I’m ending the year with something light. And here it is!
A few days ago, my nephew Mark, who is very good at finding stuff on Google, decided to Google my late father, Ben Bursztynski. By pure chance, the name that came up first was mine. It was not a web site I’ve ever seen before when I Google myself(as you do). I’ve always thought it would be nice to have a page on Wikipedia, but nobody has ever done that for me, and I didn’t have the nerve to do it for myself.
It wasn’t Wikipedia, but it was a wiki of sorts, which you can edit, though you’d have to register. Here’s the link if you’re curious. https://prabook.com/web/sue.bursztynski/3756278 Someone took a great deal of trouble to research me, and, unlike the average Wikipedia entry, it even had direct links to pages selling my books. Nice, so far! It did my bio, where I studied in Melbourne, etc., even quoted me. (Though I’m sure I never said “boned up on...”) However, despite all that, it said I was Canadian! I’ve never even been to Canada- and someone who had read all that stuff about where I had studied would, you’d think, have noticed that there isn’t a Monash University or RMIT in Canada... Ah, well. I’m terribly flattered anyway.
However, this is not the end of it. There’s more! I posted the link on Twitter with a chuckle, and I got an unexpected response from a lady who said it was news to her I was Canadian, as she had been in my class in a Melbourne school when she was 14!
She remembered me reading Shakespeare aloud - of all things to remember. I did do an intro to Shakespeare with my Year 9 classes, yes, and I remember being delighted when I overheard a student say, as I brought in the box of books, “Oh, good, Shakespeare!”
Anyway, she said she had left school early, but now considered herself well educated and liked Shakespeare. I don’t know if she enjoys Shakespeare because of me, though I think it was implied, but at least I didn’t put her off him, as teachers have been known to do. That’s nice to know.
See, being a Bard fan, I was passionate about his work and wanted to share it. And somehow I think I’ve managed, over the years, to do that. I don’t recall any class ever getting restless when I did a Shakespeare unit, and they did seem to enjoy it. So if a girl who left school early came back to him later and enjoyed his work, and then remembered that about me - well, nice to know I didn’t spoil it for her.
Have a great 2020!
14 comments:
I didn't want any of my private or family details published in public, but I did want every published history/art/architecture conference paper, journal article or book to appear in Wiki. This was done by attaching the relevant paper to the references of the relevant Wiki page. For example, on the Wiki page on Como House, I attached the following:
My name, "Rare Australian Colonial architecture in Melbourne". In Art and Architecture, mainly. Then the URL.
Now contacts come from all over the world :)
Sounds good to me! Must try it.
Wow! This is very neat stuff. The Wiki page is cool. I also like connecting with folks from the past.
So do I, Brian! And she is not the first. A young man whose campus I visited as an author(though I was working at another campus) remembered me(fondly) on Twitter too. Nice!
Did you fix the site, Sue? Because it now says you are an Australian author :) (I hope your parents were Canadian though...)
Very cool! I also learnt something as I didn't know you are a fan of belly dancing.
With the wonderful twitter praise and the website you are certainly finishing the year on a positive and happy note.
Happy New Year!
Ah. Someone has sort of fixed it, maybe seeing my tweets. Not me. It still has Canadian as my nationality and no, my parents have never had a connection with Canada either. Yes, I did belly dancing for a time, till my very good teacher moved to the other side of Melbourne and I just couldn’t find anyone nearly as good. I may check out classes again, if I can find one in my area. It’s wonderful exercise and nobody expects you to be young or beautiful - in fact, my teacher was a plump little middle aged lady who taught me wearing a tracksuit and sneakers!
I hope you can find someone. Any type of dance is fun :)
Thanks! And yes, dance is good. I was doing Israeli folk dance for a while, before the teacher had some family crises. I would come home from work exhausted and drag myself out again for classes - and come home bouncing!
Wow, Israeli folk dance! I've never seen that performed. I've done ballroom, jazz, Irish and Hungarian and always found it put me in a good mood too.
Sounds like you’ve done some interesting stuff yourself. Israeli dance is interesting because it has two different styles. The more boisterous ones were brought by Russian migrants, while the gentler ones are from the Eastern Jews, or so our teacher told us. By the way, I’ve also done Renaissance dance. I wasn’t much good at any of them, but they were all fun.
Happy New Year Sue!
Thanks for all the great entries you write.
I like the Wiki entry too. But are you folks indeed Canadian
Thanks, Jane! No, there are no Canadians in my family! None whatsoever! Mind you, I’d be happy to swap Prime Ministers right now...
Hi Sue - fascinating how you can jump continents ... what a fun read - cheers Hilary
Hi Hilary! Yes, it is interesting, isn’t it?
Post a Comment