It's the birthday of William Safire, born in New York City (1929). In 1979 he began writing his "On Language" column, which lays out the do's and don'ts of grammar and usage. He has continued the column to this day. He once wrote a list called "William Safire's Rules for Writers" as an aid for the use of correct English. The rules included, "Remember to never split an infinitive"; "The passive voice should never be used"; and "Last, but not least, avoid clichés like the plague."

William Safire said, "Never assume the obvious is true."

(from "The Writer's Almanac")

It's the birthday of Jane Austen, born in Steventon, Hampshire, England (1775). She is the only novelist who published before Charles Dickens whose books still sell thousands of copies every year. All of her novels have been made into movies at least once in the last ten years.

She is best known for her novels about women yearning to get married, including Sense and Sensibility (1811) and Pride and Prejudice (1813). But she never got married herself. She didn't seem to mind the single life. In her letters, she often wrote about the many women she knew suffering from and often dying from childbirth. Of her niece, who had just gotten pregnant for the second time, she wrote, "Poor animal, she will be worn out before she's thirty." In another letter, she wrote, "Mrs. Hall of Sherbourn was brought to bed yesterday of a dead child, some weeks before she expected, owing to a fright—I suppose she happened unawares to look at her husband."

She spent most of her life relatively poor and dependent on her older brothers. She decided to try publishing fiction in order to get herself some money. She wrote on a table in the family drawing room.

Austen's first published novel was Sense and Sensibility (1811), the story of the Dashwood sisters, the sensible and proper Elinor Dashwood and her more romantic younger sister Marianne, who are kicked out of their house with their mother when their father dies, and have to struggle to find marriageable husbands.

Austen's first two books, Sense and Sensibility (1811) and Pride and Prejudice (1813) were great successes in her lifetime, but after that her readers grew less enthusiastic. Neither Mansfield Park (1814) nor Emma (1816), were as popular.

It was only after her death that she became one of the most popular novelists from the 19th century. After the First World War, Jane Austin novels were prescribed to shell-shocked English soldiers for therapy, because the psychologists found that Austen helped them recover their sense of the world they'd known before the war.

(from "The Writer's Almanac"on National Public Radio in the U.S.)

Iranian president insists Holocaust is a 'myth'

CTV.ca News Staff

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday called the Holocaust a myth, sparking a flourish of international condemnation.

"Today, they have created a myth in the name of Holocaust and consider it to be above God, religion and the prophets," Ahmadinejad told a crowd in the southeastern city of Zahedan.

He added that Europeans are responsible for any crimes that may have been committed against Jews, and that the "oppressed Palestinian nation" should not have to pay the price of land.
Ahmadinejad suggested that Canada or the United States give part of their land to the Jews to establish a state.

"This is our proposal: give a part of your own land in Europe, the United States, Canada or Alaska to them so that the Jews can establish their country," he said.

Ahmadinejad also blamed the West for harming Muslims by invading their countries and plundering their wealth.

"If your civilization consists of aggression, making oppressed people homeless, suffocating the voices of justice and bringing poverty to a majority of the world's people, we say loudly that we hate your hollow civilization," Ahmadinejad said, followed by cries of "God is the Greatest" from the crowd.

His speech, broadcast live on state television, was condemned by Israel, which said the comments illustrate that Iran's "rogue regime" was acting outside acceptable international norms.

"The repeated outrageous remarks of the Iranian president show clearly the mind-set of the ruling clique in Tehran," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mark Regev, "and indicate clearly the extremist policy goals of the regime."

Within Iran, the comments were blasted by some of Ahmadinejad's conservative allies who fear he's hurting Iran's image.

The president's views sharply conflict with those of his predecessor, Mohammad Khatami, a relative moderate who urged dialogue with other nations. And moderate Iranians have called on the ruling Islamic establishment to rein in the president.

But this isn't the first time Ahmadinejad has uttered such statements. Last week he expressed doubt that the Nazi destruction of six million European Jews during the Second World War had occurred, drawing a rebuke from the United Nations Security Council.

He drew international condemnation in October when he called Israel a "tumour" which must be "wiped off the map."

But Wednesday was the first time he publicly denied the Holocaust.

Reaction in Europe

Germany Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called Ahmadinejad's statement "shocking and unacceptable," and said his government had summoned the Iranian charge d'affaires to make "unmistakably clear" its displeasure.

European Commission spokesperson Emma Udwin also expressed condemned the Iranian president's remarks.

"Such interventions will do nothing to rebuild confidence in Iran's intentions," Udwin said, referring to fears about Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Steinmeier added that the Holocaust remarks could weigh on European Union efforts to resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear program. The West is keeping a close eye on Iran over its insistence on enriching uranium to fuel its first nuclear reactor, which is due to start generating electricity next year.

"The recent remarks by the Iranian president ... are certainly shocking and unacceptable," he told reporters. "I cannot deny that they may weigh on our bilateral relations and naturally also on the chances for the negotiations on (Iran's) so-called nuclear dossier."
Ahmadinejad is a former Revolutionary Guardsman and mayor of Tehran who was elected as Iran's president in June.

He has criticized the U.S. for refusing to sell Iran spare parts for its civilian planes as part of its long standing embargo against the country.

There have been a series of plane accidents in Iran, the most recent one involving a military transport plane that crashed into a building in Tehran in December, killing 115 people. Iranian officials blamed Washington for the crashes, saying they're partly caused by the difficulty in obtaining spare parts.

"No country is authorized to impose spare-part sanctions against another country. Nothing can justify this," Ahmadinejad said Wednesday.

Ahmadinejad said the denial of spare parts was a reason why Iran would not trust Western promises to give it nuclear fuel.

With files from the Associated Press

I've almost finished my Christmas shopping!

"I like to walk alone on country paths, rice plants and wild grasses on both sides, putting each foot down on the earth in mindfulness, knowing that I walk on the wondrous earth. In such moments, existence is a miraculous and mysterious reality.

People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child--our own two eyes. All is a miracle."

-Thich Nhat Hanh, "Miracle of Mindfulness"
From "365 Buddha: Daily Meditations," edited by Jeff Schmidt.
Reprinted by arrangement with Tarcher/Putnam, a division of Penguin Putnam Inc.