No, we have several holidays that are somewhat similar, but essentially we break your celebration into two components. And then we have one “thanksgiving” day which is totally alien to your world. In the late months of the harvest time on Planet Neecknaw, we have a holiday that is probably
Continue readingTag: Family
Blast Furnace Canada Blog: Immigrants and "states’ rights"
Among the most commonly held misconceptions about immigrants: They don’t pay taxes, they steal jobs, they are criminals, they’re a burden on our social safety net. All four are demonstrably false — they do pay taxes at the same rates as the …
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Occupy the Church, Occupy Together
Christians. Church. God. Jesus. Occupy. What do these words mean to you? For many, the connotations are negative. Personal experiences with judgemental, rigid, frozen people who identify themselves as Christians have left a bitter taste in their mouths. Memories of being harangued, condescended to and lectured linger long after their encounter. Media and political examples […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Why I Am Going to Attend Occupy Vancouver
I am white, middle class, educated and, by all accounts, an extremely fortunate woman. I live in Canada where my parents’ (sometimes life-threatening) health issues are covered by a provincial medical plan. My water and air are clean, and food is plentiful. My husband and I are employed. I am not desperate, but I am […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Encouraging Early Political Engagement: CitizenNext.ca
It is not an accident that I am a political junkie. Even as a toddler, I was fed a steady diet of left-of-centre ideology, pro-union sentiments and anti-monarchist dogma. My mother, who was not overtly political, ensured I could recognize political leaders from around the world by sight before I could read, that I understood […]
Continue readingThe whole Truth
Belief: 1. The mental act, condition, or habit of placing trust or confidence in a person or thing; faith. 2. Mental acceptance or conviction in the truth or actuality of something. 3. Something believed or accepted as true; especially, a particular te…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Real questions for less than real Ontario leaders
Dear Leaders:I have made the decision that unless one of you does something so egregious that it merits a comment I will not — will not –make any running commentary about the current election in Ontario. Frankly, the platforms are all uni…
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Happy Birthday
Today is your sixty-fifth birthday. Time for the government to start paying you back, ha-ha. I would have brought you a cake in the shape of enormous breasts, and joked that if you held it down around your waist you’d … Continue reading …
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Christy Clark Dabbles in Tea Party Rhetoric
It’s one thing to lose a referendum on a regressive tax that came in on a lie, that was a tax shift from businesses to real human beings, and that removed PST exemptions on real necessities or awesome products like cloth diapers, kids shoes, food, smoke alarms, child car seats, bikes and fire extinguishers. But it’s […]
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: A letter to Canadians from the Honourable Jack Layton
August 20, 2011 Toronto, Ontario Dear Friends, Tens of thousands of Canadians have written to me in recent weeks to wish me well. I want to thank each and every one of you for your thoughtful, inspiring and often beautiful notes, cards and gifts. Your …
Continue readingcultural sn:afu: Little Victor Update | Repetitive cacophony
A few years ago there was an episode of Family Guy called “Stewie Loves Lois”, where Stewie — the family baby who has spent most of his life trying to kill his mother — suddenly starts to appreciate everything his … Contin…
Continue readingTrashy's World: Perspective…
This is what I Tweeted this morning: baldjam 7:51am via HootSuite ALERT! Black BMW. Male driver. Driving S on Russell about 10 min. ago.ALMOST HIT MY WIFE & DAUGHTER.Any info, PLS call police! #Ottawa Scary stuff. Got a call from my very upset spouse telling me that a speeding black BMW ran swerved around a […]
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Adieu, Wendy
It’s hard to imagine a world without Wendy Babcock. She died three days ago at the age of 32. After a truly horrible life including life on the streets as a sex trade worker, she fought back by getting her GED and then winning a…
Continue readingTrashy's World: Why work?
Actual conversation between my 7 year daughter and I yesterday. Daughter: When are we going to Montreal? Me: Well, I’m not going. You and your brother and Mommy are going next week. I have to go back to work on Monday. Daughter: Why? Me: Because my summer holidays are over and now it’s time for […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Pubic Humiliation: The Case of the Ugly Vagina
Earlier in the month, when I clicked an inbox link to a webpage for a fundraising campaign, I did not expect to get lost in the political quagmire of women’s rights, feminism, grooming, surgical enhancement, self esteem and pop culture. A vaguely disinterested click of the mouse quickly sucked me into a black hole of […]
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: How low will Rupert go?
Former British PM Gordon Brown has gone on the offensive against Rupert Murdoch. He stated today that while both PM as well as Tony Blair’s Chancellor, his banking records and e-mails were hacked by the more reputable of Rupert’s publ…
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Tent-caterpillar
He’s just a baby now, you said, holding the fuzzy blue-and-black caterpillar on your hand. When he touches me it’s like little tickles, his baby feet and fingers are soft. But he will grow and change, you know. Soon he’ll be a butterf…
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: Not pictured
View Full Album I am mindful, on this Father’s Day, that I do not have many photographs of Thomas Arnold (“Arnie”) Chaplin. (The additional ones I do have are wedding party shots with people who might not wish to be published.) However my mem…
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Fathers’ Day Rant
I feel like it’s wrong to burden and confine my dad, and all men for that matter, with the expectation that fathers have to be a mix of Tim the Tool Man, Homer Simpson, and a randomly selected epic role acted by Mel Gibson, or else they don’t count.
My journey with AIDS...and more!: A change in “Mr. G’s eye exam”
Mr. G’s eye exam has been changed again, maybe for the last time, so that the antagonist, though dead for more than a decade, might only be identified by his last initial and the responsibilities he held. (Anyone familiar with the school at the…
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