Kelly's Revenge Redux

In August 2008 I took a trip to San Diego. There, in a neighborhood liquor store, I came across a bottle of wine called Kelly's Revenge.

On that trip, I never got to taste Kelly's Revenge. When I got home, though, I searched online for information about the wine. I didn't find much. Except a slick corporate web site with little info.

I was hoping to learn where Kelly's Revenge was made. I'd never been to Australia and it seemed to me (and still does) that a trip to the Kelly's Revenge vineyard would be a great reason to go.

I also tried to find the wine in local liquor stores but nobody had even heard of it. All my attempts at finding revenge turned up dry. Sigh.

Recently, though, something happened that put me back on the trail. A friend went to San Diego, was in a liquor store, happened across a bottle of Kelly's Revenge, bought the bottle, and brought it back home for me.

Once again, I went online trying to find info. From a press release I learned that the wine is named after a notorious, 19th-century, Australian outlaw named Ned Kelly. After a stressful day, a glass of Kelly's Revenge is supposed to help you unwind. After all, the best revenge is living well.

And I also found an inappropriate web site. I guess, with a name like Kelly's Revenge, that's to be expected.

Oh well. Some things, I guess, are meant to remain a mystery. I may never know exactly where Kelly's Revenge comes from, but at least I now have a whole bottle to myself.

I think it's time to sign off and find my corkscrew.

Does My Head Look Big in This?

If you've been following my blog over the past couple months, you may have noticed I've been on a young adult literature kick.

Because of my interest in travel and other cultures, the books I've been gravitating to stick to these themes. I've also been able to read through them more quickly as they are often shorter than adult novels.

But that's not to say they don't tackle heavy ideas. For example, I just finished reading a book called Does My Head Look Big in This written by Randa Abdel-Fatta.

The book takes place in suburban Melbourne (the author is Australian) and is about a high school gal dealing with some critical identity issues. Even though she is Australian, she is also Palestinian and Muslim. She attends a hoity-toity private school with a strict uniform policy and she has recently decided that she wants to wear a hijab, or head-scarf.

Will she be able to manage all the typical social pressures any normal high school girl must deal with while also managing the stereotypes and questions that come with the hijab? You'll have to read the book to find out.

This is Abdel-Fatta's first book, and I could kind of tell. Sometimes the main character got too preachy and high-strung. However, that wouldn't stop me from recommending it to a teen reader.

It does offer an interesting cultural perspective. The United States isn't the only country in the world where people deal with hyphenated ethnic labels, and this book clearly illustrates that. Plus, even for me, an adult reader, it was interesting to encounter the thoughts and feelings that a Muslim woman might go through in decided whether or not to don the hijab.