story juice

parkents

2011-11-08T14:31:00.001-05:00

Scanner time again. Inspired by this.

Remember this?

Here is another picture of the lovely couple in Hyde Park. I took this one. I think they look even happier. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that when this picture was taken, they had been my Mum and Dad for six glorious years!

poetry and prose

2011-10-26T15:56:00.001-04:00

I was catching up on episodes of TVO's The Agenda via podcast and listened to one called Obama: Can He or Can't He? about Ron Suskind's new book, Confidence Men and a discussion of his portrait of the current US president.

I lost a lot of Obama-love when Osama bin Laden was killed. I do not want to go into all that here but it seemed to me so very ugly and so very Bush Doctrine that I took down my Obama Christmas tree ornament from its home on my kitchen wall. I used to look at that little ceramic plaque with its picture of Barack Obama when I was feeling kind of blah. It would make me think about all he was facing and all the hard work he had in front of him and would put my blahs into perspective and a little dance back in my step. After the "kill operation" in Pakistan, it just started to creep me out so I put it away.

I started to get a more balanced view listening to the panel discuss the challenges for this president and how his first years in this office compared with those of other presidents.

One point that was made a few times was that President Obama's harshest critics are often those who supported him. Near the end of the discussion Steve Paikin, the show's moderator, asked if the Occupy Wall Street movement was an expression of the left abandoning Obama. It is funny because I was thinking just the opposite at precisely that moment.

I was thinking that what the discussion was pointing to was the flaw in the alpha male leader model of change agency. I was thinking of the quote Adbusters used to start the Occupy Wall Street campaign.

"The antiglobalization movement was the first step on the road. Back then our model was to attack the system like a pack of wolves. There was an alpha male, a wolf who led the pack, and those who followed behind. Now the model has evolved. Today we are one big swarm of people."

— Raimundo Viejo, Pompeu Fabra University
Barcelona, Spain

I was thinking that Obama invoked the people's mic when he lead those chants of, "Yes we can!" I was thinking that we are all learning - or re-learning - that even if you get exactly the right leader into position, all leaders are limited in their role as change agent by their own learning curves, by systemic barriers to change, and by powerful opposition forces from within government and outside government. Obama's presidency points to exactly what is wrong with the lead-wolf model. I think Obama himself was careful to warn us of this and often said that the change we wanted could never be accomplished by him alone. He kept his community-organizer hat on through much of the campaign.

I think that the Wall Street Occupiers and all those who are acting in solidarity around the world heard "Yes we can!" and said, "The we is us." They are stepping up to change the conversation and by changing the conversation and standing in solidarity, they are giving their president energy, space and strength to do his part.

The name of this post comes from the Mario Cuomo quote cited in the program, "You campaign in poetry but you govern in prose." Perhaps, what Occupy has to teach us is how to get a little more poetry -- and dance -- into governance.

on a boat (ship) to england

2011-10-21T22:04:00.001-04:00

mevagissey

2011-10-21T21:49:00.000-04:00

Spain

2011-10-21T15:54:00.002-04:00

I just got the scanner up and running after a year without it and used these pics from a family holiday in Spain to test it out.

In these pictures we are hanging out with our Mum and Dad in Nerja. It was a small town in those olden days and we spent our days on the beach paddling about, leaving messages on the sand with the smooth white pebbles, making bamboo huts to shade us from the sun. There was a river behind our apartment and sometimes we got to explore along the dried up riverbed and watch the farmers taking donkeys laden with sugar cane to market. We spent afternoons on the Balcón de Europa eating teeny, tiny ice creams for una peseta or drinking La Casera. Once I watched a bit of a bull fight on t.v. in the bar but my dad made me leave before the gross bit.

Julie had her birthday here. You can see her at her party on the bottom right. We both got donkeys. Hers was grey a straw hat. Later Grandad gave her a cart to go with the donkey. Mine was white and the most beautiful donkey ever. The big rose was given to Julie by the owner of Pepe Rico (the restaurant - which seems to be there still).

Our other favourite restaurant was El Molina (a good place for a gaggle of Mollinses to hang out) which also seems to be still in operation.

orange you glad

2011-08-29T20:53:00.001-04:00

#painttheCNTowerorange

One of the really nice things about the events celebrating Jack Layton was how easy it was to get a YES.

Can we have a state funeral?

Yep.

Can we cover Nathan Phillip's Square in chalk drawings?

Yep.

Can we ride our bikes with the casket from City Hall to Roy Thompson Hall?

Yep.

Can you make the CN Tower orange on Saturday night?

Yep.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could celebrate Jack with a few more easy yeses?

Can we have affordable housing?

Can we have a green economy?

Can we stop treating people who use certain drugs as criminals?

Can we make sure that all of our decisions honour the Charter of Rights and Freedoms?

Can we make sure that all of our decisions honour the treaties we made with Aboriginal people?

Can we honour our history of immigration by working to create better conditions and access for the people who choose Canada?

Can we honour our history as peacekeepers by always choosing peace?

And so on.

legacies, legends and left-wing kooks

2011-08-25T12:09:00.011-04:00

It has been a bit of a bumpy week.

We have been thinking about Jack. We have been thinking about Olivia, Mike, Sarah, Beatrice, Jack's brothers and others close to him.

And we have been thinking about legends and legacies. Many of us are surprised at our own profound feelings of loss. We didn't know that over these many years, even though most of us only met him long enough to shake hands and share a quick laugh, Jack Layton had somehow become family to us as well.

Not for everybody of course. There is the famous "anti-hagiographical" column and the debate that ensued.

But many of us are trying to express what we feel we gained by having Jack among us and what we might have lost with his passing.

There is the divine, the glowing and the silly.

There is a Facebook group called Things I Will Do In Memory of Jack Layton.

Marcus Gee thinks that this outpouring of grief is also civic engagement. People who share the "vision of a city that looks out for its most vulnerable and cares about the environment" are using this occasion to wave at each other across the piles of orange flowers. In this sad time, we can see how many of us there really are. He thinks that the people at Toronto City Hall who have been calling us "left-wing kooks" will have to take notice. I hope he is right about both those things. Of course, I'm going to have to do more than hope.

If Michael Valpy is right*,

When polls from the past federal election are closely analyzed, what shows up is that Mr. Harper’s Conservatives were elected by a lot of old people — people over the age of 45 whose electoral participation rate is between 60 and 80 per cent, climbing higher as they climb to meet their Maker. People under the age of 45 were powerfully anti-Conservative but at best only about 40 per cent of them voted. And if they had voted in the same proportion as the over-45s, there would not have been a Conservative majority; there probably wouldn’t have been a Conservative minority. What likely we might have got is an NDP-led coalition.

what all of us should probably do, one sure way to get them to notice, is show up and vote.

Then, like Rebecca, Margerit and Vanessa, do this.

*More evidence that Mr. Valpy IS correct at Scott's DiaTribes here.

thank you mr. layton

2011-08-22T16:41:00.002-04:00

world water week

2011-08-19T15:26:00.000-04:00

More than 2,600 humanitarians and policymakers meet in Stockholm next week to hash out ideas about how to tackle escalating problems surrounding water scarcity and access to sanitation, particularly in urban environments.

World Water Week delegates are seeking long-term sustainable solutions that will transform how water resources are managed. The goal is to try and improve the lives of almost 900 million people who lack access to safe water, and more than 2.7 billion who lack access to basic sanitation, according to United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) statistics.

Stockholm meeting to stir global water crisis debate by Julie Mollins, AlertNet

Red state

2011-08-18T21:45:00.001-04:00

My neighbour gave me these tomatoes. Bloordale is awesomsauce.

Dusk dances

2011-08-18T19:29:00.000-04:00

uh oh - red state found the blue state

2011-08-18T15:02:00.000-04:00

red state, blue state

2011-08-17T00:09:00.000-04:00

The good people at the Guardian listened to David Cameron:

"These riots were not about poverty. That insults the millions of people who, whatever the hardship, would never dream of making others suffer like this."

and wondered if he was right. They decided to see "what would happen if" they overlayed the addresses of people charged with "riot"-related crimes "with the poverty indicators mapped by England's Indices of Multiple Deprivation, which cover very small areas."

The map is coloured by the Indices of Multiple deprivation, from blue (richest) to red (poorest).

Click here to use the interactive map

Liverpool University urban planning lecturer Alex Singleton took a look at the early data. He found

• The majority of areas where suspect live are deprived - and 66% of them got poorer between 2007 and 2010, when the last survey was published
• 41% of suspects live in the 10% most deprived places in England

England riots: was poverty a factor? by Simon Rogers, The Guardian

this is history, this is a repeat

2011-08-15T15:43:00.000-04:00

Austerity and Anarchy: Budget Cuts and Social Unrest in Europe, 1919-2009, by Jacopo Ponticelli and Hans-Joachim Voth, Discussion Paper No. 8513, August 2011, Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract
Does fiscal consolidation lead to social unrest? From the end of the Weimar Republic in Germany in the 1930s to anti-government demonstrations in Greece in 2010-11, austerity has tended to go hand in hand with politically motivated violence and social instability. In this paper, we assemble cross-country evidence for the period 1919 to the present, and examine the extent to which societies become unstable after budget cuts. The results show a clear positive correlation between fiscal retrenchment and instability. We test if the relationship simply reflects economic downturns, and conclude that this is not the key factor. We also analyze interactions with various economic and political variables. While autocracies and democracies show a broadly similar responses to budget cuts, countries with more constraints on the executive are less likely to see unrest as a result of austerity measures. Growing media penetration does not lead to a stronger effect of cut-backs on the level of unrest.

The link above will download the whole paper in PDF and a summary of the paper can be found here.

Political implications
When the Great Recession spread, many governments embraced the advice from leading economists who had argued in a number of papers that budget cuts can be good for growth (Alesina et al. 2002; Alesina and Ardagna 2010; Giavazzi and Pagano 1990). In addition, an important literature has argued that there is no effective penalty for budget cuts at the ballot box – voters apparently understand the need for austerity, and do not punish governments that implement it (Alesina et al. 1998 and Alesina et al. 2010).

These results suggest a paradox – if austerity is good for growth, and the electorate doesn’t mind, why aren’t governments keener to cut their countries back to prosperity? Our findings suggest that fear of political unrest may be an important factor that is holding back governments. As expenditure cuts start to bite, the number of anti-government demonstrations, riots, general strikes, attempts to overthrow the established order, and political assassinations increases dramatically. In line with our results on expenditure, Woo (2003) shows that countries with higher levels of unrest are more indebted.

Flashback
Ontario Premier Mike Harris's Conservative government has launched a full-scale reform of the province's education system, calling for standardized report cards, a provincewide curriculum and the right to determine the amount of time that teachers spend in the classroom. He has also called for additional unspecified spending cuts of $500 million. Such changes have provoked fierce debate. [including] ...the largest teachers' strike in Canadian history.

"Before we were elected, we were criticized for saying things like 'No blade of grass will be untrampled at Queen's Park.'"

Harris Under Siege (Nov97 Updates)

The "blade of grass" quote is discussed at 7:30

3 horsemen of the deficit

2011-08-14T14:49:00.004-04:00

“Are you not the party of balanced budgets and debt elimination?” The reply was unequivocal, “Our goal is to grow the deficit as much as possible in order to create political space to eliminate government-funded programming. Until then, we want high deficits while lobbying for a balanced budget — and promoting social program cuts as the only solution.”

from Apocalyptic crisis budgeting by Edmund Pries

http://vimeo.com/27353035

Flashback to the Harris government

...Through their new funding plan the government reduced education funding by an astonishing $987 million per year not counting the 1995-1997 reduction of $525 million bringing it to the grand total of $1.5 billion in education cuts in their first few years in office.

...The plan however was to establish an elaborate crisis. Senior Ministry of Education bureaucrats had released footage to the media of then Minister of Education John Snobelen stating "We need to invent a crisis in order to bring about change in the educational system."

Snobelen would go on to state on several different occasions during the recording:

“... if you don't bankrupt it well, if you don't create a great crisis," "Inventing a crisis is something we're not... intuitively good at," "they couldn't make the thing change, because we were late with the declared crisis," "how to bankrupt it... I like to think of it as 'creating a useful crisis'," "'Creating a useful crisis' is part of what it will be about" and finally, "But, yeah, we need to invent a crisis."

The point of creating a crisis was to legitimize policy changes that might otherwise be unpalatable.

Mismanaging During Storm (PDF) by Neville Britto

this is not us, this is you

2011-08-13T14:03:00.003-04:00

The Toronto Star has an interesting round up of who blamed who(m) for the London "riots." My favourite is this bit of wisdom from the insightful-as-ever Rush Limbaugh:

“(Rioters) were the people that bought into the false promises of socialism. These are the people that bought into the false promises of Utopia…”

Just as

...uppity women are people that bought into the false promises of feminism,

...uppity African-Americans are people that bought into the false promises of the Civil Rights Act,

...and Democrats are people who bought into the false promise of the Declaration of Independence.

this is apathy, this is criminal

2011-08-12T00:01:00.000-04:00

www.45cat.com/record/clash1

"Something has gone horribly wrong in Britain. If we are ever to confront the problems which have been exposed in the past week, it is essential to bear in mind that they do not only exist in inner-city housing estates.

The culture of greed and impunity we are witnessing on our TV screens stretches right up into corporate boardrooms and the Cabinet. It embraces the police and large parts of our media. It is not just its damaged youth, but Britain itself that needs a moral reformation."

The moral decay of our society is as bad at the top as the bottom
by Peter Oborne, The Telegraph

www.45cat.com/record/clash1

"The shadow side of Britain is criminality which runs from top to bottom. MPs and members of the upper house have been prosecuted and sent to prison for cheating on expenses. Murdoch's minions have been exposed for paying off police. Cameron attended News International meetings 24 times in one year.

There is little respect for law even among police who have a string of dodgy deaths and clumsy cover-ups in recent years, Tomlinson, Menezes, Smiley Culture.

Our establishment is seen as corrupt, and everyone knows this. Authorities do not command respect from anyone, least of all savvy, hard-nosed, selfish opportunist criminals, a generation born into the kind of valueless, amoral consumer-driven materialism dominant since Thatcher."

People are wondering why the rioting started... really?
by Dean Whitbread, usefully imaginative since 1984

this is us, this is apathy

2011-08-11T12:40:00.000-04:00

Some more clues about why we riot?

Again, the the themes of

how we use exclusionary practices to shut down community engagement,
how we use the corporatization of public space to limit freedom of expression and assembly,
how we diminish the capacity of grassroots organizations to speak truth to power and establish a collective voice,
how we define leadership to make us leaderless,
how we let markets drive social policy decisions and
how we respect our neighbours

arise in this presentation by Toronto's own Dave Meslin.

this is england, this is us

2011-08-10T17:55:00.011-04:00

All over Twitter and Facebook people are posting Clash videos in response to the London "riots" that spread out to become the UK "riots." They might be posting them on Google Plus too but I keep forgetting to go there.

There has been much written about property damage, criminality, randomness and thuggery.

http://twitpic.com/633c2d

This was the first thing I read that made any sense at all: Riot Thoughts by Will Wiles.

And here is the second thing: Crime Without Causes by Nick Harkaway.

Both these articles look at what remains a constant in England and what has changed since the Clash first sang London Calling.

Will Wiles addresses the issue of the corporatization of public space. Torontonians - think Dundas Square. On trips to London, I find the reduction of public space and the freedom to be unobserved is wearing upon the spirit. After a week of "Cashier Number Four" harping at me everywhere I go, I desire nothing more than a remote mountain top where I can scream epithets unheard and unwatched.

I have a great memory of a Friday during the Days of Action when the Days of Action Coalition threatened to shut down Toronto. We didn't of course but the threat was enough to keep many commuters off the road. We rode from the Hillside TTC barns to Queen's Park, at one point down the MIDDLE of College Street. It was exhilarating to take back the streets for a few hours.

As much as I love the convenience of buying things on a Sunday, I miss the commercial-free days of my youth when we could see our environment and each other independent of our economic roles. Each Sunday our Mums and Dads seemed different and our city was a playground. We reproduced ourselves, our ids came out to play.

But it is a very repressed id indeed that needs to burn down the corner shop. Or do I mean oppressed?

Some on Twitter have made disparaging comparisons to the Arab Spring along the lines of The Arab Spring protesters are fighting for freedom and the "London Rioters" are fighting for plasma TVs.

Here is a thing: The dictators the Arab Spring protestors rise up against never claimed powerlessness. In our part of the world, since the Reagan/Thatcher/Mulroney years, we have been told by successive governments that they are powerless in the face of market forces to shape society through policy and programs. So why are we surprised when protest is directed at symbols of the market?

Here is a thing: Since that era, governments have worked to diminish the ways people gather to express dissatisfaction and organize around issues of oppression and disenfranchisement (unions, community organizations, etc.). So why are we surprised that protest in Western countries often takes a form that seems individual and random?

Here is a thing: These three countries (US/UK/Canada) are notorious for resistance to taking good care of the planet. In Canada, our government will not agree to even LABEL asbestos a hazardous substance and insists that economic benefits of extracting oil from tar sands justifies the harm to people, wildlife and the environment. So why are we surprised when protesters show the same amount of respect for their neighbourhoods?

Here is a thing: The banking crisis exposed an ethos of plunder and greed among the leaders of the industry. These are the "leaders" that our political leaders tell us we must trust with "rationalizing" our decisions about social policy. It turns out that these people were, at best, acting with complete disregard for the common good in favour of their own benefit and, at worst, were engaged in criminal activity. With very few exceptions, these people were never punished for this behaviour. In fact, many were rewarded with taxpayer money and saw their own personal wealth increase while individuals, communities and whole countries were facing financial ruin because of their actions. So why are we surprised when protesters show the same amount of respect for their neighbours?

Here is a thing: The US and the UK have a long history of trying to resolve conflict with violence. Canada has recently given up its role as peacekeeper, often justifying this by saying that peacekeeping is impossible in a world where there is no peace to keep!?!?!

On April 20, 1999 two teenage boys went on a violent rampage at Columbine High School and killed 13 people and themselves. Then-president Bill Clinton said, "We do know that we must do more to reach out to our children and teach them to express their anger and to resolve their conflicts with words, not weapons" (CBS, 1999).

The summer before, on August 20, 1998, the US military destroyed the al-Shifa pharmaceutical plant in Sudan and bombed al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan in retaliation for bomb attacks on its embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. The Clinton administration claimed that the al-Shifa plant had ties with al-Qaeda. Questions remain about the connection between al-Shifa and al-Qaeda and various sources claim the destruction of the plant and subsequent loss of medications resulted in tens of thousands of civilian deaths.

Do as I say, not as I do.

Long weekend - day one

2011-07-30T15:24:00.001-04:00

The view from here. Plus birdsong and Caribana music.

Loon!

2011-07-30T14:35:00.000-04:00

Duck!

2011-07-30T14:33:00.001-04:00

this dock is awesomesauce

2011-07-29T00:59:00.000-04:00

This is what the storm wreaked in Ottawa but we are still standing. On the dock! DockMan FTW!

wild skies

2011-07-29T00:50:00.001-04:00

We were sitting on the dock enjoying a pre-dinner cocktail. Suddenly, at the north end of the lake we saw a sheet of rain rushing towards us. Then this happened.

lakeside

2011-07-29T00:42:00.000-04:00

Here is what it was like sitting by the lake.

Some people are playing badminton.

heat wave

2011-07-29T00:05:00.001-04:00

During the July heatwave my friends invited me to the cottage. Here it is:

And here is the view:

This canoe spent the winter in my parent's backyard.
Doesn't it look happy to be back in its natural habitat?

My friend was busy. He put in the dock.

I have no pictures of him weed whacking but here he is rescuing a badminton shuttlecock from the roof.

And he kept his finger on the pulse old school.

Until this happened.

solving maria

2011-07-28T23:08:00.003-04:00

This message may seem a little cryptic but the person to whom it is directed will understand.

The Maria who comments on posts here is not the Maria you think it is.

And these are the evenings we dream of in February.

2011-07-26T18:54:00.000-04:00

These are the days we dream of in February

2011-07-26T12:00:00.001-04:00

brunswick sonata

2011-07-16T01:05:00.008-04:00

This is what was happening outside the Brunswick House tonight.

all the king's horsemen

2011-07-13T16:14:00.001-04:00

"He estimated the cost of reconfiguring the street and returning a reversible fifth lane to its centre at $200,000. The Jarvis lanes were installed last July at a cost of $59,000."

Council votes to scrap Jarvis bike lanes by David Rider, Toronto Star

And in the "plus ça change" department:

Tiny garden

2011-06-14T10:13:00.000-04:00

My window plants are giving me such pleasure I thought you might like to see them too.

Tree all gone

2011-06-07T13:37:00.001-04:00

new home

2011-06-05T19:38:00.002-04:00

The snippet of the magnificent Sophie Setnyk rose I brought over is thriving under the excellent care it is receiving from my Mum. Here is its first bud in its new home.

Her majesty's a pretty nice girl...

2011-05-31T11:33:00.000-04:00

Retired Canadian journalists Cyril Fox and Carl Mollins, whose careers included years based in London, England, with Reuters news service, assert that London-based Queen Elizabeth deserves an international award as she approaches her 50th year in office next year.

Surely, they say, Her Maj deserves award of the annual Nobel Peace Prize for her promotion of peace between Ireland and England on her May 17-20 visit to Ireland—90 years after the Anglo-Irish Treaty, while creating the independent Irish Free State, failed to erase hostility, even acts of terrorism, ever since.

The warmth of the Queen’s actions and words on her visit , virtually apologetic at times, widely prompted conclusions that she may well have helped erase the decades of conflict in manner and physical combat on both sides of the Irish Sea.

As the U.K. Guardian newspaper put it: “The Queen offered Ireland the nearest the royal family has ever come to an apology for Britain's actions in the tortured relations between the two countries.”

As she said in a Dublin speech to citizens of both the northern and southern Irish communities:

"It is a sad and regrettable reality that through history our islands have experienced more than their fair share of heartache, turbulence and loss . . . with the benefit of historical hindsight we can all see things which we wish had been done differently, or not at all."

Queen gives Ireland closest royals have come to apology for Britain's actions

Irish eyes are smiling: show of respect turns Queen into runaway favourite

The Dublin brigade of the IRA attacks and sets fire to the Customs House in Dublin in May 1921.
Initial success turns to disaster, however, when they are surrounded.
Nearly 120 IRA men surrender in one of the biggest setbacks in the organisation's history.
Dual elections Elections are held on both sides of the new border.
Sinn Fein wins 124 of the 128 seats in the south.
In the North, the Ulster Unionists take 40 out of 52 seats, the Nationalists and Sinn Fein win six each.
Sir James Craig forms a government in the north.
First Ulster parliament This new body assembles on June 7 1921 and is formally opened 15 days later by King George V, who appeals for peace.
Truce In July, the IRA agrees to a ceasefire. Sinn Fein leader Eamon de Valera begins talks in London with Prime Minister Lloyd George. Craig refuses to attend.
Anglo-Irish Treaty Formal negotiations begin in October and an agreement is eventually signed on December 6, 1921.
The 26 southern counties will become an independent Irish Free State while the six northern counties will remain part of the UK. The treaty sets up a boundary commission to draw the dividing line according to local wishes.
Treaty approved The Dail Eireann votes 64-57 in January 1922 to accept the treaty after a bitter debate in which those backing the deal are accused of treachery. . . . .
Irish Civil War A June general election in the Free State is won by those supporting the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
Soon after, two IRA men in London kill Sir Henry Wilson, a British general and security adviser to the Northern Ireland government. The Free State government acts against those opposed to the Treaty and civil war breaks out in the south.
Up to 5,000 people are killed before the fighting ends in 1923 with victory for the Dublin government.
Among the casualties is Michael Collins, one of the signatories of the Treaty, who is shot dead by anti-Treaty republicans in August 1922

Look who's back

2011-05-20T07:02:00.001-04:00

Rocky part 5

2011-05-17T14:40:00.001-04:00

Bye bye Rocky. I hope you're okay.

Peekaboo (rocky part 4)

2011-05-17T14:32:00.002-04:00

Springs eternal

2011-05-17T12:44:00.001-04:00

The light and tunnel relationship brings hope to Torontopians.

Rocky Part 3

2011-05-17T12:41:00.001-04:00

Rocky woke up for a bit, stretched, yawned, and went back to sleep. Rough life :)

Rocky part 2

2011-05-17T11:53:00.001-04:00

RR seems to have settled in for the day.

Rocky part 1

2011-05-17T10:06:00.001-04:00

Look who is hanging out on my window sill.

open again

2011-05-05T22:04:00.007-04:00

I think the people who had such concern about this lightly-read blog might have found something else to focus their attention on so I am going to open storyjuice again. Fingers crossed :)

has sprung

2011-04-18T13:16:00.000-04:00

Some morning glories haz riz.

spring

2011-04-18T13:14:00.001-04:00

All the plants had to come back inside for a while.

Hamilton rules

2011-03-10T14:01:00.002-05:00

Not sure I can really get behind this anti-flaneur stance over here in Hamilton.

Hamilton rules

2011-03-10T13:53:00.003-05:00

Do not feed the birds while holding hands?

Happy Birthday Joan

2011-02-28T19:04:00.001-05:00

surprise

2011-02-28T14:46:00.002-05:00

Its windows and doors open over here as we celebrate a surprise spring day
... and Joan's birthday.

Cakes cooling in the sun

2011-02-28T14:37:00.002-05:00

On February 28!

More flowery balancing acts at the Grand Hotel. Orchids and a dramatic red tropical variety.

2011-02-26T17:57:00.001-05:00

Precarious flowers in the lobby of the Grand Hotel. No not THAT one.

2011-02-26T15:43:00.000-05:00

My lunchtime view today. Melty Bickford Park. With dogs.

2011-02-16T11:57:00.001-05:00

Nobody celebrates 10cm of snow like us. Toronto FTW. #snowtoriousBIG

2011-02-02T11:59:00.001-05:00

More #snowtoriousBIG goodness. No #thundersnow yet here in Torontopia.

2011-02-02T01:00:00.001-05:00

And #snowtoriousBIG gets underway in Bloordale.

2011-02-01T23:55:00.001-05:00

elephant talk

2011-01-30T00:40:00.001-05:00

Birdie footprints.

2011-01-21T09:29:00.001-05:00

Hydrovations.

2011-01-20T13:32:00.000-05:00

At the AGO members lounge. Mmmmmm.

2011-01-16T14:23:00.000-05:00

Volcanic buttertart at Gayleys.

2011-01-14T15:32:00.000-05:00

Mimico!

2011-01-12T12:21:00.000-05:00

Storm clouds?

2011-01-11T14:30:00.000-05:00

Waiting for the bus at Steeles and Keele. Just inside Toronto.

2011-01-11T13:31:00.000-05:00

Vaughn!

2011-01-11T09:29:00.000-05:00

waiting for the #37 in the SUNshine!

2011-01-10T12:17:00.000-05:00

the left wing pinkos return home via the Bathurst streetcar

2011-01-06T21:05:00.000-05:00

bike ready :)

2011-01-06T21:03:00.000-05:00

the cn tower through the sail of lights

2011-01-06T21:01:00.000-05:00

Winter u know what

2011-01-06T20:58:00.000-05:00

sailing away

2011-01-06T20:53:00.000-05:00

not sailing away

2011-01-06T20:51:00.000-05:00

2 left wing pinkos by the lake.

2011-01-06T20:49:00.000-05:00

Coffee by the Lake with our Dad :)

2011-01-06T17:05:00.001-05:00

2 left wing pinkos on the Spadina streetcar.

2011-01-06T16:44:00.000-05:00

Her majesty's a pretty nice girl but she doesn't have a lot to say.

2011-01-06T12:28:00.000-05:00

a girl and her bordeaux

2011-01-04T02:25:00.003-05:00

This girl rests in bed and catches up on her social media obligations after the guests have gone.

Nuno, put your cheese away. Its flan time!

2011-01-01T20:24:00.001-05:00

happiness is a warm beer.

2010-12-28T21:38:00.000-05:00

missing pages

2010-12-27T23:44:00.019-05:00

Update: I have opened up the blog but have hidden some posts (see below). When I opened the blog I thought that these people must have moved on from worrying about me 8 months after our business relationship was terminated and 5 months after the letter was sent. I have learned that as recently as June 1, 2011, this was absolutely not the case. C'est la vie.

I have not gone in and changed all the links so some links in some posts may take you to an error page. Sorry about that. One day I'll go in and fix all that but for now...

from Jackson Creek Press

_________________________________________

I have made the blog private for now.

I received an email from an Ontario paralegal on behalf of a certain group of people with whom I have had a rather unfortunate association requesting that I remove all posts referring to that certain group of people, their property and any situation with which they were involved. The request went further to characterize the posts as libelous, slanderous, and salacious and to threaten legal action.

I refute this characterization as both a matter of opinion and as a matter of legality.

My writing cannot be slanderous. Slander refers only too spoken communication.

slander |ˈslandər|
noun Law
the action or crime of making a false spoken statement damaging to a person's reputation

The things I have written are not salacious.

salacious |səˈlā sh əs|
adjective
(of writing, pictures, or talk) treating sexual matters in an indecent way and typically conveying undue interest in or enjoyment of the subject
• lustful; lecherous

I have never referred to any sexual matters. Hee hee. And ewwwwwwwwwww!

My writing is not libelous.

libel |ˈlībəl|
noun Law
a published false statement that is damaging to a person's reputation; a written defamation.

Nothing I have written is false. The posts on my blog are accurate observations and descriptions of my experiences.

I decided, as a gesture of goodwill and without prejudice*, to remove all the references and photos mentioned in the email and more. I decided to interpret the request as broadly as possible and have complied with the request even though I am under no obligation, legal or otherwise, to do so.

Of course, that was not enough. Several emails later, I have decided to make the blog private for a little while.

So read on. And rest assured, Apollo will rise again!
*Without Prejudice: A reservation made on a statement or an offer that it is not an admission or cannot otherwise be used against the issuing party in future dealings or litigation with any determinative legal effect.

woof woof

2010-12-27T21:35:00.001-05:00

Drinking beer from the Barking Squirrel glass my sis snagged from a kindly publican.

i yam what i yam

2010-12-24T19:39:00.001-05:00

Mum made the most excellent spinach pate EVER for the 1st time in 10 years! Woot!

loopy

2010-12-24T19:37:00.001-05:00

Special Christmas Eve loo paper. What will they think of next?

the last penguin is a polar bear!?!? #penguinadventcalendar

2010-12-24T12:08:00.001-05:00

red sky in the morning...

2010-12-24T08:03:00.001-05:00

merry dongle

2010-12-20T21:54:00.000-05:00

Little Christmas toys knit by my little sister.

the tree - stage 5 (final!)

2010-12-20T21:31:00.001-05:00

the tree - stage 4 (ornaments)

2010-12-20T20:43:00.001-05:00

the tree - stage (tinsel)

2010-12-20T19:16:00.001-05:00

the tree - stage 2 (lights)

2010-12-20T18:50:00.001-05:00

the tree - stage 1 (secured)

2010-12-20T18:30:00.002-05:00

of twinkle

2010-12-17T00:03:00.000-05:00

...until I turned the corner and saw this.

a sprinkle

2010-12-16T23:59:00.000-05:00

I thought this house was pretty spectacular...

today's penguins

2010-12-15T12:37:00.000-05:00

are in the chimney.

my new penguin advent calendar

2010-12-15T12:29:00.000-05:00

Every day a new penguin.

errands west of Dufferin

2010-12-12T01:03:00.003-05:00

... where I now live: My bike was just repaired most expertly and quickly at Sweet Pete's and I picked up some treats and necessities at the newly-opened and Christmas-sparkly Nuthouse - a perfect shopping spot for a squirrel like me. I ran into some "I haven't seen you in ages" friends there.

West of Dufferin where I now live is starting to feel a lot like home.

oranges and lemons

2010-12-11T10:44:00.010-05:00

Okay - so what has been going on you ask. Why no posts?

I got behind and then more behind.

I went to London in July and stayed there for six weeks. I planned to keep you updated but just got too busy. I still plan to add some photos from the trip. Heh heh.

While I was away the people who bought the house where I lived evicted me. They said that one of them needed to move into the coach house. There was a hearing and a lawyer and endless emails. All while I was trying to pack up and find a new place to live. Which I did with the help of many.

I found a nice new apartment not far from the old one and moved on October 5. Now life is easy peasey lemon squeezy for me again. Difficult, difficult, lemon difficult is all over.

I have been getting sorted. Unpacking was more fun than t should have been. Mum and Dad came over every day for the first week and helped unpack and fold paper and boxes. They kitted out my bathroom with curtains and mats and hooks.

My cousin took me to that Swedish housewares store and I ordered some bookshelves and a fancy fold-away desk. I have been assembling furniture and moving it here and there.

And I have started a couple of new projects.

So busy lizzy orange fizzy is why there has been no juice here.

holee flurries batman

2010-12-06T06:56:00.001-05:00

- there is SNOW ON THE GROUND!

sunshine on my shoulder

2010-11-26T12:13:00.001-05:00

It is a frosty morning but the sun burst into the Bickford cafeteria just now and we are warm as toast.

October 24, 2009 - August 9, 2010

2010-08-09T14:08:00.000-04:00

This happened and yada, yada, yada, eight months and sixteen days later, this happened .