Red Hair: A Drug on the Market or Sign of Fertility?

Vivaldi was a red head, so were Napoleon , Galileo, Eric the Red and Thomas Jefferson. A rather distinguished group, don't you think? But apparently, the sperm from red heads is not moving at an international sperm bank, and they have announced they're not accepting any any more red-haired donors. Seems they have a glut because unless there are redheads in the family on one side or the other, those in search of sperm are unlikely to request redhair. Brown hair and brown eyes are what are in highest demand, except in Ireland.

Well, of course, the ethnic make-up of a region would influence the "look" that parents might want. But redheads have a way of turning up in the strangest way. My mother had a redhaired sister who had a blonde baby. She, whose hair was chestnut, had me, born with a shock of red hair, with my dark-brown haired father. (My sister, their other child, was a blonde.) Then I had Lukas with Lee, who has a couple of strawberry blonde cousins, but whose own hair was brown before it turned white. Just goes to show that you can carry genes for red hair around silently.

But there's another possible reason for the lack of demand for red haired donors: perhaps red-head men are more fertile than the rest of the guys!

Photo: That's what my hair looked like two weeks ago--not as bright a red as when I was 20, but still reddish despite the white interspersed.

Question about the Tone of Future Novels: Will the Current Mess Have and Effect on What People Will Write 40 Years from Now

Interesting conversation between Colm Toibín and Jeffrey Eugenides in The New York Times yesterday. Both of them have new books out, hence the public chit chat about writing. But perhaps the most striking thing about their thoughts is the way they end up talking about the emotion that underlies their writing.

Toibin says: Something of the tone of the inner novelist comes out as he fills the blank page or computer "our dreams and lies and inventions...I know what happens to me: I go all sad. You, however, have a way of creating undertones and overtones of comedy, as though you are always about to burst out laughing, when you write a scene, even if the scene includes suicide, war, riots or lost love. I have tried to copy this and failed."

To which Eugenides says: "I think it comes down to our childhoods. Mine was happy. I think your childhood was less happy, which is why memory “haunts” you. Maybe that’s what you’re hearing in the undertones of my writing: my happy American childhood."

Eugenides, please note, grew up in Detroit when it was the center of the automobile universe, while Toibin is from Ireland which for a long, long period was economically depressed. I can't imagine that current aspiring writers in Motor City are having the same kind of experience as Eugenides did. As for the young Irish, after a boom, things are bust: what kind of repercussions will that have on the fledgling writers there?

Stay tuned for several decades to find out.

Saturday Photo: Sid Ingerman Wins Gold for Canada!

I've mentioned before our good friend Sid Ingerman who was part of the Canadian team in the recent Triathlon competition in Beijing.

Sid, who will turn 83 Nov. 8, placed first in his age group for the triathlon sprint (a half triathlon), being one of 13 medal winners on the Canadian team. He always adds modestly that he was the only entrant in his category, but that doesn't detract from his accomplishment. (When was the last time you swam 750 meters, biked 20 k and ran 5 k?)

The pictures have just been released: that's him crossing the finish line, rather the worse for wear because of near-hypothermia.

What a guy!

One Way to Sell Newspapers: Long Island Papers Find the Key But Aren't Sure What It Is

This is one for those who are studying how to keep print journalism alive: all the copies of two Long Island weeklies were bought up last week by mysterious figures for reasons that aren't clear. According to The New York Times, The Suffolk Times and the Riverhead News-Review :

"Either someone really, really wanted people to be able to read that week’s newspaper, or someone really, really did not," the NYT reported.

"The papers, which originally printed a combined 8,620 copies for newsstand sales, had to print 5,500 more to keep up with the demand, which seemed to come almost entirely from two customers buying up every available copy at $1.50 each from 7-Eleven stores and bagel shops."

The two papers had a few stories in common, including one about Suffolk County’s being accused of wrongfully diverting money from a preservation fund, a report on a former basketball star singing Karoke and the report on a doctor, who was a Queens on Sept. 7 after a "grand jury indictment on charges of conspiracy to pay and receive health care kickbacks, six counts of health care fraud and one count of health care fraud conspiracy."

The publisher said that there were suspects but it was hard to understand in this day of the Internet how anyone could think they could supress a story by buying up copies of a newspaper.

But it sure has got publicity for the papers!

Down with the Monarchy: Stephen Harper Wants Britannia to Reign over Us

It seems that my next Canadian passport will have a crown on it, and if I tell someone they can't put up the Maple Leaf flag I could soon be liable to two years in prison.

These are all things that the Conservative government is backing as the new session of Parliament opens. Can't quite believe it: what happened to Canadian nationalism, let alone Quebec nationalism?

When I chose to become a citizen of Canada several years ago, I specificlly didn't want to pledge allegiance to the Queen. Since the oath of citizenship only says I will uphold the Queen's laws, I decided I could go along with that. But times are changing. It's almost like Stephen Harper and his buddies sit around thinking: what can we do next to turn back the clock to the 1930s. when Canadian foreign policy, even, was made in Westminister.

Too Many People, Not Enough Chairs: A Great Concert as the Day Closed Yesterday

Elin and her friend Madeleine Owen had the bittersweet experience of having to turn people away from the concert they gave Tuesday afternoon at the Jardin botanique. On the program were pieces by Marin Marais, Monsieur de St-Coulombe and other composers from the movie Tous les matins du monde played on viola da gamba, theorbo, lute and guitar.

Obviously many people thought it sounded interesting and far more people came than were expected. In the end some seats were added, but not enough. The attendance was a tribute to the attaction of this sort of music.

They aren't scheduled to give it again publcly in the near future, but they've decided to offer it as true chamber music, that is, they'll give recitals in private homes in a 21st century version of true chamber music. Contact Elin at elin.soderstrom@bluebottle.com for details.

A Companion to "The the impotence of proof-reading"

Cook a Pot of Curry Day: Sounds Delicious

I woke up this morning to talk of a curry war in Singapore. As I lay in bed listening to a contributor from there on Radio-Can, I remembered the absolutely excellent food I've eaten in the island nation when I've visited. Without a doubt, I've never encountered better or more varied cuisine at all levels of society and at all prices.

Like many other things in societies these days, population changes are sometimes hard to manage. In Singapore, which has English as a national language but gives official status to Mandarin, Malay and Urdu reflecting the origins of its multi-racial population, the latest newcomers are from mainland China. These are carefully chosen immigrants, selected for their professional competencies, supposedly.

But one family of them protested that they couldn't stand the smell of their Indian neighbors curries, and went so far as to get a ruling from a neighborhood mediation judge that banned the Indian-origin folk from cooking curry except when the Chinese nationals weren't home.

This solicited a huge protest in a country where protests are strictly controlled. The upshot was an National Cook and Share a Pot of Curry Day in August. The result: quite an amusing bunch of internet comments from people of Chinese and Malay origin who like their curry too, and a lovely cloud of curry smells over the city, according the Radio-Can's report. Sounds like a great way to protest!

Photo: A sidewalk cafe in Singapore a few years ago.

Tous les matins du monde on Tuesday Afternoon: Elin and Madeleine Owen in Concert

Elin and her friend Madeleine Owen (theorbo and baroque guitar will be giving a most interesting concert Tuesday, September 27 at 5:30 p.m. in the Maison d'arbre of Montreal's Jardin botanique as part of the Orgues et couleurs festival. The music they'll play is from the film Tous Les Matins Du Monde featuring works by Marais, Sainte-Colombe, de Visée and Couperin.

The film is terrific: if you haven't seen it, rent it soon. It also changed Elin's life, as before she saw it she'd been a violinist who was only slightly acquainted with the viola da gamba. But afterwards she decided to make a career change, and the rest is history, so to speak.

The photo is the head of the gamba she had made by her friend Gesina Liedmeir.

And here's a clip form the movie.

Saturday Photo: Outremont in Flowers

A good part of the neighborhood I live in was laid out at the turn of the 20th century as a "garden suburb." While most of it is on a grid, street trees and front gardens were present from the beginning.


Formerly a separate city, Outremont has been part of Montreal for nearly 10 years. But it still attempts to emphsize its green heritage. This ornamental bed is beside the building that was once the city hall, and now houses the borough offices. It dates back much further than the city though--it was used to store furs at the beginning of the 19th century, but more about that another day.

Cesaria Evora Retires

The Cap Verdean singer Cesaria Evorá has announced she is retiring at age 70. What a debt we owe to her!

What Would Jesus Do?

...hold up this placard, I believe.

Needed: Real Car Free Days, Not Just Public Relation Events

Today is Car Free Day in Montreal, an annual event when the center of the city is "shut down" to vehicular traffic from about 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. It was begun a few years agao as gimmick to bring attention to the need to cut down on car traffic in the city, and as such seemed not very effective.

But since then there have been major changes in traffic in Montreal. One of the most notable is the fact that roadwork has snarled traffic throughout the city, which has made public transport, biking and walking a lot more attractive. Transit ridership rates have gone up by about 15 per cent in the last five years, while the biking has gained greatly in popularity. Between 2008 and 2010, bike ridership grew by 35 per cent, while just this week the city was named the best bicycling city in North America, and 8th in the world.

All to the good, I'd say. But we're not going make the necessary savings in petroleum use and the concomittant decrease in green house gases, if we don't attack urban sprawl. As several commuters were said on Radio Can this morning, they live so far away that they must use a car to get to the city with tools etc. The news this morning was also full of traffic snarls coming on to the island of Montreal--a car fire stopped movement on one of the bridges for 40 minutes, for example--while yesterday's had stories about a developer threatening to use land he owns next to a provincial park in the middle of the St. Lawrence for new condos. It's not until we deal with these problems, that Car Free Days become part of the ordinary urban landscape.

Catcning up on Business, So No Post Today

There are times when you've got to catch up on business (and pleasure.) So today is devorted to banking, lunch with my friend Lorraine and getting a haircut from Wayne at Furisme. When all that is done maybe I'll even get some work done!

Some Dinosaur Feathers Had Pigments: An Adaptive Advantage.... or the Danger Theory of Evolution

Great story in The New York Times today about dinosaur feathers preserved in amber that show traces of pigment. Eleven 70-million-year-old specimens examined by scientists at the University of Alberta suggst that the feathered animals had an array of mottled patterns and diffuse colors like modern birds, scientists at the University of Alberta, led by Ryan C. McKellar, the NYT reports.

Now why in the world would animals develop pigments anway? Presumably a random mutation that produced them might lead to an adaptive advantage if they made it easier for an animal to hide from predators. Certainly it's clear that camouflage helps. Just ask the squirrel we couldn't see as it clunlg motionlessly to a tree trunk last Sunday as we walked in Mount Royal cemetery. Or those guys in desert fatigues in far too many conflicts....

More of Jeanne's Favourite Videos

"The Cat Came Back" was a favourite around here when the kids were young, particularly in the Fred Penner version. But this one takes the cake--or the bowl of cat kibble. Jeanne loves it.

$800 Million in Budget Cuts: Bleeding Doesn't Make Anything or Anyone Healthier

If you want to try to lose an unpopular announcement, you make it at the end of the week. That's what the Quebec government did last Friday when $800 million in additional budget cuts were ordered by Michelle Courchesne, president of the provincial Treasury Board. Education and health sectors will hit the hardest, with the former to be cut by $180 million and the latter by $350 million. The cuts come in the name of reaching zero deficit in 2013-14.

The weekend papers had the story, but it was a lovely weekend, and not many people were paying attention. The exception were union leaders who, thank goodness, weren't asleep at the switch. Several of them are on the front pages today, saying in effect that anyone who contends cuts like this won't affect services is crazy.

This is the same kind of budget rhetoric that we hear south of the border, and which we're bound to hear more of in Ottawa, now that Parliament is opening with a majority Conservative government. But those guys don't seem to realize that Canada's relatively good showing economically is due to judicious public expenditures which have maintained our social saftey net and provided modest stimulus.

As Paul Krugman says this morning, focusing on deficit reduction is like the outdated, discredited medical practice of bleeding patients. What's needed "is to convince a substantial number of people with political power or influence that they’ve spent the last year and a half going in exactly the wrong direction, and that they need to make a U-turn.

"It’s not going to be easy. But until that U-turn happens, the bleeding — which is making our economy weaker now, and undermining its future at the same time — will continue."

Cuts for health, you say? Now, "bleeding " would be a place to start.

Saturday Photo: Trout Fishing in Canada

Well, no, there's nothing readily apparent that links this happy dog with fishing, but therein lies a tale (or tail, if you like.) We got Trout Fishing in Canada shortly after we read Richard Brautigan's Trout Fishing in America and were preparing to spend our summers backpacking. She turned out to be the greatest mountain companion, a tireless swimmer, an all round lovely dog.

Lee found the photo a few days ago when he was going through a stash that had been forgotten somewhere but which got cleaned and stored in the aftermath of the fire. Jeanne, who has been spending a few days with us, loves the photo, and will say "Woof!" on cue when we point to it.

Trout would be pleased, I think, because she was marvelous with Jeanne's mother and uncle, being as patient with them as she had been with her own litter of puppies. She also was a most efficient floor-cleaner, I now realize. There have been times in the last few days when Jeanne has been eating energetically and we wish Trout were there to lick up the crumbs/spilled milk/bits of fruit.

Coming up on Monday: Reading: Un Acte d'Amour...

Just a reminder that on Monday I'll be talking about Neil Bissoondath's The Unyielding Clamour of the Night at Reading: Un Acte d'amour (or Lire : An Act of Love, depending on your linguistic preferences. ) François Barcelo will be presenting Tarmac by Nicolas Dickne and Sherry Simon, noted translater and literary theorist, will animate the evening. Both novels have been translated elegantly, the Bissoondath by Paul Gagnon and Lori St-Martin and the Dickner by Lazar Lederhendler.

So hope to see you Monday, September 19. It should be an interesting evening: 7:30 p.m. at the Sala Rossa, 4848 St.Laurent in Mile-End.

Wedding Dresses as an Anti-Poverty Aid: Nicolas Kristof Tells How

One of the things that came back from storage/cleaning after the fire was my wedding dress. Much to small now, of course, and neither my daughter nor daughter-in-law have any use for it now. So the question I've been mulling: what to do with it?

This morning Nicolas Kristof has a great column about microsaving and microfinance in Kenya, focussing on a former prostitute with three children who now has successfully become a dress maker. She uses fancy dresses she finds in the markets in Nairobi to cut down in order to make new dresses. Kristof says she (and probably others) can use what we may have hanging in our closets, so I may put sentiment behind me and send my dress to Kenya!

Kristoff's blog also has an link to an interesting list of aid groups that seem to be working on the ground.

Photo: yes, that's me, several decades and about 15 pounds lighter.

Fighting Poverty: Why Not Just Provide Better Public Services, Or Getting Down to Basics

First there were the various beefcake calendars put out by firemen to raise funds for burn units and the like. Then came "sex muffins of science," another calendar (which I can't find at the moment) of very good looking science nerds. Now there is a nude campaign by Montreal's Centraide, the community charity.

The 17 performers and personalities--all well known locally--pose artfully with the slogan, "En dessous on est tous pareils", underneath we're all the same. Don't know if this will increase Centraide's take this year, but it certainly is attracting attention. Of course, it would be interesting to know just how much the advertising agency that thought up the campaign will make from the campaign: "administrative" costs can be a big factor in any charity fundraising endeavor.

A more efficient way to get aid to people hwo need it is to provide decent public services. As in health care, overhead costs are much lower when provided by the public sector.

But nobody is taking of clothes for paying more taxes. But why not. Amir Khadir might be quite interesting to see unclothed, although the idea of Jean Charest is quite another story!

Photo: Mitsou and Abeille Gélinas

A Good News Story: Making Light with the Sun, Water and Liter Bottles

I was going to write about rising rates of poverty and inequality in Canada and the US today, but I came across this good news story. It's a gray day, so why not focus on the light?

The simple technology uses a liter of distilled water in a plastic bottle, bleach, to make the equivalent of a 55 watt bulb that apparently will continue to glow after the sun sets.

How to End Poverty and Make Democracy: Educate and Empower Women

This is book review week, when I lead discussions in four Montreal area libraries. In two of them, the book is Shlipi Somaya Gowda's Secret Daughter, a novel about adoption and motherhood in India and North America that has surprised the publishing world. It's sold 250,000 copies in Canada, an absolutely astonishing number in a country where a book is considered doing well to sell 6-8,000.

For a book that is very hopeful, the discussion last night at the Pierrefonds library took a very serious turn--how to change the world, get rid of poverty, and end the "disappearance" of millions of girl babies in societies where a huge premium is put on having sons. No one had the answer--does anyone?--but one of the things mentioned was educating women and giving them more power over their lives.

And then this morning The New York Times had a fascinating story about the role of women in the six month-long uprising against Ghadafi in Libya. It seems that before the rebellion, women there could do more than they could in some extremely Muslim country: they could drive, for example, unlike women in Saudi Arabia. Nevertheless, they were under great pressure to stay in the shadows. Yet came the revolution, they were helpers in the rebellion, and now do not want to recede into the background.

The story notes that in Egypt, women who also were instrumental in the Jasmine Revolution there are now having a hard time in carrying their gains to the next step. But it's clear that getting women involved changes a society in ways that are difficult to undo.

Thank goodness,

Debussy's The Submerged Cathedral for the Day after the Tenth Anniversary

Debussy's piano prelude is inspired by the idea of a cathedral that was submerged in some magical/mythic/horrible way. Beauty is not a stranger to disaster. I've long thought the shots of the Twin Towers' ruins were magnificent. It would be nice to think that something postive and lasting would come out of 9/11, but probably it is too early to tell.

Saturday Photo: More Hints of the Plateau's Rural Past

Le Jeune street is only a block long, running between boulevards St-Joseph and Laurier in Montreal's Plateau district. It doesn't fit into the usual pattern, being too narrow and not hooking up with the rest of the grid. With one exception (something built in 2000), all the buildings are well over 100 years old, with the oldest dating from 1880.

Walking down it on recent rainy afternoon, it seemed very peaceful. The little gadens tucked behind fences heightened the impression that here you could glimpse what the neighborhood was like when it was the home of working folk living in modest dwellings at the edge of a larger city.

Well Done: Sid Ingerman Takes First for Canada at the International Triathalon Competition in Beijing

The wonders of the internet allowed Sid Ingerman's many friends to follow him to victory in his age group at the International Triathalon sprint championships in Beijing Saturday.

Sid, 82, took up the sport after he retired from teaching economics at McGill University, and has been going strong ever since. His time this time for the sprint was two hours, 50 minutes and 22 seconds. Many messages of encouragement bobbed up on the official site as the race went on, and we were waiting to see him cross the finish line. But for some reason the live stream stopped, and we had to make do with someone writing that he'd finished and picked up the Canadian flag to celebrate.

Eighty-two, can you imagine! I couldn't do it at considerably younger.

And now he's off to do some touring in China: he even took Mandarin lessons last winter in preparation.

Yo Yo Ma Plays Murray Beethoven: Will the OSM Play It in Their New Concert Hall?

Jeanne's been around for the last few days, and I've rediscovered some of the great bits from Seasame Street. This one actually dates from some time after Elin and Lukas were Sesame Street age, but Jeanne thinks it's terrific. Obviously she loves music, which I suppose comes naturally, given her muscian mother and her melomane father.

An early introduction to the joys of "classical" music is a great, audience-building endeavor. Nice to hear that crowds have turned out to catch the opening of Montreal's new symphony hall (La Maison symphonique) and the mini-oconcerts that members of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal give while folks wait to visit and enjoy the new hall.

Change Your Windows, Not the Reactor: How to Save Energy and Create Jobs

What is more energy effective, renovating a nuclear reactor or insulating houses?

A new study by the Quebec group Ecohabitation says that refurbishing Hydro Québec's one reactor to prepare it for 25 more years of service would cost more than putting new Energy Star doors and windows in a quarter of Quebec's home, or 900,000 residences. The resulting savings in energy would annually equal the power produced by reactor.

What's more. this green intiative would provide thosuands of jobs, both for door and window installation and for their manufacture.

Now, it's not clear that this kind of calculation for other reactors would result in such striking arguments of sustainable development, but it certainly is worth considering as we look at how to get ot of the energy mess we're in.

Photo: Gentilly 2 amid the fields--a shot that wants you to equate nuclear with green, despite the reality.

Nice to See Friends on the Scotia Bank/Giller Prize

The Long List for the Scotia Bank Giller prize has been announced, and I'm pleased to see several friends featured. Genni Gunn, with whom I worked several years on the Writers' Union of Canada's board, gets a nod for Solitaria, while David Homel's translatioan of Dany Laferrière's The Return (L'enigme du retour, in French) is included, too. But the nicest thing is to see Clarke Blaise's nominiaton for his short story collection The Meagre Tarmac. Many years ago he was the first writer to encourage my work, making several excellent suggestions about how to improve my first novelThe Descent of Andrew McPherson, and then how to market it. I've been very grateful ever since.

Here;s the entire list:

David Bezmozgis for his novel THE FREE WORLD, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

Clarke Blaise for his short story collection THE MEAGRE TARMAC, Biblioasis

Lynn Coady for her novel THE ANTAGONIST, House of Anansi Press

Michael Christie for his short story collection THE BEGGAR’S GARDEN, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

Patrick DeWitt for his novel THE SISTERS BROTHERS, House of Anansi Press

*Myrna Dey for her novel EXTENSIONS, NeWest Press

Esi Edugyan for her novel HALF-BLOOD BLUES, Thomas Allen Publishers

Marina Endicott for her novel THE LITTLE SHADOWS, Doubleday Canada

Zsuzsi Gartner for her short story collection BETTER LIVING THROUGH PLASTIC EXPLOSIVES, Hamish Hamilton Canada

Genni Gunn for her novel SOLITARIA, Signature Editions

Pauline Holdstock for her novel INTO THE HEART OF THE COUNTRY, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

Wayne Johnston for his novel A WORLD ELSEWHERE, Knopf Canada

Dany Laferrière for his novel THE RETURN (translation, David Homel), Douglas & McIntyre

Suzette Mayr for her novel MONOCEROS, Coach House Books

Michael Ondaatje for his novel THE CAT’S TABLE, McClelland & Stewart

Guy Vanderhaeghe for his novel A GOOD MAN, McClelland & Stewart

Alexi Zentner for his novel TOUCH, Knopf Canada

Jimmuy Zoubris and Politics: Citizenship, Hard Work, and Maybe Hope

We've traded at Zoubris since it opened. The stationery store on Park Avenue was where I sent faxes to my mother in her last days before her death in 1999, where all my novels have been copied before sending out to publishers, where I made a tee shirt with a picture of Jeanne for my husband's birthday last year. It is neighborhood institution, the necessary complement to a home office for the hundreds if not thousands of people around here who work on contracts: writers, photographers, restaurants, small businesses of all sorts.

Jimmy Zoubris, the founders' son, was there when it opened in 1983 and he was still a university students. His parents are semi-retired, so with his sister Demetra, he runs the show. He also is the essential link between many parts of the community, since he knows everybody, and talks to everyone. And now he's taken a leap into muncipal politics (he already has served on a schoolboard,) becoming a vice presidents of the progressive Projet Montréal party.

The Gazette's Mike Boone profiled him on Monday, and if you didn't see it, here's the link. It's a great story of how one man cares about government.

Paul Krugman on Jobs This Labour Day

As usual Paul Krugman's column in The New York Times is right on the money and particularly appropriate this Labour Day. As usual what he has to say has implications for Canada too:

The idea that" ...fears of regulation and higher taxes are holding businesses back...is just a right-wing fantasy. Multiple surveys have shown that lack of demand — a lack that is being exacerbated by government cutbacks — is the overwhelming problem businesses face, with regulation and taxes barely even in the picture.

"For example, when McClatchy Newspapers recently canvassed a random selection of small-business owners to find out what was hurting them, not a single one complained about regulation of his or her industry, and few complained much about taxes. And did I mention that profits after taxes, as a share of national income, are at record levels?

"So short-run deficits aren’t a problem; lack of demand is, and spending cuts are making things much worse. Maybe it’s time to change course?"

Krugman says he's ready "to cut Mr. Obama a lot of slack on the specifics of (the budget proposal he's scheduled to announce" as long as it’s big and bold. For what he mostly needs to do now is to change the conversation..For the sake of the nation, and especially for millions of unemployed Americans who see little prospect of finding another job, I hope he pulls it off. "

Happy Labour (Or Labour) Day!

Never hurts to remember what led to this holiday of the end of summer. A classic version by Pete Seeger.

Saturday Photo: The Return of the Pink Bicycle

As I make my rounds again in Outremont, I'm pleased to see that gardeners have done fun things again this year.

To the left is the 2011 version of the pink bicycle, a particularly nice one, I think. To the right is the one from 2007, the first year.

A Song from a Tropical Fight for Freedom: Pete Seeger Sings José Martí's Guantanamero

And further to tropical wars, here's the wonderful Pete Seeger singing the Cuban song Guantanamera. Originally it was about a woman from Guantánamo, but Cuban patriot José Martí used it for his words about a simple man who was the hope of his country.

The song is an unofficial Cuban anthem, and it is crushingly ironic that the infamous American prison camp for post 9/11 terrorists was/is found on Guantánamo Bay. I haven't found any reference to our friend Pete commenting on the connection, but it is a warning to the ways that wars can spread their evil around the world.

Green Helmets (Not Green Berets) to Fight Strife Due to Climate Change?

The story's apparently been around for a while, but I just came across it today when Le Devoir ran a front page item about how the UN may soon be sending "hreen helmets" into areas where climate change has led to strife. They would complement or replace the "blue helmets" which have become associated with UN peacekeeping forces.

I have no idea whether the force would be any more effective than the traditional ones--and the passing of Gil Courtemanche mentioned here yesterday is a reminder of the nearly total failure of UN forces to protect Tutsis form Hutus in Rwanda. But it is telling that climate change is showing up as part of the big picture of world wide strife.

This week also saw the publication of a paper in Nature by Kyle Meng, detailing the close correlation between El Niño and tropical civil wars. "The warmer, drier conditions of El Nino have had a baleful effect on conflict in the tropics since 1950," the study says. While "correlation without explanation can only lead to speculation," according to Halvard Buhaug of the Peace Research Institute of Oslo, the increasing frequency and severity of El Niños do not augur well for peace and prosperity in the decades to come.

A Season for Endings: Gil Courtemanche Service Today

A writer friend just asked me if I were going to the ceremony for journalist and novelist Gil Courtemanche who died two days before Jack Layton did and whose farewell is this evening.

"Did you know him? Do you want to say good bye?"

No, I replied, I only met him once. To go would probably be presumptuous, although I greatly admire his work. His novel A Sunday in Kigali is probably the best evocation of love and ethnic war that I've ever read. And up until his daeth the day after his 68th birthday Courtemanche pointed his finger at evil and spoke out strongly. He will be missed.

Are Books Dead--and What about Writers?

The Guardian has an interesting piece by Ewan Morrison on the end of publishing, and the rise of "free." Worth reading if you're a "content creator" or a reader.

Pears Are Ripe: A Case of Benign Neglect?

Sunday evening in the middle of Irene, a young man knocked on the door and asked if he could climb in our backyard to take down some of the pears that remained on the trees in back. I said no because I knew just how hard the remaining fruit would be to get and I didn't want him to break his neck on our property. On Friday morning I spent nearly an hour perched on a laddler harvesting, and what remained was clearly out of reach.

He was the second person this year to ask about harvesting the pears: a woman up the street also asked if she could "get up on a little stool" and pick some. I told her my concerns about the dangers of what was left and brought her some that I'd sucessfully picked. As for the young man, I told him to take whatever was on the ground since the high winds were shaking loose some of the fruit on the highest branches.

All of this is rather strange, since the pear trees got zero care this year. We always get some fruit, and sometimes get more than the squirrels can eat, but this year there appears to be a bumper harvest. There are two that are ready to eat for lunch today (you pick pears a little green and then let them ripen,) and we'll appreciate them all the more, knowing that they are an unexpected, unearned. bonanza.

Photo: not this year's crop, I must admit, but the one three years ago which also was a good one.

Good Sense from The Gazette, for Once: Leave the Car at Home

We've not been readers of The Gazette on a regular basis for years (long story, having in part to do with a class action I'm involved in against it) but today I was tempted to take a peek when Radio Can mentioned an editorial that for once makes sense.

"An autumn resolution: Leave the car at home" reads the headline. It goes on: "... while we all know that using public transit is the proverbial Good Thing, too many of us still don't do it. Faced with the prospect of squeezing ourselves in with many dozens of other people in a jammed bus or métro car on a sweltering day, it's pretty appealing to instead get behind the wheel or into the passenger seat of a comfortable, quiet, air-conditioned car. It's the wrong choice, but many of us do it anyway...

"If just five per cent of the population used public transit, even some of the time, it would get 400,000 cars off the road every day.

"That's an astounding figure - and one worth aiming for."

Amen.

Saturday Photo: So This Is an Idea of What it Looks like..

This is probably the most eloquent pair of pictures before and after the fire. The small photos are what the staircase looked like the day afterwards, and the large one, what it looked like this week.


Much remains to be done, but we're back in and even hanging pictures on the walls.

Krugman on the Complicated Question of Economic Recovery: A Remiinder That We Also Need Hard Headed Ecomonic Goals

Paul Krugman as usual has some interesting things to say today. This time he asks why Ben Bernanke, head of the US Federal Reserve, doesn't do what Ben Bernanke, economist, recommended for Japan in 2000.

At the time, Bernanke advocated : "purchases of long-term government debt (to push interest rates, and hence private borrowing costs, down); an announcement that short-term interest rates would stay near zero for an extended period, to further reduce long-term rates; an announcement that the bank was seeking moderate inflation, “setting a target in the 3-4% range for inflation, to be maintained for a number of years,” which would encourage borrowing and discourage people from hoarding cash; and “an attempt to achieve substantial depreciation of the yen,” that is, to reduce the yen’s value in terms of other currencies."

Sounds complicated, doesn't it? But that's part of the problem with economics: it sometimes seems above the ken of ordinary mortals. Yet economic policy and strong economic goals--like full employment--are what we need. It's going to be up to the NDP in Canada to push for them since for sure the Harper Conservatives won't come through with them.

When the tears are dried, it has to be back to work for the Dippers and their supporters. The country needs and wants strong opposition, a fact which should not be forgotten in sadness surrounding the near-Greek tragedy of Jack Layton's death.

A Laugh Because We Need One: The Air Farce Remembers Jack

With apologies to our American friends who apprently can't access Ari Farce material for copyright reasons.

Why There's Not Much of a Post Today

Little Jeanne is coming over to play today, the day before her first birthday. Got to wash the kitchen floor because her way of getting around is scooting on her bum (unless, that is, you hold her hands so she can walk.)

Funny, I feel worse about having a dirty kitchen floor with her around, than I did with my own kids. Of course we had a dog then who was a real chow hound and perhaps the floor never got as dirty!

Photo: one of the world's best dogs, Trout Fishing in Canada (1972-1985.) She was a collie/shepherd mix who was terrific with children, loved ot swim, and kept our kitchen floor clean.

Jack Would Approve: Radio Nederlands Series on Protest Songs

One of the brief uncomfortable moments at Monday night's vigil at the foot of Mount Royal in memory of Jack Layton was the interminable version of "This Land Is Your Land" by a group of well-intentioned Anglophone musicians. The song's a good one, but even though they sang the Canadian version (not "from California to New York islands" but "from Bonavista to Vancouver Island") I wondered about the choice. It was written by folk music legend Woodie Guthrie, whom I revere, but, damn it, he was American. In addition, the group didn't have a song in French prepared and it was up to a few stalwarts Monday night to start a rendition of "C'est à ton tour" by Gilles Vigneault (also called "Gens du Pays.)"

Perhaps the Guthrie song was one of Layton's favourites, and that was the reason for the choice. I don't know. But I'm pretty sure he'd have loved a series on protest songs by Radio Nederlands which I just came across. Here's the link to the part about Brazilian protest music, featuring my hero Chico Buarque.

Save Sept. 19 for an Interesting Evening of Reading and Love

Last winter in the depth of our despair the Quebec Writers' Federation asked me if I'd like to be one of two writers to present a favourite novel that has been translated into the other official language as part of the Festival international de littérature. The date proposed was September 19 which seemed epochs away, but I was extremely pleased to be asked and settled on Neil Bissoondath's The Unyeilding Clamour of the Night.

But time passes, and yesterday the festival's programming was announced, so I can officially invite you to Reading: Un Acte d'amour (or Lire : An Act of Love, depending on your linguistic preferences. ) François Barcelo will be presenting Tarmac by Nicolas Dickne and Sherry Simon, noted translater and literary theorist, will animate the evening. Both novels have been translated elegantly, the Bissoondath by Paul Gagnon and Lori St-Martin and the Dickner by Lazar Lederhendler.

So save Monday, September 19 for a interesting evening: 7:30 p.m. at the Sala Rossa, 4848 St.Laurent in Mile-End.

Jack's Reach...

Just a note--I got more hits on my blog yesterday than I ever had, all with search terms like "Jack Layton House." (Most went to a posting from shortly after the election about Rick Mercer's item visit to Jack and Olivia chez eux along with a photo of Stornoway.) A man who was loved by many and obviously people want to find out details about his life.

Jack

Saying Good Bye: Jack's Last Letter and a Link toward a Page of Condolence

Here are a couple of links that may be useful to people saddened by the loss of Jack Layton.

The official condolence page in English

Et en français

And here's the last letter he wrote:

August 20, 2011

Toronto, Ontario

Dear Friends,

Tens of thousands of Canadians have written to me in recent weeks to wish me well. I want to thank each and every one of you for your thoughtful, inspiring and often beautiful notes, cards and gifts. Your spirit and love have lit up my home, my spirit, and my determination.

Unfortunately my treatment has not worked out as I hoped. So I am giving this letter to my partner Olivia to share with you in the circumstance in which I cannot continue.

I recommend that Hull-Aylmer MP Nycole Turmel continue her work as our interim leader until a permanent successor is elected.

I recommend the party hold a leadership vote as early as possible in the New Year, on approximately the same timelines as in 2003, so that our new leader has ample time to reconsolidate our team, renew our party and our program, and move forward towards the next election.

A few additional thoughts:

To other Canadians who are on journeys to defeat cancer and to live their lives, I say this: please don’t be discouraged that my own journey hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped. You must not lose your own hope. Treatments and therapies have never been better in the face of this disease. You have every reason to be optimistic, determined, and focused on the future. My only other advice is to cherish every moment with those you love at every stage of your journey, as I have done this summer.

To the members of my party: we’ve done remarkable things together in the past eight years. It has been a privilege to lead the New Democratic Party and I am most grateful for your confidence, your support, and the endless hours of volunteer commitment you have devoted to our cause. There will be those who will try to persuade you to give up our cause. But that cause is much bigger than any one leader. Answer them by recommitting with energy and determination to our work. Remember our proud history of social justice, universal health care, public pensions and making sure no one is left behind. Let’s continue to move forward. Let’s demonstrate in everything we do in the four years before us that we are ready to serve our beloved Canada as its next government.

To the members of our parliamentary caucus: I have been privileged to work with each and every one of you. Our caucus meetings were always the highlight of my week. It has been my role to ask a great deal from you. And now I am going to do so again. Canadians will be closely watching you in the months to come. Colleagues, I know you will make the tens of thousands of members of our party proud of you by demonstrating the same seamless teamwork and solidarity that has earned us the confidence of millions of Canadians in the recent election.

To my fellow Quebecers: On May 2nd, you made an historic decision. You decided that the way to replace Canada’s Conservative federal government with something better was by working together in partnership with progressive-minded Canadians across the country. You made the right decision then; it is still the right decision today; and it will be the right decision right through to the next election, when we will succeed, together. You have elected a superb team of New Democrats to Parliament. They are going to be doing remarkable things in the years to come to make this country better for us all.

To young Canadians: All my life I have worked to make things better. Hope and optimism have defined my political career, and I continue to be hopeful and optimistic about Canada. Young people have been a great source of inspiration for me. I have met and talked with so many of you about your dreams, your frustrations, and your ideas for change. More and more, you are engaging in politics because you want to change things for the better. Many of you have placed your trust in our party. As my time in political life draws to a close I want to share with you my belief in your power to change this country and this world. There are great challenges before you, from the overwhelming nature of climate change to the unfairness of an economy that excludes so many from our collective wealth, and the changes necessary to build a more inclusive and generous Canada. I believe in you. Your energy, your vision, your passion for justice are exactly what this country needs today. You need to be at the heart of our economy, our political life, and our plans for the present and the future.

And finally, to all Canadians: Canada is a great country, one of the hopes of the world. We can be a better one – a country of greater equality, justice, and opportunity. We can build a prosperous economy and a society that shares its benefits more fairly. We can look after our seniors. We can offer better futures for our children. We can do our part to save the world’s environment. We can restore our good name in the world. We can do all of these things because we finally have a party system at the national level where there are real choices; where your vote matters; where working for change can actually bring about change. In the months and years to come, New Democrats will put a compelling new alternative to you. My colleagues in our party are an impressive, committed team. Give them a careful hearing; consider the alternatives; and consider that we can be a better, fairer, more equal country by working together. Don’t let them tell you it can’t be done.

My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.

All my very best,

Jack Layton

Our Jack of Hearts Is Gone...

The country and the world will have tougher going now that Jack Layton has left us.

Saturday Photo: Flowers, Native and Otherwise

This is the season for Brown-eyed Susans, Rudbeckia or whatever you want to call this fantastic golden flower. They are native North American perennials and given some sunshine will bloom for several weeks at the end of the summer. A great flower which lifts my heart when I see it.

Other plants in other places will grow wild, and I was reminded of the impatiens I saw in Tanzania when I passed this little tree-garden. In the East Usambara Mountains where I had gone to look for wild Africn violets, impatiens were everywhere: can't find the pictures at the moment but when I do, I'll scan one and post it. There the plants will reseed, if not live for years. Here course winter will kill them. That's one of the somewhat sad things we must deal with in this climate--summers like the tropics but winters full of ice and snow.

Some people deny this--or perhaps use seasonal differences to flaunt their buying capacity. For three years this garden has featured palm trees which, unlike the figs that some old Italian gardeners overwinter by burying in the ground or bringing inside, were left to die in the cold. Seems to me it is a waste of gorgeous plants, and an affront to Mother Nature.

The Basement Is Clean! Or How to Have 35 Years of Construction Scraps Recycled.

Of course, one of the things about moving back into a "restored" house is the sharp contrast what was left over makes with the clean walls etc. Lee now has his basement workshop back, but as he organized and rearranged, the six sheets of 3/8 inch Gyproc bought maybe 15 years ago for one project, plus all the metal bits he'd saved just in case and the odds and ends of wood seemed less and less essential. In addition, the workers had left a lot of scrap which they probably should have taken away, but hadn't.

What to do? It was too much and too messy to take to the borough's drop off site, so I went looking on the web. What I found were several services, and more or less on gut feeling (can you speak of that when dealing with people virtually?) settled on Ramasse.ca.

I'm happy to say that after our several unpleasant experiences with contractors and services these past few months, we were extremely pleased. You register on-line, pick your time, and wait. As it was, the two young men arrived exactly when promised, cheerfully loaded up our stuff, explained what they would do with it (the Gyproc they'll keep because they're renovating a warehouse, the wood and metal go to local dealers, the electronics likewise.) Pleasant, efficient and certainly less expensive than renting a van to haul the stuff ourselves. It's not a franchise either, and I'm always in favour of encouraging locally grown entrepreneurs. To be recommended...

For the Record: The Gazette Says No to Making the Armed Forces "Royal"

The Montreal English language daily The Gazette fell all over itself welcoming William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge a few weeks ago, so you might think it would also be wowed by the idea of reintroducing "royal" into the names of Canada's air force and navy. But that's not the case.

"Surely there is no need for adding the term "royal" to make Canada's servicemen and women stand a little taller, as MacKay put it. The country owes its armed services a debt of gratitude that should be paid in decent wages and solid support, not the currency of nostalgia," the newspaper editorialized today.

Not the reasoning I'd give, but I'm glad to see another voice raised against the change.

Thursday in the Park with Jeanne and More Than Thirty Years of Subsidized Day Care in Quebec

Today Jeanne is spending the day with us, the first time she's passed a whole day away from her parents some place not her own home. It's momentous in a way, but she will be a year old in a week so she's quite ready for the experience, as are Grandma and Grandpa.

We spent much of the morning in Parc Outremont, three blocks from here where I passed many hours with Jeanne's mother and her uncle. Some things are the same: the babysitters with their charges who are often not all that good at sharing toys, the grandmothers ready to make contact with other grandmothers partly in order to share grandkid stories, and the troops of kids from the neighborhood daycares.

Anong them were the Garderie Querbes, where Jeanne's mother was the young child when it opened in September 1978. Before I knew who they were I noted how the kids looked out for each other and shared toys, and once I'd had a chat with one of the educatrices I saw that cooperation still seems to be a value encouraged there: they cheerfully packed up their sand toys when it was time to go, and raced to help wheel the big cart full of equipment back.

The Garderie Querbes was started by a group of parents as part of the big demand for child care that surfaced in the 1970s. Quebec's $7 a day, provincially subsidized, certified day cares are the lineal descendant of that period of social action. A generation of kids have passed through the system, and now many are sending their own children to daycares in this outstanding intiative. The rest of Canada should do likewise.

Certainly the demand for this kind of reliable, affordable child care is huge: Jeanne's on several waiting lists, but it may be months before there's a place for her. In the meantime, Grandma and Grandpa will help out now and then.

Further to Warren Buffet: The Gini Coefficient, a Measure of Income Inequality

When talking about taxing the rich and the effects of inequality, it's useful to look at a country's Gini coefficient. That is a measure of household income inequality where 0 would be complete equality and is based on the distribution of household incomes. The CIA makes some interesting calculations--after all, if you're an intelligence agency you ought to look at all factors that might affect a country's stablity and instabilty.

In 1994 Canada's was 31.5 and in 2005, 32.1. which isn't too bad, compared to France's 32.7 in both 1995 and 2008. The USA had 40.8 in 1997 and 45 in 2007, definitely a trend in the wrong direction. Brazil on the other hand is going in the other direction, with 60.7 in 1998 and 56.7 in 2005, after a few years of Lula's social programs.

Royal Canadian Air Farce, Or Harper Really Doesn't have the Interests of the Country at Heart

A Nanos poll reported in The Globe and Mail says that Stephen Harper's decision to add the designation "Royal" to the names of Canada's Air Force and Navy would boost the fortunes of the Bloc Québécois and Quebec nationalism. That, of course, is a major reason for the move, although Harper's strategy of targetting parts of the electorate with specific measures surely plays a role here. The Monarchist vote may not be terribly large, but it's another piece of the Conservatives strategy.

And I'm outraged. As I've mentioned before, I'm no friend of the monarchy. I even hesitated a long time before taking out Canadian citizenship because I thought I'd have to swear allegiance to the Queen (in the end it was just to uphold her laws.) This is a country whose roots were both French and English, and that now welcomes people from all over the world. We do not need this kind of silly nod to a past which wasn't all that glorious to begin with.

Bring back the Royal Canadian Air Force? No. But maybe a modern day version of the Royal Canadian Air Farce.

Life Goes on Department: The Ducks Did It Again This Summer

As I said earlier, I've been catching up on my usual walks now that we're back in the house. Last year I was delighted to find that ducks had raised a couple of families of ducklings in Parc Pratt, and I wondered if they'd been successful this year.

Yesterday Lee and I saw that they had--not in Parc Pratt, but the fountain in Parc Beaubien had a small flotilla--about 8--paddling around. It was particularly nice to see them as we were on the way to the funeral of a dear friend who died last Friday after an absolutely furious battle with multiple myeloma.

Then this morning I saw a small group of ducks paddling in Parc Outremont, another sign that life does go on...

Why Warren Biuffet's Advice Is Good for the Rich Too.

On Sunday friend and neighbor Adrienne Jones handed on this link to a Salon.com article on why it is in the interest of the rich to be taxed more. Basically, the idea is that in societies where inequality is high, the rich don't have it proportionallly better. In fact, they may live in fear, wrote Glenn Greenwald: "If you've visited some rich areas in Latin America, particularly when times generally are bad, marksmen on the roofs of houses are a norm. Living in fear of your physical safety is not a pretty existence.

"Japan, which made a conscious decision to impose the costs of its post bubble hangover on all members of society to preserve stability, has gotten through its lost two decades with remarkable grace. "

Then the next day Warren Buffet asserts in The New York Times that he thinks governments should stop "coddling" the super-rich. "I would leave rates for 99.7 percent of taxpayers unchanged and continue the current 2-percentage-point reduction in the employee contribution to the payroll tax. This cut helps the poor and the middle class, who need every break they can get.

"But for those making more than $1 million — there were 236,883 such households in 2009 — I would raise rates immediately on taxable income in excess of $1 million, including, of course, dividends and capital gains. And for those who make $10 million or more — there were 8,274 in 2009 — I would suggest an additional increase in rate."

The amount of money involved is beyond my comprehension: $1 million a year!

Observation for Today, a Day of Finishing up Odds and Ends

Despite 35 years of metric in Canada, construction is all in the old inches and feet mode, while temperature, speed and some kind of food are metric. What accounts for the difference?

Saturday PHoto: The Beauties of Mount Royal and the Cemetery

The gates to Mount Royal cemetery don't look like this now. About a year and a half ago fissures were found in the mortar holding the big stone blocks--put in place in the 1860s--together. Since then there have been various steps at correcting the problem. At the moment there is a wooden framework under the arch and straps holding the arch elements in place.

I felt a bit like the gates this morning, as I walked for the first time from the house up to the cemetery. Knees acting up, but spirits bright as I saw the loveliness.

Music and Images: Where the River of Music Can Take You

Back to working on the next novel, called River Music. One of the main characters is a Canadian woman pianist who becomes celebrated, in part because her version of Debussy"s "Girl with the Flacen Hair" is used in one of the rare NFB feature films to win prizes outside Canada.

This is a lovely rendition of the song by an unidentified pianist with a montage by a young Korean Kim dong kyu. Apparentlly this was a graduate exhibition in 2008. Quite lovely.

Some Sounds Only Emerge from Cooperation: Montreal's Musical Swings, a Lesson for Us All?

These musical swings (each one produced a particular tone) were around for a short period this spring, and I had hoped to try them out, but each time I passed they were full of delighted folk.

Let's hope they're put back at some time after the festival season is over. I like the idea of making music cooperatively a lot.

As We Adjust to Our New/Old House: A Story about a Hobbit's New/Old House

As I ran around trying to find what I've put away while admiring the nice things about our reconstructed house, I came across a story in today's New York Times about a house for Hobbits in Montana. You can rent ilt for $245 a night, if you feel like paying that much to be charmed. Here's the link to a slide show featuring it.

Which reminds me of one of Lee's old friends Gene Zelmer. An architect, he designed and built a number of projects which were wedded to the earth. Here's an example.

But there's a problem with all attempts to build replicas of things described in books. Every reader has his or her own idea of what they looked like, so the new thing is often only a shadow of the vivid image in the reader's head. Something similar is going on in our house: the verdict is that it's the same, but different. Anbd there are moments when I forget the months of disorder.

Putting out the Fires in Britain--and Elsewhere--Is Not Going to End Trouble: What Happens When the Social Contract Fails

The pictures of burning buildings in Britain are extremely disturbing, not least because we know first hand how much damage a fire can do. But the question arises: why? It seems too simple to blame it all on hooligans, because even hooligans have a rationale for what they do.

The New York Times talks of "troubled youth", and La Presse carries an Agence France-Presse piece that blames budget cuts for much youthful disaffectation today.

Yesterday The Globe and Mail ran a story by Doug Saunders from London in which he says that Britain has a "'lost generation' of young high-school dropouts far larger than most countries." He adds that one European study found that "17 per cent of Britain’s youth are classified as “NEETs” – for Not in Employment, Education or Training, in other words high-school dropouts with no prospects of employment – the fourth-highest percentage in the European Union. There are 600,000 people under 25 in Britain who have never had a day of work."

This is appalling, and likely is a legacy of the Thatcher cuts of the 1980s that were not redressed sufficiently by the Blair years. One shudders to think what the current wave of cuts in the US and elsewhere will leave behind 15 years from now.

Stephen Harper's in Brazil: Dilma Smacks down Standard and Poor

Stephen Harper was in Brazil yesterday, and met with dthat country's former guerilla president Dilma Rousseff. He listened, apparently, while she told reporters about how solide Brazil's economy was and how Standard and Poor's downgrading of the US was "rushed."

Of course, "listened" maybe isn't the proper word because while Harper gets along all right in French, it's doubtful that his Portuguese is all that good. Too bad, because he might learn a lesson or two from this country whish continues to stick, more or less, to the left-centre policies started nearly 10 years ago with the election of Lula.

Here's her interview, for those who want to practice the language of Camões.

The Importance of "Legacy" Media in Telling It How It Is: The Case of The New York Times

"

On of the pleasures of being back in an almost-settled house is that we have more time to intersting things. Friends called yesterday to ask if we'd like to see Page One, the documentary movie about The New York Times, and for the first time in ages we could say, "yes."

The movie was interesting, if somewhat out of focus as it jumped from person to person, worry to worry. But it brought out the importance of having what one of the commentators called "legacy" media to help provide the context, background and analysis essential for making sense of the world. You're not going to get that from Twitter, or the infotainment on many media platforms.

A case in point is Paul Krugman, whose columns in the NYT and blog on its website provide absolutely essential reading. Today he comments on the Standard and Poor's downrating of the US credit status, and once again he's worth quoting. "America’s large budget deficit is, after all, primarily the result of the economic slump that followed the 2008 financial crisis. And S.& P.....played a major role in causing that crisis, by giving AAA ratings to mortgage-backed assets that have since turned into toxic waste.

"Nor did the bad judgment stop there. Notoriously, S.& P. gave Lehman Brothers, whose collapse triggered a global panic, an A rating right up to the month of its demise. And how did the rating agency react after this A-rated firm went bankrupt? By issuing a report denying that it had done anything wrong."

And: "The real question facing America, even in purely fiscal terms, isn’t whether we’ll trim a trillion here or a trillion there from deficits. It is whether the extremists now blocking any kind of responsible policy can be defeated and marginalized."

Saturday Photo: Fruit Salad for an August Night

First special dinner since we've moved back. Jeanne and her parents, paella and fruit salad with Ontario peaches and BC cherries. What a nice prospect!

More Jobs, Maybe, But the US and the World Are Worrying about the Wrong Things.

Just in case you wondered if things were getting better, here's a link to a breaking story in The New York Times. The job figures for July in the US were better than expected, but did that stop the fall in stock prices? No. After a brief rally, the descent continued.

This is because the people running the show are worrying about the wrong things. As Paul Krugman says this morning: "To turn this disaster around, a lot of people are going to have to admit, to themselves at least, that they’ve been wrong and need to change their priorities, right away.

"Of course, some players won’t change. Republicans won’t stop screaming about the deficit because they weren’t sincere in the first place: ...

"But the policy disaster of the past two years wasn’t just the result of G.O.P. obstructionism, which wouldn’t have been so effective if the policy elite — including at least some senior figures in the Obama administration — hadn’t agreed that deficit reduction, not job creation, should be our main priority. ...

"Well, it’s time for all that to stop. ..It's now time — long past time — to get serious about the real crisis the economy faces. The Fed needs to stop making excuses, while the president needs to come up with real job-creation proposals. And if Republicans block those proposals, he needs to make a Harry Truman-style campaign against the do-nothing G.O.P.

"This might or might not work. But we already know what isn’t working: the economic policy of the past two years — and the millions of Americans who should have jobs, but don’t."

Excuse Me While I Pause for a Little Rest: the 400 Boxes are Unpacked...

The guy in this video is a piker--on 64 boxes. But we had similar surprises as we opened boxes. Perhaps it should be no surprise that I've filled 8 large garbage bags with stuff from files I've kept forever and ever, but never looked at.

Houses, Trips and the Way Ideas for Living Get around

Last week Elin and company spent time in Greater Chicago. She taught at the Viola da Gamba Society of America's annual Conclave, and the rest of the family spent some time exploring the environs.

One of the places they visited was Robie House (1910), Frank Lloyd Wright's visionary private residence now next to the University of Chicago campus in Hyde Park. They came back with a nifty placemat and some coasters in a design from the stained glass in the house.

I was much impressed by the house when I was there researching Chicago for Green City. At the time I didn't appreciate how much the decoration in our house was influenced by trends started by Wright. But the lighting fixture in the dining room (dating from the 1920s probably) definitely show how widely Wright's ideas spread, not to mention the millions of low slung suburban houses of the 20th century which were knock-offs of the Prairie style, like the one on the right in Montreal.

Connection with the Universe Re-established, the 400 Plus Boxes are Opened...

but the stuff hasn't been put away yet. The house is nearly as big a mess as the state of the world.

I'll be back with before- and after pix as soon as I can find my camera. In the meantime, I'll continue to sort and wonder why Paul Krugman's and The New York Times' warnings have fallen on such deaf ears in the US.

As Joe Nocera says today about the way the Tea Party gang have done a number on the country and the world: "Never negotiate with terrorists. It only encourages them."