While we’re talking about reviews… You may recall me mentioning how much I was enjoying Tom Disch‘s Word Of God. I noted this weekend that Paul Witcover–himself a gifted novelist–has written a particularly good review. Until I get off my butt and write my thoughts on the book out, allow me to point you to Paul’s.
Explainers In The Mainstream.
Hey, remember back in June when I wrote a bit about how much I was digging The Explainers? Well, it appears the mainstream media has caught up with me…he said arrogantly.. The Sunday Book Review in the New York Times reviewed the book this weekend. It was the cover review. Here’s an excerpt: Of course, representing any Feiffer strip with… Read more →
More post-election blathering
So, low voter turnout has got people talking electoral reform again. Sadly this discussion seems to always focus on proportional representation. I say sadly because while I like the idea of every vote counting, I hate the idea of the parties deciding who sits in Parliament, not the voters. I haven’t yet seen a proposal for a system that lets… Read more →
Aside
So, I guess we’re going to have to go through that whole Canadian DMCA thing again, aren’t we? Sigh.
A short break from politics
And now, a few observations about things completely unrelated to either North American election: That Wisdom book showed up today. Totally worth the money. It’s been a long time since I bought a “coffee table book”, but if I had a coffee table I’d be proud to leave this out on it. You know where I’m find more interesting reading… Read more →
Still Processing The Election
What may end up disgusting me the most is actually the turnout number. Here’s some background from an article, “Voter turnout: democracy’s dirty little secret“, that ran during the campaign: In 1988, a healthy 75 per cent of the voters cast their ballots, but no turnout since then has come close to that level. — 1993: 70.9 per cent. —… Read more →
Help With Trish’s Research
And now, you have a chance to help out with Trish’s research. I’ll use her words to explain: As most of us know and have experienced, sometimes painfully, sometimes to our benefit, the vast majority of software developers, and indeed these days the majority of professionals in general, work for a manager. Bad managers can frustrate us, decrease the quality… Read more →
Oh, Canada
I am so disappointed in you. Especially you Ontario, and you B.C. I had steeled myself for 134 seats, but this… this is horrible. OK, it’s not quite as bad as a majority, but this is still terrible. And if this voter turnout thing is true–that the right-winger got out a lot more of their voters than the other people–well,… Read more →
Lapham’s Quarterly, Again
I have previously mentioned how thrilled I am with Lewis Lapham‘s current project: Lapham’s Quarterly. The current issue, which focuses on education, is a fine and marvellous read. Actually, the cost of the issue is more than justified just by the introductory essay. Lapham is on fire. Here’s a little bit: Why would any politician in his or her right… Read more →
Well, colour me shocked.
It turns out there’s a party running in our federal election who I am even more opposed to than the ReformConservatives. Yes, I just found out today about the Christian Heritage Party. Apparently they’ve been around since 1988, but they’ve never even showed up on my radar before. Since they’ve usually only run candidates in less than 1/6 of the… Read more →
Shhh! You’re giving away the secrets.
Aside
OK, that’s some of the only good news I’ve read lately.
Important Local News
One of the gadgets on my custom Google homepage is the “Top Nova Scotia News” feed. It displays the three “top” stories for Nova Scotia at any given time. Usually my eyes scan over the headlines without paying much attention, but lately there have been a rash of headlines that serve to highlight just exactly where it is that I… Read more →
Little Brother On YouTube
When I was playing with YouTube last night, in order to pull out the music for that wildly dissimilar mix, it occurred to me that essentially everything is on YouTube–a revelation that’s been brewing at least since I found Closet Land on there. So I decided to see if there was anything there featuring my brother. (See my retrospective post… Read more →
Friday Tunes
I’m in the mood to put up a mix, but it seems like going to the trouble of hosting MP3s and creating xspf files, etc, is just too much work. So, let’s use YouTube instead. It’s easier, and it offloads the bandwidth and copyright violation to someone else. Let’s start with a dedication to Sarah Palin and all her Red… Read more →
