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The story of New York’s red honey struck a chord with those already concerned about honey bee health. Bees have been hit hard by a host of challenges ranging from parasitic mites to neonicotenoid pesticides—but could red honey be another sign of bee decline? Could artificial flavors and chemicals in human foods be toxic to bees? Could we be at risk if we eat “local honey”?

The post High-fructose honey and the diet of urban bees appeared first on OUPblog.

Otherwise known as: A Couple Yankees Head South. Before we could hit the road for Raleigh, Mx had a couple finals to take. I went to the Antique Cafe for an awesome cup of coffee and then took in some of the student exhibits at FIT.

One of the Exhibits highlighted the history of and special attractions in Chelsea:



Art from The High Line



The history of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union in Chelsea



The Museum at FIT [closed on Mondays]



Student Designs>



Finals are OVER!
California here we come. After one last stop at Mx's apartment we took the Lincoln Tunnel out of Manhattan and headed south!

Here are some scenes from the road:







We arrived pretty late in Raleigh and to be honest we FELL into bed at the Best Western in town. We had spent about 8 hours laughing and talking and singing. Watching the world go by. When all was said and done we'd gone through 6 states: New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. It was heaven to drive into North Carolina. We were a bit challenged when it came to photographing all the state signs. Seems like they came upon us so fast. So, we didn't get much of that done, although we intended to. Just too much to talk about, I guess. We also got into the habit of reading FML; and making a road trip song list. Mx introduced me to Red Yellow Sparks and I love them.



Here's an excerpt from my journal from Day One:

"We passed by battlefields and looked up some history--learned that Patrick Henry gave his "Give me liberty or give me death!" speech in Richmond Virginia. Learned that Grant invented the foreshadow of trench warfare when he dug trenches in Petersburg to disturb the supply lines to Richmond and that it took him over a year to do so....One thing we noticed about North Carolina is how many churches there are."

We'd never traveled in The South and were just getting a taste of how The Civil War impacted all the places we would visit. I laid my head down on my pillow and went to sleep to the sound of the men in the room next door cranking country music and talking about the sorry state of it today which moved on to a discussion about their female troubles, angry about something that had happened that night. And, as I writer, I wished the walls were just a little thinner and sleep hadn't come over me so fast.

Click here to see all road trip photos [adding more as I go...]

Yesterday's song/poem, "O Mistress Mine" by William Shakespeare, probably falls within the carpe diem sensibilities of last week's "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell or the other week's "To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time" by Robert Herrick. It's also a bit romantic, I think, albeit in a light-hearted vein. The idea of music and making the most of love put me in mind of a different poem from Elizabethan times, written by an alleged rival of Shakespeare's, Christopher Marlowe.

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
by Christopher Marlowe

Come live with me and be my Love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dale and field,
And all the craggy mountains yield.

There will we sit upon the rocks
And see the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

There will I make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle.

A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull,
Fair linèd slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold.

A belt of straw and ivy buds
With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me and be my Love.

Thy silver dishes for thy meat
As precious as the gods do eat,
Shall on an ivory table be
Prepared each day for thee and me.

The shepherd swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May-morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my Love.

The skinny on Marlowe and this poem

Christopher Marlowe was a famous poet and playwright in the time of Shakespeare. He was also a drunkard with an anger management issue, a homosexual, and quite possibly a spy.

Christened in early 1564, Marlowe was presumably born in late 1563 or early 1564 to a tradesman and a clergyman's daughter. Marlowe was one of the first (if not the first) playwright's to use blank verse in his work. He led a life shrouded in mystery, including some sort of secret "services to the Queen" which may have included spying on the House of Stuart. Based on an analysis of his works and widespread consensus in the writings of his contemporaries at the time, Marlowe is believed to have been gay. He was killed in a tavern by means of a dagger through the eye, allegedly over a dispute involving the tab, although the men with him at the time were all secret service (and in some cases, loan sharks as well). To say nothing of his murder occurring within a few days of his arrest for heresy. But perhaps I digress.

Analysis of the poem: Based on Marlowe's knowledge of much older Greek poems in which older men wrote in this sort of fashion to seduce younger men, this one can be read (if one chooses) as a love poem to a male, although it's usually read as a love poem from a man to a woman. The poem is constructed in four-line stanzas written in rhymed couplets, and using iambic tetrameter (four iambic feet per line: taDUM taDUM taDUM taDUM). In some cases, there are nine syllables in a line owing to Marlowe's decision to conclude with a "feminine" ending (taDUM taDUM taDUM taDUMta), but that does not alter the analysis of the metre employed. Savvy?

Now, sometimes poets engage in dialogue. One could argue, for instance, that T.S. Eliot's incorporation within The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock of specific references to Marvell's To His Coy Mistress is a form of dialogue. But sometimes, the dialogue is far more direct. And far more personal.

And so it was that Sir Walter Raleigh (founder of Roanoke, courtier to the Queen, played by Clive Owen (yum!) in Elizabeth: The Golden Age) felt the need to mock or one-up or put down (hard to know for certain) Marlowe for his poem, crafting a poem in direct response that borrows both the rhyme and metre and the conceit of the poem, and adding a title that made clear what he was up to for good measure:

The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd
by Sir Walter Raleigh

If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd's tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee and be thy Love.

But Time drives flocks from field to fold;
When rivers rage and rocks grow cold;
And Philomel becometh dumb;
The rest complains of cares to come.

The flowers do fade, and wanton fields
To wayward Winter reckoning yields:
A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall.

Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses,
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies,
Soon break, soon wither—soon forgotten,
In folly ripe, in reason rotten.

Thy belt of straw and ivy-buds,
Thy coral clasps and amber studs,—
All these in me no means can move
To come to thee and be thy Love.

But could youth last, and love still breed,
Had joys no date, nor age no need,
Then these delights my mind might move
To live with thee and be thy Love.

More on Raleigh and his writing

Raleigh was about 12 years older than Marlowe, inasmuch as he is believed to have been born in 1552. He engaged in Court-sanctioned piracy (known as "privateering") against Spain on England's behalf, and was richly rewarded for it. He not only planted English settlers in what is now Virginia, but also in parts of Ireland. He became a particular favorite of Queen Elizabeth I. He also struck up a romance with one of the Queen's ladies in waiting, whom he married on the sly when she was already pregnant. Upon the Queen's dicovery of the "unauthorized" marriage, she threw Raleigh in jail and dismissed his wife, Bess, from her service. He eventually came back into the Queen's good graces, but upon her death was thrown into the Tower of London for 13 years because he'd (allegedly) plotted to overthrow King James. Released from prison to lead an expedition to South America, he returned to England only to be beheaded at the request of a Spanish ambassador. But again, I digress.

Raleigh, an older and, to his own mind, wiser poet than Marlowe, wrote a response to Marlowe's Passionate Shepherd poem which can only be read as a put-down. On the surface, the response is based on the "love's" belief in the transience of life, but really, it was intended as a criticism of Marlowe's youth and naiveté. Although it would appear that Raleigh (apparently) gave Marlowe credit for intending the poem for a female, not that that's dispositive.

Interestingly, both of these poems come from the 1590s. I use the word "interestingly" because it seems to me that the first one, while a bit courtly, reads extremely well in the present day and because, moreover, it seems to me that Raleigh's reply reads as if it could have been written now (apart from the "thees" and "thous").

As everybody, including myself, shuffles off for some weekend Superbowl viewing, I'd like to send you a couple links that will keep you thinking about writing even as the high (dare I say, novelistic) drama of two youthful-looking quarterbacks battling for their reputations unfolds this Sunday.

First of all, check out Rachel Kramer Bussel's excellent advice about sex writing, love letters, and staying sane with a bazillion projects. Don't forget to check out my lo-fi web video about the fine art of writing about sex as well.

Secondly, Slushpile is looking for answers to this burning question: "does anyone know of a book that involves the Super Bowl in the plot?"

Finally, if you really aren't interested in sports, you should check out Ed Champion's fun filled trip the U.S. Copyright Office. His reporting turned up some thought-provoking results, and provoked a lovely little post by Ed Park about teenaged writing memories.

"I want to feel like we are our own entity, existing in a private universe that nothing and no one else can pierce. That life is all about looking at her, in her, nothing more, nothing less. Without makeup, she is the perfect combination of girl and woman, and she fills me with a need to hold and protect her that leaves me raw and open and more vulnerable than any person should ever be." 

That's our special guest Rachel Kramer Bussel in her short story, "The End." It was selected for  The Best American Erotica 2006. Today, that sensual writer gives us a sneak peak at her love letter skills. 

If you want to write your lover like that, you should take Bussel's love letter writing class before Valentine's Day. Check it out here. Most recently, Bussel edited Best Sex Writing 2008, and she's been our guest all week.

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:
You are teaching a class on love letters. Without stealing your thunder what's one piece of advice you would offer to a young lover as they write? What are the best books/writers to read for love-letter inspiration?

Rachel Kramer Bussel:
I'd say being totally honest, open, and raw is key. Continue reading...

"Amber lingered at La Petite Coquette, her hand reaching out to stroke all manner of silk and lace in all the most beautiful colors ... her eyes were solely on the luxurious merchandise, the bras scalloped with flowers along their artfully stitched edges, the camisoles that promised to caress her every curve, the panties that offered her tight but imperfect ass the promise of supermodel stardom."

That's a sexy little number by Rachel Kramer Bussel, the short story writer and editor of Best Sex Writing 2008. Today she explains how she struggled to move from erotic short stories to her first novel.

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:
You are finishing a novel right now. What's been the hardest part of that process? What would be your advice to first-time novelists as they start their projects?

Rachel Kramer Bussel:
I've been writing my novel for a year and a half and the entire process has been hard. Continue reading...

"When I tell people I write about sex, I can see immediately whether their judgment about me has changed in the second it took me to say it. Most of the time, I don’t have time to sit and explain how complex a topic we’re talking about. Now, I can just hand them this book, which asks just as many questions as it answers, and hopefully does what good sex should do: leave you wanting more."

That's Rachel Kramer Bussel explaining a little bit about her writing life. She wrote the Lusty Lady sex column for the Village Voice, and recently edited Best Sex Writing 2008--among other erotic anthologies. You can see her website for that book here.

This kind of focused, jam-packed career brings its own share of scheduling problems, and today she explains how she keeps her writing life balanced.

This is my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog

Rachel Kramer Bussel:
Well, I have to admit I laughed at bit at the last part because my stress level is way high. Continue reading...

Sex. Sex? Sex!

It's a major part of our lives, but we don't usually talk about it around the watercooler. And since the topic is shrouded in so much cultural wrapping paper, your average writer has absolutely no idea how to write about human beings being sexy.

Today, I went to the expert to help us become more comfortable writing about all things sensual. Rachel Kramer Bussel wrote the excellent Lusty Lady sex column at the Village Voice, and edited Best Sex Writing 2008.

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:

It takes a lot to write frankly and vividly about sex. There are so many clichés and taboos to steer around. What's your advice for a writer looking to write more physical, sensual, and sexy nonfiction? How can we avoid clichés and stop gettting hung up on taboos?

Rachel Kramer Bussel:
I think the first thing to do is to forget about anything you think you "should" do. Continue reading...