Personal Reminiscences – Page 14

The strange life of Bobby Fischer

Forty five years ago this month, a momentous event took place in Iceland that shook the world. After 21 games spread over almost two months, the eccentric American chess master, Bobby Fischer, ended 24 years of Soviet dominance in chess after beating Soviet grandmaster, Boris Spassky. It shook the world at the apex of the Cold War. I watched it unfold, a memory I will always carry. Many years later, former Russian grandmaster, Garry Kasparov, commented, …in the Soviet Union, chess was treated by the Soviet authorities as a very important and useful ideological tool to demonstrate the intellectual superiority ……… click below for more ↓

Brian the comedian

2017-06-22 2017-06-22 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Humour & Satire / Municipal Politics / Planning & PoliciesOne Comment

Following the success of Collingwood’s Comedy Duo, whose act has taken them on tour across the nation on the taxpayers’ dollar, our Deputy Mayor has entered the ring as our jester-du-jour. And since the Duo’s main act was sidelined recently by not being allowed to keep a snout into the FCM trough, it looks like Brian’s act may be the foremost comedy skit in the council burlesque. Who would have thought a lawyer could also be a clown? At a recent Council meeting (June 12, 2017) he had the audience in stitches with his new routines. And not just his ……… click below for more ↓

Albert and the Lion

2017-05-26 2017-05-26 Books & Reviews / Daily life / Family history / Personal Reminiscences / Poetry & LyricsLeave a comment

There’s a famous seaside place called Blackpool, That’s noted for fresh-air and fun, And Mr and Mrs Ramsbottom Went there with young Albert, their son. A grand little lad was their Albert All dressed in his best; quite a swell ‘E’d a stick with an ‘orse’s ‘ead ‘andle The finest that Woolworth’s could sell. So begins the poem, The Lion and Albert, written by Marriott Edgar. I first read it in the book pictured on the right: a book that accompanied a collection of 78 rpm records in which Stanley Holloway read the poems (click to see a larger image). ……… click below for more ↓

As Elvis leaves the building, so do we all

2017-05-19 2017-05-19 Culture / Music & Reviews / Musings / Personal Reminiscences / Pop CultureLeave a comment

No one gets out of here alive. We all die. And with us go into the dustbin the dreams, the values, the ideals, the culture we grew up with, we shared, we ensconced in our daily existence. And the clutter we accumulated during our lives. Elvis has left the building and, sooner or later, so shall we all. And as we do, the value of our own material legacy will diminish with each day. A recent story in The Guardian tells of how once-treasured Elvis memorabilia is falling in value, as collectors age and die off, leaving a younger generation ……… click below for more ↓

Book collecting: snobbery or reading passion?

2017-04-22 2017-04-22 Books & Reviews / Culture / Daily life / Learning & Education / Literature / Musings / Personal Reminiscences / Social Order & Disorder / Writing & FictionLeave a comment

The book has always been a sign of status and refinement; a declaration of self-worth – even for those who hate to read. That’s the lead into a recent piece on Aeon Magazine about book collecting and collectors. It’s also about reading and the snobbery of readers. Fascinating piece. For me, anyway. Pretty much everything about books and reading fascinates me, from the art to the industry to the neuroscience. I am and always have been a book buyer, proudly taking my place among those “Bookish Fools” referenced in the article’s title. But perhaps from a different part of the ……… click below for more ↓

Thank you and Happy New Year

2016-12-31 2017-01-01 Blog & Blogging / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

Twenty seventeen will arrive one second later than expected, thanks to the addition of a leap second added to balance the atomic clocks with the Earth’s actual time. One more second for my readers to browse, I suppose, although 2016 was such an awful year that few folks want it to stay around any longer. One more second of Donald Trump or Brexit is unbearable for most of us, but there it is. For my readership, however, 2016 was good; the number of visitors was up 15% overall from 2015 and continues to climb. Thank you, everyone: I hope my ……… click below for more ↓

More council Christmas carols

2016-12-24 2016-12-24 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Humour & SatireLeave a comment

A few preliminary verses for your consideration this holiday season… perhaps my readers might like to offer their contributions or extend the verses below. To the tune of The Holly and the Ivy: The folly of our council, So evident to see Fumble, flail and bumble Of this we all agree. O the rising of our taxes And consultants not a few The lawyers that they hired Block vendettas to see through. To the tune of: We Three Kings of Orient Are: We the Block of Council votes are Conflicts of interest we bring from afar Sell our airport, sell ……… click below for more ↓

Council’s 12 Days of Christmas

2016-12-22 2016-12-22 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Humour & SatireLeave a comment

On the first day of Christmas my council gave to me: An interim CAO. On the second day of Christmas, my council gave to me: Two tax hikes, And an interim CAO. On the third day of Christmas, my council gave to me: Three sole-sourced contracts, two tax hikes, And an interim CAO. On the fourth day of Christmas, my council gave to me: Four integrity investigations, three sole-sourced contracts, two tax hikes, And an interim CAO. On the fifth day of Christmas, my council gave to me: Five insults to the CGMH, four integrity investigations, three sole-sourced contracts, two ……… click below for more ↓

Council’s report card: Year 2, part 1

2016-12-18 2016-12-18 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Humour & Satire / Planning & PoliciesOne Comment

As we reach the end of our Council’s second year in office, halfway through its mandate, it is time again to assess the collective performance and list the accomplishments of our elected officials. To avoid accusations of egregious negativity, I will list council’s accomplishments first. And to avoid further accusations of meandering through overly long diatribes (mea culpa, I do ramble a bit…), I will split this post into two pieces. The good (this post) and the bad (a subsequent post). For a historical comparison, you might wish to refer to my analysis of council’s first year prior to reading ……… click below for more ↓

Tough Times for Print Media

2016-10-25 2016-10-25 Culture / Media / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

It’s not like the halcyon days when I first started writing for newspapers, back in late 1969. Today, print media is struggling to survive in a world dominated by digital media and mega-corps owners (although not so hard it can’t pay its CEOs and executives several million dollars while they slash real jobs).* Print media has long been losing its advertising share, a trend exacerbated by the internet. Newspapers now have about 11% share, compared to about 35% for the internet, according to a Globe and Mail story. A Pew Research study in 2015 showed newspaper advertising in the USA dropped 4% ……… click below for more ↓

552 kWh? We can do better

2016-10-22 2016-10-22 Collingwood / Daily life / Personal Reminiscences / Utilities: electricity and waterLeave a comment

I received a report in the mail from Collus PowerStream giving me an overview of my electricity usage for the one-month period of August. A hot, humid August that no doubt had us running the air conditioner and ceiling fans more often than we normally do (we actually like it warm most of the time). I really appreciated getting the notice because we care about conservation. I always want to know more about our energy and water use, especially as the utility rates continue to escalate. Anything we can do to keep the bills low is something we examine carefully. ……… click below for more ↓

The bucket list, kicked

2016-10-14 2016-10-16 Critical Thinking / Culture / Internet & Social Media / Logic and reason / Memes; Internet & Social / New Age Codswallop / Personal Reminiscences / Philosophy2 Comments

Nowadays the “bucket list” concept has become a wildly popular cultural meme, thanks to the movie of the same name. Subsequent marketing of the idea to millennials has proven a successful means to derive them of their income, with which they seem eager to part. I don’t like the concept. The list, I mean, not necessarily the plucking of the millennial chickens who willingly hand over their financial feathers. They get what they deserve. Bucketlist.org has, at the time of this writing, more than 5.317 million “dreams” for you to pursue. Contributed by more than 450,000 people. And your individual ……… click below for more ↓

Old habits, old junk

2016-10-02 2016-10-04 Critical Thinking / My Writing / Personal ReminiscencesOne Comment

The past couple of weeks I have been trying to turn my office (one of our spare bedrooms, once upon a time) back into my office. A working space I’ll need when Susan retires this winter. My man cave, so to speak. Over the past few years, since I sold the store and went back to home-based freelance work, I have spread my tools and toys around the house, an inexorable sprawl, rather like moss overtaking a pathway. Books litter the house, while my office became more of a walk-in storage closet. Until you could no longer walk into it ……… click below for more ↓

Dilbert, Dogbert and Collingwood

2016-09-26 2016-09-26 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Humour & SatireLeave a comment

I’ve often commented that the cartoon strip Dilbert, by Scott Adams, is closer to a documentary than it is to a cartoon. Not just about the quagmire of corporate life: Dilbert applies equally to the sodden bureaucracy of government. And here are some strips to prove my hypothesis, at least on the local level. I culled these strips from around the web, from many, many sites, but the copyright and credit all belongs to Scott Adams. I hope he won’t mind me using his work as an example of how things work in Collingwood. It’s very, very instructive, after all. And ……… click below for more ↓