BBC - Podcasts - Americana: inside the USA
20/09/2009
Mon, 21 Sep 09
Duration:
28 minsMatt Frei talks to Tom Friedman about President Obama's busy media schedule.
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September 22, 2009
INCREDIBLE BBC RADIO EMBED OBAMA MEDIA ETC. Mon, 21 Sep 09 - Americana: inside the USA - BBC - Podcasts
Laudanum, Sago and Glue for the Father of his Country
Laudanum, Sago and Glue for the Father of his Country
Two hundred and fifty years ago, on September 20th 1759, a young member of the landed gentry in Virginia sent an order for supplies to London.
The document, now held in the Wellcome Library as WMS/Amer.91, is an interesting indication of the degree to which the colony, although now well over a century old, still relied heavily on imports from the (then) mother country. Medical supplies rub up against hardware, veterinary supplies and cookery ingredients. Adding particular interest to the shopping list is the identity of its author: the young gentleman farmer is George Washington, and twenty years later he will be embarking on his first term as President of the newly-independent United States.
Of this, of course, Washington could have no inkling at the time: he could have been forgiven for believing that the dramatic chapters of his life were over and he was now settling down. Born into the Virginia gentry in 1732, in the early 1750s he was beginning a career as a planter in an economy driven by large slave-worked tobacco plantations. He was also an officer in the Virginia militia. During the 1750s, tensions between the French and British settlements in North America, over who would control the Ohio valley beyond the Appalachians, erupted into war, and the young Lieutenant-Colonel Washington had distinguished himself: in 1755 General Braddock’s Monongahela offensive ended in disaster and Braddock’s death, but his aide Washington rallied the remaining forces to minimise damage and effect an orderly retreat. In 1758 British forces returned to the Ohio valley, with Washington - now a General – taking part in the expedition that expelled the French forces and turned their Fort Duquesne into the new British base of Pittsburgh.
After these wars in the Ohio valley Washington, now 26, resigned his commission and settled down. In January 1759 he married Martha Custis, a wealthy widow, whose dowry, combined with lands he had been granted beyond the Appalachians, made him a wealthy man: the newly-married couple settled at Mount Vernon, overlooking the Potomac downstream of the recently-founded town of Alexandria (and downstream of the site of the capital city that was to bear his name, years later). The order for supplies held at the Wellcome Library dates from the early months of their life at Mount Vernon and demonstrates the pattern of trade from the Virginia plantations: luxuries and infrastructural supplies imported from Britain, paid for from the proceeds of a cash crop (tobacco at this stage, although in the mid 1760s Washington moved over to cultivating wheat).
The order Washington sent out nine months after his marriage is a long and detailed one, and the sheet held at the Wellcome Library may not even be the whole of it. There is a long list of tools at the start, for surveying, joinery and so forth. Items plucked from the list include "2 long plains [planes]", "1 handsaw, 1 Pannel ditto, 1 Tenant ditto…", "6 dozen steel compasses", "1 dozen augers sorted from 2 Inches to ½ ditto", "25 lb Glew [glue]" and "12 inch chizzels". It is an indication of the equipment needed on the plantation and of the way that the colony was not yet able to match the workshops of Sheffield and Birmingham in supplying it.
Below this Washington moves to medical and culinary ingredients. Interestingly, these are mingled together in a style similar to that of the 17th and 18th-century recipe books held in the Library, without clear distinction between food and medicine. Some ingredients, of course, clearly belong in one category or the other: "6 Bottles Turlington's Balsam", "5 oz. liquid laudanum" and "5 oz. spirits sal ammoniac" are obviously medical, whilst four pounds each of pearl barley and sago and five pounds of white sugar candy leads us to the kitchen. But there are other items that could be for either purpose – "4 oz. best rhubarb" is almost certainly there as a medicine rather than a foodstuff, and one might surmise the same about "12 oz. Venus treacle", but there is no clear distinction.
At the end of the order comes a distinct section of veterinary supplies, in which Washington allows his supplier to use their discretion: "40/- worth of Medicine proper for Horses – among which let there be - 4 lb. flower of Brimstone; 4 lb. Anniseeds… & such others as are most proper." It is to be hoped, however, that the list of medical/culinary supplies prior to this also includes things ordered for veterinary purposes: in it we find "4 oz. Spanish flies", which are chiefly used when encouraging farm animals to mate (when crushed the beetles irritate the lining of the urethra) but also have a long and often disreputable history as a purported aphrodisiac for humans.
One sheet of paper, signed one afternoon 250 years ago by a soldier who thought his fighting days were over: but it opens vividly the world of the Virginia plantations and the colonial society whose last days were ticking away.
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Objectum-Sexuality Internationale - 2009.10.2 Coming Soon... OS featured on Tyra Banks Show
Objectum-Sexuality Internationale - Homepage for Objectum-Sexuals & Objectum Sexuality info with Objectum sexual history
2009.10.2 Coming Soon... OS featured on Tyra Banks Show
Tyra Banks invites Erika Eiffel from Berlin, Germany to talk candidly about objectum-sexuality with a guest appearance from Dr. Amy Marsh from San Francisco.
2009.4.8 On the 2nd year anniversary of her commitment to the Eiffel Tower, Erika Eiffel is featured on ABC News Good Morning America
Erika's love and connection for objects throughout her life may have brought her misunderstanding and rejection but true to her deep rooted feelings, she has been empowered by her OS relationships to achieve amazing goals.
In the first media to address OS in the the United States, Dr. Amy Marsh shares her expertise as a clinical sexologist. Is OS a possible orientation rather than a paraphile?
Wall Love - The Woman Who Fell in Love with the Berlin Wall / Objectum Sexuals / OS
The Woman Who Fell in Love with the Berlin Wall / Objectum Sexuals / OSWall Love
Bricktease - meet the woman who married the Berlin Wall. Bizarre investigates the curious world of people who fall in love with objects.
Bizarre joins the furries - more fetish fun here
Like millions of sweethearts across the globe, Wall Winther has found true love. Her husband, in his prime, was a stalwart of immense stature, a domineering presence who was feared throughout his homeland and infamous the world over. Events haven’t been too kind to his physical state, but the couple’s love remains strong. You might think Wall Winther is lucky to be attached to such a celebrity, but it’s unlikely the couple will be gracing the cover of Hello! any time soon. That’s because Wall Winther’s other half is the Berlin Wall.
Wall Winther (whose original name was Eija-Riita Eklaf) is an Objectum-Sexual, or OS for short. Most OSes harbour their passions in private, terrified of rejection by society. But they can still form meaningful relationships, even if their partners might be considered unconventional. “It’s an orientation, like hetero or homosexuality,” explains Kiowa, a US-based OS who moderates an internet forum for like-minded souls. “We’re emotionally and physically attracted to objects. Replacing the term ‘hetero’ with ‘object’ would accurately describe OS.”
Wall Winther agrees. “We see things as living beings,” she says. “That’s a must. Otherwise you can’t fall in love with an object.” Wall Winther is attracted mostly to constructions with plenty of parallel lines – buildings, fences, bridges, gates and, in one case, a guillotine. But other OS fetishists might be turned on by the intricate workings of a turbine or television set, the delicate curves of a shiny sports car, the rigid harshness of a railtrack, or the bell end of a trumpet.
Look hard enough and you’ll discover an internet populated by tales of love affairs with objects. Joachim A, for example, confesses to his affair with a Hammond organ that began when he was 12. He’s now in a steady relationship with a steam locomotive. Psychology student Bill Rifka tells of his sexual obsession with his iBook (he defines it as a homosexual relationship as he regards his laptop as male) and Doro B talks about falling for a metal processing machine she encountered at her work. Online at least, OS is a genuine sexual orientation, where relationships thrive, desires are aroused (and fulfilled) and deep emotions burn.
Falling for a wall
Waving the OS flag proudly, Wall Winther is arguably the most outspoken and prominent member of the OS community, fearlessly trying to achieve mainstream recognition for her ‘leftfield’ sexuality. Her site, Berlinermauer.se, attracts thousands of visitors each year, and is filled with love poems, photographs and touching memories. She spends much of her time running the Model & Guillotine Museum in her Swedish hometown of Liden, which showcases scale models of buildings (many of her beloved Berlin Wall), fences and bridges she has expertly built. Wall Winther is a talented model-maker (it’s in her genes: “My father was a carpenter,” she says), and comes across as intelligent and warm, recounting her tales in softly spoken English, delivered with more than a passing nod to her native Swedish tongue.
“When I was a child, I thought all people looked at objects the way I did,” she says. “I was 14 or 15 when I discovered most people are heterosexual. But I’d always been attracted to objects, even before puberty. My father built various models, including a model of the Great Wall of China. Then, when I was seven years old, I saw the Berlin Wall on television, just as it was completed. It was my first love. My feelings were like, ‘Wow, it’s gorgeous.’”
The love was sealed by marriage in the summer of 1979, in a ceremony attended only by a penpal. Wall Winther subsequently took her husband’s name, to be known as Wall Winther Berliner Mauer (Berliner Mauer is ‘Berlin Wall’ in German). Of course, this wasn’t technically legal matrimony, but Wall Winther shrugs this off, insisting the spiritual bond is what counts.
“I don’t think that’s important,” she says. “If I want to marry the Berlin Wall and have a normal ceremony and do other normal things that are done at a wedding, then I’m married.”
As with other alternative lifestyles, the internet has proved a powerful tool in uniting OS people. One of the closest friendships Wall Winther has struck up is with Kiowa, a world-class athlete in her native US who’s won both world and national honours. And she attributes part of her success to her “spiritual relationship” with sporting equipment.
Despite an age gap of some 20 years, Kiowa describes her close relationship with Wall Winther as being “like sisters”. Yet, like most sibling relationships, there have been dramatic arguments. Kiowa also confesses a deep love for the Berlin Wall, though she says her feelings developed in the wake of the construction’s political ‘dismantling’ in 1989.
“The day I watched the world smash him with picks and hammers is the day I realised he meant more to me than just my collection of postcards,” Kiowa says. “That day, I truly fell in love with him. But our joint love for die Berliner Mauer has caused problems between Wall Winther and I. She has loved him since he was built. But my attraction grew after he was almost destroyed. But she understands that now, so things are OK.”
“Kiowa loves the Berlin Wall,” Wall Winther sighs. “I did get jealous when she stayed with me. But we sorted it out.” Although Bizarre feels bad about bringing up the sensitive issue of Wall Winther’s reaction to what she calls “the terrible disaster of 1989”, we can’t leave without asking: How did she come to terms with her partner’s demolition?
“When I saw it happen on TV, I closed the door. I felt shocked,” she says, sadly. “I loved my husband when he was in his prime – it took me 10 years until I could love him again after that. I just didn’t know who he was any more. It’s difficult to explain.” Her memories tail off into a brief silence.
Sex with structures
With the pain still evident, we move on to other aspects of OS. Is it acceptable for OSers to have more than one partner? Especially considering the impracticalities of location and size of some?
Wall Winther, who enjoys relationships with many scale models of the Berlin Wall and whose previous lovers include a large model of a guillotine, says: “Yes, I can love the real Berlin Wall and the models. It’s not cheating because it’s the same construction. And when I married him, we decided being faithful isn’t important because he’s in Berlin and I’m over here in Sweden.”
Kiowa also speaks of having “many object lovers over the years”, and is currently courting “a wall, a fence, a tower and a bridge”. “Just as people date each other, I do so with objects,” she says. “Until recently, I only allowed myself to love one type of object. If I loved bridges, I could only love bridges because I didn’t believe in polygamy. This changed when I met other OSers. I realised there was no reason I couldn’t share love, so long as all parties concerned had no issues and no-one was being hurt or rejected.”
OK, but let’s get to the bottom line – what about sex? With so many shapes and sizes of objects, some enormous in scale, can someone really get jiggy with a wall? “Yes, of course, we enjoy physical relations with our partners,” says Kiowa. “It’s not easy, but the connection happens even if the pieces don’t quite fit. We each have our own means of physical union. It could be simple caressing or something more. Like beauty, sexual pleasure is in the eye of the beholder.”
Some OSers have even attempted to provide guides to having sex with specific objects. A manual devoted to car-loving exists online, suggesting methods such as leather interior humping and gearstick penetration. Wall Winther makes the important distinction that, for OS people, physical union isn’t to be confused with masturbation. “If you masturbate, you see your partner as an object, something only to pleasure you,” she says. “When I have sex with the Berlin Wall, or a model of him, I want to please him too. That’s the big difference.”
Mattka is based in the UK and confesses to having sexual liaisons with vehicles on a regular basis. Among his likes are “sports, luxury 4x4s and pick-ups”. He also finds himself attracted to “many types of boats, fighter jets and construction machinery”, adding coyly, “Some sports bikes work well – and nearly fit into bed.”
Yet he describes his interest as no more than a fetish. “There’s emotion involved, but not much,” he says. “It’s not that hard for me to swap cars and sell them on. It’s definitely not a substitute for a real relationship.”
As for true OSers, Wall Winther claims there are many people out there who fit the definition, but are too afraid to come out. “Society is a long way off accepting, understanding or even learning about OS,” she says. “Other OS people must stand up for what they are. They can’t hide in the closet. I tell them that and they get angry with me – but you’ll never win the fight by hiding.
You have to go out and tell people, it’s the only way. It’s like gay people – if they were still in the closet, they’d never have been accepted today.”
Dr Glyn Hudson-Allez, a chartered psychologist and psychosexual therapist based in Bristol, feels maybe society would be kinder to OSers than Wall Winther suspects. “I don’t think Objectum-Sexuality is becoming more common,” he says. “But we’re becoming a more tolerant society in terms of sexual diversity.”
On the flipside, Wall Winther’s hope of a re-evaluation of marriage laws is something Dr Hudson-Allez is less optimistic about. “You can’t marry an object because an object can’t give consent,” he says. “The whole idea of marriage is that someone makes a choice to join in union. I’m afraid that other people need to hear that consent, regardless of what OSers may feel.”
Which means the journey of sexual equality will be a long one for Wall Winther – and her unusual, legendary, eternally silent husband.
For more information, visit Berlinermauer.se
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