Personal Reminiscences – Page 30

The sinking of the St. Croix, September, 1943

2012-09-20 2012-09-20 History & Biography / Personal Reminiscences / Politics / War & MilitaryOne Comment

On this day, September 20, in 1943, the Royal Canadian Navy destroyer, St. Croix, was escorting a convoy and protecting its ships from U-boats, during WWII. The ship was between Greenland and Iceland at 57.30N, 31.10W. It carried almost 150 crew, including a young man named William (Billie) Sydney David Pudney, aged 22, listed as a signalman (V 27871 (RCNVR)). The St. Croix was a bit past her prime; the 1,190-ton destroyer had been built for the US Navy in 1919 (then called the USS McCook), but given to Britain for the Royal Canadian Navy in September, 1940. In September, … click below for more ↓

The rise of the tenor guitar

2012-07-23 2012-07-23 Arts / Musical Instruments / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

Tenor guitars have been around since the 1930s, possibly a few years earlier*, but they’ve never had a big following compared with six-string guitars. That seems to be changing, and I suspect it’s in part due to the incredible popularity of that other four-string guitar derivative: the ukulele. In the past six-twelve months, I’ve been seeing more tenor guitars on the Net, including several new custom tenor guitars made by talented luthiers. New sites about tenor guitars have sprung up, too. Both new and vintage tenors are showing up on eBay in what seems to be increasing numbers. There’s even … click below for more ↓

What happened to the video business?

2012-05-18 2012-05-18 Arts / Collingwood / Film & Reviews / Personal Reminiscences3 Comments

In the early to mid 1990s, Collingwood had three independent video outlets. Then it had two and one franchise (Rogers). Several variety stores also had a small video rental business. Then the independents closed and another franchise (Blockbuster) moved in. Now the two corporations are gone and there is no place in town to rent videos. I am deeply disappointed. What happened to the video rental business? Was it so unprofitable? Or is it just a plan by Rogers to increase revenue through it’s “on demand” service? Or to drive customers to Netflix and get more revenue from their overuse … click below for more ↓

Fifty thousand words…

2012-04-25 2012-04-25 Arts / Books & Reviews / Municipal Politics / Personal Reminiscences / What I'm Reading Now4 Comments

This morning I crossed the 50,000 word mark in my book on Machiavelli’s The Prince for municipal politicians. It’s longer than I had originally intended, but I think it’s a reasonable length for the content. I’m pleased with the current draft and should have my reading and self-editing done by next Monday. Then it’s on to my next book, about e-government. I have an overhead of perhaps 2,000 words I could reduce it by through my own editing. Primarily that would involve deleting the addendum with the maxims from his Art of War and from Sun Tzu’s book of the … click below for more ↓

Scribble, scribble, eh what?

2012-03-26 2012-03-26 Arts / Books & Reviews / Municipal Politics / Personal Reminiscences / What I'm Reading Now7 Comments

Just passed the 13,000 word mark on my current book about Machiavelli and municipal politics, this weekend. So far, I have gone through explanations of Chapters 1-10 of The Prince. The Prince has 26 chapters, so I’m about 40% of the way through my analysis, more or less on track for a 35,000-40,000 word book. It’s a little tough in places trying to fit Machiavelli’s words and ideas to modern issues and themes, but so far I think I’ve done a fair job of finding relevant metaphors, issues and events. The next chapter, on ecclesiastical states, might be a bit … click below for more ↓

On translating Chaucer and the joys of Middle English

2012-02-26 2012-02-28 Arts / Books & Reviews / Language & Grammar / Personal Reminiscences / What I'm Reading Now6 Comments

In my last two visits to the nearby Chapters, I picked up from the bargain books section two recent, hardcover, versions of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. One is a new verse translation by Burton Raffel published in 2008, the other a prose translation by Peter Ackroyd, from 2009. These join the dozen or so other versions of Chaucer’s works I already have on my bookshelves: the Riverside Chaucer (third edition), several venerable Penguin editions (both original and translations), the New Cambridge edition, the Portable Chaucer, Hopper’s interlinear translation, and a few others. What always surprises me is how widely these translations … click below for more ↓

Why not a Napoleon theme park?

2012-02-18 2012-02-18 History & Biography / Personal Reminiscences / Urban Design & GrowthLeave a comment

There’s a sarcastic, somewhat-tongue-in-cheek commentary in the Guardian this week, called, “Why not have a Napoleon theme park?” In it, Agnès C. Poirier editorializes on a recent proposal by a French MP to build a theme park in France dedicated to Napoleon Bonaparte. She writes, Abroad, observers could be forgiven for almost choking on hearing this news: why not a Stalin or a Kim Jong-il theme park too? That made me choke, almost pushing my half-swallowed tea through my nose. Imaginations must run very high among her set if anyone can associate Napoleon Bonaparte with two of the Twentieth Century’s … click below for more ↓

Bad Lao Tzu meme adds to growing list of mis-identified quotes online

2012-02-07 2012-03-18 Atheism & Spirituality / Memes; Internet & Social / Personal Reminiscences / Religion / Science & Technology

This bad meme is going the Internet rounds: “If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself, if you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation.” Lao Tzu Well, although deep – if a bit saccharine – it’s not from the Tao Teh Ching, the only work that the Old Master (the literal translation of his name) ever produced. The Tao Teh Ching is a notoriously difficult book to translate. Although … click below for more ↓

The colour of the herd

2012-02-03 2012-02-03 Arts / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

I felt not so much like I was in a city full of undertakers, but rather in a city that was in casual but widespread mourning. A sombre, solemn city where everyone dressed in black in recognition of some great death, but one of which visitors were unaware. Standing at an intersection, the light would change and a wall of dark would approach, like a funeral procession that had just disbanded and was now going about its daily business in all seriousness. Okay, to be truthful, not everyone was in black. There were other dark shades among the herd: deep … click below for more ↓

Make it happen, crowd tells council about Admiral Collingwood

2012-01-29 2012-01-30 Collingwood / Municipal Politics / Personal Reminiscences / Urban Design & GrowthOne Comment

Four hundred people, perhaps more, packed the Collingwood Legion, Sunday afternoon, to support the Admiral Collingwood development, at Hume and Hurontario Streets. It was arguably the most important public meeting of the last 18 months. The clear message, both from speakers at the rally and audience members, was “make it happen.” So many people packed the Legion hall that it was standing room only, with some forced to watch and listen from the alcove. The rally was called by a group of citizens to counter the recent opposition to the proposed developments at Hume and Hurontario Streets, within the heritage … click below for more ↓

Why is most TV so lame?

2012-01-28 2012-01-28 Arts / Personal Reminiscences / Science & Technology4 Comments

I would expect from the names of TV channels like Discovery, The Learning Channel and History Channel that these would be educational, documentary, engaging, informative, deep, and rich with content. Silly me. I forgot that the mandate of most TV channels is to entertain the lowest common denominator, not to educate or engage. With shows like “Freaky Eaters” and “Extreme Couponing”, the “Learning” Channel is the bottom feeder in the TV IQ pond. Of the 30 bathetic shows in its current lineup, four are about baking with a fifth on cooking, five are about weddings, two are about tattoos, two … click below for more ↓

Slowly dies: another bad Internet meme

2012-01-26 2012-03-20 Arts / Books & Reviews / Language & Grammar / Memes; Internet & Social / Personal Reminiscences3 Comments

I came across a fascinating poem, translated into English as “Slowly Dies.” There are numerous translations online, many by amateurs, but some very well crafted. It goes something like this (a portion from one translation): Dies slowly he who transforms himself in slave of habit, repeating every day the same itineraries, who does not change brand, does not risk to wear a new color and doesn’t talk to whom doesn’t know. Dies slowly he who makes of television his guru. Dies slowly he who avoids a passion, who prefers black to white and the dots on the “i” to a … click below for more ↓

Shooting someone is so much fun, as long as it’s just virtual

2012-01-21 2012-01-21 Personal Reminiscences / Science & TechnologyLeave a comment

It’s hard to explain to non-gamers why computer games – especially multiplayer games – are so much fun (and not simply a waste of time). It’s not just the amazingly detailled virtual worlds that offer rich, destructible, 3D environments to explore and move within. It’s not just the visceral experience of role playing or the adrenaline rush of combat/flight/racing against other players. It’s not just the sense of wellbeing from puzzle solving, accomplishing difficult tasks, or finishing challenging quests. It’s all of those and more. To appreciate computer games you first have to like gaming: engaging in the challenge of … click below for more ↓