Al Past's Blog, page 5

Incredible Mexican pottery from Mata Ortiz!

Mata Ortiz, a town in northern Chihuahua, Mexico (MAP), is justly famous for its world-class ceramic art. Mata Ortiz also happens to be a venue in Distant Cousin: Recirculation. Novels being what they are, photographs are seldom present, but the work of the artists in Mata Ortiz deserves to be more widely known than it is now--that is, mainly by collectors, art galleries, and cognoscenti.

Our extraterrestrial friend Ana Darcy Méndez lives in southern New Mexico, only about 150 miles from Mata...

Ana finds a treasury of molas and Mexican art!

You might expect that the first human extraterrestrial woman to return to her home planet (Earth) would be a collector, and that she would be delighted by all the novel things to be found around her and want to keep a selection with her at all times.

If you'd expect that you would be wrong. Ana Darcy does indeed love much of Earth's surprising bounty, but such is her personality that she prefers living simply, and having around her only the most utilitarian, necessary objects for daily life. S...

More textile sculpture: Mexican dolls!

Ana found these stunning handmade Mexican folk dolls at a friend's home and fell in love with them immediately. The one on the right is eight inches (20 cm) tall. Two have tiny babies slung on their backs!
Ana says the people on Thomo, her home planet, have nothing resembling a "toy industry," and mothers (and grandmothers) tend to make dolls and toys for their youngsters. Some Thoman clothing, she says, even resembles the Mexican styles seen here. (Click to enlarge.) 
She admits regrettin...

Ana cooks fusion: Chinese/TexMex/Italian Fritatta!

Since Ana Darcy came to Earth as an adult she was not invested in any particular Earthly cuisines. They were all new to her. As a result, her instincts in cooking were not shaped by childhood habit--all the new tastes she encountered were fair game for combining. She routinely  comes up with some surprising, and surprisingly tasty, dishes. (For many others, see the column to the right, under the picture of cranberry-apple pie.)

We have already reported Ana's adoption of the versatile frit...

Aun mas dichos! Even MORE proverbs from the Mexican-American Grandmother!

Everyone loves a good proverb. Proverbs (dichos) in Spanish are especially clever, poetic, and to the point. Here is Chapter 3.

Although the first two are rather slangy and are unlikely to be heard on the lips of Matt Méndez's grandmother, his extraterrestrial wife Ana loves them all, and supplied some from her own planet, Thomo, not too long ago.

Traditional proverbs are often similar across languages. Therefore, the ones below are translated more or less literally. If there's an English prove...

Distant Cousin predicts the future--EIGHT times!

A recent article in the New York Times announced that "For the first time, researchers have determined virtually the entire genome of a fetus using only a blood sample from the pregnant woman and a saliva specimen from the father."

“It’s an extraordinary piece of technology, really quite remarkable,” said Peter Benn, professor of genetics and developmental biology at the University of Connecticut....What I see in this paper is a glance into the future.”

The technique, when perfected, will make...

Ana Darcy discovers St. Francis's "Canticle of the Sun"

Ana Darcy Méndez, the (normally) reclusive housewife living in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, was born on a planet 25 light years away, as readers of her stories know. Her ancestors, descended from Proto Indo-Europeans--pre-Christian nomads originally of north central Asia--could not have known about most of the major religions on Earth today

She has been interested to see that much Earthly religious thought is not that different from that of her own (Thoman) people, aside from doctrinal details...

Observing the transit of Venus: a salute to Ana Darcy!

Eclipses of the sun and moon come along every year or so, and they are always news. Millions of people enjoy watching these majestic evidences of the mechanics of the universe.

A similar, much less frequent phenomenon with a long, fascinating history will occur the fifth of this June, not to be seen again in the lifetime of anyone now on Earth, not until 2117: the transit of Venus.

During the transit of Venus, the shadow of that planet, Venus, can be seen (with special equipment) to pass across...

Another little toot of the horn

It's always fun to receive, and to share, comments from readers. Here are some recent ones:

"Enormous fun! The very fast-paced plot is based on some interesting premises, there are many well-sketched characters (and some good character development), and the book is loaded with local color of several flavors. I'd add that there's a touch of innocence about the worldview that reminds me slightly of golden-age SF. I'm systematically reading my way through the series, and I recommend it highl...

An anniversary poem for the husband of an extraterrestrial!

Ana Darcy's husband Matt, being an English major, has an unsurprising taste for poetry. Recently, approximately a month before their anniversary, he ran across a poem that touched his heart.
We can only provide a link to a copyrighted work, but we can say that except for the ocean mentioned (there are no oceans anywhere close to southern New Mexico) there was much in it to remind him that his sweet wife had traveled trillions of miles from her home planet to get to Earth, and to their house. ...