Raise your girls to be strong. Teach your women to swim.

I was checking someone's references today when one of the articles he cited caught my attention and I had to read it for myself.

The article, by Joni Seager,¹ notes the fact that most natural disasters have a racial and gender imbalance in terms of the survivors.  In countries like America, black people are likely to be hit hardest by natural disasters.  All over the world, however, women are less likely to survive.

In some cases, the death rates for women have been as high as five times those of men.

People studying this phenomenon have noted that our prevailing stereotypes encourage women and girls to be weak and inactive.  As a result, they aren't strong enough to hold onto the trees.  They are less likely to know how to swim.

Additionally, they're likely to stick around to find and rescue the children, but they aren't strong enough to actually hold on to everyone who needs saving.

By continuing to foster an idea of femininity that doesn't include being physically strong and active, we are literally putting our women and girls in danger.

Let's try making the assumption that "strong enough to survive" is a trait both sexes should share.

1. Seager J. Noticing gender (or not) in disasters. Geoforum. 2006;37(1):2-3. doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2005.10.004

The Yurt Game

And the word of the day is:  Yurt.

GurvgerCC BY-SA 3.0

I was chatting to one of my colleagues earlier about being in a "decluttering" phase (yes, I know how futile that is when you happen to be a very cluttered person), and I said I was trying to prioritise what I would want to keep if I had to move into a yurt.

She had never heard of a yurt before, so we spent several minutes looking up pictures of various yurts from the traditional tents of nomadic Asian tribes people to the "glamping" monstrosities of today.

There's a game I've been playing as I've been trying to sort out my bookshelves, and I invite you to play a similar game in your homes:

Say you had to move from your house into a yurt.  You can make up your own reason for why, that's not the important thing.

The important thing is that your yurt doesn't have space for your bookshelves.  You have stubbornly insisted on having at least one book shelf, but that's all you get.  One.  Singular.

If you are anything like me, you probably have several bookcases scattered around your house, each at various levels of fullness.  Imagine you have to reconcile all of those books to just one shelf.

I mean every book - fiction, how-to manuals, cook books, reference books... the lot.  Whatever you can fit on one shelf of one of your current bookcase is what you get to keep.

Now, before you start thinking about your answer to this question, remember that libraries exist.  And you probably have friends with similar reading tastes.  The vast majority of books currently taking up space in your house could probably be borrowed if you really wanted to see them again.

So, what goes on the shelf?

Books that are irreplaceable.  Books where that specific copy has some deep meaning to you.  Books you use all the time or consult frequently.  Books that are so close to your heart that you can't imagine any home of yours not having this book in it...

Tell me about a no-brainer - a book you know would definitely be on that shelf.  You can put it in the comments for this post, or submit it to your social media platform of choice with the tag #yurtbooks.

It will be interesting to see what matters to you.

If Agatha Raisin went to Lochdubh...

There are many different types of crime novels, but when it comes to series of crime novels there seems to be two overarching archetypes.

One is the series that involve a detective who actually has a reason to go around solving crimes.  This person is a police officer, a sheriff, a DCI, a Kommisar... whatever the local law enforcement happens to be.  He or she is paid to find murderers, so it makes sense that they would be asking awkward questions in pursuit of a killer.

This person is usually stationed at a particular place.  Quite often this is a country town - no doubt because country towns offer a nice range of eccentric recurring characters for the author to draw on.  However, this does mean that a lot of murders occur in that country down.

Quite a lot.  An inordinate amount of murders.  So many, that these little country towns seem to be vying for the role of "crime capital of the country".

It's a wonder the eccentric locals don't all leave to find some place less murdery.  And those stay would be forgiven for getting a bit blase about it all:

"There's been a murder!"
"Oh?  Well, I suppose it has been several weeks since the last one..."

The second main archetype for crime series involves the amateur detective.  This is the person who has no good reason to go around solving crimes, they just happen to be particularly clever and always in the right place at the right time.

It doesn't seem to matter where this person goes, death is sure to follow.  Thankfully, these people are usually quite interested in crime solving and enjoy the process of finding murderers, or they would surely find the amount of death rather disturbing.

"Thank you for inviting me to your birthday party - whoops, there's a murder."
"I'm just in town for a few days visiting my - whoops, there's a murder."
"I saw this place in a holiday brochure and thought it looked like a nice - whoops, there's a murder."
"I'm afraid I can't come to your wedding on that mysterious island, even though it sounds lovely, as I want everyone to make it out alive."

I can't help but wonder what would happen if one of these murder magnets found themselves visiting one of these crime capitals.  If Miss Marple wetn to Midsomer to visit a friend, would there be a mass killing?  Would multiple people die in multiple locations under multiple sets of mysterious circumstances which may or may not be connected?

If Agatha Raisin went to Lochdubh, would anyone make it out alive?