark, but the caravan goes its way“. Actually, the Arab proverb is a quote from Gone with the wind, where Rhett Buttler says this to Scarlett O'Hara as a nice piece of advice.

[Sister Hyde]

there's nothing wrong with people telling you you live your life like a man, some take it as something negativ, some say it as a compliment, when my father says that to me i know he means it more like "couldn't you be a bit more "casual"? couldn't you behave more like a good wife?", but it's better than being a little weak nature, if i had not lived my life "like a man", probably i would have never survived the past 3 years of my life.

[mariab]

In my case it probably refers to the fact that I can take care of myself and have everything (more or less) under control, but the latter is not necessarily a fact. I've also been confronted with the “Would it kill you to wear a skirt once in a while?“-line occasionally (which is also a movie quote, from Girlfight), but I own a couple of mini dresses, which I save for Paris, otherwise the places I live are too casual for such.

[Sister Hyde]

yeah that's what i mean, depends on who says it to you and how they say it. and for me it's the same, i never needed anyone to earn my bread, or to study, or to fi,d a job, i never needed anyone to be independant (lived 7 years abroad on my very own, places where i had no family and no acquaintances at first), i didn't even need anyone to support me during my labour or to raise my son on my own. i often wear dresses though i was more confronted to nasty reflexions from my family about things they disagreed about like " do you know what a woman with a broken nose looks like??? do you really wanna look like a she-geronimo??? then keep on boxing you're on the right track" (typical from my father to try to push me to say "oooh no i don't wanna get my nose broken, ok then i'll stop"), or "do you have to wear army boots even with a traditional saree??" it's funny that you save your dresses for paris, i do the opposite (maybe because i live there ahahah)

[mariab]

Am I to understand that you box?
I've broken my nose a couple of times (it wasn't a real fracture though, requiring a hospital visit etc.), and there's absolutely no visible sign left. But nose fractures in the boxing ring are more “heads on“.
Paris for some reason requires “elegant“ attire (including high heels) some of the time, and I live there part of the year.

[Sister Hyde]

i quit boxing when i was 19 and left the Sorbonne and my job at the historical archives of Paris and moved to Gothenburg where i stayed 4 years, then i moved to the Netherlands in the province they call friesland (it's there my life turned to hell litteraly because of discriminative administration and extremly nationalistic general mind there, causing me months and months and months of starvation and squats and fighting in court for my rights to be respected), i've never boxed since, i was lucky enough to never get my nose smashed (even with 3 years of rugby when i was a teen).
in my opinion, paris requires to be deaf, blind and have no sense or smell in order to be bearable, BUT it still has the most amazing places for urban exploration and for dark wanderings, i guess i'm just a typical parisian in that sense (ouuuch why am i hurting myself like that???), the classical love/hate relationship to this stinking anthill. god i miss scandinavia, i would have never left in the first place if the employement market had not been THAT bad, i hope the conjoncture soon gets better so i can go back, but this time i'll bury myself in the Lofoten.

[mariab]

For your job, are you referring to the Archives d'Histoire de Paris at Porte de Lilas or to the Archives Nationales at the Marais? I'm at the AN regularly (for my job and for Ripperology), and I intend to go to the Archives d'Histoire de Paris for the first time ever, for Ripperological research.
Yes, Paris definitely requires to be deaf and to have no sense of smell (I always say that the scent of Paris is urine, esp. in the métro), and what further bothers me is the impossibility to see even one tree, unless in the parcs.
I've always wanted to see the Lofoten. In May I'm attending a conference in Reykjavik, and I'm currently trying to establish if it's possible to go ride the Sneffels crater (where Jules Verne based his Voyage to the center of the earth!).
Actually I've boxed a little bit too, and I totally loved it, but due to mobility I can't be in a club. A broken nose is not bad, it doesn't even hurt. Sometimes it bleeds like a geyser, and sometimes it doesn't bleed at all, but gets as thick on the upper part as below, and has to be pushed back in. I broke it once whiping out at surfing, eating a stupid thick borrowed board, twice from eating the wall at a pool while exchanging glances with a guy (can it get more moronic?), and once from eating my bedroom door while running to the phone (total spazz).
Interesting that the employment market's gone south in Scandinavia as well. It appears like we're all in the same boat.

[Sister Hyde]

ahahahah tell me about it, i can speak 5 languages and teach, and i'm a eceptionist cause it's all i found as a steady contract and that i need a certain security financially when alone with a child.
I was reefering to the archives in the Marais, i was working at the Shoah departement hotel Rohan (next to hotel Soubise),i really loved the job, but the north was too attractive to me. If you want some piece and some trees in Paris i suggest to try the graveyards ahah, or the garden of the Museum of natural history (i always use to spend my afternoon since my childhood in the gallery of compared anatomy and paleonthology)
it's fun i'll go to reykjavik pretty soon too, my best friend has been living there for 6 years now, he moved there one year after i left for Sweden, and i've still never visited him! and it will feed my travelling addiction for a little while. i also wanna save money to go see the gatherings and ceremonies in the Kali temples in Calcutta and Bombay.
concerning sports i've hardly have time lately but i want to get started with fencing. it's going to be very exciting!