Runagates

Last call for Martini's Bar

2011-06-10T13:37:00.000-07:00

Friday afternoon wanes and thoughts turn to quaffing a pint of beer at the local, Martini's Bar & Grill in Edmonton. But as the raven would croak, that will happen "Nevermore." On May 30, the staff were laid off and Martini's closed its doors for good.
The closing of a bar is perhaps not all that important in the grand scheme of things. Certainly Martini's end has produced hardly a ripple in the city's consciousness. Unlike that of El Nivel Cantina in Mexico City, forced to shut down in 2008, which prompted a large demonstration and received international news coverage.
Well, also unlike El Nivel, opened in 1855, Martini's isn't the oldest bar in the city, nor has it been the haunt of world-historical figures such as Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.
As drinking establishments go, Martini’s is neither old nor historic, having opened in the 1990s, but for those of us who were regular patrons-- and those who enjoyed working there -- its loss is a wrench.
Done up in a style somewhere between a New York bar and a London pub, with brass-railed mahogany-finish bar and elaborate mirrored back-bar displaying the bottles in their glittering array, it was a place with engaging staff and an assortment of regulars who were generally friendly and interesting, and where you could generally get into a good conversation over a drink. Lively without being overbearingly noisy, it was also a true local whose patrons attended the funerals of other regulars, took part in sports pools, regular crib tournaments and a lottery syndicate. The Big Rock Traditional Ale on draft was usually very good.
That Martini's was on the ropes had long been rumoured. But it took some time for the predictions of the local Cassandra to come to pass. "At one point there were dire predictions that the days were numbered for my current local, Martini's, but a shift in ownership seems to have warded off that danger -- and the charming and accomplished staff, including Mary, Nancy, Barb, Deb, Shyla and Heather will be keeping the customers happy there for a while yet," I wrote in a May 6, 2008 blog about the closing of some San Francisco bars. And so it was, although by that time longtime châtelaine Kara had already gone and Martini's had already seen its best days.
In recent times Martini's had been plagued with declining staffing difficulties -- which at one point resulted in an Industrial Workers of the World picket line -- and maintenance problems. The final straw is said to have been the landlord's raising the rent when the lease came up at the end of May, although that might not have been fatal if there hadn't been other ongoing issues.
Rumours are now going around among former Martini's habitués that its is now being looked over by potential saviours who may be interested in reopening the bar.
That may be so. Meanwhile the refugees from the wreck of Martini's are seeking another congenial drinking spot to take its place. As one commented plaintively on his Facebook page, "Men without locals. we wander the streets in search of inviting venues. In short, we are lost."

2011-01-14T09:08:00.000-08:00

Day's end for “At the end of the day”?

Is it the end of the day for “At the end of the day”?

It’s seems that even advertising and marketing executives hope so.

A recent survey of 200 Canadian industry executives named “At the end of the day” as one of the most annoying of current buzzwords.

Who can argue with that?

The execs were asked, "In your opinion, what is the most annoying or overused buzzword in the creative/marketing industry today?"

Not surprisingly, “Think out of the box,” another endlessly repeated business cliché, was also among those picked.

I would have ranked then higher than the 14 and 12 spots (out of 15) they achieved.

However there are apparently other buzzwords that the marketing and advertising types (along with people in government and other business spheres) have to hear ad nauseam that rankle them more.

These include, in the number two spot, the dreaded “Synergy,” followed by “Innovative/innovation,” and “Extra value/value added.” Other concepts they no longer want to hear about are “ROI/return on investment,” “Culture Change,” “Multitasking,” and, interestingly, “Going green” and “Free.”

And the number one buzzword that made them squirm: “Social media.” That seems a bit of an odd one. It isn’t as if Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn et al aren’t a reality they’ll have to continue to deal with – I guess they’re just very tired of talking about it all the time.

The daily hubbub in which we are immersed contains all manner of annoying utterances, from racism and sexism to grammatical and usage errors.

Business-related buzzwords are often particularly irritating because they are imposed on us in situations where we have no choice but to listen, and imply that there are other things (what exactly?) we could and should be doing better.Considering that it is the marketing execs who create and popularize many of these buzzwords that afflict us, it is rather satisfying that at the end of the day they grate even on them.

The 15 Authors (Extended Version)

2010-11-08T19:57:00.000-08:00

The Fifteen Authors was a Facebook meme that appeared in October 2010.

The invitation guidelines: “Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen authors (poets included) who've influenced you and that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes.”

These (in alphabetical order) were the 15 I chose, although not necessarily the first 15 and not necessarily within 15 minutes. I have included a quotation from each – these were put up daily as Facebook status posts during the last two weeks of October. Some comments follow.

Margaret Atwood (1939- )

"You fit into me
like a hook into an eye

a fish hook
an open eye"

-- “You fit into me”

Comment: Atwood’s The Animals In This Country, from which this is taken, was the first collection of poems I read, and opened my eyes to contemporary poetry.

Karen Blixen/Isak Dinesen (1885-1962)

“I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills. The Equator runs across these highlands, a hundred miles to the north, and the farm lay at an altitude of over six thousand feet.” – Out of Africa

Comment: Evocative and beautiful, this is the one to beat as far as memoirs go.

Walter Burkert (1931- )

"It's not so much the limits of our knowledge as the superabundance of what can be known that makes an attempt to explain man's religious behaviour an almost hopeless enterprise." -- Homo Necans

Comment: The quotation is from Homo Necans, but it was his book The Lore and Science of Ancient Pythagoreanism that gave me a sense of what good historical scholarship looks like.

Constantine Cavafy (1863-1933)

"And greater honour is due them
When they foresee (and many foresee)
That Ephialtis will show up in the end
And that the Medes at last will come crashing in."

-- “Thermopylae”

Comment: The work of this Greek poet living in Alexandria, with its sad nostalgia combined with moral courage and defiance, is lastingly resonant.

Raymond Chandler (1888-1959)

"I never saw any of them again -- except the cops. No way has yet been invented to say goodbye to them.” -- The Long Goodbye

Comment: Chandler is the master of the detective story as quest, with Philip Marlowe the knight errant.

Noam Chomsky (1928- )

“The propaganda model does not assert that the media parrot the line of the current state managers in the manner of a totalitarian regime; rather, that the media reflect the consensus of powerful elites of the state-corporate nexus generally.” – Necessary Illusions

Comment: Intellectually fearless, Chomsky provides incisive analysis of the contemporary political/ideological scene, and is scrupulous about sources. In holding up to scrutiny the version of events put forward by the political authorities and the mainstream media he performs a vital function.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881)

"And indeed, I will ask on my own account here, an idle question: which is better -- cheap happiness or exalted sufferings?" -- Notes From Underground

Comment: Notes From Underground, my introduction to Dostoyevsky, first gave me the real sense I was dealing with Great Literature – deep, difficult and riveting.

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930)

"Under such circumstances I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained." – “A Study in Scarlet”

Comment: Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories left me with a feeling for the wide variety of life, in London and beyond, although in many of them Watson and Holmes don’t stray far from their lodgings at 221B Baker Street.

Norbert Elias (1897-1990)

“The concept of civilité acquired its meaning for western society at a time when knightly society and the unity of the Catholic church were disintegrating.” – The Civilizing Process

Comment: A substantial scholarly work, Elias’ Civilizing Process fascinated me with its detailed demonstration that much of the social behaviour we take as given and fixed is actually the result of a long process of development.

Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932)

"‘Heard the news?’ he said. ‘There's nothing else being talked about, all along the river bank. Toad went up to Town by an early train this morning. And he has ordered a large and very expensive motor-car.'" -- The Wind in the Willows

Comment: My favourite book for young people (although I’m also awed by Alice in Wonderland). Along with the story, I love the illustrations of E.H.Sheppard.

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)

“At the lake shore there was another rowboat drawn up. The two Indians stood waiting. Nick and his father got in the stern of the boat and the Indians shoved off and one of them got in to row.” – “Indian Camp”

Comment: Hemingway was a master of narrative. This quotation is particularly striking in context, because these are the first two lines of the story, collected in The Nick Adams Stories.

Jack Kerouac (1922-1969)

"We were all delighted, we all realized we were leaving confusion and nonsense behind and performing our one and noble function of the time, move. And we moved!" – On The Road

Comment: No one has better portrayed the exhilaration of heading out on the road and going just to go. I responded to Kerouac’s sympathy for the underdogs and marginalized.

Kate Millet (1934- )

"Sexual politics obtains consent through the 'socialisation' of both sexes to basic patriarchal polities with regard to temperament, role, and status. As to status, a pervasive assent to the prejudice of male superiority guarantees superior status in the male, inferior in the female." -- Sexual Politics

Comment: I was wowed by the clarity and strength of Millet’s arguments in this major work of feminism, although I had major differences with her political approach and think many of her later notions nonsensical.

Sei Shonagon (c. 966-1017)

"In the winter, when it is very cold and one lies buried under the bedcovers listening to one's lover's endearments, it is delightful to hear the booming of a temple gong, which seems to come from the bottom of a deep well." -- The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon

Comment: Sei Shonagon was a court lady in Japan of the Heian Period, distant in all respects. But although the topics are often “exotic,” her vivid pillow book, or journal, reveals a personality by no means alien – an elegant reminder of how much we all share throughout history.

Leon Trotsky (1879-1940)

“The permanent revolution, in the sense which Marx attached to this concept, means a revolution which makes no compromise with any single form of class rule, which does not stop at the democratic stage, which goes over to socialist measures and to war against reaction from without…” – Permanent Revolution

Comment: Trotsky’s thought has provided a valuable frame of reference for understanding the world.

2010-05-18T14:32:00.000-07:00

No. 19, May 18, 2010

From the Maverick to the Yellowhead

The Yellowhead Brewery opens its doors for business in Edmonton tomorrow following a blessing by the Reverent Neil Gordon, dean of All Saints Anglican Cathedral. St. Arnold, generally considered to be the patron saint of beer, would no doubt approve.

The new micro-brewery is located in the historic H.V. Shaw Building at 10229-105 Street, and the adjacent glass-fronted addition. Built in 1914 by Henry Shaw as the site of the Edmonton Cigar Factory, the Shaw Building most recently housed Maverick Brewing.

Maverick opened in 2005, billing itself as "the first destination craft brewery in Alberta," with a private function room that was used for promotional and fundraising events. The brewery ran into supply and marketing problems, and in the fall of 2006 its assets were seized by landlord Five Oaks Ltd., owned by architect Gene Dub (who was also a 10 per cent shareholder in Maverick) for rental arrears.

Maverick later went into receivership, with the firm Meyers Norris Penny Ltd. being appointed interim receiver in July 2007. After a somewhat complex series of transactions involving Five Oaks and a numbered company, they negotiated the sale of the brewer's assets of Maverick to English Bay Enterprises for $200,000 on September 2007, followed by a distribution to the creditors.

While the brewery was in operation they made only one type of beer, Maverick Supreme Lager, a self-described pale American-style lager. The beer apparently had its fans, with enthusiasts posting to the Beer Advocate site rhapsodizing about its "aroma of multi-grain bread and light lemon tone," "biscuity snap" and "nice lace down the sides of the glass."

I wasn't one of those fans, however, and didn't find it much better than insipid U.S. mass-market products such as Budweiser or Miller. Or perhaps a less-enthusiastic Beer Advocate poster got it right in describing the beer as having a flavour of "cooked peas" and a "metallic" aftertaste.

It seems curious for a micro-brewery to produce a type of beer very similar to many other beers on the market. People interested in micro-brews are usually in search of something that differs from the norm. Although local patriotism ("This beer is produced right here in your hometown!") will result in some sales.

Yellowhead Brewing too is starting off with a lager. Many beer aficionados are looking forward to brewmaster Scott Harris, who trained in brewing at the Doemens Technicum in Munich, having crafted a tasty one. It's planned to have the brewery space serve as an arts and live music venue, and it may also be rented out for community events and public, private, corporate and charitable functions. Good luck to this new venture.

Interestingly, this is not Edmonton's first Yellowhead brewing concern. The Yellowhead Brewing Company started producing beer in the river valley in 1894, as Lawrence Herzog notes in his column in the April 3, 2003 edition of Real Estate Weekly. It was operated by brewer Tom Cairns, from Manitoba, with partners Kelly and Myover. The Yellowead later became Sick's, then part of Molson's.

Checking out the Crescent City

2010-02-12T16:05:00.000-08:00

Linda and I got back Wednesday from several days in New Orleans. It was a very enjoyable trip although the weather was a bit chilly, with highs mainly in the middle to upper 50s, somewhat below average for there. Our French Quarter hotel, the Prince Conti, turned out to be in an excellent location and quite pleasant.

We did a fair a bit of strolling around and checking around the historic architecture in the French Quarter and the Garden District, and took a guided tour of the St. Louis #1 cemetery, which dates back to the 1780s. Took a cruise on the Mississippi aboard the Natchez, an actual sternwheeler steamboat. On the Thursday after we arrived, we had our culinary tour, which took us to seven restaurants and food shops. The samples were good, the guide's commentary was excellent, and we got to see some restaurant kitchens and private rooms that we most likely otherwise wouldn't have.

We wound up having just about all the classic dishes, including seafood gumbo, jambalaya, turtle soup, red beans and rice, shrimp remoulade and oysters Rockefeller, plus various po' boy sandwiches including fried oyster and fried soft shell crab. Top restaurants we had supper at were Galatoire's (in business since 1905, I believe), Cochon and Commander's Palace, where I had what I felt was the best meal: an appetizer of shrimp with pickled okra, followed by grilled sheepshead (the fish that is). Linda particularly enjoyed the souffle bread pudding with whiskey sauce there. She was also a big fan of the sugar-coated beignets, a sort of deep-fried holes doughnut, served with cafe au lait at the Cafe du Monde.

It will come as no surprise that there are a lot of bars in New Orleans. I had a drink or two in 10 of them (Linda rather fewer), mostly in the French Quarter. They ranged from the elegant Arnaud's French 75 Bar (where we indeed ordered French 75 cocktails -- a fine drink indeed) to hole-in-the-wall Johnny White's. The Erin Rose across from our hotel proved quite welcoming. We tried the famous Sazerac cocktail at a number of places; I felt the best rendition was at the Carousel Bar in the Hotel Monteleone and the worst at Galatoire's. Mostly though I drank Abita Amber, a tasty beer produced by a microbrewery in nearby Abita Springs.

The Mardi Gras season had begun, and many businesses and shops were decorated with purple, green and gold, the carnival colours. Though the biggest events don't take place until the last few days before Fat Tuesday itself, we saw the parades of the Krewe of Cork and Krewe of Pontchartrain, and accumulated a fair number of the bead necklaces thrown to the crowds by the paraders. The Superbowl win by the New Orleans Saints while we were there was a bonus. Bourbon Street was wall-to-wall revellers following the victory, and the whole city was in great spirits. "Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints!"

Definitely plan a repeat visit, and what I'd really like to do is take the train -- either from Chicago or New York City.

2009-08-18T10:19:00.000-07:00

No. 17, August 18, 2009

The roots of fundamentalist rage

Displays of rage, even hysterical rage, were seen at recent U.S. town hall meetings where Democratic congress members sought to put forward the case for President Barak Obama’s healthcare reform proposals.

Angry people showed up at these meetings to scream about the health care plan because it would allegedly set up “death panels” to eliminate the elderly and infirm, and they compared Obama with Hitler.

According to the media coverage, most of them were white and working class. Most are also probably fundamentalist or evangelical Christians.

Where did such an obviously false idea come from and why are people willing to believe it?

Frank Schaeffer has an answer for that – he says he himself helped start the myth 30 years ago as part of the campaign against abortion rights.

In an article posted August 12 on Alternet, Schaeffer describes himself as having been a Republican far right activist and evangelical from the mid 1970s to the mid 1980s. He was involved in the formation of the evangelical-led wing of the anti-choice movement.

Movement propaganda claimed that legalization of abortion would lead to legal infanticide and euthanasia, and pointed to the Nazis’ killing of the disabled and mentally ill on eugenics grounds.

“We successfully (and as it turned out completely mistakenly) linked legalized abortion to a ‘slippery slope’ that would inexorably lead to an American Holocaust against the elderly and infirm,” writes Schaeffer, now a supporter of Obama and healthcare reform.

The lobbying groups, the insurance industry and the far right wing of the Republican Party have now seized on these ready-made arguments with “cynical cleverness” to frame their “anti-healthcare reform tirade,” he states.

The anti-healthcare furor in the U.S. is fuelled by other particular elements such as the pervasive American distrust of government, along with the pressures of job losses, home foreclosures and debt resulting from the economic crisis.

But this kind emotionally charged, religiously based politics is also to be found elsewhere in similar social contexts. The point is made by American scholar Barton Stein in The History of India (Blackwell 1998).

“Communalist politics in India, like fundamentalist politics in the Middle East and the United States, reflect the interests and fears of the large segment of the lower-middle class whose economic and social security is ever at hazard and is so perceived,” he writes.

Members of the lower-middle class or working class are one the hand in danger of being crushed by the forces of modern capitalism, Stein states, while on the other hand they are threatened by the demands of the poor for social justice.

“The lower-middle classes in India, as everywhere else it seems, wrapped the vulnerability of their economic position in religious symbols – saffron, here, black there. In India, in Iran and in Texas, these symbols signify conventional righteousness and the preservation of things as they are.”

Politicians in India, Iran and elsewhere exploit these sentiments with the same “cynical cleverness” that those in the U.S. are demonstrating, and outbursts of savage violence can be the result. Schaeffer acknowledges that the anti-abortion movement’s rhetoric has led to murders of doctors and acts of violence against clinics, and fears what might follow.

2009-07-14T14:28:00.000-07:00

No. 16, July 14, 2009

Keyboard in Dongba hieroglyphs

The Naxi are an ethnic minority people, about 300,000 strong, who live mainly in China’s Yunnan and Szechuan provinces. Their language, of the Tibeto-Burman family, is partially written in a script called Dongba, which is pictographic or hieroglyphic – it uses stylized pictures of objects to represent them and related concepts. A Wikipedia contributor states that it is “without doubt the only mainly pictographic script used today.”

Now Zmnsoft has released Edongba v6.00, a Windows application that enables users to create documents and messages using Dongba hieroglyphs, using them in text editors, word processors, and graphics programs.

According to a Zmnsoft press release, “While Egyptian hieroglyphics tell us about a fascinating culture, they talk only of an unreachable, vanished past. By contrast, Dongba is still evolving and adapting. It tells us who we were, in human stories and wisdom that is centuries old. It also tells us who we are, in a smooth, unbroken line from the earliest writing to today's unprecedented transformations.

“The Naxi language is expressed in a combination of Dongba hieroglyphs and Geba symbols. Edongba makes it easy to select the proper symbols, and build messages in the program's unique Dongba font. The font includes 1,561 Dongba hieroglyphs, 661 Geba scripts, and a 50-character international phonetic alphabet for the Naxi language.

“It's fun to use Edongba's character selection tools to select hieroglyphs and symbols. The program pronounces each character aloud, enabling you to become familiar with the spoken version of Dongba.”

Actually learning the language may seem daunting, but there are other uses:

“Students can enjoy creating artwork and symbols for their clothing using Edongba's engaging characters. The specially-crafted font that comes with Edongba is in True Type format, allowing computer users to enlarge each character with no loss of quality.”

Edongba v6.00 runs under Windows NT4/2000/2003/XP/Vista/7, costs $30(US) for a single-user license, and is available for secure online purchase on the Edongba website, http://www.zmnsoft.com/edongba/En/. You can download a trial version from the same web site.

The site also includes information about the history of the Naxi people and their language.

2009-05-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

No. 15, May 15, 2009

Los Demonios Bailan

Los Demonios Bailan

En las cavernas oscuras,
Al sonido de tambores,
Bailan las demonios,
Y rechinan los dientos.

En en rato, no muy largo,
Van a salir del oscuro,
Y con un grito tremendo
Enloquecen el mundo.

The Demons Dance

In dark caverns,
To the sound of drums,
The demons dance,
And gnash their teeth.

In a while, not very long,
They will leave the darkness,
And with an awful cry,
Drive the world mad.

2009-03-20T13:36:00.000-07:00

No. 14, March 20, 2009

Take it easy on the tomalley

Yesterday Health Canada issued an advisory warning us about eating tomalley.
In case it has slipped your mind, tomalley is the liver and pancreas of the lobster, a soft greyish-green substance found when the crustacean’s body is cracked open.
The reason we have to be concerned about eating it? Paralytic shellfish poison.
Apparently a very small number of lobsters harvested during the late fall-early winter 2008 lobster fishing season may have levels of paralytic shellfish poison in the tomalley that could represent a health risk to consumers. Lobsters currently available on the market are likely to have been harvested during this fishing season.
There have been no confirmed cases of paralytic shellfish poisoning from consuming lobster tomalley. Good thing too, for while mild exposure produces a tingling sensation or numbness of the lips shortly after eating, larger doses can lead to headaches, dizziness and nausea, muscular paralysis, respiratory difficulty, choking and even death.
The good news is that we don’t have to give up eating tomalley entirely. Health Canada says that, except for children, we can as much as the amount from one cooked lobster per day.
You wouldn’t think that would be too much of a hardship, except perhaps for some Nova Scotia fisherman who is accustomed to spreading the tomalley from three or four lobsters on toast for breakfast.
It could be that if you are dining on lobsters with someone who doesn’t like it, you might be tempted to say, “Oh, I’ll have yours then,” thus putting yourself over the limit.
I confess that I’ve never been that partial to tomalley, although I usually wind up eating it out of principlewhen I'm having a lobster. I prefer the coral, the red roe of the hen or female lobster, which is not found, for obvious reasons, in the cock, the male.
Tomalley is often said to be “considered a delicacy,” but it could be one of those situations where that is simply because there is little of it.
It’s perhaps a similar case to that of those giant sea turtles –now endangered -- that the elite of the 18^th and 19^th centuries were inordinately fond of eating. Particularly esteemed as delicacies were calipash and calipee, gelatinous substances found nest to the upper and lower shell, respectively.
Were those “gelatinous substances” really so tasty? Hard to say, but I don’t expect to ever find out.

2009-03-06T17:42:00.003-08:00

No. 13, March 6, 2009

Backpack in the LRT station

As I was passing through the central LRT station one morning last week I noticed a big blue backpack propped up against the wall, unattended.
That gave me a bit of pause.

The bomb in a bag or package is a terrorist staple, of course, and
mass transportation systems can be a major target, as attacks in
London, Madrid and Tokyo have shown. Transit riders in big cities such
as London are commonly warned to be on the lookout for suspicious
packages and the like.

Fortunately, Edmonton has been unaffected by the ideology of violent
jihad that produced the London Underground bombing and the Madrid
train bombings, not to speak of the 9-11 destruction of the World
Trade Center and a host of lesser outrages. The chances that we will
be in the future seem remote.

In our fair city, the risk of getting of getting blown up in the LRT
is likely quite a bit smaller than being hit by a stray bullet in a
drug gang shooting or stabbed by a random sociopath. Far less than
that of being killed by some driver running a red light.

Some version of this was going through my mind while I walked past the
backpack. Still, it could have contained a bomb. It?s not only
jihadists that plant them, after all. It doesn?t even have to be an
organized group.

?Mad Bomber? George Metesky terrorized New York City in the 1950s. He
planted more than 30 time bombs in public places, injuring 15 people,
because of anger and resentment over a workplace injury. We?ve got
plenty of that around here.

I wondered if I should alert some authority. Phone 911? Contact
Edmonton Transit security? Would the matter be taken seriously or
would I just be wasting my time?

I?d just gotten to this point when somebody went over and grabbed the
backpack. He looked a little shifty so it may not actually have been
his, but it ceased being my concern.

The bomb in the backpack scenario probably presented itself more
readily to my mind because of the Khan al Khalili bombing in Cairo the
previous weekend. A young French tourist was killed and 24 other
people were injured in an explosion in this historic bazaar area,
where my wife and I had spent several pleasant hours last summer.

According to Al-Ahram Weekly, the blast was caused by a homemade bomb
weighing up to 1.5 kilos and containing metal, stones and gunpowder
that had been left under a bench. The detonator was a washing machine
timer.

The Egyptian police arrested a few people but don?t seem to have any
real idea of who did the bombing. Nobody has claimed responsibility,
however there a variety of conspiracy theories are apparently making
the rounds in Cairo.

Commented an Egyptian friend: ?Truly painful to see the violence and
loss of innocent lives. Violence definitely has a louder voice than
peace, and this is the real fight.?

2009-02-20T16:16:00.000-08:00

No. 12, February 20, 2009

Ape apes Poe

It’s not exactly life imitating art, but when I heard about the violent rampage of Travis the chimpanzee in Connecticut, The Murders in the Rue Morgue immediately came to mind.

This short story by Edgar A. Poe – whose 200^th birthday would have been on January 16 this year – is set in 19^th century Paris and introduces C. Auguste Dupin, one of the earliest literary detectives.

Dupin and the story’s narrator are reclusive aesthetes, but they become interested in the brutal killing of a woman and her daughter in a house on the Rue Morgue. The corpse of the daughter, scratched and bruised, is found thrust up a chimney, while that of the mother is found “so fearfully mutilated. . . as scarcely to retain any semblance of humanity.”

To make a longish story short, despite its puzzling features Dupin solves the case after examining the scene of the crime and applying his analytic abilities. The women have been killed by an orangutan that has climbed in through their window after escaping in an agitated state from the sailor who brought it from the East Indies.

In the actual incident, one woman was left with severe injuries to her face and hands rather than two being killed, but it can be imagined that the frenzy involved in the attacks would be similar. In the story, the orangutan is safely recaptured and winds up in the Paris zoo, as opposed to the unfortunate Travis dying in a hail of police bullets like John Dillinger.

What is quite different, and suggests John Collier’s His Monkey Wife: or married to a Chimp in reverse rather than The Murders in The Rue Morgue is owner Sandra Herold’s relationship with the 14-year-old chimp.

Her beloved companion, he rode around in cars, ate top-notch meals at the table and drank wine out of long-stemmed glasses – which prompts the question of whether he preferred red or white. According to some accounts they also had baths together and slept in the same bed -- which isn’t so much different than a lot of people treat their cats and dogs, but because chimpanzees are human-like but not quite there it makes people queasy.

Mackenzie Porter, a columnist for the Sun newspapers in their early days, used to rail against widespread anthropomorphism – attribution of human sentiments to animals – as being a sign of the decadence of contemporary. Of course Porter pretty much saw everything as a symptom of societal decay, but it can sometimes be dangerous.

2009-02-13T14:31:00.000-08:00

No. 11, February 13

It’s Valentine’s Day all over

Irked by your favourite restaurant pushing a pricey special dinner menu for Valentine’s Day? Consider Le Bristol. The grand hotel on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris is offering a Valentine’s Day special in the Restaurant Le Bristol Paris.
Lovers can dine either in the winter restaurant, a former private theatre with Regency-style Hungarian oak panelling and Baccarat crystal chandeliers, or the summer restaurant, which features views of the hotel's magnificent garden.
Head chef Eric Frechon, who is expected to be awarded three stars in this year's Michelin Red Guide, has devised a menu comprising: cauliflower mousse with a sherry-infused red onion jelly and haddock foam; stuffed macaroni with black truffles, artichokes and duck foie gras, gratinéed with mature parmesan; sole "from the sand" stuffed with chanterelle mushrooms in a fishbone essence with vin jaune; pigeon glazed with honey and lemon, with a compote of cumin-flavoured onions and fennel and sauce diable; sparkling mango with lemon sorbet; Meringue soufflé with raspberries, coconut milk and ginger elixir; petits fours and chocolates; and coffee.
The price is 350€ ($556) per person, sans beverages; or just about $80 for each of seven courses (unless you include coffee as a course). And then there is the cost of the Champagne . . .

Back to the future with the A.P.P.?

From 1917 to 1932 the A.P.P., Alberta Provincial Police, took care of policing in the province, outside the major centres. The RCMP have performed that role since then.
Does Premier Ed Stelmach now want to do away with day-to-day RCMP policing in Alberta and bring back the A.P.P.?
Recently some former RCMP duties in some areas have been taken over by officers from the provincial Sheriff’s Branch, prompting speculation that this may be the first step toward replacing the Mounties.
On February 13, Kent Hehr, Alberta Liberal shadow solicitor general and shadow minister of justice, called on Stelmach to publicly state if he intends to replace the RCMP.
“By removing RCMP officers from traffic-related policing duties in selected areas, the government is causing Albertans to wonder if the province is gauging public reaction to the move. Is this the first step to creating a provincial police force?” said Hehr.
He pointed to a letter written in 2001 by Ted Morton, now a member of the cabinet, advocating an end to the RCMP policing contract and creation of a provincial police force.
Hehr: “Has Ted Morton swayed the Premier into getting rid of the RCMP? Come clean premier, are you intending to replace the RCMP?”
He stated he will oppose any move towards granting the Alberta sheriffs additional powers of arrest.

Hard times indeed

Getting a loan to finance a boat purchase is much tougher in the U.S. these days, according to recreational boat owners group BoatU.S. Many banks have dropped out of the market and “gone are the days of ‘relaxed guidelines’ and ‘no documentation’ loans.” For would-be boat buyers in tough times the group provides tips on getting loans that include ensuring their credit is good, having enough cash for the down payment and filling out the loan application properly.

World o’ beans

It’s a blast of nostalgia for the UK, where Heinz is running a TV advertising campaign for its canned baked beans that features the return of the “Beanz Meanz Heinz” slogan that was hugely popular in the 70s. According to creator Maurice Drake he came up with the slogan “after two pints in a pub in London.” More than $600 million worth of canned baked beans are sold annually in the UK, where beans on toast are a national staple and beans are an essential part of the full English breakfast (along with eggs, bacon, sausage, baked tomato, sometimes mushrooms and black pudding, and toast or fried bread).

2009-02-03T15:03:00.000-08:00

No. 10, February 2, 2009

A brief note on memoirs

Everyone should write a memoir. In setting their experiences down, people are liable to examine them and their motives. This provides a chance to make more sense of their lives, and may act as a spur to future personal growth. That's one aspect of it. There is also the sense of accomplishment that virtually everyone will feel about accomplishing such a task. Perhaps they will find writing satisfying and go on to do more.

Certainly not everyone is going to produce an account that will be of great interest to others because of the important roles they played on the stage of life or because their lives have been full of exciting events and incidents. The interest for others in accounts of quieter lives will be a close observation of what it was like to be living in certain places at certain times -- which could bring to the surface little-known or forgotten facts, important observations and so on -- and the ways in which people responded to their experiences. It may be best when writing to focus on a portion of life that has been particularly interesting or unusual, rather than attempting a complete autobiography.

While publication is highly unlikely, if the completed memoir is ever removed from the desk drawer it may find more readers than expected. The story of anyone's life can be very interesting. It's easy if the life has been full of events and excitement -- anybody could write it. To really make something of the life story of someone whose experiences have been undramatic, it may require a master. However that doesn't mean that people shouldn't make the attempt for their own benefit at least.

2008-09-15T10:11:00.000-07:00

No. 9, September 15, 2008
UK vs. US: a debate

Big Ben or Big Apple?

It’s not likely to put an end to the transatlantic alliance, but the jibes will likely come thick and fast in an upcoming debate on relative merits of British and American institutions and ways.
“Is the US President more relevant than England’s Queen? Does American dress down top British sartorial elegance? Is New York better than London?”
Those are some of the questions to be addressed in the inaugural Alfred Dunhill Debate on September 19 in New York City. The event is publicizing the opening of a Madison Avenue store by dunhill, the British luxury goods firm.
Taking the American side is Donny Deutsch, advertising agency head and host of CNBC’s The Big Idea, and for the British, Piers Morgan, former editor of the Daily Mirror and News of the World (News of the Screws, as Private Eye has it) tabloids and reality TV “personality.” The winner will be awarded $10,000 for his chosen charity.
Other debate topics will include football versus football (soccer) and possibly the New York yellow taxi versus the London black cab.
A number of other possibilities also come to mind: Hot dogs or pork pies? Harvard or Oxford? James Bond or John Rambo? Bourbon or Scotch? NHS or managed care? Kentucky Derby or Grand National? Overt class system or unacknowledged? Special Forces or SAS? Cadillac or Bentley? Yobs or rednecks? Meryl Streep or Helen Mirren? Grouse shooting or deer hunting? Walmart or Marks and Sparks? New York Review of Books or Times Literary Supplement? Bud Lite or Best Bitter? (Actually no debate on that one – I’ll have a proper pint, thanks very much.)
So go to it, boys. I’ll be interested to hear the result, while sharing with other Canadians the not unjustified view that this is really the best place to be.

At Giza

2008-08-15T12:59:00.000-07:00

No. 8, August 15, 2008

When I read earlier this week that the area around the Pyramids had been cleared of peddlers, my immediate thought was, "That's great!" Hawkers who won't take no for an answer are perhaps the biggest bane of tourists to Egypt -- disputatious taxi drivers being another. Visiting in June, I found the Giza Plateau, site of the Pyramids and the Sphinx, to be the worst place in the country for hawkers.
The area teems with men in turbans and galabayas attempting to sell visitors statuettes, "papyrus" paintings, camel rides or seeking to pose for photos -- for cash, of course. It's difficult to keep in mind that 40 centuries of history are looking down on you from the Pyramids -- as Napoleon once exhorted his troops there to do -- when the representatives of contemporary Egypt are so much in your face. At least it was for me.
The situation at the Pharaonic sites farther south, Abu Simbel, Philae, Kom Ombo, the Luxor and Karnak temples and the Valley of the Kings, is much more controlled. Each site has a sort of mini-bazaar whose merchants favour a persistent hard sell, but no hucksters right around the temples. Although in Aswan and Luxor the carriage drivers and felucca crew seeking hires were tiresome.
Now similar controls are likely to be put in place at Giza as part of a $26 million modernization project and security upgrade that will include 20-kilometres of chain-link fencing with cameras, alarms and motion detectors, as well as a visitors' centre, cafeteria and bookstore.
It seems the peddlers may not actually be gone yet, having been forced out by police specifically on the day the press were invited in for the project announcement. However a different perspective on the coming restriction is given by the comment made by a camel-ride seller, now outside the site to an AP reporter:
"I've been working here for 25 years," he said. "Now I don't know if I will be here tomorrow. I have five children, a wife. What will happen to us?"
Maybe this development is not that great for everybody, after all. It's easy to lose sight of the fact that what is merely an annoyance to the visitor is a struggle to earn a livelihood for the Egyptian. Officials have said that the new restrictions will not be "sudden" or "unkind." Hopefully not -- other employment is not likely to be easy to come by for them, to say the least.
I'm also brought to the realization that with persistent hucksters being the worst hazard that most tourists are likely to encounter, and with all its historical and cultural riches, Egypt is indeed a good place in which to travel.

2008-05-02T13:57:00.000-07:00

No. 7, May 6, 2008
Requiem for some watering holes
A front page article in the April 23 Los Angeles Times chronicles the dismay felt by San Fransisco drinkers over the recent loss of some of their favourite bars. Among the well-loved classic bars that have closed their doors in recent times are the John Barleycorn ("The Corn"), the Washington Square Bar and Grille ("The Washbag"), Dago Mary's, Moose's, the Hole in the Wall and Bobby's Owl Tree.
All sound like worthy establishments in which to quaff a pint of Sierra Nevada or perhaps sip a dry martini, and I regret not having visited any of them when I was in the city a couple of years ago. Linda and I did stay across the street from the Owl Tree, in the ancient Dakota Hotel. The bar, noted for crusty proprietor Bobby Cook and the huge collection of owl paraphernalia that adorned it, came highly recommended , so I made a as much of an effort to get there as a few days' visit allowed. But Bobby, who died last year, kept erratic hours.
In San Francisco, I mostly hit North Beach bars with literary/Beat connections -- Spec's and, next to City Lights books, Vesuvio, where Kerouac downed more than a few. Also the London Wine Bar in the financial district, which is in fact much like a classic wine bar in London, say El Vino in Fleet Street. Actually quite a bit clubbier and more well-kept-up.
Friend Jim Simpson, recently returned from the City by the Bay, informs me that some kind of work, possibly renovations, was taking place at the Owl Tree. Hopefully it reopens as a new bar, although it can obviously never be the same.
The other bars mentioned in the article were closing their doors for reasons such as the landlord refusing to renew the lease or rising rents, or the owner retiring. Of course, these will always be factors, and bars come and go. But the Times article suggests that the economics of the industry, along with changing tastes, mean that the classic local bar -- the kind of place where regulars have nicknames -- is a dying breed. Commentators in the United Kingdom have also bemoaned the decline and in some cases disappearance of the local pub. High real estate values that make other uses more attractive are often fingered as a major culprit in putting pubs out of business; the proliferation of chains results in a big loss of character and quality.
It can be tough to put your finger on what it is that makes a good bar, and what makes the loss of any particular one a tragedy. Times writer John Glionna makes a gesture toward a working description when he notes one bar that has "sociable bartenders, spacious booths and saucy regulars." Really, spacious booths are neither here nor there, but a good crowd of regulars is a must, and sociable bartenders are a definite plus. While its possible to quibble over the details (TV or no TV?) bar regulars and aficionados know a good bar when they've found it. And once settled into such an establishment, its loss is bound to be wrenching.
The joint doesn't even have to actually go out of business. It can be ruined by unsympathetic new owners and/or ill-advised modernization schemes. A case in point is the tavern of the Bessborough Hotel ("The Bess," pronounced Bezz) in Saskatoon, the lively social hub of the city when I was there in the late 70s, which was transmogrified into a characterless sports bar.
Another sad story is that of Edmonton's Rose Bowl lounge, never known as the Backstretch, its proper name, but always by that of the pizza place to which it was attached. Presided over for much of the time by the inimitable Janice, and notable for its diverse (some might say motley) collection of regulars, it was my home away from home for many years. Our tertulia met there regularly on Fridays. New management tore the place apart, renamed and reinvented it -- as what it is hard to say exactly -- but the bar doesn't appeal much.
At one point there were dire predictions that the days were numbered for my current local, Martini's, but a shift in ownership seems to have warded off that danger -- and the charming and accomplished staff, including Mary, Nancy, Barb, Deb, Shyla and Heather will be keeping the customers happy there for a while yet.
Another Edmonton bar that has apparently dodged the bullet is the Jekyll and Hyde Pub, an agreeable spot for an occasional pint, which was recently forced out of their rather cavernous downtown venue. They've apparently found a new home in the Riverview Inn (the Greenbrier Hotel of ancient memory), where another sometimes amusing bar shut down. According to their website, Jekyll and Hyde hopes to be back in operation soon.
For its loyal customers that's a very good thing. Finding a new bar is not easy. Because as former John Barleycorn patron Tony Antrico says, "It takes a while to break in a new bar. It takes a commitment."

2008-04-14T09:41:00.000-07:00

No. 6, April 14, 2008

Seized by pirates (Finale)

The saga of the Ponant, the French luxury yacht captured by pirates off Somalia, came to a relatively undramatic end on Friday. After receiving a reported $2 million ransom from the vessel's owners, the pirates released the 30-member crew and went shore. Tracked by helicopter, they attempted to make their getaway in a four-wheel-drive vehicle, but six were captured by French commandos after it was disabled by sniper fire. Whether anyone was killed in the affair is disputed: the Somalis say three, the French say none. The pirates may be tried in France. They will escape the traditional fate of pirates -- the gallows -- as France abolished capital punishment in 1981, in line with other civilized countries (and in any event had used the guillotine for executions since the French Revolution). Read more from Agence France Presse.

Quench your thirst

My friend Inna Spice has recently had a book of erotic short stories published. On her website she describes Quench Your Thirst thus: "Fourteen original anecdotes of humour, desire, and despair from the editions of Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica, Clean Sheets, Ruthie’s Club and others. Amusing, erotic, sensual, and moving stories about real-life sexual challenges and their effect on human behaviour . . . Some stories will make you laugh. Some will make you cry. Some will make you gasp. Some will make you tingle. Some will make you wet. But most will spark new ideas for your own sexual pleasure." For purchasing and other information see Inna's website or go to lulu.com.

2008-04-10T08:52:00.000-07:00

No. 5 April 11, 2008

Give us Obama

A recent Canadian Press Harris/Decima survey asked Canadians who they hoped to see become the next U.S. president. The results show:
A plurality (39%) hope Barack Obama becomes the next president, followed by 30 per cent who prefer Hillary Clinton, and eight per cent John McCain. The rest offered no opinion.
According to the pollsters, this represents a major swing in preference away from Senator Clinton in the last three months. A poll in early January saw Senator Clinton with an 11-point edge over Senator Obama with this lead dropping to three points by mid-February, followed by the swing to Obama in front by nine points now.
Senator Obama is most popular in Ontario and Alberta where he has the support of 42 per cent and 44 per cent of respondents compared to 28 per cent and 21 per cent for Senator Clinton.
Obama also led among all age groups, but his support was fully double that of Clinton among those under 25 (54% Obama, 27% Clinton).
Men more heavily favoured Obama (44% Obama, 25% Clinton, 13% McCain) than did women. However, Obama also has a slight lead among female voters (34% compared to 33% for Senator Clinton and 4% for Senator McCain).
Obama is preferred across vote intention lines. His lead is smallest among Conservative voters, 36 per cent of whom prefer Obama, compared to 31 per cent for Hillary Clinton, but still only 19 per cent for John McCain.
Asked who they thought would win the presidency, 44 per cent said that Senator Obama will go on to win, 19 per cent felt Senator McCain would win, while only 17 per cent foresaw a second President Clinton.
Declared Harris Decima President Bruce Anderson, “The momentum for Senator Obama that became evident over recent months in the US, is now showing up in Canada. Not only is he now preferred by more Canadians than the other two candidates, Canadians believe a Democrat will win the White House and that Senator Obama will be that Democrat.”

The plight of the Assyrians

The Christian Assyrians in Iraq are suffering disproportionately more than other segments of the population believes a member of the Dutch parliament who has recently returned from the northern part of the country. Joël Voordewind of the Christian Union party, made the statement in a story carried by the Assyrian International News Service (AINA). "The impression I had was that this minority has been targeted more than the rest," he said. "This impression was confirmed through my visits to regional politicians, aid societies and refugees from Mosul and Baghdad," Voordewind noted that of the original 1.4 million Christian Assyrians in Iraq, there are about 400,000 remaining. About 100,000 of these are in the Kurdish part of Northern Iraq as displaced persons.read the full story here.

A gold-standard martini?

The makers of Gold Flakes Supreme French vodka claim martinis made with their product set the gold standard for the cocktail.
“Maximize your liquidity,” says a PR release. “With the current market fluctuations, credit crunches and housing busts, Gold Flakes Supreme is the only recession-proof vodka available. This unique, quadruple-distilled vodka is made with edible flakes of 24 karat gold that glitter magically in the glass. The Gold Flakes Supreme martini can help smooth investors over the rocky patches ahead. It is a no risk venture, a liquid asset that will return the investment in pure pleasure -- shaken or stirred.”

2008-04-10T08:22:00.000-07:00

No. 4

Take me to your Euro-fuhrer

Germany is the leader of Europe according to respondents to a Harris Interactive/France 24/International Herald Tribune survey.

Majorities of the public in France (68%), Spain (57%) and Germany (57%), as well as 39 percent of Italians and 35 percent of British adults consider Germany to be the “leader” of Europe. Of these European countries, Germany is considered the leader by all five. In the United States, almost two-thirds (63%) of Americans lean more towards the country they believe to be their closest partner, Great Britain, as the leader of Europe today. Surveyed online were a total of 6,478 adults aged 16 to 64 within France, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, and the United States, and adults aged 18 to 64 in Italy, between February 27 and March 6.

Survey respondents in each of the five European countries consider German Chancellor Angela Merkel the most influential leader in Europe today. At the top for is Only the United States differs, as the person they think is most influential is British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Considering a possible European president there are a couple of people that rise to the top for each country in the survey results. In Great Britain and the US, adults are more likely to believe Tony Blair should be the European president. Italians and Germans tend to believe Angela Merkel should be the European president. French adults are more likely to believe Jacques Delors, the former President of the European Committee, should be the European president while more Spaniards think it should be Felipe Gonzalez, the former president of Spain. However, many people, including 46 per cent in Britain and 32 per cent in Germany and the United States, are opposed to the idea of having a president of Europe.
Who would have thought it?
Falls overboard can be deadly for boaters, discloses a U.S. recreational boating association. According to the BoatU.S. Foundation, a fall overboard is the number one boating accident that leads to the most fatalities. The organization suggests that boaters invest in a portable boarding ladder to help them get back in their boat.

2008-04-08T09:40:00.000-07:00

No. 3

Seized by pirates! (II)
At time of posting, not too much new in the situation of the Ponant, the French yacht seized by pirates near Somalia on Friday. According to news services, contact has been made with the ship, which is anchored off the coast of Puntland, a breakaway region of the country.
According to Agence France-Presse, Puntland's leader wants French and American forces in the area to take the pirates out. Musa Ghelle Yusuf told the the agency he would be "happy . . . to see the pirates killed." "The French and American ships must attack the pirates. They have our blessing." However French Defence Minister Herve Morin is quoted as saying there won't be any military intervention unless the safety of the crew can be guaranteed.
Ailments Of Our Times Dept.
Michael Quinion's always interesting newsletter World Wide Words for April 5 notes a UK Post Office survey in which nine per cent of respondents said having their mobile (cell) phone switched off made them anxious. A spokes person for the Post Office was quoted in the Glasgow Daily Record as saying, "Whether you run out of credit, lose your phone or are in an area with no reception, being phoneless can bring on panicky symptoms. The Post Office coined the name "nomophobia," short for "no mobile phobia," for the condition. Quinion describes nomophobia as "a dreadful term, doubtless fated to vanish together with the papers it was printed in this week," while admitting there isn't another. The suggested "atelephobia," while "rather neat" and with proper Greek roots, could be fear of not having any telephone access.
A much more pressing concern, to my mind, could be called "abibliophobia," the fear of being stuck without a book on an airline flight, in a waiting room or some other dreary situation.
Where's Mussolini when you need him?
A recent report to Congress by the US Department of Transportation described big problems produced by the Amtrak rail service's poor on-time performance. The report found the tardiness "significantly undermines the viability of intercity passenger rail as an option for travelers and also weakens Amtrak’s financial position by reducing its revenues and increasing its operating costs."
The analysis focused on Amtrak’s long- and medium-distance routes outside the Northeast Corridor. Amtrak considers a train to be on-time if it arrives at its destination less than a prescribed number of minutes after its scheduled arrival (the specific thresholds vary depending on the end-to-end route length). In fiscal year 2006, average on-time performance across Amtrak’s long-distance and medium-distance routes (excluding the Northeast Corridor) was 30 per cent and 67per cent, respectively.
For these routes, it was found found that significant improvements in on-time performance could lead to substantial increases in ridership and revenue. For example, if Amtrak had attained on-time performance values of 75 per cent, 85 per cent or 100 per cent in fiscal 2006, it could have increased its actual annual revenues by $91 million (15.4 per cent), $111 million (18.9 per cent), or $143 million (24.3% per cent), respectively.
Of course, Canada's Via Rail train service also has its own on-time performance issues.
Silent but deadly?
Another U.S. transportation item illustrates the adage that one man's meat is another man's poison. Many new vehicles, particularly those using hybrid or electric engine technology, are silent. This might seem like an unalloyed good, considering the pervasive noise pollution we endure. But advocates for the blind say that not being able to hear engine noise can be very dangerous to them and others.
Legislation intended to protect the blind and other pedestrians from injury or death as a result of silent vehicle technology will be introduced by Edolphus “Ed” Towns (D-NY) and Cliff Stearns (R-FL) at a press conference tomorrow. The legislation is supported by the National Federation of the Blind, the nation’s oldest and largest organization of blind people, according to a press release.
"Other people, including pedestrians who are not blind, bicyclists, runners, and small children, also benefit from hearing the sound of vehicle engines, rendering them extremely dangerous in situations where vehicles and pedestrians come into proximity with each other. This bill will ensure the safety of pedestrians who, for whatever reason, do not see a vehicle approaching and are placed at risk for injury or even death," the release stated.

2008-04-06T07:41:00.000-07:00

No. 2, April 6, 2008

Perils of the sea

Seized by pirates!

A French yacht, Le Ponant, was seized by pirates off Somalia on Friday, according to various news sources. As of Sunday morning there had been no contact with the 850-tonne, three-masted vessel, which has a French and Ukrainian crew of 30, but no passengers on board. Le Ponant, owned by the shipping group CMA CGM, was returning to the Mediterranean from the Seychelles when the attack too place. A French navy corvette is monitoring the situation, along with a Canadian helicopter from the HMCS Charlottetown, which is in the region.

According to the annual report on piracy of the International Maritime Bureau, pirate attacks worldwide increased 10 per cent in 2007, with 263 reported incidents. Along with Nigeria, Somalian waters were the worst for piracy, with 31 actual and attempted attacks -- though the bureau notes that many may have gone unreported.

The March 25-31 weekly report of the bureau's Piracy Reporting Centre states that the eastern and northeastern coasts are high risk areas for attacks and hijackings. Attackers have fired automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades at ships to try and stop them. "Pirates are believed to be using 'mother vessels' to launch attacks at a very great distance from the coast. These 'mother vessels' are able to proceed very far out to sea to launch smaller boats to attack and hijack passing ships." The centre warns vessels to keep as far away as possible from the Somali coast, ideally more than 200 nautical miles.

Down on the farm

On a recent visit to the West Coast I stayed with my brother Cameron and his partner Peggy in Nanaimo. While enjoying their hospitality I became interested in a cookbook they had about. Farmhouse Fare was published in Great Britain 1935 by Agricultural Press Ltd. and comprises recipes sent in by readers to the Farmers Weekly. These are for dishes such as Old Norfolk partridge stew, sage and onion pudding, bramble and apple marmalade and Great Grannie's gingerbread, some of which I will perhaps include here in the future. The book includes a separate chapter on pig curing and byproducts, but what really shows that it comes out of the farm experience is that it includes recipes for beestings.

Beestings, as a parenthetical note informs those of us who don't know, is "the milk a cow gives after she has freshly calved." More formally known as colostrum, it is particularly rich in carbohydrate and protein. An acquaintance who grew up in rural Saskatchewan mentioned that they called it bees' milk, and used it to make pudding. The name beestings doesn't seem to have anything to do with bees, though, as suggested by the alternate name given in the Shorter Oxford Dictionary: beastings.

Farmhouse Fare gives recipes for beestings custard, cheese, curd, puddings and tarts. For anyone who may happen to have some on hand, the recipe for beestings custard follows. Mrs. H.M. Watkins of Wrexham points out, "We do not use the very first as it is so very deep in colour."

Beestings Custard

Take 1 pint beestings milk; 2 tablespoonfuls sugar; pinch of salt. Add salt and sugar to milk in pie pan. Stir well. Cook in moderate oven until set. The result is a delicious custard-like pudding; but much depends on correct oven heat.

My penny's worth

A cartoon by MacKay published in today's Edmonton Journal comments on the proposed elimination of the Canadian penny. The cartoonist visualizes the penny's demise resulting in The Cliche Graveyard being filled with expired sayings such as "In for a penny, in for a pound," "Turn up like a bad penny," "I haven't got a penny to my name" and "A penny saved is a penny earned."

Of course, MacKay has one thing wrong: these aren't cliches, but proverbial expressions, cliches being along the lines of "It was a dark and stormy night. . . , " "This is as good as it gets," and so on. The disappearance of the actual penny wouldn't likely have much immediate impact on the use of these expressions. But proverbs in general seem to be an imperiled aspect of the language. They are less and less heard, people tending to use catchphrases, often taken from advertising or entertainment, e.g. "Where's the beef?" "Be afraid, be very afraid," and "Not that there's anything wrong with it."

2008-04-04T09:13:00.000-07:00

No. 1, April 3, 2008
Intro
Welcome to Runagates, an omnium gatherum of significant or merely shiny bits of news and information that have caught my eye, perhaps with comment on the same. Food and drink, politics, international affairs, literature and culture, are some topics I'll touch on, along with curiosities of society in general, ranging in tone from the serious to the wry to the outright frivolous. I hope you find it informative and amusing.
They're the Neapolitan Amish
Amish Naturals Inc. recently announced the expansion of its presence in American Southwest with a deal with a Texas supermarket chain. This company's primary product is fettucine in a number of flavours such as basil tomato and garlic parsley, so the Amish connection seems tenuous, although the company's headquarters is located in Holmesville, Ohio, in an area where the group lives. A number of recipes are given for the pasta, all Italian, except for a Mexican salad. Nothing to do with traditional Amish fare such as rivel soup, shoo-fly pie, hasenpfeffer, red beet eggs and dandelion salad. Says the company, ". . . Amish Naturals creates food that reflects the wholesomeness and purity of the Amish people and their culinary customs . . . " The image of the Amish, known for the commitment to traditional ways, including plain dress and horse-and-buggy transport, is being used for marketing purposes -- green by association.
Staff of life
One place where many people won't be eating Amish Naturals or any other pasta is Egypt. The rising price of pasta and rice are putting them out of reach of a large sector of the Egyptian population that is increasingly dependent on government-subsidized bread. Al-Ahram Weekly reports that the the government of Hosni Mubarak is moving to deal with resulting problems including long lineups at the bakeries, but with uncertain prospects of success. It's an example of the rise in food insecurity that experts have pointed to -- a situation that the current push for bio-fuels is not going to help.
An Arab dilemma
In the same issue of Al-Ahram, Gamil Mattar, director of the Arab Centre for Development and Futuristic Research discussed the options for Arab leaders heading to the (now concluded) Arab Summit. They could be good, in U.S. eyes, if they didn't criticize Israeli actions too strongly, did denounce Iran and didn't advocate stronger relations between the Arab nations and the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China). To do the opposite, and to be concerned about the possible threat to the unity of Sudan posed by the fighting in Darfur and the Ethiopian intervention in Somalia, would be to be bad. He writes that the dangerous dilemma U.S. pressure produces for Arab leaders should not be underestimated. "But it is also wrong, and more dangerous, to pretend that political realism compels Arab countries to offer concessions in fundamental rights and principles to avoid fragmentation or disintegration."
Celebrate Earth Day in style
Just in time for Earth Day, Mattel, Inc. has come out with Barbie BCause a "limited edition collection of eco-friendly accessories for girls." The collection "reuses and repurposes excess Barbie fabrics and trimmings to create fashionable and playful handbags, pillows, diaries, totes and other accessories," according to a company release. "Barbie is always a reflection of current cultural trends and issues, and girls are increasingly aware of making a green statement," said Richard Dickson, a Mattel senior vice president. "Barbie BCause is for eco-conscious girls who believe that being environmentally friendly is the right thing to do, and we are thrilled to give extra meaning and extra style to what was once just extra Barbie doll fabric."