Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century by Charles King is a compelling, fascinating, impeccably researched, and thoroughly readable work of narrative nonfiction. It is one of the very best nonfiction books I’ve read. I borrowed it from
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wmtc: in which i have nothing new to say: just write for rights #w4r22
It’s that time of year again: time to Write for Rights. Looking back on my write for rights posts for the last several years, it appears that I’ve been recycling ideas for a long time! And I’m about to do it again. Why spend more time writing this annual blog
Continue readingwmtc: planned obsolescence, future landfill, and premium-priced durability: in which we buy an expensive new washer
One of the things I hate most about our current world is planned obsolescence. There’s a “wmtc’s greatest hits” long piece unpacking planned obsolescence, as it relates to capitalism and our deteriorating environment: “we work to buy things that are built to die so that we must work to buy more
Continue readingwmtc: my experience working with a personal trainer, plus trying to find the next step
My history with strength training has been fraught with failure and injuries. Time and again, I would be highly motivated, armed with a book or set of videos, only to end up worse than when I started. Back spasms, severe muscle strains, deep joint pain, all requiring long periods of
Continue readingwmtc: things i heard at the library: an occasional series: #35
This TIHATL is a hybrid of two well-trod library tropes: The Customer Who Refuses To Be Helped and Left Behind By Technology. It makes for sad, frustrating interactions and irate customers. R needs to do something on the internet. He hates the library’s computers. He hates Windows 10. He is
Continue readingwmtc: 11.11
Revolutionary thought of the day: I would like to see every single soldier on every single side, just take off your helmet, unbuckle your kit, lay down your rifle, and set down at the side of some shady lane, and say, nope, I aint a gonna kill nobody. Plenty of
Continue readingwmtc: i need something lighter: my two favourite dog vids plus a golden oldie
Being confronted with pit bull bigotry has triggered a lot of sadness for me. To feel better, I am sharing my two favourite reels. These make me laugh every single time. Bonus round: a blast from the past. It occurs to me that the expressions “blast from the past” and
Continue readingwmtc: something new: in which i defend pit bulls challenge bigotry without losing my cool
I was at a nail salon. Not an upscale spa, a loud, basic, ramshackle kind of nail salon. Two women sitting side by side for pedicures were speaking loudly and drowning out all the other noise. Loud Woman One was telling the whole salon about her upcoming trip to San
Continue readingwmtc: what i’m reading: the night watchman by louise erdrich
I read Louise Erdrich long ago, in the 1980s and ’90s, devouring several titles, including Love Medicine, The Beet Queen, and my favourite, Tracks. Erdrich remained on my radar, but somehow I didn’t pick up another of her books for decades — until now. And I’m so glad I did. The Night
Continue readingwmtc: hard times: we are ruled by banks, corporations, and the governments that enable them. it doesn’t have to be this way.
In Canada this year, food bank usage hit an all-time high. In March 2022, there were almost 1.5 million visits to food banks — 15% more than there were one year ago, and a whopping 35% more visits than in March 2019, pre-pandemic. Food prices have ballooned at the highest
Continue readingwmtc: community meetings: what we heard about the library
As I mentioned some weeks ago, our library system is in the midst of the strategic planning process, crafting a roadmap for the next five years. Part of the process is community engagement — hearing directly from library users and local partners about the library’s mission, its place in the
Continue readingwmtc: a remedy for my blogging funk: interspecies love
I had a wildly busy — and interesting and fun — October, and no time to blog. Now I have time, and plenty to write about, and can’t seem to string together words in any coherent order. This is typical for me when I haven’t written anything in a while.
Continue readingwmtc: north island book tour and community meetings: what i’m up to at the library
Inside the Port Hardy Library September and October have been a whirlwind for me at the library. In September, we hosted a locally famous author. Yvonne Maximchuk lives on a remote island in the Broughton Archipelago, and writes about the people who live in these tiny coastal communities. She has
Continue readingwmtc: "they thought they were doing the right thing at the time": a harmful denialism that we must challenge
They thought they were doing the right thing. They thought they were helping children. Now we know better. I recently heard this from a library customer. They were referring to the residential “schools”, the accepted euphemism for the system of concentration camps that was used to destroy Indigenous families, communities,
Continue readingwmtc: barbara ehrenreich, rest in power. i will miss you.
I was very saddened by the news that Barbara Ehrenreich had died earlier this month. She was one of my favourite thinkers and writers, and I found it difficult to bundle my thoughts and feelings into a tribute. From her last book, Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of
Continue readingwmtc: the north island report: whale watching, little huson caves park, zeballos
While we had family visiting, we did a little more exploring of the North Island. We went to Telegraph Cove, a historic village and tiny tourist resort just south of Port McNeill, which is the easiest place to pick up a whale watching boat, a guided kayaking trip, or similar excursions.
Continue readingwmtc: the north island report: where to eat in port hardy and port mcneill, updated for 2022
It seems like everything in our lives will be divided by covid — pre and post. The lockdown, the case counts, the death counts. Quarantining our groceries. Masks. Vaccines. Hand sanitizer. The anti-maskers. Back in 2019, the beforetime, I listed all the decent restaurants in our town and the nearest neighbouring
Continue readingwmtc: in which i observe education, job creation, and community building in progress
For the last couple of weeks, it’s been my privilege to witness some exciting progress for our community, plus have a really interesting experience. Literacy first As a librarian and library manager in a remote region, I work closely with the local literacy society, and I sit on its board
Continue readingwmtc: housekeeping complete
* The best-of page has been updated to 2021. * The links on that page are working again. * Internal links on multi-part posts are also working again — i.e. on the second part of a post links to the first, the third part links to the first and second, and so
Continue readingwmtc: housekeeping in progress: apologies for possibly sending old posts
For a very long time, old links on this blog have not worked. This has always bothered me. It’s bad enough that I lost many thousands of comments (2006 through 2019). I live in hope that this may change, if Blogger fixes the import/export issue, but as time goes by,
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