An Odium of Politicians

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial Inquiry2 Comments

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The proper collective noun for a group of politicians is “an odium,” at least according to James Lipton in his delightful book, An Exaltation of Larks (Ultimate Edition, Penguin Books, 1993). I was thinking of how appropriate that term is, this week, when I read the odious comments from our mayor in the Connection. Odium, the Collins Dictionary tells us, means “dislike, disapproval, or hatred that people feel for a particular person, usually because of something that the person has done.” Another apt term that could be best applied to our disgraceful previous council —arguably the worst and most corrupt ……… click below for more ↓

Vindication At Last!

Collingwood / Conflicts of Interest / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Legal issues / Local media / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial Inquiry7 Comments

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The headline in CwoodToday reads, “OPP concludes investigation into JI events; no charges laid.” After ten years, the OPP finally shut down the investigation that actually concluded several years ago. And even then we knew the results: no one under investigation broke any laws. Not even the Municipal Act or the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act. Ten years during which innocent people were under suspicion, had their lives and work affected, were accused of wrongdoing, had reputations ruined, and suffered defamation. Why did it take so many years for the OPP to close this and clear their names? The story ……… click below for more ↓

Musings on Haiku

Books about books / Daily life / Literary pretensions / Musings / Personal Reminiscences / PoetryLeave a comment

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I can’t recall just when I first encountered haiku, that subtle, concise and often baffling Japanese poetry, but I suspect it was sometime in the late 1960s, not long after I was first introduced to Buddhism. I recall having the four-volume set of seasonal haiku by Blyth back in those days, but long since gone from my library for reasons I can no longer fathom. I’ve had several other books of haiku on my shelves since then, and turn to them to read now and then, as I do other forms of poetry. I quite enjoy poetry for many reasons, ……… click below for more ↓

Musings on a New Bread Machine

Bread & Baking / Food & Drink / Pasta / Technology & Gadgets2 Comments

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Okay, I’ll admit I’m a gadget-loving guy. I am easily seduced by devices that have buttons, programming, switches, dials, and LED displays. And if they’re kitchen devices, I’m even more vulnerable to their siren song. Walk through a store display of Instant Pots, pressure cookers, stand mixers, panini presses, pasta makes, air fryers, or convection ovens, and my knees grow weak. I start to hyperventilate in the appliance aisle of a box store, touching the displayed appliances in an unseemly manner, and Susan has to drag me out, hopefully before I pull out my credit card and make it to ……… click below for more ↓

A Brief Review of Two ERB Books

Books & Reviews / Classics / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

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I am deeply disappointed in the quality of these two ERB books received from Amazon yesterday in my efforts to complete my collection of Burroughs’ novels. Both are noted as “Manufactured by Amazon.ca” in Bolton, ON. Production quality is poor, particularly in the designs and layout: they are more like amateur efforts than professional publications. The Jungle Adventures book from “Premium Classics Books” (no address is indicated anywhere) is not only too big for comfortable reading (8.5 x 11″), the lines of type inside are 7″ wide (about 18cm), too wide for effective reading, let along carrying it (it would ……… click below for more ↓

Musings on Collecting and Reading ERB

Books & Reviews / Musings / Personal Reminiscences / Scifi and fantasy / What I'm Reading Now5 Comments

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As some readers here know, I’ve been a lifelong aficionado of Edgar Rice Burroughs (ERB, born 1875), particularly of his Barsoom (Mars) series, but also his Pellucidar and Caspak series. Well, I’ve enjoyed pretty much all of them, including, of course, the iconic Tarzan novels for which he is best known. Okay, maybe not so much his westerns (but then, I was never a fan of that genre). Burroughs wrote about 100 titles (and more information on them is here) between 1912 and his death in 1950. And I have most of them in my collection (and continue to look ……… click below for more ↓

The Municipal Voting Debacle

Collingwood / Council / Legal issues / Municipal elections past / Publicity & Communications / Staff and administrationOne Comment

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On voting day, Oct. 24, Collingwood’s online voting system suffered serious problems that prevented residents from voting. This happened not once, but twice in the same day. Voting had been open online and via paper ballot (at the library) since Oct. 3, but apparently many people decided to wait until the last day to vote. Yet on the last day, Oct. 24, barely an hour before voting was to close (8 p.m.), candidates received this message from Becky Dahl, Manager, Legislative Services/Deputy Clerk, in the clerk’s office (received by me at 7:03 p.m.): This notice is being posted to our ……… click below for more ↓

Potato-Onion-Tarragon Bread

Bread & Baking / Daily life / Food & Drink / Personal Reminiscences3 Comments

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I recently hunted through my cookbooks and online for a simple recipe to make a potato-onion bread in my breadmaker machine. While I found quite a few recipes for potato bread, and others for onion bread, I didn’t find any that merged the two. I collected a lot of recipes and got some good ideas for loaves, but nothing was exactly what I wanted to make. So I decided to tweak a recipe from the 300 Best Canadian Bread Machine Recipes cookbook (by Donna Washburn and heather Butt, Robert Rose inc., Toronto, 2012). This book is my go-to recipe book ……… click below for more ↓

Musing on Universal Monsters

Culture / Daily life / Film & Reviews / Godzilla / Musings / Personal Reminiscences3 Comments

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I can’t recall exactly when I watched each of the great original monster films (the classic “Universal Monster” films) — Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman, The Mummy, and the rest — some I saw before my teens, others in my very early teens and others throughout the ’60s. And I’ve seen them, their sequels, and many of their knockoffs since, often several times. I have numerous of the films on DVD and Blu-Ray; I sometimes watch them in the late afternoons, while Susan watches BBC and other British shows on our TV. We have a comfortable difference of opinion about what we ……… click below for more ↓

Breadmaker Tales: Blueberry Jam

Bread & Baking / Cooking / Daily life / Food & Drink / Musings2 Comments

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Longtime readers here know that baking bread is one of my passions (Susan might call it an obsession, one of my many), but I’m also I’m a reasonably competent cook (not as good as Susan, but I try…); I make my own fresh pasta and my own pizza, among other dishes. Of late, I have been branching out into new areas. None of them are terribly challenging, but they are new things for me to learn. And being retired, keeping my brain alive by learning new things is important. I’m trying more and different foods and dishes. I enjoy learning ……… click below for more ↓

The Death of Local Democracy?

Canadian Politics / Collingwood / Municipal elections / Municipal elections past / Politics / Provincial Politics6 Comments

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Thirty nine per cent. That was the risible turnout of voters for the local municipal election here in Collingwood. Significantly fewer than half of our eligible voters made the effort to participate in our democracy, even though they could vote in person or on the internet for three weeks. It was never easier to cast a ballot, never been more convenient, never took less time, yet 61% of local voters chose not to. Why? That’s a question that keeps me awake at night. It’s as though the majority of people here simply didn’t care enough about local government to spend ……… click below for more ↓

Books for the Kaiju Aficionado

Film & Reviews / Godzilla / Musings / Pop Culture / What I'm Reading Now2 Comments

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With possibly two new Godzilla films coming to theatres in 2023*, it may be time to refresh your memory and appreciation of the previous films in the franchise. And what better way to do it than with a brand-new book about them? And perhaps re-reading some of the content in your older book and movie collection (especially that Criterion Collection of the first 15 Godzilla films on Blu-Ray — see below — which you can start watching now to build your anticipation for the new films!). Godzilla: The Official Guide to the King of the Monsters was released this week, ……… click below for more ↓

That Fake War on Xmas

Atheism & Spirituality / Christianity / Cults / Culture / Culture wars / Faith / Pop CultureOne Comment

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In my part of Canada the “war on Xmas” begins in September when some local box stores start putting Xmas ornaments and decorations out, sometimes just after Labour Day. By mid-October there are whole store sections dedicated to pushing gaudy, offshore-made, increasingly tacky lights and displays. Then the canned Xmas music starts infecting shoppers through tinny ceiling speakers. Xmas tree lots spring up in mall parking lots. It’s a cultural virus being spread among us. The Resistance (aka me) comes forward to bravely ignore these increasingly strident blandishments. We refuse to purchase any of their wares until at least Remembrance ……… click below for more ↓

Bread Machine Cookbooks

Books & Reviews / Bread & Baking / Daily life / Musings / What I'm Reading Now4 Comments

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Among my shelves of books on baking bread by hand, is a smaller selection of books about using a bread machine to craft loaves and other items. I admit I’ve been somewhat lax in my creative uses of the bread machine, using it only to bake somewhat plain, whole loaves when I wasn’t up to or able to bake one entirely by hand. The results, I also admit, have been somewhat mixed, in large part because I tend to experiment with ingredients and settings rather than strictly follow recipes (cooking is for me a bit of a science lab…). But ……… click below for more ↓

What Happened to Trebor?

Collingwood / Municipal Politics / Politics4 Comments

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Back in late 2020, local media was singing the praises of a new company called Trebor RX at 395 Raglan Street in Collingwood. Its entrepreneurial owner, George Irwin, promised great things for the new plant and its innovative products, including creating up to 100 new jobs.* The idea sprouted in spring, 2020, when Irwin got the idea to start making masks in Collingwood, and when offered masks by a colleague, he got an order for 40,000 from the Collingwood General & Marine Hospital’s CEO. As an early story in the Connection noted: Earlier this year, he received an email from ……… click below for more ↓

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