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Keywords: Mother-In-Law

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Handwritten history of two mothers' loving meals

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 07 May 2014
    7 Comments

    My mother's recipe book has been part of my life for 60 years. Every entry is handwritten, and the handwriting conjures up the person. But the book is a historical document for other reasons, for in it my mother has also written out the recipes she learned in my Greek mother-in-law's village kitchen. Yiayia was illiterate, so my mother had to observe and make notes. The book is, in a sense, part of the story of two mothers.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Colouring the fading customs of a Greek Lent

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 26 March 2014
    6 Comments

    The 'Lenten Lady' has no mouth, because Lent is not a time for eating. Her hands are demurely crossed on her breast, for it is a time for prayer and self-examination. And she has seven feet: every Saturday, with one week elapsed, housewives would cut one foot off, with the last cut off on Holy Saturday. This custom is very old, and supposedly Greece-wide, but neither I, my Peloponnesian children nor my Cretan daughter-in-law knew of it.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Old age is not for sissies

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 05 February 2014
    10 Comments

    London journalist Adrian Gill refers to the 'incremental shutdown' of old age, British Prime Minister Disraeli, who died at the age of 77 after a life of great and varied achievement, stated that old age was a regret, while noted Hollywood star Bette Davis roundly declared 'Old age is no place for sissies.' In rural Greece, it is considered shameful to instal an old relative in a home, and most aged people see their days out amid their family.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Bookworm skinned by kin and Kindle

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 17 July 2013
    23 Comments

    Knowing I was going to spend six months in Greece, I arranged for a trunk of books to be sent over. My illiterate mother-in-law was stupefied: 'So many books! Can't you sell some of them?' I should have known she'd react like this, as during her one visit to Melbourne she'd told me roundly that too much reading was the cause of my prematurely grey hair and my need to wear glasses.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    After Greece's party ended

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 15 August 2012
    3 Comments

    Things were speeding up. Greece entered the European Community, banks were throwing money at every Tom, Dick and Spiro, credit cards seemed a form of modern magic. The party is over now, and the ones who have survived in the best shape are the older villagers who never expected a party and so did not join in the spree.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The torture of adultery

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 19 April 2012
    7 Comments

    When her infidelity is discovered, she is rejected by her husband and flees to her lover's side. Her desire for him is excruciating in its ferocity, especially once it becomes clear that the feeling is not mutual. Having rejected one partner and being now neglected by another, she lapses into a deep depression.

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  • RELIGION

    Working out what white Australia wants

    • Frank Brennan
    • 30 January 2012
    10 Comments

    I have been feeling sad and confused about the happenings in Canberra since Australia Day. On Saturday I got on my bike and went down to the lawn of Old Parliament House. I passed a sign: 'You are now entering or leaving the Australian Aboriginal Tent Embassy ... Abusive behaviour will not be tolerated.'

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Reinventing Greece's paradise lost

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 09 November 2011
    7 Comments

    In their Greek travels, 20th century writers Lawrence Durrell and Henry Miller tried to construct a sort of paradise for themselves. Most foreign inhabitants of Greece try to do the same. I certainly did. I hope now that there is a chance of Paradise being regained.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Challenging Frank Brennan on gay marriage

    • Rodney Croome
    • 26 November 2010
    14 Comments

    I'd hoped a reformer and humanist like Frank Brennan would understand that in this world of disposable relationships, valuing love, commitment and inclusion must be our paramount goal. Instead, he has reverted to orthodoxy when confronted with a change that troubles his Catholic conscience. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Lessons in Greek prejudice

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 25 November 2009
    4 Comments

    My generation of Australians grew up with bigotry: the cordial loathing between Catholics and Protestants has faded only recently. But only when I married into a Greek family did I learn of the bitter and complicated antipathy of the Greeks for Albanians.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    How not to make a toast

    • Brian Doyle
    • 23 September 2009

    My mother-in-law stood up on the night before her daughter married me, held her glass aloft, and sighed, 'Let's just hope this one comes off'. Some of the best toasts I ever heard were from children: 'Here's to all mum's husbands past and present!' said one girl, aged 11.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Feminist Christmas story

    • Dorothy A. Lee
    • 23 December 2008
    6 Comments

    Feminist biblical scholars ask two fundamental questions of the biblical nativity story. First they ask how female characters are portrayed. Second, they ask how these biblical myths can be reinterpreted in a woman-friendly (rather than misogynist) way.

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