Eponyms everywhere! Who knew? Our most recent list of eponyms was a smash success. It gave rise to at least three subcategories, as I wrote here: – Inventor/creator/discoverer, not genericized. These are eponyms, but have not entered the vocabulary as a separate noun or descriptor. Example: Alzheimer’s. Compare to pasteurized.
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wmtc: we like lists: list # 18: words that were once people
I really enjoy learning about the origins of words and expressions. (I included this in our last list.) Several words now part of ordinary vocabulary started out as proper names. In 1880, a group of Irish tenant farmers organized a labour ostracism against the agent of an abusive absentee landlord.
Continue readingwmtc: walmart workers issue ultimatum, threaten to walk on busiest shopping day of the year
Walmart workers have been trying to reason with their employer and get better working conditions for many, many years. Walmart doesn’t ignore their pleas and demands: it punishes them. Retaliation against workers who stand up for better conditions, although illegal, is commonplace. Workers who have joined OUR Walmart – Organization
Continue readingwmtc: now accepting suggestions for movie season
I hardly noticed the transition from Baseball Season to Movie Season this year. With the Red Sox having their worst season almost 50 years (1965), my tolerance for the nightly loss ran out some time in July. By August it wasn’t unusual for Allan to keep the game on his
Continue readingwmtc: workers on strike at walmart! support this historic labour action.
Last Thursday, October 3, was a historic date for working people. For the first time in the 50-year history of Walmart, Walmart workers are on strike. Walmart is the largest private employer on the planet, with more than two million employees worldwide. Twenty percent of all employed USians work at
Continue readingwmtc: seen in upstate new york
Something for all your needs, plus excellent alliteration. Down the road in Mohawk territory, in the North Country region of New York State, we saw this: Many generations of Mohawks have been ironworkers. Many of the great New York City skyscrapers were built by Mohawk labour. We didn’t have a
Continue readingwmtc: a few words about burlington vermont
We are in Burlington, Vermont, for a wedding. We drove here on Friday, a nice drive mostly through blue skies and autumn colours. On Saturday, we found a public library so I could do some school work. Saturday night was the wedding. The ceremony was held on a patio overlooking
Continue readingwmtc: in which my roku experience gets even more awesome: how to set up a wireless vpn
You may recall that we switched our internet provider from Rogers to TekSavvy in order to get more bandwidth, then dumped Rogers altogether by switching from cable to streaming. >We bought a Roku streaming device. And I fell in love with it. No more paying for dozens of channels that
Continue readingwmtc: can we stop the next war before it starts? don’t attack iran: saturday, october 6
This Saturday, October 6, is an International Day of Action: Don’t Attack Iran. People will be standing up for peace all across Canada. Some event listings are below, and a search on Facebook may turn up a few more. From the Canadian Peace Alliance: Almost ten years after the start
Continue readingwmtc: how to send mail to kimberly rivera
Kimberly Rivera, the Iraq War veteran and war resister who was forced out of Canada by the Harper government, is being held in at her former base in Fort Carson, Colorado. Supporters wishing to write to Kimberly Rivera can send cards and letters to this address:Kimberly Riverac/o All Souls U.
Continue readingwmtc: stephen harper awarded first richard nixon award
Some of us found it more than a little strange to learn that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been named World Statesman of the Year by the Appeal of Conscience Foundation. Perhaps this is to expected in a world where Barack Obama – now Commander in Chief of a military
Continue readingwmtc: corporate greenwashing and the myth of consumer sovereignty
One of the wonderful things about no longer working for Evil Corporate Law Firm – and there are so many! – is no longer contributing to a firm that represents some of skeeviest organizations in the world, including the Conservative Party of Canada. I’ve worked for many a skeevy law
Continue readingwmtc: omar khadr: what can be said?
Now that Omar Khadr – 26 years old, 11 of those years spent in a concentration camp – is finally in Canada, I find little to say. His mistreatment at the hands of both the US and Canadian governments is horrendous, shameful, and irreversible. Khadr is still in prison, having
Continue readingwmtc: she said let’s discuss abortion. i told her to fuck off.
She said she’d pray for me. I said nothing. She said let’s discuss abortion. I told her to fuck off. * * * * Long ago, I blogged about receiving a holiday card with a proselytizing message underlined in red. Wmtc readers had a good discussion around it, with responses
Continue readingwmtc: the politics of sex-selective abortion: there shouldn’t be any
Hard on the heels of the defeat of Motion 312 – on the mind-bending spectacle of the Minister of the Status of Women voting with the anti-choice contingent, on the sobering sight of de facto Deputy Prime Minister Jason Kenney voting the way a former U.S. anti-abortion activist could be expected to
Continue readingwmtc: rtod
Revolutionary thought of the day: And all the criminals in their coats and tiesAre free to drink martinisAnd watch the sun rise– Bob Dylan A woman refuses to kill people, and she is torn from her family and put in jail. A man orders some people to kill some other
Continue readingwmtc: let them stay: two canadians speak out in the toronto star
From the Toronto Star: I am ashamed to be a Canadian. I have been involved with the campaign to keep Kim Rivera in Canada for some time. It is obvious that most Canadians think that as a conscientious objector to the war in Iraq she should stay here rather than
Continue readingwmtc: now it can be told: why i have hated my job for the last four years
This is a post I’ve been waiting to write for years. I’ve been on an emotional roller coaster for the past few days. While the War Resisters Support Campaign was pulling out all the stops trying to keep Kimberly Rivera and her family in Canada, I was waiting to hear
Continue readingwmtc: thinking of the riveras, today and always
My grief for the Rivera family and my rage at this cruel, anti-democratic government roils unabated. I am haunted by thoughts of my dear friend Kimberly Rivera, who has given so much to so many people, all by herself in a jail cell, and by thoughts of those four beautiful
Continue readingwmtc: the rivera family leaves canada. our hearts break, our anger rises.
Now that some of the details have been made public, I need to write about my experience yesterday and the last few days. As the public battle to keep Kimberly Rivera and her family in Canada raged, there was, simultaneously, a more private effort to help the Rivera family personally.
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