Personal Reminiscences – Page 24

The Weird World of Plotto

2013-11-27 2013-11-27 Books & Reviews / Language & Grammar / Literary pretensions / My Writing / What I'm Reading Now11 Comments

I came across Plotto a few years back – references to it in other works, rather than the actual book. it sounded strange, complex and wildly over-reaching. I couldn’t find one – it was long out of print. It wasn’t until I got my own copy that I realized how really odd, clumsy – and delightful – it is. Plotto was first published in 1928, and not reprinted until recently as far as I can tell, which is why it’s not been readily available to read and comment on. But it has been lurking in the background, a collector’s item. ……… click below for more ↓

Six Rules for Politicians Using Social Media

2013-11-26 2013-11-26 Internet & Social Media / Media Issues / Municipal Politics / Personal ReminiscencesOne Comment

This is an updated version of the talk I presented at the the eighth annual Municipal Communication Conference in Toronto, November 2013. I use social media regularly and frequently. As a politician, that makes me either very brave or very stupid. But I’ve been doing this for the last 30 years, long before I ever got elected. Social media isn’t new to me.* It may be slicker than it was in 1983, but it’s essentially the same text-based, monologue, just with chrome added. In fact, the tone of the conversation seems to have gone downhill since the 80s. Back then ……… click below for more ↓

What am I doing wrong?

2013-11-24 2013-11-24 Books & Reviews / Bread & Baking / Food & Drink / Personal ReminiscencesOne Comment

I began a levain last week (Nov 19) and it seemed to go well at first, but then it just seemed to have stopped… or slowed to a crawl. Was is dead? Or just dormant? Did I have a welcome guest growing in the bowl or was it a wet mass of unwanted invaders? Am I too anxious and not patient enough? Sourdough bread has been called the “Everest” of breads, which I realize refers not to its towering presence but because it’s so damned hard to conquer. Getting it started seems a combination of art, science, animal husbandry and ……… click below for more ↓

These Poolish Things…

2013-11-16 2013-11-17 Books & Reviews / Bread & Baking / Language & Grammar / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

Poolish. Levain. Banneton. Autolyse. Retardation. Lactobaccilli. Bassinage. Windowpane test. Crumb. Batard. Barm. A new vocabulary is building in me, one that brings the lore of breadmaking, the etymology of the loaf to my conversation.* It’s a necessary vocabulary, if one wants to fully understand the techniques and technology of baking bread. Knowing the names of things gives one power. It’s also a bit like being welcomed into a secret society where members whisper to one another in their codified language. Is there a secret handshake? It also helps broach that disconnect between our modern selves and what we eat. Knowing the process, ……… click below for more ↓

I’m struggling with this…

2013-11-10 2013-11-11 Books & Reviews / Bread & Baking / Food & Drink / My Writing / Personal ReminiscencesOne Comment

My recent passion for bread and baking has caused a bit of an internal upset. Not the baking thereof, but rather the writing about it. I’m doing a lot of that, recently. Writing (and, yes, baking too). And of course it comes with the attendant research into bread’s history, the combing through websites for recipes and book reviews, the hunt for equipment and the discussions about yeasts, pH balance, sourdough starters, Canadian versus American flours, protein contents, vintage and ancient grains… gawds, I’m having fun. And it is, if you don’t mind some hyperbole, damn tasty fun. It’s both culinary ……… click below for more ↓

The Fretful Porpentine

2013-11-06 2013-11-06 Arts / Books & Reviews / Culture / Language & Grammar / My WritingLeave a comment

Like quills upon the fretful porpentine. That phrase just makes the modern reader stop and wonder. What, you ask yourself, is a porpentine? And why is it fretful? We never learn, although later interpreters would knowingly tell us a porpentine is a porcupine in today’s argot. Porcupine itself dervices from the Old or Middle French term, “porc espin” or spined pig. Which it isn’t – it’s a rodent. * It’s an old word, encountered earlier as “purpentine” in 1589, but hardly a common word in any spelling after that, at least not in drama.** Shakespeare wrote it as porpentine in 1602. ……… click below for more ↓

In Appreciation of Vintage Music

2013-11-03 2013-11-03 Arts / Culture / Musical Instruments / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

I was listening the other day to a song sung by Cliff Edwards, Cheating on Me, recorded from an old 78 RPM single. Scratchy, warbly, and a bit thin, but it comes across beautifully across the gap of time. When you listen for a while, the scratches just disappear into the background and you hear Ukulele Ike’s lovely voice cut through the noise. I was thinking it was a song I really should learn to play myself. Listen to Edwards’s classic strumming in his version, as well as the key change towards the end: I have it on my MP3, ……… click below for more ↓

Bread Tales, Continued

2013-10-31 2013-11-11 Books & Reviews / Bread & Baking / Food & Drink / Personal ReminiscencesOne Comment

This week I started a small batch of dough to bake later in the week, or on the weekend while I figure out a few details on my baking odyssey (and do some online research on a number of related issues). Probably just a small loaf this time, and I’ll likely do it in a pan. I plan to start a larger batch of dough, Sunday with the goal of a longer-term cold fermentation. And possibly a sourdough starter. The last loaf I made, a mere three days ago, is almost gone. Funny how homemade bread gets eaten so quickly. ……… click below for more ↓

The Circuitous Path from Bulge to Budget

2013-10-28 2013-10-28 Arts / Books & Reviews / Language & Grammar / My Writing / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQO7e_a-gvU] If tinkers may have leave to live, And bear the sow-skin budget, Then my account I well may, give, And in the stocks avouch it. Autolycus in The Winter’s Tale, Act IV, Sc. III, Shakespeare These lines got me thinking about the town’s finances. Sow-skin budget? What does that mean? And how does that relate to the financial plan for the coming year staff is preparing for council’s review? I did some reading (of course…). In Shakespeare’s time, the online etymological dictionary tells us the word budget meant something quite different:* “leather pouch,” from Middle French bougette, diminutive of Old French ……… click below for more ↓

The New Art of the Old: Baking Artisan Bread

2013-10-26 2013-11-11 Bread & Baking / Food & Drink / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

So far, my re-entry into the world of baking bread has gone fairly well. I started rather hesitantly, unsure of the results, but I have been pleasantly surprised by the flavour, texture and quality so far. Yesterday I baked my latest loaf, as well as started a larger batch for baking in a few days. I have not ventured into any of the challenging or regional breads, but will do so once I am confident in making this simple artisan-style bread. I began with a simple recipe and technique from the Bread Experience blog. I had scoured the web for ……… click below for more ↓

Words, words, words

2013-10-24 2013-10-24 Books & Reviews / Critical Thinking / Culture / Internet & Social Media / Language & Grammar / Literary pretensions / My Writing / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

Writing before the arrival of the internet*, Bob Blackburn commented on the nature of exchange on then-prevalent BBS (Bulletin Board Systems), words that could as easily be written today about the internet: “…the BBS medium reveals not only a widespread inability to use English as a means of communication but also a widespread ignorance of that inability, and, in consequence, a lack of interest in doing anything about it.” Words that were prescient. As if he could foresee Facebook. Blackburn also wrote that most people thought they spoke and wrote well… “The majority of English-speaking people I’ve come across…think they ……… click below for more ↓

From 7 to 29. Should I be worried? Or just keep monitoring?

2013-10-16 2013-10-16 Collingwood / Environment / Personal Reminiscences / Science & Technology2 Comments

Seven cents per hour. That’s what the energy monitor was showing me a moment before I plugged in the kettle. Then it jumped to 29 cents. Wow! And this is mid-peak time, too, my new energy monitor warns. Should I be worried? Better cut back on the tea if I want to conserve energy. It did the same last night when we turned on the microwave at dinner time, but that was off-peak. Still, that’s pretty high, compared to seven cents. Those two devices seem to be the biggest energy hogs we have. I need to do some calculating, however, ……… click below for more ↓

Hijack the Starship

2013-10-13 2013-11-11 Books & Reviews / Personal Reminiscences / Science & Technology / Social Order & Disorder / US PoliticsLeave a comment

Nineteen seventy. A great year for music, and a sad year, too. The death of Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin.* Many of the great acts were kicked off their record labels and would struggle to find new publishers.** The great psychedelic band, Jefferson Airplane was breaking up, but before it did, Paul Kantner and Grace Slick put together a new band, named Paul Kantner and the Jefferson Starship (which would change its lineup before finalizing as the Jefferson Starship a few years later). They released a science fiction-counterculture concept album called Blows Against the Empire in 1970. It would go on ……… click below for more ↓