Jessica (“Decca”) Mitford writes from Toronto, 1941: I don’t like Canada at all, it seems to me like an awful copy of America, & the people are horrid. They are anti English and anti American but vastly inferior to both…. There are several English refugees here & I really feel sorry for them (tho notcontinue reading
Stuff Archives
Calling the bottom, Day 1
It’s actually about day 180, since the calls for the bottom of the market started as soon as things got choppy in August. But I’m re-setting the clock and calling this day of 600-point TSX tumbles Day One: January 21, 2008: “I think we may be into panic selling here and I don’t know ifcontinue reading
Puters!
I was thinking of getting a new computer before Christmas, but my union sent out a prepare-for-battle memo warning us to postpone major purchases, which on reflection seemed like a good idea. Now that I know that I’m getting paid next Thursday, and not by the Communication, Energy and Paperworkers at the union office, thatcontinue reading
On the “noxious” fruits of Canada’s hate speech laws
That’s what American legal, political and media commentator Glenn Greenwald [you may have to click through an ad] calls them anyway. No “American exceptionalism” chauvinist (closer to the opposite at least at the current time), he does think America has it right — and Canada wrong — on free speech. I’m curious if anyone hascontinue reading
Ian McEwan
Quite a fine interview with Ian McEwan in TNR linked below (hat tip to aldaily). I liked this quote, which neatly summarizes his spirit of sceptical humanism: “One passes the usual milestones in life: You have children, you find that whether you like it or not, you have a huge investment in the human project somehow succeeding.continue reading
The mean streets of Halton region
Police shoot man in Oakville park at two-thirty in the morning, Oakviller expresses disbelief that real life takes place in her Legoland-like hometown: The woman, who asked not to be named, said she usually takes her 2-and 3-year-old boys for walks in that forest. She said her family moved to the neighbourhood because it wascontinue reading
Geography quiz
Any guesses about this facility in rural Warwickshire? View Larger Map
Shout out Up
Been meaning to post this for a while… One of the projects I set for my recent vacation in England was to rewatch, with Kelly and my mother, the 7 Up documentaries, up through the most recent one, 49 Up, from 2005. We didn’t get all the way through, so I left the set withcontinue reading
MEC
While I’m still on my Hamilton kick (‘It’s 905!’/’But so authentic!’), I’m embarrassed to say that I missed this entirely: MEC’s planned Burlington store, which I’m sure there’s a good business case for, is supposed to be a model of environmental design … “Sustainability is a driving force at MEC, and the Burlington store willcontinue reading
Me and Misha
Over time, the spam filter on my e-mail account has become smarter, shielding me from random Biblical quotes and letters from the many bankers of the victims of that 2000 Concorde crash. So I was pleased to see that the filter is so sensitive that it knew to let in an e-mail plea for helpcontinue reading