Ars Poetica

Books & Reviews / Classics / Culture / Literature / Poetry / Poetry & Lyrics / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

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Horace’s Ars Poetica, or the Art of Poetry, was written as a 476-line poem in a letter to his friend, the Roman senator  Lucius Calpurnius Piso (Lucius) and his two sons, around 19 BCE. It was known for a time as the “Epistle to the Pisos” until 95CE when the critic  Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (Quintilian) called it the Ars Poetica in his a twelve-volume textbook on rhetoric, the Institutio Oratoria. The name stuck. Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) was popular during the Renaissance when Latin was still taught in schools. Some of his poems were among the works students had to ……… click below for more ↓

Milton Was Wrong

Books & Reviews / Books about books / Censorship / Media Issues / Political fads / Politics / What I'm Reading NowOne Comment

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In 1644, the English poet and pamphleteer John Milton wrote an impassioned defence of free speech (or, more factually, against censorship of print and in favour of restriction-free publication) called the Areopagitica. It was subtitled A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England. In it, Milton argued that, given the choice between truth and lies, people were wise enough to see what was true. And that people’s character grew stronger when presented with a wide variety of viewpoints, even if those included lies and falsifications. It’s a bit of a dense ……… click below for more ↓

Council Misses the Bus. Again.

Collingwood / Council / Entitlement / Ineptitude and bungling / Staff and administration / Wacky WTF ideasLeave a comment

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Council’s latest plan will make life harder for low-income and senior residents by making our public transit less accessible, less affordable, and then replacing the schedule with random access buses just to confound riders. All because a well-paid consultant said it was a good idea and well-paid staff agreed. Another WTF-were-they-thinking moment from town hall. And I have no doubt, our pro-privatization, anti-public-ownership mayor would love to privatize our transit service — without any public consultation, of course — as he did our electricity utility and our airport. He’s helped for-profit corporations get from the town what taxpayers paid for ……… click below for more ↓

Smith, Rock, and the Trivialization of Western Culture

Books & Reviews / Culture / Media / Media Issues / Memes; Internet & Social / Musings / Social Order & Disorder / TV / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

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If Neil Postman were alive today, sitting in a bar or café with Chris Hedges, I wonder which one would say “I told you so!” first after seeing social media this past week? The story that clogged the social media pipes this week was the slap one actor gave another on stage during the performance of the annual onanism festival called the Oscars. And as soon as it happened, even while it was occurring, a shitstorm of comments, opinions and reportage flooded social media. Every social media feed was clogged with pieces like tarry stercus and then flooded by the ……… click below for more ↓

Kerouac’s Haikus

Books & Reviews / Literature / Musings / Poetry / Poetry & Lyrics / What I'm Reading Now2 Comments

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Haiku is like a razor blade: small, light, but yet strong and incredibly sharp. Haiku says “Look over there!” and then smacks you from the other side. Haiku is the neutron star of poetry: stunning density combined with astounding brightness. Haiku swims in a sea of metaphor, darting like quick, bright fish among the forest of words. Haiku has a formal definition: “an unrhymed verse form of Japanese origin having three lines containing usually five, seven, and five syllables respectively. It is also described as “a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking ……… click below for more ↓

How to Draw Politicians

Collingwood / Council / Election campaigns / PoliticsLeave a comment

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Not long ago, in a local used book store, I came across a little book titled, “How to Draw Dinosaurs” and when I opened it, I realized there was a political allegory in my hands. But let me first tell you about the book. In its 64 pages, the book professes to teach anyone (youngsters are the main audience) how to draw 27 dinosaurs, as well as a Pteranodon, Archeopteryx, and Tylosaurus, none of which are dinosaurs (a common mistake), but which were contemporaries. Each animal has three to four illustrations to guide the budding illustrator, albeit poorly explained. Starting ……… click below for more ↓

Signs, Signs, Everywhere There’s Signs

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Ineptitude and bungling6 Comments

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The Town of Collingwood’s Facebook page has a post that shows photos of our council members grinning at the camera while holding a piece of paper with a word handwritten above a printed text. I am not aware that this bit of self-promotion has been covered in any local media (but then, so little is, these days).* This paper they are holding comes from a County of Simcoe initiative called “#itsstarts” which, the county’s website says, is, “a public awareness campaign designed to take a proactive step towards addressing racism and discrimination in Simcoe County… to promote a unified community ……… click below for more ↓

Council’s Abject Failure Over Water

Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Financial follies / Ineptitude and bungling / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial Inquiry / Utilities: electricity and water5 Comments

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You may have learned from our local media that the new water treatment plant costs have doubled to almost $121 million — suggesting massive increases in your water bill and likely your property taxes are coming. The flaccid media coverage of this outrage didn’t explore the consequences of the increase, of course. As the story in CollingwoodToday notes, the egregious increase was sprung at the March 7 strategic initiatives standing committee meeting: Community benefit changes also being added include adding park washrooms to the property, a sidewalk on Raglan Street and electric vehicle charging stations. A 10 per cent contingency has ……… click below for more ↓

Utterly Corrupt and Contemptible

Collingwood / Conflicts of Interest / Council / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour5 Comments

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Last night, our council contemptuously appointed a replacement for former councillor Tina Comi, who had been bullied out of office by the Gang of Six of the eight currently at the table. The man they chose was former mayor, Chris Carrier, who also: Is a registered lobbyist in Collingwood for a major property developer and an insurance company (potential conflicts of interest); Donated money to the 2018 election campaigns of five of the six who voted for him to be the new councillor: Brian Saunderson ($1,200), Keith Hull ($1,200), Deb Doherty ($250), Bob Madigan ($500), Mariane McLeod ($500); Allegedly advised ……… click below for more ↓

Brian’s Hypocrisy on Display. Again.

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Ethics and behaviourLeave a comment

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This week, the Town of Collingwood again raised the pink flag to show its support against bullying. It’s an initiative that local resident Trevor Henson has been promoting for the past 16 years. How ironic that Mayor Saunderson was there to hoist it. And look, there were councillors Doherty and Berman beside him, two of the Gang of Six Bullies. Given council’s role in bullying former councillor Tina Comi into resigning, and Saunderson’s failure to responsibly do his role as mayor and show even a pretense of leadership, none of these people should have been present at the flag-raising that ……… click below for more ↓

Wild Fruits

Books & Reviews / Botany & Paleobotany / Environment / Philosophy / What I'm Reading NowOne Comment

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When he died of tuberculosis in his mother’s home, in 1862, 44-year-old Henry David Thoreau had already made his mark on the world with the publication of several books and numerous essays, including Civil Disobedience, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, The Maine Woods, A Yankee in Canada, and his classic, Walden, or Life in the Woods. I trust we’re all familiar with Thoreau’s major works, at least their titles, particularly Walden (first published in 1854). Thoreau — or at least some of his writing — is required reading in any educational institution worthy of its name; you ……… click below for more ↓

Flat Earth Beliefs on the Downslope?

Balderdash & Hoaxes / Conspiracy Theories / Critical Thinking / Political fads / Pseudoscience & QuackeryLeave a comment

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It’s been a while since I wrote about Flat Earthers and their inane —but laugh-aloud funny — ideas about science, religion, and politics. Their worldview is wrapped up in wacky conspiracies, then layered with a topping of pseudo-biblical claptrap, crypto-mythology, scary demons, and your basic rightwing paranoia about the “deep state.” I wrote two pieces about flat-earth nonsense in 2016 (read them here and here), but have not really looked at their loony anti-science movement in any depth since then. After all, there’s only so much nonsense one can stomach. Then I came across this video produced by  Dan Olson ……… click below for more ↓

Second Prize is 30 Minutes, Third is 60

Collingwood / Saunderson's MPP campaign / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial InquiryOne Comment

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A recent email from Brian Saunderson’s campaign to get out of his mayoral responsibilities* and get a better-paying job at Queen’s Park offers a chance for readers to “win” 15 minutes of time with The Great Leader. Ooh, I can see you’re wet with excitement. Control yourself. It’s not face-to-face with him, mind you, because Great Leaders like Brian don’t like to soil themselves with the physical company of Little Folk. That would be demeaning. Besides, you might be contagious or insufficiently obsequious. No; it’s only virtual time you will “win”: Anyone who completes the survey by February 28 will ……… click below for more ↓

Council Gives a Bad Name to Train Wrecks

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Ineptitude and bungling / PoliticsOne Comment

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In his latest post, fellow blogger Chris Potts opines on our council’s misogynistic bullying of former councillor Tina Comi that resulted in her resignation from the toxic environment in local politics. Potts calls our council a train wreck, noting: …my true opinion of this council and the only thing that comes to mind when I think of them is “Train Wreck”. Over the past months, we continue to watch the same crap day in day out, absolutely no leadership at the top, and to be honest, there really hasn’t been much leadership from the entire group. While he is absolutely ……… click below for more ↓

Comi-gate Continues to Plague Council

Collingwood / Council / COVID-19 responses / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Ineptitude and bungling4 Comments

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Mayor Saunderson and his gang of bullies continue to take flack for their hostile, childish behaviour towards the former Councillor Tina Comi, who resigned her seat late last month. The week after she resigned, the town’s integrity commissioner (IC) revealed a complaint against Comi filled by the Gang of Six because her 11-year-old son entered her room during a council training session that should have been held in public. You can read the story about their disgraceful, vengeful act here. And once again, our council lowers the bar when dealing with the public. At the Strategic Initiatives Standing Committee (SISC) ……… click below for more ↓

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