text:
Baking my way round the United Kingdom, trying out regional specialities, traditional ingredients etc., and generally making (and sampling) nice things to eat in the cake, biscuit and bun line. Now with the assistance of my junior chef, Ellis.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Scones, Cream and Jam - a West Country cream tea
The important question of the day is - do you put cream on first and then jam on top; or do you smother your freshly baked scone with zesty fruit preserve and then top with lashings and lashings of thick, thick cream? If you like cream on top then this means that you follow the Cornish method of anointing your scone; and if you put jam uppermost then you are Devonian in your tastes. The folk of Devon and Cornwall both believe their way of dressing scones is correct and best. I feel a taste test coming on.
Scones in the Devonian manner - cream then jam.
Cornish scones - jam then cream.
Scones - a fundamental part of a West Country cream tea. Cream teas - a fundamental part of English fine food and culinary culture. Who can imagine a finer way to spend a lazy afternoon in the English countryside, than with a jam spoon in one hand, and a smooch of cream on your lips...
I have previously looked at the history of the scone, and found it to be of Scottish origin. Traditionally cooked upon a gridle or griddle over a open fire. When enclosed ovens and chemical raising agents were introduced in the 19th century, a new generation of scones was born. The Scots baked these new aerated scones and served them as part of their afternoon and high teas. However, other parts of Britain were not slow to also get baking these new-style scones, and in the West of England they were consumed with local products such as clotted cream and fruit preserves. In Cornwall black treacle is also a favoured topping - served along with clotted cream the combination is known as 'Thunder and Lightning'.
Thunder and Lightning - cream with black treacle.
Scones are a favourite food of mine, but I confess it is a good few years since I have made a batch. I can see that good scone baking is a skill that may come with practice, but every scone-mistress or master has had to start somewhere. To give myself an advantage I am following a recipe from Linda Collister's 'The Baking Book'. In the introduction to her scone recipe she writes, '...over the last 20 years I've tried every recipe I've come across [Now, that's dedication] - ones using soured milk or buttermilk; risen with various combinations of bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar, or baking powder; made with cream, or with golden syrup, with or without eggs.' Twenty years of practice must result in a damn fine recipe? Linda uses self-raising flour (so as to avoid a chemical aftertaste), a pinch of salt, golden caster sugar, butter, an egg and a little milk. Her recipe suggests that you make the dough up in a food processor as this brings the dough together quickly, with the miminum of handling.
230g self-raising flour
a pinch of salt
40g golden caster sugar
40g unsalted butter, diced
1 egg, made up to 140ml with milk
Makes 8 scones when using a 6cm fluted cutter
(might appear to be a modest quantity, but when split and topped with cream and jam this will seem like a feast)
1. Preheat oven to 220C/425F/gas 7.
2. Sift flour and salt into a bowl, then tip into food processor.
3. Add the sugar to the food processor and blend briefly to mix the sugar into the flour.
4. Add the diced butter and pulse until the mixture is lump-free and has the look of sand.
5. Mix the egg and milk together, and then pour into the food processor whilst it is running. You need to keep an eye on the mixture, for as soon as it comes together into a soft ball of dough you need to stop the machine. If dough looks too dry add a little more milk.
6. Remove dough and turn onto floured surface. If the dough is sticky work in a little flour (gently does it). Otherwise, knead the dough carefully - just enough to bring it together into a neater ball, and then pat out on your work surface (use your hands). You need to only press the dough to a depth of about 2cm. Use your cutter to cut out circles of dough. Use the trimmings left to form a second ball of dough, pat out again and then cut more circles.
7. Arrange the circles of dough on a prepared baking tray and pop straight into the oven. Keep an eye on them. The scones should take 12-15 minutes, or should be extracted when they have gone golden brown on top. Put onto wire cooling rack as soon as they leave the oven. Cover with clean tea towel to help keep moistness in.
Scones baked and cooled, I headed out to the garden to conduct some scone sampling.
I present the naked scone...
The scones were very light, almost of melt in the mouth crumbliness. This did prove to be a perfect backdrop to the more substantial weight of the cream, and to the more assertive flavour of the jam. I don't think that they were THE ultimate scones, but they were very good (they could have been a little moister I think). As to whether the Devonian or Cornish order of topping was the best, I will have to sit on the fence and say they both work very nicely. However, the black treacle and cream was not for me. You would have to be a real fan of the flavour of treacle to like this as it has such a strong taste.
Which would you choose?...
Gratuitous clotted cream image - one million calories a look.
44 comments:
- Sam said...
Absolutely no doubt in my mind, no argument at all, I always follow the Cornish method. *Sigh*, now, if only I could get hold of some of that cream.
- 7:09 pm
- Valentina said...
I am most definitely a jam person. Treacle is just too sweet for my liking.Having said that I have not tried it on scones. PErhaps I should give a go just for the record. Another lovely post - really inspiring.Thank you.
- 7:24 pm
- Julia said...
Hi Anna,
Just came across your blog; very nice! I love all those real British delicacies...
Am just back from Brighton, and am now absolutely addicted to scones; every morning I would get them from the little village bakery, fresh from the oven. So delicious dry and tasty! Unfortunately you can't get good scones here in Holland.
I'm not a real jam person so just some good clotted cream is perfect in my opinion.
Tomorrow I planned to make my own scones, I'll post them on my blog, hope you'll check them out...! - 2:44 pm
- The Old Foodie said...
I'm with Sam - the Cornish method. I did't even realise there WAS any other method. A traditional favourite here in OZ are pumpkin scones - and my blogging friend Miss Eagle included a recipe for them in "The Great Aussie Scone Fest" in May - see it at Food from Oz"
- 9:32 pm
- Monkey Gland said...
Being forever contrary is in my nature as I plump for the Devonian method of scone construction.
- 11:36 pm
I'm definitely a Devonite (but I don't think that's a word...) The cream has to melt down into the warm scone, not just sit on top. Oooh, it's been too, too long since I've had a homemade scone. I must fix that!
- 6:03 am
- Rosa's Yummy Yums said...
Your scones look very appealing and beautiful!
Personally, I prefer my scones with jam, but as I've not tried them yet with treacle, I can't really say if they would not please me... It's something I'll have to try one day. - 10:04 am
- Pille said...
Anna - thanks for the informative post! I baked my first ever batch of scones back in June, and (just checked the photo to refresh my memory), I enjoyed them Cornish style:)
Also, I had heard of scones a la thunder&lightning, but had no idea what it meant. Now I do! - 7:00 pm
- Jeanne said...
I think cream teas and clotted cream are reason enough to trek to Cornwall! We used to have fresh scones for breakfast every Sunday morning when I was a child. Yours look fabulous - love the idea of treacle on cream on scone. And I definitely fall into the Cornwall camp - jam before cream!!
- 2:16 pm
Ah scones, a favorite here among our guests at the Fish Creek House Bed and Breakfast across the pond in Montana.
Will definitely have to give these a whirl... Looks fabulous. Thanks - 3:56 am
- Jen said...
I think I do the devonian method, only because the jam doesn't spread as well once the cream is there. But either I would happily eat!
I still am yet to find any clotted cream here in Sydney, I am dying to have a taste. - 11:52 am
- AnnaW said...
I thought that I should get down off the fence and make a decision about whether I was a Devonian or Cornish consumer of scones. To perk my workmates up on a Monday morning I brought some scones, cream and jam into the office, so that I could also get a broader view of the subject. My testers took the task very seriously let me tell you, and were keen to volunteer for any future taste tests.
The result from my four pollsters was very democratic. Two of us went the Cornish way, and two the Devonian. On this second consideration I put myself in the Cornish camp, as I liked biting through the layer of cream to reveal the taste of the jam beneath. Yum yum. - 2:15 pm
- Unknown said...
Definitely the Devon method, I do live here after all!
For me it's just a merest smearing of the clotted cream as I'm not so keen on any sort of cream. For WH it has to be more cream then jam, just a tiny spoonful on the top. And he's a born and bred Devonian too.
Now did you know that Devon and Cornish clotted cream is different too?? There's a conundrum for you!! - 10:53 pm
- AnnaW said...
Hi Jas,
Do you mean I need to do another taste test using both Cornish and Devonshire clotted cream? Sounds like a good suggestion...
I didn't know of a difference between the two counties cream - is it down to type of cow/grass/method of preparation? I'm intrigued. - 8:07 am
- Unknown said...
Devonshire clotted cream is made by scalding the milk and then leaving it tostand for several hours and removing the cream/crust which forms on the top. cornish clotted cream is made by separating the cream from the milk, then heating it and allowing it to cool slowly. Gives a slightly different result.
Of course unpasteurised milk is best if you want to be really controversial! - 10:49 pm
Oh goodness, you're killing me! Must. Go. Make. Scones. I'll take the Devon-style scone, please, with a lovely pot of Earl Grey.
I found Devon clotted cream for US$5 a jar at Cost Plus/World Market here in the States. I have tried making it myself, but it's almost impossible to do without raw, unpasteurized cream, which is beyond difficult to get here.
Thanks for the evening drool! - 1:35 am
- Gillian said...
Hello Anna,
I have just spent a happy half hour browsing your site and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was on a search for marmalade recipes and came across your wonderful info. Have also just read up on scones. A friend retires soon and I shall go in early for the morning tea
to fix the scones which another person will have baked. I shall do the jam first and then whipped cream method because I will be expected to do about a hundred. In Oz, we do much smaller ones too.
I hav a once-a-month market stall here in Oz in a town called Bacchus Marsh. Yes, indeed an oxymoron if ever there was one. I shall keep in touch.
Cheers Gillian - 4:13 am
You raised a capital question! I like clotted cream first and then the jam, but recently, I observed that other people did otherwise. Not being an Englishwoman, I was wondering which was right ;)
- 4:14 pm
Just stumbling on your blog. I am definitely into the Devon method. Yum! Either way it's definitely yummy.
- 2:32 am
- Monaz said...
Snap! (uncanny that you also chose to photograph yours outside on the grass too - I guess we all connect eating these things with basking in the Summer sun) I use the distinctly Devonian method. It's the only, only way.
Wish you'd written this before I wrote my article - then I would have been able to educatedly distinguish between the two methods. Thanks for enlightening me! - 2:00 pm
- alexa said...
Being neither Cornish nor Devonian, I go by practicality: I find that spreading the cream directly onto a warm scone, the cream sticks and tears up the surface of the scone a little. Spreading jam first and then dolloping cream on top is a tad tidier. Of course, that said, I'm quite happy eating them both ways :)
- 1:41 pm
I adore scones. I bake those with buttermilk in it - they turn out light and moist. By the way, I'm Singaporean and I love it the Cornish way - the sensuousness of whipped cream (lots) against the roof of my mouth is simply heavenly.
- 3:13 pm
- AnnaW said...
Wow! Scones with cream and jam do seem a popular food. I hope I have inspired a few people to head ovenwards and bake a batch. Does anyone out there NOT like them?
- 8:11 am
I have read on Wikipedia, and more believably, in this article on traditional Cornish food that Thunder and Lightning can also be served with Golden Syrup too. Not having tried black treacle I can't say if it's less rich. Maple syrup is too runny on scones but with the clotted cream it does remind you of a maple and pecan pie.
It's also worth knowing that for a true Cornish cream tea, you would use splits - soft sweet yeasty rolls that I think are traditionally served with the two halves together. I haven't given it much thought but perhaps due to the softer bread, the Cornish method of applying the jam first has a reason. In a sandwich form though, it makes it ambiguous!
Today I tried making splits. My only gripe was really in the rising of the finished product. I left the dough to double in size and had a further 30 minutes rising after I divided it into buns, but they came out fairly flat. What are your experiences with making cornish splits?
I can't say I'm aligned to one particular order of jam and cream, they each have practical pros and cons. I grew up in Cornwall and presently live in Devon. My approach is to never use the cornish method until I'm actually in the county itself. - 8:23 pm
- AnnaW said...
Hi James,
I'm afraid I have not tried making splits, so I can't offer any advice on rising. I have often run into problems with yeast based doughs, so am probably not the best person to advise you on such matters. I would like to give them a go - maybe next summer... - 6:01 pm
An American from the Deep South, I am familiar with scones, or more particularly, with their unsweetened cousins, biscuits. (Not to be confused with what we call cookies)To serve Devon, or Cornwall clotted cream would desecrate a good southern biscuit (and be a waste of the cream really, I prefer it on saffron buns)a bit of plain cream, fresh butter, and cane syrup poured over a hot biscuit is ambrosia.
- 9:40 am
- Unknown said...
Last year, my blog, Food from Oz, had a scone fest. I'll be posting about this post there - especially treacle.
I don't know where I fit with what I like on a scone since I put butter on my scone, then jam, and then cream. Isn't that ever so fattily wicked! But scrumptious!
And thank you, Old Foodie, for mentioning my Food from Oz on your comment. I would commend Old Foodie's blogs to readers. She is fast becoming more than the Old Foodie but the Guru of food. Her history of food is a must: a reference work among blogs. - 8:10 pm
looks del.icio.us...thanks for the recipe
- 1:59 pm
i prefer penguins (not to eat) I like Yorkshire food better
- 3:34 pm
How did you even manage to get to the garden with such scrumptious scones. I would have gone through them before getting there. Wonderful blog
Kambuku wa mkazi - 1:44 pm
- 10:29 am
- 10:30 am
- Unknown said...
My Dad cuts the scone into 3 so he has a bigger surface area to smother with jam and cream. Cream is obviously the main purpose of the scone - it is an excellent conduit for huge dollops of the wonderful stuff. I like my Dad's method. Nothing upsets him more than not being able to pile all the cream and jam alloted to him onto his scone. And, for the record, being in Cornwall, there is no question - it is jam first, with heapings of gorgeous snowy white cream on top, none of your messy Devonshire nonsense which makes a mess of the most divine substance known to mankind....
- 1:03 pm
- AnnaW said...
Vick. Your Dad is a genius. Cutting scones into three for maximum jam and cream loading. What a brilliant idea!
- 2:30 pm
- Jennifer A. Wickes said...
Anna, I love scones. And even in America, I have had several of my recipes published. Unfortunately, for the British, they have to have all of their fat and flavor put inside the scone or most Americans won't look twice at them! But I do adore a true scone! Thanks!
- 2:01 am
Big scone fan here...
I choose jam 1st then cream on top.
But if i am using butter, then it's butter 1st, then jam.
I once went on a scone tasting holiday with my father, and found the best scone i have ever had, which was a home made scone sold in a garden centre's cafe, up in the lake district. it was lush. we both gave it 10 out of 10. - 12:45 pm
- Adam Balic said...
Anna you might be interested to know that the first recipe for a modern scone (chemical raising agent)I can fine in the UK is called an "American Potash Cake". Amazing to thing how quickly chemical raising agents transformed British baking in the early 19th century.
- 8:14 pm
- annabelt said...
No way, I'm from Devon and I've always put the cream on top - it just feels better that way :) I like the idea of the Earl Grey tea with it too. Yum.
Devon Directory - 6:39 am
marjolein from holland,
We have a teagarden and make all oure cake,s and appelpies home made.In holland evreybody love,s an English high tea so we also make scones with jam and whipped cream.But we make them with milk and selfrising floure,butter and saltBut we ad some cinnamon to it and we put them 30 minut,s in the oven 180c When they are ready they are a bit crusty and when you put the jam and the whipped cream on top they are delicious - 9:02 pm
Although Tavistock Devon, born & bred, I ran a tearoom for 17 yrs (USA) we have a saying, when asked 'how to do it, that 'nothing crowns the glory of clotted cream' - meaning jam first, it creates a barrier between the warm scone and the cream and of course one never puts the two halfs together.
Barbara - 8:28 pm
- Highcliffe House said...
I've never really had a preference, I tend to improvise every time, but having tested it both ways I prefer the jam on the bottom as my tongue tastes it first and then the cream follows. However the idea of cutting the scone into 3 pieces sounds like an amazing idea which I will definitely try in the near future, it's the big mac of the scone world!
- 3:54 pm
- Keith (Lostwithiel Cornwall) said...
It has to be done the Cornish way, clotted cream on top. That way you can add more cream!!
- 9:53 pm
- R.I.P Rowan Atkinson said...
I am most definitely a jam person. Treacle is just too sweet for my liking.Having said that I have not tried it on scones. PErhaps I should give a go just for the record. Another lovely post - really inspiring.Thank you.
- 4:48 pm
If you like the taste of British food and you want to bring it home with you, you only need to search food supplies online and you will find one of the best suppliers online British food near me
- 4:24 pm


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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The president of Shell Oil Co. said Tuesday exploratory drilling off Alaska's northwest coast is going well despite stormy weather last week that caused the company to halt operations for a few days.
And in an interview with The Associated Press Marvin Odum said he expects further protests against the company's plans for Arctic drilling like the ones in Seattle and Portland where activists in kayaks tried to block Shell vessels.
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President Barack Obama this week is in Alaska rallying support for measures to combat climate change, such as limits on carbon emissions.
Odum is staying in the same hotel as the president - the Hotel Captain Cook.
While environmentalists praise the president for curbing greenhouse gases, they pillory him for granting Shell permission to drill in the Chukchi Sea for the first time in 24 years.
The U.S. Geological Survey estimates the Chukchi and Beaufort seas hold 26 billion barrels of recoverable oil.
Oil will continue to be needed as the United States transitions to more renewable energy, Odum said.
"Oil will be required for a long time," Odum said. "Let's take a really close look at developing our own resources, control how it's done and get all the benefits that go along with it."
Shell in two years of exploratory drilling and with up to six wells hopes to confirm a vast reservoir of oil. If it's found, Shell could apply for production permits and move oil by undersea pipe to the Alaska shore and then overland across northern Alaska to the trans-Alaska pipeline. That could take more than a decade.
Odum is confident exploration can be done safely, and the overriding factor dictating whether Shell completes an exploratory well this year will be safety.
Shell is operating under strict Arctic rules put in place after the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Arctic offshore drilling has been scrutinized in the courts in lawsuits brought by drilling opponents, Odum said.
"It's probably fair to say, this is the most scrutinized, analyzed project — oil and gas project — probably anywhere in the world. I'm actually sure of that," he said.
All the scrutiny, along with Shell's own internal review, have gone into safety considerations. It's in the company's best interest, he said.
"We can't afford to have a problem here," Odum said.
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'Let's Explore': David Sedaris On His Public Private Life
The best-selling author and humorist has kept journals for 36 years. Those diaries have been the jumping-off point for the personal essays that appear in his collections, including Me Talk Pretty One Day and Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls. (Originally broadcast on April 24, 2013.)
Other segments from the episode on October 18, 2013
October 18, 2013
Guest: David Sedaris
GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Those of us who are David Sedaris fans love him for the funny personal stories he's told on "This American Life" and the personal essays he's published in The New Yorker and in his bestselling books. Many of those stories are expanded from his journal, which he's been keeping since 1977.
But most of his journal isn't for us, isn't for public consumption. We're going to talk about public versus private in David Sedaris' life and writing. and about something he kept secret for years, drinking, which he no longer does. I spoke to him in April, after the publication of his latest collection of essays and stories called "Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls." Later he'll tell us what the heck that title is supposed to me.
David Sedaris, welcome back to FRESH AIR. It's been a long time since we talked. It's good to talk with you again.
DAVID SEDARIS: Oh, thank you.
GROSS: I want you to read an excerpt of your new book, "Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls." And this is an essay that's both about keeping a journal and also about losing two months' worth of it when your computer was stolen. And in this part of the story, your friend's seven-year-old son asks you: What's the point of writing things in your diary? And I'll have you pick it up from there.
SEDARIS: (Reading) That's a question I've asked myself every day since September 5th, 1977. I hadn't known on September 4th that the following afternoon, I would start keeping a diary, or that it would consume me for the next 35 years and counting. It wasn't something I'd been putting off, but once I began, I knew that I had to keep doing it.
DAVID SEDARIS: (Reading) I knew as well that what I was writing was not a journal but an old-fashioned, girlish, keep-out-this-means-you diary. Often, the terms are used interchangeably, though I've never understood why. Both have the word day at their root, but a journal, in my opinion, is a repository of ideas, your brain on the page. A diary, by contrast, is your heart.
SEDARIS: (Reading) As for journaling - a verb that cropped up at around the same time as scrapbooking - that just means you're spooky and have way too much time on your hands.
SEDARIS: (Reading) A few things have changed since that first entry in 1977, but I've never wavered in my devotion, skipping, on average, maybe one or two days a year. It's not that I think my life is important or that future generations might care to know that on June 6th, 2009, a woman with a deaf, drug-addicted mother-in-law taught me to say I need you to stop being an (bleep) in sign language.
SEDARIS: (Reading) Perhaps it just feeds into my compulsive nature, the need to do the exact same thing, at the exact same time every morning. Some diary sessions are longer than others, but the length has more to do with my mood than with what's been going on. I met Gene Hackman once, and wrote 300 words about it. Six weeks later, I watched a centipede attack and kill a worm and filled two pages. And I really like Gene Hackman.
GROSS: That's David Sedaris, reading from his new collection, "Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls."
So you've been writing in your diary nearly every day since September 4th, 1977. How has the motivation changed since the diaries became the basis of your public writing?
SEDARIS: I don't know that the motivation has changed. I mean, it's something - I think I can - I'm more inclined to get something out of it now - I mean, to be able to exploit it later for a story - than I was at the very beginning. But a lot of it just has to do, like I said, with compulsion. It's just something that I simply have to do. It's how I start the day, by writing about the day before.
SEDARIS: But every now and then, I read out loud from my diary, so - and I don't read higglety-pigglety. I just would not open it up and just read. But every now and then, something happens, and I think, oh, this might work in front of an audience. So I'm always hoping that something interesting will happen, or that I will be able to, I don't know, something I can perhaps connect with something that happened a few weeks earlier. But I don't try to force it, you know.
GROSS: So why write it the morning after, as opposed to the evening of, when it might be fresher in your mind?
SEDARIS: I used to write it the evening of, but that was when I was drinking, and that was just when I would write in the evening, when I could drink. And then when I quit drinking, I started writing in the daytime, because I found if I was sitting at my desk at night, I would think: Where's that drink that's supposed to be here? So I just tried to change my schedule and start writing in the morning.
SEDARIS: And actually, I think I sort of prefer writing it in the morning, and just - I don't know. It gives me a little bit more distance from the day, from the day before. And then I just look at my notebook, and I look at everything I've got in there, and I think, OK. What's my lead story? And then I start with that.
SEDARIS: And sometimes I don't even - the notes that I took the day before, all of a sudden, I think God, what - why did I care about that? So sometimes...
GROSS: Wait, wait. So you take notes the day of, and then you write it up the day after?
SEDARIS: Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, like, I already started taking notes for tomorrow.
GROSS: What did you write today?
SEDARIS: I don't know that I can say it on the radio. It - I was on tour a few weeks ago, and I wrote this thing in this woman's book, and I don't know, apparently, she got upset about it. But I meant it in a good way. I must have just misunderstood. We must have misunderstood one another. And I hate the thought of anybody being angry at me like that, but...
SEDARIS: ...I mean, really, what I wrote in her book, it's the filthiest thing. It's unbelievable. Really, you cannot get any filthier than this. And that's what I kind of liked about it, you know, as a book inscription. And I don't write it for just anybody. You know, I usually feel the person out, and we have a little conversation.
SEDARIS: But apparently, I picked the wrong person, and she really is pretty upset about this and contacted a lot of people. And so we'll see what happens. Today's a pretty good day. I'm going to have - be able to touch an owl in a couple hours. So hopefully, touching the owl will supersede somebody being angry at me.
GROSS: Do you want to touch an owl because owls figure in your book?
SEDARIS: Well, I - somebody from the Carolina Raptor Rescue contacted me and said: We'd love to have an owl at your reading. Because they saw that I have the word owl in my book. So then I found a diabetic, so I could have both an owl and a person with diabetes at the reading tonight.
SEDARIS: And then it looked like the owl wouldn't be able to make it, and so then I was stuck with this person with diabetes, and so I canceled with the person with diabetes, and then the owl came through again. So now we're scrambling, trying to find someone with diabetes.
GROSS: This is so weird. And just so people don't get confused here, your book is called "Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls." And it's called that because...
SEDARIS: It's called that because I was signing books a couple of years ago, and I was signing for this woman, and she was - every now and then, somebody will be kind of pushy, right. And they want you write something specific in the book.
SEDARIS: And I just picture every book winding up at Goodwill, and I don't have a problem with that, OK. But I don't want it - I imagine someone at Goodwill opening one of my books and then seeing an inscription that says: Keep laughing. Now, I would never write that in someone's book, right.
SEDARIS: And I would never read a book in which somebody had inscribed keep laughing. So this woman wanted me to write to her daughter: Explore your possibilities. And I said, well, I'll keep the word explore. And then I wrote: let's explore diabetes - then I thought I'm not done yet - with owls. And then I thought: That's the title of my book. So that's where the title came out of.
SEDARIS: I just think - and I've got to tell you, I'm so pleased with it as a book title. I love hearing other people say it.
GROSS: Well, I'm going to say it, and I hope it gives you pleasure.
GROSS: My guest is David Sedaris, and he's the author of the new book "Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls." How was that? Make you happy?
SEDARIS: Fantastic. That made me so happy.
GROSS: Good. Very good.
GROSS: So I imagine you having these, like, years and years and years, like, years - since, what, 1977 - worth of diaries. I mean, where do you put them? How much space do they take up?
SEDARIS: Well, they're actually - when I first started keeping a diary, I just started keeping it on scraps of paper. And so I did that for a few months. And then I started using hardcover sketch books. And then when I went to school at the Art Institute, I took this bookbinding class. And so then I started typing - I started typing the diary entries on eight-by-nine-and-a-half sheets of paper, and then making special covers and having them bound, you know, just spiral bound, like taking them to, like, an office place and having them spiral bound.
SEDARIS: And that - there was a guy who used to live in Chicago named Dick who worked at this bindery, and so that was the first time I ever left my diary with anyone. Like, so I would leave it with Dick, who was about, I don't know, 30 years older than me. And I understood that Dick has better things to do with his life than sit down and read my diary, but for anyone even to let their eyes rest upon a page, I would imagine them - I don't know.
SEDARIS: I mean, there's a - the you that you present to the world, and then there's, you know, of course, the real one. And if you're lucky, there's not a huge difference between those two people. And I guess in my diary, I'm not afraid to be boring. You know, I don't have a - it's not my job to entertain anyone in my diary.
GROSS: Is there a big difference between the you you present to the world and the other one? The you...
SEDARIS: Yes. I mean, the one I present to the world is pretty much unrelentingly cheerful, because really, I mean, who wants to spend time with someone who's just moaning all the time? Sometimes I look over my diary, and I was looking over a diary from, like, six years ago. And I'd been on tour, and I actually loved being on tour, but you wouldn't have known it to read this diary.
SEDARIS: And what I was complaining about was, like, my hotel room wasn't good enough, or dinner wasn't good enough. And I though, oh, I don't - that's not my memory of that time. Like, my memory of that time overall was really positive. But I guess day by day - or at least for these four cities in a row - it was - I just hate the idea that those little complaints overwhelmed the positive parts.
GROSS: So when you're writing in your diary, do you think: Well, I can't really say this, even though it's my personal diary, because somebody might stumble upon it and read it? The guy in the copy center might actually read this, so as much as I want to write it down, I can't.
SEDARIS: The only thing I don't write about is sex. But I don't know even that I'm afraid so much that somebody's going to read it. I just - it's not my subject, you know. It's not - I mean, I sure think about it a lot, but on paper, it's not my subject.
SEDARIS: I kind of admire people who do write about it, like Edmund White. I saw him do a reading in Paris, and he was reading from a memoir that he wrote, and I could not believe how frank he was. I just - a lot of people in the audience were just horrified, and I couldn't - because people say to me, oh, you've exposed everything about you. No, I haven't. You know, I just give that illusion.
SEDARIS: And I would have to say that he, too - I mean, there's more to Edmund White than these sex scenes in a book, but I really admired him and I really - he's such a good writer, too, and they were beautifully written. I mean, the writing was bigger than the sex, in my opinion.
SEDARIS: But, I don't know, even in private I just can't. I just can't. Like, I would write in my diary that, you know, before I met Hugh, I would write that, like, M came over, and we were romantic twice. But that's as graphic as it gets.
GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guest is David Sedaris, and he has a new book, a new collection called "Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls." Let's take a short break, then we'll talk some more. This is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: My guest is David Sedaris. He has a new collection called "Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls."
In your new book, you write a little bit about your father, and your father, as described in your new book, is so critical of you, and he says things to you like: Everything you touch turns to crap. Or you know what you are? A big, fat zero.
Either I've never noticed that kind of negative streak about you that your father had, or I've just forgotten. How new is it that you're writing that way about him?
SEDARIS: Well, I would never want anyone to think that I would have wanted a different father. You know, I mean, I always acted against my father, right. And that was really, that was his mantra when I was growing - you know what you are? A big, fat zero. But it's what got me out of bed every morning, you know, thinking, well, I'll show him.
SEDARIS: And I don't know if my dad knew that. I don't know if it was part of his master plan, but it really worked. And, you know, my mom was, you know, a cheerful, supportive person, and so I didn't really need two parents like that. One was enough. And - but yeah. I mean, I've worked in opposition to him, gosh, since - really since I can remember.
GROSS: Why did he think you were a big, fat zero?
SEDARIS: Well, you know, I think maybe because he didn't - I mean, when I look back on it, I think my dad probably worried that there wasn't a place for me, you know. I mean, I've seen kids like that before, and I just think, oh, you're a mess, you know. Like, I mean, there's one kid I'm thinking of in particular, who I know, and I think, oh, no one's going to want to hang out with you.
SEDARIS: You know what I mean? Like, everything you're doing, you're doing it wrong. And then I started thinking, well, gosh. He's like me when I was a kid, and I'm being like my dad, and I'm deciding that I need to shape this kid. And if that kid's anything like me, he's just going to resist being molded, right.
SEDARIS: And he - but I think my dad, I think my dad just worried, because, you know, I had all those horrible nervous tics and, you know, just really bad social skills, and not athletic in any way. And I think he just probably worried that I was never going to leave his basement, really.
SEDARIS: And so I think this was all - you know, he was trying to shake me and put me on my feet and make me a more likeable person. You know, like he wanted me to take guitar, and he said the guy who can play guitar is going to be the life of the party.
SEDARIS: And I can't tell you how many times my dad said that to me, and he bought me a guitar, and it just didn't - maybe because I was just so dead-set against him. I would love to be able to play guitar today. But at the time, it was just if he was proposing it, then I had to reject it. And - but I give my...
GROSS: Wait. Let's stop here, because I'm trying very hard to imagine you with a guitar, singing at a party and being the life of the party, in that respect.
SEDARIS: Well, see, my dad didn't play an instrument. I mean, my dad's a huge jazz enthusiast. And, you know, I guess my dad just thought, well, you know, a guy who's a good jazz musician, everyone's going to want to invite him to their party. You know, and if they've got a piano, he can play that, or if not, maybe there's some - he could just beat on the coffee table, you know, bring his own drumsticks, or he can play the guitar, or - everyone's going to like that guy.
SEDARIS: And I think he wanted me to be the guy who people like. But I just wasn't his type. You know what I mean? Like...
GROSS: Well, in keeping with that, did he get a sense that you were gay, and was that part of his problem with you?
SEDARIS: I think so. I mean, really, I mean, it's so funny how quickly all that stuff changes. I don't know that in the '60s, in North Carolina, you could have allowed yourself to think that your son was gay. You know what I mean? Like, I couldn't allow myself to think that I was, because there was nothing worse in the world than that. There was no worse thing than being gay.
GROSS: Why? I mean, what did it mean for you?
SEDARIS: It meant that you were to be an outcast forever, that they would never - there would be no acceptance for you in this world. And so you wouldn't even really - you know, like sometimes you'd see someone on TV like Paul Lynde, and you'd think, well, gosh, is he? But you would think well, no. They wouldn't allow him on television if he was one.
SEDARIS: Like it was such a horrible thing, that you couldn't - you couldn't allow yourself to seriously entertain that somebody would be that, right. And I wrote in the book I - the first time I really, I had proof of that was in the men's room of the Raleigh Public Library. I stepped into the men's room, and there were these two men having sex in there, and that was the first time I ever thought, like, I'm not the only one, you know.
SEDARIS: There's me, and then there's those two men who were in the bathroom there. But I don't know that my father could have really allowed himself to think that I was gay. Maybe he just thought, like, nerd, you know, like really severe, like, a nerd to such an extent that it was like a handicap.
GROSS: What was coming out to your family like?
SEDARIS: I have a lot of sisters, so all I had to do was tell one sister, and everybody knew.
SEDARIS: You know, they did all the work for me. But what was interesting to me was that my parents, like, when my sisters would come home with their boyfriends, they had to sleep in separate rooms, right. But I got to sleep in the same room as my boyfriend. So I don't know if only - my parents only allowed gay sex under their roof, or they couldn't really allow themselves to think that that was going on.
GROSS: We'll hear more of my interview with David Sedaris in the second half of the show. His latest collection of essays and stories is called "Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls." I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross back with David Sedaris. His latest collection of humorous essays and stories is called "Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls." Sedaris is a regular contributor to public radio's "This American Life," frequently contributes to "The New Yorker," and has written several best-selling books. Many of his stories - including the one he first became known for "The Santaland Diaries" - are drawn from his journal.
So we've been talking about your journal and how you've been keeping a journal since 1977, and there's many, many volumes and so on. So I just want to play a very brief excerpt; it's just about a minute, from the first interview that you and I did together in 1993. And since you were reading like, you know, excerpts of your journals on NPR at the time on MORNING EDITION, including "The Santaland Diaries," I was asking you about keeping a diary. So let's just listen to this, like, brief excerpt of our 1993 interview.
How long have you been keeping diaries?
SEDARIS: I started when I was 19, so I guess it's been about 17 years.
GROSS: Do you see yourself as, ultimately, being a professional writer? I mean would you like to make a living from your writing or do you see yourself as holding down day jobs for a long time and just writing at night?
SEDARIS: Oh, I write in the evening. If I have to write during the daytime also down and also that the typewriter for two minutes and then I'll wonder what my hair might look like parted in the middle.
SEDARIS: And I go into the bathroom and I do that, and then I sit back at the typewriter. And then I'll say, I wonder what it would look like if I had a mole on my cheek. And I draw a little mole on my cheek or I go and brush the cat. I can't do it during the day. I don't know why. So I need to do something during the day, and I wouldn't want any kind of job where I'm sitting down, because then I wouldn't want to come home at night and sit down.
GROSS: Mm-hmm.
SEDARIS: So I like a job that gets me out and is physical, and keeps me moving around.
GROSS: So that's David Sedaris recorded in 1993 when he was still cleaning houses for a living. And David, you know, there's many reasons why I love listening back to that, you know, one of them is that like you're so funny in talking about keeping a journal, but also that was like 20 years ago. And I listen back to that and I think David Sedaris when he was saying these things have no idea how his life was going to change. He had no idea how popular he was going to be. He had no idea how much money he was going to make. He had no idea he wouldn't be cleaning houses or doing any day job. He had no idea he'd be living in Paris and England, and flying around the world doing readings. I somehow find that very moving.
SEDARIS: Well, when I listen to that I just think, I mean I was still drinking then. So when I said oh, I write it night, well, that's because I would start drinking at night and then writing and drinking, I just did them at the same time. So - and it's just interesting to me how I was never able to admit that or how I would hide that or I would go on tour and then, you know, try to get the booze together for the tour and, you know, every night and trying to just how exhausting all that was. So that was interesting to me when you played that, like oh, I don't know why I write at night. Hmm. And it did take me a while to get used to writing in the daytime after that. But, you know, I was never the person who thought that having a job during the daytime meant that you were any less of a writer. Like I never - I never thought well, when I can quit my job that's when I'll be a real writer. I never, that was never part of my idea. And the only reason I - I only quit working when I moved to Europe and it was just because I didn't have a green card or anything.
GROSS: So you listen back to that tape and you think oh, that's when I was a secret drinker. So why did you need to keep it secret?
SEDARIS: Because it's shameful, you know. I mean it was, you know, when you're actively doing something like that - I mean there's a way to do it that, you know, to get people to think you're cute or whatever, but it wasn't cute. It was just dark and just an ugly place that I would go to every night. And I think, but like I started drinking and writing at the same time, so when I quit drinking it was kind of hard to - it was never a problem. I never had to force myself to sit down at a typewriter because I had a drink right there and that was my reward for sitting down. But all of a sudden the reward was taken away and I'm thinking what's in it for me now?
GROSS: It's sounding to me like drinking did make you happy necessarily, because as you say, you went to a like a dark place when you would drink?
SEDARIS: Yeah. I mean, you know, like sometimes you just do something and then you just get used to it and so you just have to keep doing it because, I don't know, if you don't do it then it'll be different, you know, and god forbid anything should be different. So that was a lot of it, you know, just drinking and then getting stoned on top of it and just, you know, just ending up like at the end of the night like, you know, kind of falling into bed. And Hugh's not that way at all, you know. And that's when I look back on it, just the fact that he - I don't know - that he saw me that way or that Amy saw me that... You know, and they definitely - these are people you're really close to who see you that way and they don't say anything about it. And if they made fun of you, then it would be better. But if they don't say anything, then that means that you are really pathetic.
GROSS: So you and I had a drink once, and this is probably in the early '90s. And after we had a drink you asked me if I was hungry, which I was. And you suggested we go out for a bite, like, at a local deli. And I ordered an omelet and you I think ordered nothing, and you said that you were going to eat later.
GROSS: And is that because you were going to drink later?
SEDARIS: You actually ordered an omelet and a baked potato. I remember...
GROSS: Yes I did. You really remembered that.
SEDARIS: I thought that was such a strange combination.
SEDARIS: But I didn't, I never liked to drink on a full stomach, so I like to drink on an empty stomach. So, yes, I was going home to drink but I just - I remembered that and I remembered thinking, you know, here's this person who I listen to and is a person who I admire, and she's, you know, she's and we're going out to dinner and I can't even eat then? You know, I mean, even then I have to say oh no, you go ahead and then make the other person feel weird and eat in front of you, just so you can go home and get drunk. See, stuff like that, it just - it was the rigidity of that that bothered me, like there could be no exceptions.
GROSS: Along those lines, you said to me, do you mind somebody watching you while you eat? And I said no. And I thought, you know, I never thought about being self-conscious about that, but once you brought it up, I've since, since then, always been just a little bit self-conscious.
GROSS: I mean when somebody watch me while I eat. So thank you, David. Thank you very much.
GROSS: You've made public dining so much more pleasurable.
GROSS: Well, my new thing is when I'm - like when I'm on tour is because, you know, after the book signing, if you eat dinner after the book signing, you go back to your hotel and let's say it's 12 or one o'clock in the morning and then it's going to take them an hour to bring you the food. So now I eat while I'm signing books. And so I'm eating, I'm really eating in front of people, because there's a long line of people and there's nothing else for them to look at. And so they're watching me while I eat. And if I thought about what I looked like when I'm eating, like, you know, I frequently spit food into people's books.
SEDARIS: I don't mean to, but I do it by accident.
GROSS: Yeah.
SEDARIS: So, you know, like when you're in a restaurant and you're eating a salad and the second that you have your mouth full of it that's when the waitress comes by and say, how's that salad treating you?
GROSS: Mm-hmm.
SEDARIS: Just when you have food hanging out of your mouth. So, but it beats the alternative.
GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guest is David Sedaris, and he has a new book, a new collection called "Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls." Let's take a short break here and then we'll talk some more. This is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: My guest is David Sedaris. He has a new collection called "Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls." So earlier we were talking about how you used to be a drinker, a secret drinker, and you would drink late at night while you wrote. And you've been sober for how long?
SEDARIS: I think I quit drinking in 1999. So 14 years.
GROSS: Mm-hmm.
SEDARIS: And I don't even think about it anymore.
GROSS: Was there any...
SEDARIS: I mean I don't ever crave it.
GROSS: Was there an occasion for it? Like what...
SEDARIS: I went to - my best friend lives in San Francisco and I've known her since college. And I went to - I would stay in her house when I went to San Francisco on tours and her husband had just gotten out of rehab, just gotten out two days earlier. And I was staying at her house and so, of course, I had to get my booze together. So I go to her house and I filled her refrigerator, you know, with beer and then I bought a bottle of scotch in our husband got into it. And I thought I couldn't go without drinking for one night, for a guy to - in the house of someone who just got out of rehab two days ago? Like that's, that's a problem, you know what I mean? If you can't give it up for one night under those circumstances then it's a lot worse than you've been telling yourself that it is. But I remember the next day...
GROSS: Did you feel responsible for him drinking?
SEDARIS: Yeah.
GROSS: Mm-hmm.
SEDARIS: I mean it's not - I've met people before who said oh no, we don't want to drink in front of you and it's like look, it's been all these years. I'm not going to - watching you drink is not going to make me want to have a drink. It's my responsibility not to drink and I understand that. But he had just gotten home, you know, he had just gotten home. And I don't know, I just looked at myself and I thought because I'd been making noise to myself about quitting for a long time and I thought if this isn't the occasion I don't know what is. But then - so the next night I didn't have a drink and I had to go to the airport and I was checking in for my flight and I always thought that when I checked in for my flight that the woman behind the counter would look at me and say oh, he's an alcoholic, like she could just see it on my face, she could just, that everyone, everyone who looked at me could tell that. And, you know, of course, they see so many people they're not going to, you know, you're not - I mean you really got to go out of your way to be memorable to a desk agent at the airport. But I hadn't realized until that day, how shameful it was to me, I suppose, or how dirty I felt.
GROSS: So just one more question about drinking. Do you think your personality changed, at all, when you stopped?
SEDARIS: Yeah. Yeah, I think it did just because I didn't - I wasn't thinking of myself as weak and dependent in that same way. You know, like, I wasn't having to deal with all that constant shame every day. And it was just like a huge burden that was lifted off of me. And also, like I couldn't talk about it when I was doing it, because then, you know, you're in it and - I mean I always think like it's a problem when you can't talk about it. I don't mean get up on stage and talk about it, but I mean you can't even talk about it with your boyfriend. You know, I couldn't even talk about it with Hugh. So that made a really big difference. I don't know if you were to ask like Amy, or my sister Lisa, or Hugh like, how it changed me, I mean they might have interesting answers ,but I - it was an overnight. But yeah, it lightened - it lightened me.
You know, it used to be like I had to do my laundry every Sunday at six o'clock, and if I didn't do my laundry at six o'clock the world was just going to fall apart. Everything - I had to clean my house on Saturday and had to start cleaning my house on Saturday at five o'clock because I had to be cleaning my house when "Prairie Home Companion" came on and if I didn't do that well, I wasn't even going to see what would happen if I didn't do that. Do you know what I mean? Like somebody inviting me out for dinner on Saturday or inviting me Saturday, it just wasn't going to happen because I had to clean my house. I had to do my laundry. I had to do these things on schedule at the exact same time at the exact same place, and I had to be sitting down at my desk and I had to be drinking by nine o'clock, and I had to be lighting the bong, you know, by 11:30.
And now I can do things. I can go out. I can - every night can be different, you know? And I think it's - and I think that's been great for me, you know, to be able to - to be able to have adventures in a way that I wouldn't have been able to have adventures before.
GROSS: Well, that leads me to wonder, you know, like, when we first spoke in 1993, you were cleaning the house during the day and writing at night. And that took up a lot of time. But you don't need a day job anymore. You make plenty of money with your books and your tours. And that frees up, like, hours and hours of time every day to do something.
And how have you figured out how to use all the time that has been freed up by not having to, you know, have a job? I'm not saying writing isn't work, but it's...
SEDARIS: Right.
GROSS: ...it's a more flexible form of work. And you were writing - you were going to be writing one way or another.
SEDARIS: Right. But now what I do...
GROSS: And one of the things about not - like, one of the good things about having a job is that it kind of eats up time that you might be spending with obsessive thoughts or, you know, even maybe self-destructive thoughts, negative thoughts.
SEDARIS: Well, what I do now, and I love how this - I think it's a really wonderful world that things can come to you the way that they do. Hugh and I got this house in West Sussex, right? And it's in an area called the South Downs. And the Downs are these massive, chalk-speckled hills that run for a hundred miles between East and West Sussex. And we're just at the base of one of them, right.
And our house is on a one-lane winding road, right, that's tree-lined. And it's my idea of beauty. There are forests, and it's just what beauty means to me, right. But English people throw everything out their car window, and the roadsides are carpeted with rubbish. So that's what I do with my life now. I pick up rubbish on the side of the road. I do it on my bike. I do it on foot. The council, the local council has given me an outfit and a grabber.
SEDARIS: And sometimes I do that, but - and they'll send me out with naughty boys, like, juvenile delinquents. That's what they call them, naughty boys. And sometimes - so sometimes I'll do it with the council, but a lot of times, I just do it on my own, and I do it on my bike. And I have a basket on my bike, and I spend hours every day collecting rubbish on the side of the road.
And to escape the negative thoughts, I have an iPad, and I'm usually getting ready to go somewhere. And I like these Pimsleur language instruction programs. And so, like, for our trip to Poland, right, so I studied Polish before we went. And so what people who live out where we - they think that I'm crazy, because what they see is a middle-aged man who's talking to himself.
SEDARIS: They don't know what I'm repeating Polish phrases - talking to himself, picking up rubbish on the side of the road. And I'm dressed in rags because, you know, that's my outfit. I mean - and I'm - and they see me here and there. And they see me every day doing it. I was cleaning up in the village one day, and a guy walked by and said: There's some rubbish over there. And he pointed.
And I wrote an article about it for the Times of London, and then Hugh was at the village shop, and someone said: Is it you who wrote that article? And Hugh said, no. It was my boyfriend. He said, well, there's a road right near where I live that needs cleaning. You need to send him out there.
SEDARIS: And it's, like, you know, you can do this yourself. It's not difficult at all. And it's completely satisfying to me, completely. I mean, there's a before and after. I have my territory. I mean, obviously, I can't clean the whole country, you know. But I have, like, an eight-mile radius around the house, and I - that I maintain.
And I try to - you know, if you clean two miles of road, you're going to come back the next day, and it's going to be dirty again, right? So if you - like, I'm gone now on this tour. I'm gone for two-and-a-half months. All hell is going to break loose.
GROSS: Well, David Sedaris, it's been great to talk with you again. Thank you so much. I wish you all the best. It's really been great to talk again.
SEDARIS: Oh, thanks so much, Terry. Thanks for having me back on.
GROSS: My pleasure. David Sedaris' recorded in April. He latest collection of essays and stories is called "Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls." On our website you can read the chapter "Dentists Without Borders" which is about his visits to doctors while living in France and how puzzled he is about the American healthcare debate and the fear of socialized medicine. That's at freshair.npr.org. This is FRESH AIR.
TERRY GROSS, HOST: First Sandra Bullock and George Clooney were lost in space in "Gravity." Now Robert Redford is lost at sea in the new film "All is Lost." The director and writer is J.C. Chandor whose debut feature was the 2011 Wall Street drama "Margin Call." The cast includes Redford and no one else. Film critic David Edelstein has this review.
DAVID EDELSTEIN, BYLINE: As I watched Robert Redford acting all by himself in the superlative survival-at-sea movie "All Is Lost," I suddenly realized why the set-up feels so perfect. Redford is most in his element when he's alone. His strength - and it seemed huge when he started in the late '50s and '60s - has always been his ability to convey thought onscreen.
But he has never been much of an inter-acter, which is one reason his Jay Gatsby in the 1974 "The Great Gatsby" adaptation was a nonstarter. Gatsby thinks he needs someone else to complete him, whereas Redford looked uncomfortable when Mia Farrow's Daisy invaded his personal space.
The only time Redford has shown convincing affection onscreen was for Paul Newman in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Sting." After that, his most successful pairing was with Barbra Streisand in "The Way We Were" - and there the whole point was that the pushy Jewish woman and vaguely embarrassed WASP had a kind of anti-chemistry.
So here he is alone in "All Is Lost," as an unnamed man whose 39-foot yacht drifts into an abandoned shipping container in the middle of the Indian Ocean. The container punches a hole in the side, water pours in, and what follows is a chain of disasters I'd call a perfect storm if the phrase weren't so overused.
I'm not giving anything away: The movie opens with the man reading a goodbye letter in voiceover as what's left of a raft bobs up and down. He apologizes to someone - his family, presumably, but the recipients are, like the man's name and profession, unstated. The point is that with death imminent, he seems finally to understand the ways in which he wasn't there for the people who needed him.
"All Is Lost" then flashes back to the start of the debacle, with the man waking up to find water pouring into his yacht. The film is at heart a procedural thriller. The man must extricate his sailboat from that container, pump out the water that has flooded the electrical system, and in various ways make his vessel sea-worthy again.
The writer-director J.C. Chandor breaks the narrative down into perfect fixer-upper units, and I would never have guessed that boat repair could be so riveting. Redford looks amazing for a man in his late '70s. His skin is cracked and weathered - which has been true for decades, since he started spending so much time on the ski slopes - but his face has held its shape. And I've never been so conscious of his physical assurance.
That strength of his I mentioned, that ability to convey thought, is what keeps us watching even though he doesn't say a word for the first 90 minutes. Normally, I'd play you an audio clip but it would just be music and the sound of the ship creaking as it bobs up and down, or the storms that nearly wipe him out.
"All is Lost" is also a parable, and there's some heavy-handed religious imagery in the final moments. But something momentous does happen onscreen, something that speaks to our connection with actors over time. What Redford and director Chandor have pulled off is the ultimate fusion of actor and character.
As the man loses control for maybe the first time in his life - as all indeed seems lost - Redford does something unprecedented for him onscreen. He lets go. He makes contact with the audience as he never has before. He stops thinking.
GROSS: David Edelstein is film critic for New York magazine.
Transcripts are created on a rush deadline, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of Fresh Air interviews and reviews are the audio recordings of each segment.


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The settings in this view let you control the display of stars, including the number of stars that will be shown, the size and color of the star symbols, and the labelling of stars with their names or catalog numbers.
Star Display
Show Stars: Sets whether stars are displayed in the sky chart. When turned off, most of the other settings in this view are disabled.
Magnitude Limit: Sets the star magnitude limit. This determines the faintest stars that are visible in the sky chart. The brighter a star, the lower its magnitude. The faintest stars visible to the naked eye are about magnitude 6.5. Very bright stars can have negative magnitudes; the brightest star in the sky, Sirius, is magnitude -1.44.
The magnitude limit will change automatically as you zoom the sky chart in and out. When zoomed in, fainter stars are displayed.
Star Label Display
Show Names: Sets whether star names are displayed next to some stars in the sky chart.
Proper Names: Sets whether proper names are displayed for stars when possible. When turned off, stars' names are displayed using their catalog numbers (e.g. "α CMa") instead of their proper names (e.g. "Sirius").
Greek Symbols: Sets whether greek symbols are displayed for stars which have Bayer letters. When turned off, greek letters are spelled out in English, e.g. "Alpha CMa" instead of "α CMa".
Name Density: Sets the percentage of stars whose names are displayed on the sky chart. At 0%, no stars have names shown; at 100%, all stars have names shown. At 20%, only the brightest 20% of stars have names shown. When the star name density is at 10% or below, only stars with Bayer letters, Flamsteed numbers, or proper names will be labelled.
Double Stars: displays double stars with their component identifiers (A, B, C, D, etc.) as well as their visual separations in arcseconds ("). For binary stars with known orbits, this option also displays the orbital path of the secondary component relative to the primary. Turn this option on, then zoom in on Sirius or Alpha Centauri, and take a look!
Please Note: this feature is only available in SkySafari Plus and Pro.
Star Symbol Options
Symbol Size: Sets the size of the star symbols. Use small, subtle star symbols to give the screen the appearance of the night sky.
Color Intensity: Sets the displayed intensity of the color difference between stars of different spectral types.


text: Clearance Cuisine is a great new blog reviewing delicious (and sometimes not-so-delicious) food items found in job lot stores and remainder bins. The photos are great, the writing is intelligent and witty, and if authors Marisa and Ben ever come out to Connecticut, I'm going to invite them over for a dinner of food I pick up at Ocean State Job Lot. Check it out.


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The Aquascaper range is specifically designed for the art of Aquascaping, being beautifully crafted to enhance any space whilst remaining practical for both layout and maintenance. The design for a perfect aquascaping aquarium is all in the detail.
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- Product Description
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Product Description
Ranging from 600mm to 1800mm, the Aquascaper aquarium range suits all sizes and budgets, and is ideal for many different fish and plants both large and small.
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Modern sleek cabinets are available as standard to compliment the Aqua-Pro Aquascaper tanks.Each cabinet is delivered pre-assembled in a choice of seven standard finishes and four premium gloss or matt laminate finishes. All come complete with soft close hinges that are fully adjustable and have a quick release mechanism. This allows the doors to be aligned in three directions and easily removed for full access into the cabinet when maintaining external filtration. To retain the clean style and contemporary looks the cabinets are fitted with push open mechanisms so no handles are needed.
The back of the cabinet has large openings to allow plenty of room for pipes, cables, air lines etc to be passed through up to the tank and the open interior provides ample space for external equipment and storage.
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Aquacadabra acts as credit broker/intermediary and not as a lender.
Klarna's credit products are provided by Klarna Bank AB, which is authorised and regulated by the Swedish Financial Services Authority, with limited supervision by the Financial Conduct Authority. More information can be found here.
Newpay finance options are provided through Deko's platform by NewDay. P.D. Aquatics Ltd, t/a Aquacadabra is an Introducer Appointed Representative of Pay4Later Ltd, t/a Deko, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (ref no 728646) and is a credit broker, not a lender. NewDay Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (ref no 690292) and is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 for the provision of payment services (ref no 555318). More information can be found by clicking the newpay option above, or in the Newpay FAQs.
Delivery & Returns
We really want you to be happy with the product that you've received. If however, when the goods arrive they're not what you want, then no problem - we have a 60 day no quibble return guarantee. Just let us know that you're going to return the item(s) by contacting us (stating your Order Number) and complete the returns packing slip that will have been included with your delivery. This will help us to quickly identify the item that you have returned (unopened and unused) - and we'll put a refund through for you.


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While you always have the option to use the WordPress Subversion repository, there may be instances where you prefer to host a plugin yourself. Perhaps you are offering your users a premium plugin. Maybe you need a way to keep your client's code in sync across multiple sites. It could simply be that you want to use a Git workflow instead of Subversion. Whatever the reason, this tutorial will show you how to set up a GitHub repository to push updates to your plugins.


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The ultimate key to success in all trading, both long-term investment and short-term speculation, is simple. Buy low, sell high. Excel in this, and trading the financial markets will eventually make you wealthy. But implementing this well-known proverb into your own trading certainly isn't easy. As always, the stgil is in the details.
To paraphrase Pontius Pilate's famous rhetorical question to Jesus, what is low? What is high? In order to buy low and sell high, traders must gain insights into how to define these conditions in real-time. Without building this crucial skill set, everything else a trader achieves including emotional mastery will be for naught.
While low and high are quantified in terms of prices, context is necessary to define them. A price considered in isolation is useless, but a price considered in context offers much insight. If I tell you I bought something today for $50, you have no idea whether I got a good deal at a low price or got robbed at a high price. What if my $50 bought me a new Nintendo Wii console? What if it bought me a hamburger?
Since you generally know the price history of Wiis and hamburgers, you immediately have the context necessary to make the low/high judgment. Traders must strive to understand today's prices in a relevant context, because only then can we make sound trading decisions. If prices are simply normal like they are most of the time, traders should do nothing. But when they occasionally get low enough to buy cheap or high enough to sell dear, traders must be ready to act.
About 7 years ago, I was looking for a simple, elegant, and effective way to quickly and objectively make low/high judgments about the markets I was trading. I tried many existing trading systems, but all were ultimately unsatisfying. They had too many rules, too many exceptions to those rules, and were too time-consuming and cumbersome to apply when the markets were moving. So I stgeloped my own system.
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I called it Relativity, because all prices are relative. The low/high question can only be answered relative to recent history. In the 5 years since I publicly introduced Relativity, many new traders have entered the markets who could really benefit from this system. And after 5 years of actively applying Relativity to my own trading, with much success and some failures, my own understanding of Relativity is much deeper.
The easiest way to internalize the concepts and power of Relativity trading is to walk through an example. The gold price between 2002 and 2005 is an excellent one. Since I formulated this theory back then using this very dataset, it is certainly nostalgic for me. But far more importantly, this past example eliminates all the warring emotions surrounding today's prices in today's markets. Greed and fear from this historic period has long since evaporated, so everyone today can analyze it with cold logic sans emotions.
No matter where, when, or what you trade, the mission is always the same. Buy low, sell high. During the young gold bull rendered here, the contrarians then trading it faced the same challenge of defining these conditions. And clearly price alone wasn't enough. In early 2003, $375 looked awfully high compared to the $311 gold averaged in 2002. Yet by late 2003, that same $375 started feeling normal. And by mid-2004 it felt low. Later $425 had the same high, normal, low evolution between early 2004 and mid-2005.
In any trending market, bull or bear, prevailing baseline price levels gradually change. The actual prices that feel high, normal, and low in any market today won't feel high, normal, and low in that same market a year or two from now. It is the context, recent price history, that defines where a particular price happens to rank in the buy/sell continuum. Technical analysis, the study of price action, seeks to define this context.
Drawing trend channels is probably the most common way to put prices in context. It is very easy, like connecting the dots in a child's coloring book. A trader manually draws a best-fit line across either all the high prices or all the low prices on a chart. Then he draws a second parallel line on the opposite price extreme to complete a trend channel. This is the space between the lines where most of the price activity occurred.
The lower line of a trend channel is called support, because whenever a price nears this line new buying tends to come in that drives the price higher (supports it). The upper line is resistance, because new selling tends to emerge near this level which keeps the price from breaking out higher (resists it). This simple technical analysis is very useful, as traders can buy low near support and sell high near resistance.
While I am a fan of technical analysis and use it a lot in my own trading, the big problem with trend channels like these is they are subjective and imprecise. Since these lines are hand-drawn, they always differ from chart to chart and analyst to analyst. And deciding when a price is low enough or high enough for action is an eye-balling exercise of guessing. There is no standard, no way to replicate the buy/sell continuum, and no way to quickly communicate low or high prices without a chart.
Trend channels have deeper mathematical limitations too. In this gold chart, the trend channel I drew encompasses a gold swing of about $60. In 2002, a $60 gain off a $275 base represented a 22% move higher. But in 2005, this same full-channel swing of $60 off a $425 base equated to just a 14% move. Over time linear trend channels distort probable percentage moves leading to poorer trading decisions. And logarithmic charts aren't an ideal solution, they have plenty of problems of their own.
As I pondered this puzzle years ago, I was looking for a measurable, objective, undistorted standard from which to determine whether prices were low or high. And although it took me some time to realize it, the answer was staring me right in the face! The venerable 200-day moving average, rendered in black in our Zeal charts, effectively defined the ideal metric I was looking for to measure baseline price levels.
200dmas are simple constructs. Today's closing price, along with the previous 199 trading days' closing prices, are added together and divided by 200. As the name states, a 200dma is merely the average closing price level over the previous 200 trading days. Tomorrow, the whole average slides forward by 1 day, adding the latest close while dropping off the oldest one from 201 trading days ago.
This intrinsic math means a 200dma gradually inches ahead, trailing the price action that created it. Since calendar months typically average about 21 trading days each, a 200dma is essentially a 10-month average. This turns out to be an ideal baseline from which to measure prices. While a 200dma gradually evolves to reflect changing baseline price levels, it still morphs slowly enough to not be excessively influenced by daily volatility.
Examine the black 200dma in the gold chart above. It parallels the hand-drawn trend channel! In the secular trends that are the most profitable to trade, 200dmas are like big arrows pointing the way prices are heading. This construct's natural smoothing effect distills away all the capricious day-to-day volatility, revealing the core essence of the prevailing secular trend. In addition, 200dmas are totally unbiased.
A thousand different analysts calculating the 200dma on the same price series will get the exact same result, this standard is rigidly objective. This is a welcome contrast to the inherent subjectivity of drawing trends, where a thousand analysts would get a thousand different results. And a price's relationship with its 200dma can be quickly communicated without a chart. It is easier to both transmit and digest.
200dmas are the perfect compromise between static and excessively dynamic baseline-price measures. While 200dmas are slow to change, they do still gradually change over time. So they won't fade into obsolescence like all static measures, including trendlines, inevitably will. Simultaneously, they are not unduly influenced by the latest price action (most recent few weeks) that heavily colors traders' sentiment.
Occasionally a fellow student of the markets will ask me, why the 200dma? Why not a 175dma, or a 250dma? This is a good question, as odds are any long moving average will work in a similar way as a slowly changing baseline price level. I chose simple arithmetic 200dmas because they are common and popular, ubiquitous on almost all charts. If an atypical moving average was used, then Relativity would be more cumbersome because it couldn't be calculated without raw data, a spreadsheet, and too much time.
The gold period charted above shows a perfect example of how useful the 200dma baseline is to traders. Anytime gold was near or under its 200dma, it was a great time to buy. Its price was relatively low compared to its 200dma. And anytime gold stretched far above its 200dma, it was a great time to sell. Its price was relatively high compared to its 200dma. This flowing and ebbing distance between a price and its 200dma is the core of Relativity trading. 200dmas provide the crucial context from which low/high judgments can be made!
The deeper your understanding of 200dmas grows, the easier it is to see why they are so venerated by technicians. In most secular bulls like this gold one, the 200dma forms the most important foundational support line. In most secular bears, the 200dma is the most important overhead resistance line. If you buy near a 200dma in a bull, and sell near a 200dma in a bear, your trades have high odds of proving successful.
At this point in my ode to 200dmas, there is still too much subjectivity in defining baseline-price context. While the 200dma itself isn't the least bit arbitrary, deciding when a price is low or high relative to its 200dma is. It still requires eyeballing a chart, just like trendline analysis. Years ago as I pondered this problem, a simple idea eventually came to me. Why not view prices as a multiple of their own 200dma?
Instead of saying gold at $380 in February 2003 "looks" or "feels" high, why not empirically measure it? If gold's closing price is divided by its 200dma that day ($324), it yields a multiple of 1.174x (read this as "one-point-one-seven-four times"). I call this Relative gold, or rGold. On that particular day gold happened to close at 1.174x its 200dma, or in other words 17.4% above its 200dma. Subjectivity has vanished!
Now we have a strict mathematically-defined baseline, the 200dma, and an equally objective measure of the distance from that 200dma in the relative multiple (price divided by 200dma). There is no judgment involved here, and the resulting multiple can be easily communicated without its underlying chart. My Relativity construct is a simple, elegant, and effective way to quickly place today's prices within context in order to make well-informed low/high price judgments with excellent odds for success.
But even with such rigidly-defined relative multiples, the problem remains of where these multiples should be considered low enough to buy or high enough to sell. One more additional layer of context is necessary, and that is the range through which a price's relative multiple has traded in recent years. This concept led to our famous Zeal Relativity charts, like the gold one below from the same 2002-to-2005 period.
The result of charting relative multiples over time is rather fascinating. It effectively takes the black 200dma line and flattens it into a perfectly horizontal line at 1.00, which is logical since the 200dma is always exactly one times itself. And when the relative multiples over time are plotted on this Relativity chart, the result is a horizontal trading range. In trending markets, relative highs and lows tend to be recurring.
Behold Relative gold, the red series plotted on the left axis. The usual gold technicals are slaved to the right axis. The distance between the red rGold line and 1.00x is the Relativity projection of the distance between the blue gold price and its black 200dma. And with this projection, all percentage distances are identical and perfectly comparable across time. Relativity totally eliminates the visual distortion created by changing baseline price levels.
Gold's relationship with its 200dma, its most foundational support line over these years, suddenly becomes crystal clear. The gold price has traded within a well-defined percentage range around its 200dma, which the red rGold line traces. After seeing this data, all we need to do is define a relative trading range based on it. Although this selection is admittedly subjective, the impact is minimal since relative ranges are percentage constants. Thus visual distortion doesn't affect the chosen best-fit relative trading range.
Five years ago when I penned my original essay on Relativity, I chose an rGold trading range running from less than 0.99x to greater than 1.14x. This range should be considered an analog continuum gradually fading from high-probability-for-success times to go long near low multiples on the bottom to high-probability-for-success times to go short near high multiples on the top.
In this rGold example, the closer gold is to 0.99x, or the lower its relative multiple happens to be, the better the chances that a new upleg is imminent. This provides the context warning traders that gold prices are relatively low, an anomalous state that probably won't last for long within a secular bull market. In order to buy low, traders must hold off on adding new gold positions until rGold trades near or under 0.99x.
Conversely, the closer gold gets to 1.14x, or the higher its relative multiple happens to be, the greater the odds that a correction is imminent. Note in this chart that gold never remains stretched far above its 200dma for long. This too is an anomalous state that cannot persist. In order to sell high, traders should consider exiting positions, or at least putting protective trailing stops on them, when rGold approaches or exceeds 1.14x.
Remember that the absolute price is meaningless. If gold is at $400 but its 200dma is at $300 (1.33x multiple), it is radically more overbought than if gold is at $800 with its 200dma at $750 (1.07x). Prices are only relevant within context, and Relativity excels in providing this context. While a price itself doesn't matter, the speed with which it got to its current levels is critically important for traders.
Ultimately all this ties into psychology, the sentiment that drives short-term price moves. Prices get ahead of themselves, or overbought, because greed suddenly flares too intensely. Once all the traders interested in buying soon have already bought, only sellers are left so the price soon falls. This unsustainable greed-driven spike manifests itself as a price rapidly surging well above its 200dma, creating the high relative multiple which warns it is time to sell.
And prices get oversold because fear gets overdone from time to time. But once everyone interested in selling soon has sold, only buyers are left so the price recovers. In Relativity terms these conditions are revealed by low relative multiples heralding the time to buy. A price's ongoing relationship with its 200dma provides all the context necessary to understand whether it is low or high and whether you should buy or sell.
While I used gold in this explanation of Relativity trading, these principles work in all trending markets. Bulls all unfold like this, with the mathematics of the 200dma making a price appear to bounce up along its 200dma over time. Bears work similarly, but their prices appear to bounce lower underneath descending 200dmas over time. So bull relative-multiple ranges are always mostly above 1.00x, while bear ones are always mostly below it.
The primary caveat to Relativity is it is only designed for markets in long-term trends. So it breaks and fails in two key situations that traders must remain wary of. The first is during secular reversals, the transition between bull and bear. While there are plenty of ways to recognize such transitions, realize that Relativity trading won't work across them. The second is during wild price anomalies like last year's stock panic, when prices suddenly blow out of trends and break every trading system. Thankfully these are exceedingly rare events.
The bottom line is price action is only relevant within context. Traders simply can't make sound buy/sell decisions unless they can make informed low/high judgments about current price levels. Relativity, by considering 200dmas as evolving price baselines and building an objective measuring system around them, is a phenomenal tool for making these decisions. It should be a key part of every trader's toolbox.
And due to the very nature of the interaction between any price and its 200dma, these Relativity trading principles are universal. As long as a market is trending, they work anytime anywhere. By simply considering where a price happens to be relative to its 200dma today, and the range of this relationship in recent years, you can radically increase your odds of succeeding in buying low and selling high.
© Copyright 2000-2009, Zeal Research (www.zealllc.com). Zeal Research is a US-based investment research company – you can visit their website at http://www.zealllc.com/. Zeal's principals are lifelong contrarian students of the markets who live for studying and trading them. They employ innovative cutting-edge technical analysis as well as deep fundamental analysis to inform and educate people on how to grow and protect their capital through all market conditions. All views expressed in this article are those of the author, not those of CompareShares.com.au. Please seek advice relating to your personal circumstances before making any investment decisions.
Other articles in this week's newsletter
Is the Myer float a dog? Plus, upcoming IPOs to watch.
The Multiple Lives Of A Stock Trader
Taking Stock Of Discounted Cash Flow
Buy low, sell high – but what is low?


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