test blog #10

Congratulations to West End Bound and drf of the Moving to Vancouver blog: they're in! It's been a long process , but now the waiting and the paperwork - well, most of it - are behind them. When we finally make it out to Vancouver, we'll have lots of people to visit! Yay and hooray. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the US's loss is Canada's gain. Welcome home, guys.

On our first Halloween in Canada, only two months after we moved here, I was excited about living in a house, and I wanted to join the festivities. We bought candy, and decorations, and I was looking forward to answering the door wearing a mask , and to doling out tooth decay to neighbourhood goblins. Two kids came to the door. The following year we intended to leave the light off and ignore the whole thing. As it happened, that night, Halloween 2006, was the first time we saw what turned out to be our new house. There were dozens of kids out trick-or-treating, some with their parents, and it made us feel good about the neighbourhood. Only a year ago, I was so upset that I had to move; it seemed like such a burden, and I was so sad to leave our little (cold, drafty) house in Port Credit. Now we are very settled and happy in this house. We love it here. Nice how that can happen. So this year we're trying again. I'll be at a War Resisters Support Campaign meeting, so Allan will...

Yesterday we went to the Niagara wine region with our friends M@ and S for a day of tasting, buying, eating and relaxing. M@ and S's current employment situation allows them a midweek day off, and as we all appreciate good food and good wine, I knew it would be a fun time. When Allan and I did this last year , we stayed at a B&B in Niagara on the Lake, and did some historical things the next day. That was fun, but NOTL was too touristy for us, and the overnight felt a bit unnecessary. An annual day trip seems perfect to me. Yesterday we visited wineries in the Vineland and Beamsville area. Highlights included Kacaba, Vineland Estates and Tawse; the flat-out lowlight was Thirty Bench. Kacaba is a tiny, family-run winery, where an enthusiastic and unpolished host told stories and poured with a loving hand. We had some of the best wines of the day here, including a Reisling with a butterscotch toffee finish and a knockout Meritage (a Bordeaux-like blend). Allan and I treated ours...

This is a heads-up about something you can do this Friday, November 2 to help US war resisters stay in Canada. Last week, Patrick Hart and Corey Glass , two war resisters here in Canada, received pre-removal risk assessments ("PRA") from the Immigration and Refugee Board. Along with Robin Long, this makes three resisters who have received PRAs in the last two weeks. The PRA is the first step in the process that can lead to deportation. Patrick Hart, who spoke at the rally last Saturday, was told to prepare to leave. Patrick is in Canada with his wife and 5-year-old son. They want only to live in peace, as ordinary people, and one day to be Canadian. Both the Bloc Québécois and the New Democratic Party support a provision for asylum for US war resisters. Now we must pressure the opposition Liberals and the minority government to Let Them Stay . Canadians: On Friday, November 2, please contact your MP and key members of government. US readers: Courage To Resist is launching ...

Longtime friend of wmtc Lone Primate and a visitor named Mark, Ottawa (a/k/a Clark Kent) have been going at it over Canada's military presence in Afghanistan. Mark is avoiding and evasive, although with the hurt Lone Primate has put on him, I give him credit for showing up at all. As always when things heat up at wmtc, I've learned a lot from the discussion. The Primate, with his gifts for metaphor and articulation, has given me a huge new storehouse of context and meaning to bolster my views. I wish I had the time, mental clarity, writing talent and knowledge of Canadian and world history to formulate these arguments myself. I lack most of that - or I seldom find them all at the same time. But I'm fortunate in that my blog has attracted people who do posses both the knowledge and the skills. Lone Primate has shredded Clark's specious arguments, but more importantly, he has exposed the hypocrisy behind them. Below are some choice excerpts. I am only quoting Lone Prim...

Now that I've attended my first public demonstration in Canada , I thought you all might like a report on it. Our day started out with the Peace-Labor Breakfast at the United Steelworkers . The Steelworkers Union is a friend to the peace movement, and especially to the War Resisters Support Campaign . There were a few speakers, and some war resisters news was announced. (More on that to follow.) Peggy Nash, MP for Parkdale-High Park , and a strong supporter the Support Campaign, came to stand in solidarity and wish us well - even though one of her sons was getting married later in the day. Many US resisters happen to live in Nash's riding, and she stands firmly beside them. Thank you, NDP! Among other things, Nash spoke about the lunacy of Canada refusing entry to US peace activists Ann Wright and Medea Benjamin, validating and echoing the crackdown of liberties in the US. She emphasized there is more than one way to lose our liberties: it can happen in one fell swoop, in an i...

...INEVITABLE! Congratulations to the 2007 Boston Red Sox. Congratulations to US!!! God I love this team.

You all had some great ideas for questions to ask Steven Fletcher . What would you like me to ask Chantal Petitclerc ? Petitclerc, in case you don't know her, is a Canadian wheelchair racer. She holds a huge pile of Paralympic and Olympic medals; this year alone she broke three world records on the track. New Mobility has asked me to write about Petitclerc for a very special story. What would you like to know?

I do have more interesting things to post, but they will have to wait awhile. For now, a question. Does anyone know of a large, international newsstand in Toronto, where you can get newspapers from all over the world? With such an international populace, I think one must exist. In the old, pre-internet days, when the Red Sox were in the playoffs, Allan used to trek to Hotalings, then still near Times Square, to pick up the Boston Globe . The internet turned Hotalings into an anachronism; it closed its retail doors in 1999 . (Which makes me question my assumption that such a place exists in Toronto...) But even now, with access to everything online, my partner the historian (and packrat) would like to get the Boston newspapers when they win this year's World Series. WHICH THEY ARE ONE WIN AWAY FROM DOING!!!! Oh, am I shouting? Excuse me. Does anyone know where one can find a large assortment of out-of-town, physical newspapers in the Toronto area?

Tomorrow, October 27, there will be anti-war demonstrations throughout the US and Canada. US out of Iraq! Canada out of Afghanistan! Join us if you can.

Is this the Greatest Nation on the Face of the Earth? Go to the link, then choose "Local Woman's Fight With Breast Cancer". There's an ad you can't skip, but please wait and watch the video. This was sent to us by a member of our Red Sox community at Joy of Sox. Just among our little group, one person is losing his wife to cancer because they could not afford adequate treatment and cannot afford to keep her alive any longer. Another lost his child because an HMO did not approve treatment, and sent the family home from the emergency room. Their two-year-old daughter died that night. And those are just two people who have disclosed their tragedies to us. I can almost guarantee there are others. It doesn't have to be this way. * * * * Cathy Baskin, a million thank yous for your courage, for your strength, for choosing to be public to try to help others. I'm sorry we are losing you.

Is 24 seconds enough time to try to calm an agitated person before killing him? Dazed and confused after more than 15 hours of travel, unable to communicate in English and scared because he couldn't find his mother, Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski was jolted by a taser just 24 seconds after being confronted by police in Vancouver International Airport. That allegation was made Thursday by a lawyer for Mr. Dziekanski's family who says video evidence will show that the RCMP took him down with a taser jolt moments after approaching him. "I've been in touch with witnesses. I have viewed a video, which was taken by a bystander, which is not going to be released until at least the time of the inquest. From my observation, the interaction between the police and this individual, who didn't appear to me to be posing a danger to anybody at the time . . . was 24 seconds, roughly, before he was tasered," Walter Kosteckyj said, adding the airport surveillance videos al...

There's a dog in our neighbourhood that I call Tala's Boyfriend. He's a magnificent collie, very Lassie-like. Tala behaves differently to him than she does to any other dog. At the dog park, Tala's not especially interested in playing with other dogs. She still bullies smaller dogs that act afraid of her, although not as badly as she used to. We can easily distract her by throwing her ball, or just getting her to run in another area of the park. If the dog stands up for itself and gives it back to her, she likes it and she'll play. But she doesn't show much interest in romping around with other dogs, except when she's home with Cody. We see other dogs on our walk, and Tala either ignores them or barks once a little bit. She hates the dog next door, obviously a territory thing. But with this collie, she's totally different. She adores him. We only see Tala's Boyfriend on our morning walk, and not every day. Tala senses him before we can even see him,...

We are watching "Corner Gas" while we wait for our game to start. We heard a word that we barely recognized, and deciphered from context. How do you pronounce "decal"? You know, a transfer, a little plastic or paper thingy with a picture that you can move to another surface? Like a sticker, but more permanent? Also, do you remember my observation that Canadians shorten many words to one syllable ? Cash (in the US, it's check-out or cashier), and names like Cath and Barb? I thought of another one. Chevrolet. In the US it's Chevy. Folks here call it a Chev. Anyway, let me know how you pronounce the word "decal," meaning some type of non-removable sticker.

Joy of Sox , written by my esteemed partner Allan Wood, is the first blog listed in Blogger's Blogs of Note . This is huge publicity for a blogger. You can see the listing on your Blogger dashboard, or here . Allan just came upstairs to tell me. Let's just say my reaction would be bleeped on American TV. Family-friendly version: wow. Not bad for the first game of the World Series, eh?

The World Series starts today! We're pretty much freaking out. There's a Canadian angle to this one: Rockies pitcher Jeff Francis hails from BC. (He's also on my girls' team .) This story in the Star says Francis is "in awe" of the Series opener at Boston's Fenway Park. That's good, Jeff. Be in awe. I remember when the Padres were in awe of my 1998 Yankees. It didn't go so well for them.

A dear friend of mine, a former roommate - the one who got me hooked on Dallas - is in Toronto for a few days. She's an arts consultant and is working with a program here that helps former dancers resettle into non-dance employment. KK left New York many years ago, and we've seen each other every some-odd years when our paths cross. She's living in Utah now, and I was so happy to hear she would be in Toronto. Allan and I picked her up at the airport, hung out at our place a little, then had dinner in Mississauga, and drove her downtown to her hotel. Like my friend AWE who I visited in the spring , I've known KK longer than I've known Allan. KK was the first real friend I made after graduating university. We were roommates for a couple of years, and also close friends. She helped me find the work that became the key to leaving full-time employment and dedicating more time to writing. A friend and colleague of hers was looking for a nanny, and that's how my first...

Globe and Mail columnist Gary Mason writes: I feel sick today for Zofia Cisowski. Ms. Cisowski is the mother of Robert Dziekanski, the 40-year-old Polish man who died in the early morning hours last Sunday, shortly after RCMP fired barbed hooks into his body, along with 50,000 volts of electricity. I watched an interview with Ms. Cisowski this week on Global BC and it was one of the saddest things I've ever seen. She talked about how she'd worked two jobs for several years to save enough money for her son to move to Canada. Last Sunday he was finally making the long trek from Pieszyce, Poland, to start a new life in Canada with his mother. Ms. Cisowski drove four hours from her home in Kamloops to meet her son's flight at the airport. He was scheduled to touch down around 3:30 in the afternoon. But 3:30 came and went without any sign of him, then 4:30 and 5:30 and 6:30. She appealed to airport officials to look for him. She was concerned he'd become lost and wouldn...

You may recall that two American peace activists, Medea Benjamin and Ann Wright, were refused entry into Canada , because they are on an FBI list. (Like who isn't?) Benjamin and Wright will try again tomorrow. Benjamin has an essay in today's Globe and Mail (online only). It's worth reading, and I copy it here in its entirety. As a U.S. peace activist trying to change the aggressive foreign policies of my government, I have often looked to Canada for inspiration. While Canada's involvement in the fighting in Afghanistan marks a more militaristic turn, we in the United States still envy Canada's commitment to civil liberties and international law. But my image of a tolerant, rational Canada came crashing down on Oct. 3. Along with Ann Wright, a retired U.S. army colonel and career diplomat who resigned in opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, I was crossing the Rainbow Bridge to attend a meeting with the Toronto Stop the War Coalition. Both Ms. Wright and I were...

There's a debate going on in this post , as I knew there would be when a Canadian who supports Canada's presence in Afghanistan (which he calls "Afstan") showed up. Here are some letters to the editor that ran recently in the Globe and Mail . Are we really so naive as to trust a poll taken in an occupied, war-torn country? What Afghan is going to identify themselves as a Taliban supporter when a bombed-out home could be the imagined result? --Earl B. Morris, Coquitlam, BC If 46 per cent of the people of Afghanistan are aware of Canada's presence in their country, shouldn't the headline on your editorial Glad You're Here, Say The Afghans have read: Know You're Here, Say Fewer Than Half The Afghans? --Charles Tilder, Victoria, BC Imagine you're an Afghan. You've spent your whole life living under totalitarian regimes: the Taliban, the mujahedeen warlords they grew out of, and the Soviet-backed government before that. None have hesitated to use...

This Saturday, October 27, there will be demonstrations across Canada and the US, demanding the troops be brought home from Afghanistan and Iraq. Allan and I will be taking the day off to stand with the War Resisters Support Campaign and voice our disapproval of both these wars. Go here to find events in Canada. Go here to find events in the US. There will be 11 regional demonstrations in the US, plus a growing list of solidarity actions in the US and elsewhere.

In Canada, orange is the colour of the New Democratic Party . (One more year til we can vote!) In the US right now, orange is the colour of resistance . Some readers will find this video a little over-the-top, but fighting fascism requires more than writing letters to Congress. World Can't Wait is helping students and other young people to organize and to speak out. If you haven't heard about David Horowitz's "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week," here's an introduction. US readers, wear orange , and spread the word.

Last week, a 40-year-old man in British Columbia died after being tasered by police . A few days later, we learned that in Montreal, on the same day , a man died after being tasered while in police custody . This is madness, and it must stop. I appreciate that there are times when the police need to subdue people who are out of control and dangerous. But taser guns are clearly not an acceptable method. They are not being controlled and treated as the lethal weapons that they clearly are. Looking for links, I found this blog dedicated to Robert Bagnell : "In memory of our brother and son, Robert Bagnell, who died after being tasered by police in Vancouver, British Columbia on June 23, 2004". It looks like an excellent source. My heart goes out to the people who write it. Amnesty International cites inappropriate use of tasers as a persistent human rights abuse in Canada, including the use of tasers against children, mentally ill people - and people already unconscious or othe...

I've long been in the habit of reducing the amount of paper junk mail that comes to our home. This benefits both the environment and me personally, as I strongly dislike unnecessary clutter and paper waste. In the past, I would send postcards to companies and organizations asking to be removed from their paper mailing lists. (Pre-postaged postcards were a great activist tool, now largely replaced by email.) These days it's even easier, as you can generally find a website and send a quick email. Sometimes there's a specific "remove me from your paper mailing list" link. Since moving to Ontario, however, it hasn't been so easy. The Canada Post letter carrier deposits a portfolio of ads, coupons and other pointless crap in our mailbox nearly every day. I can't ask the companies to remove me from their mailing lists, because most of the mail is not addressed. In our home, it all goes straight from the mailbox to the recycling bin without even a stop in the kit...

Down three games to one? No problem! It looks like you all will have a few more posts to skip, because the Boston Red Sox are going to the World Series ! What a night, what a week, what a team. I can't say it was "incredible," because I believed it with all my heart, every pitch, every game, every moment of this great season. To the naysayers out there, to the gloom-and-doomers, to everyone scared of the supposedly mighty Yankees who chased us all year , to those who said Allan and I would create bad karma by being too happy, to the fans who believe in ghosts and goblins and curses, I would like to say: I TOLD YOU SO I've been waiting to do that for months! I got a congratulatory email from M@ this morning, and friend of wmtc M Yass showed up in our game thread last night, so maybe some of you have caught the fever, or at least a sneeze. The World Series starts Wednesday. It's Mason's nightmare: his Rox vs his Sox .

A new poll supposedly shows that the majority of people in Afghanistan want Canadian forces to remain in the country. A new poll of nearly 1,600 Afghans shows the majority feel safer than they did five years ago, and approve of the direction their country is taking, thanks to the presence of international security forces from countries such as Canada. Results from the Environics Research poll, conducted in partnership with the CBC, show 60 per cent of Afghans surveyed believe the presence of foreign troops has been good for their country. As well, 51 per cent said they feel their country is headed in the right direction, compared to 28 per cent who responded that it's headed in the wrong direction. The remaining interviewees saw no change or didn't know. Most Afghans said they believe their lives are better than they were five years ago, citing increased security, as well as better roads and schools because of reconstruction efforts. Those who feel they are worse off say they ...

Wmtc usually has around 250 visitors a day. That feels like a lot to me, as I watched the numbers climb from zero, and as I don't have an existing interest group from which to draw readers, like a certain person who blogs from the basement . (Joy of Sox has thousands of visitors, and rightly so.) A heavy day at wmtc might be around 320 visitors and 400 page loads. Yesterday wmtc was linked at Crooks And Liars . I had 820 visitors and 1,510 page loads. Michael Stickings, who blogs at The Reaction , linked to my post about Doris Lessing's Nobel Prize in a blog round-up. I didn't know Michael was part of C&L, and I don't know why he chose that post to highlight, but I certainly did enjoy seeing this blog linked at such an excellent site. One of the advantages to getting rid of the URL forwarding with frames is that I have access to stats again. I missed obsessively checking how many visitors I have, where they come from, the bizarre search strings people use. On Stat...

We celebrated Allan's birthday with lunch at Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar , near the St Lawrence Market in Toronto. We've been there a few times, thanks to (former?) wmtc reader Genet , who recommended it way back when. If you ever looking for a place to enjoy something simple and delicious, without having a large formal meal - and if you like good wine and good food in a stylish atmosphere - you can't do better than Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar. They offer a small-plate menu, similar to tapas; every plate has a suggested wine pairing, which you can order in a small tasting size or a regular six-ounce glass. The menu changes very frequently, depending on the season and what's best in the market. Allan and I both love tasting menus or small-plate menus, where you can eat small amounts of several different things. We both love wine, and we appreciate really good service. The service here is impeccable - friendly, attentive, helpful and unpretentious. Until you've experienced that...

Last night we saw our dear friend Mason on national television. It was such fun! I'm so sorry I didn't blog about this before the program aired. But perhaps it will be re-run, so keep an eye out: No Opportunity Wasted on CBC, the episode on fear of public speaking. I read about this on Nick and Mason's blog, Life Without Borders : here's the post that explains why Mason was on the show . I read the post, then promptly forgot to write it down, check the TV schedule, or in any way attempt to remember that my friend would be appearing on national television. Very nice of me. There was no playoff game last night, and we spent the day eating and drinking for Allan's birthday, and then were crashed in front of the TV. I wanted to see if "Little Mosque on the Prairie" is funny this season. During Little Mosque, we kept seeing commercials for "No Opportunity Wasted" - but we always mute commercials, and I didn't make the connection between the titl...

We took the highway till the road went black We'd marked, Truth or Consequences on our map A voice drifted up from the radio And I thought of a voice from long ago Who'll be the last to die for a mistake The last to die for a mistake Whose blood will spill, whose heart will break Who'll be the last to die, for a mistake Kids asleep in the backseat We're just counting the miles, you and me We don't measure the blood we've drawn anymore We just stack the bodies outside the door Who'll be the last to die for a mistake The last to die for a mistake Whose blood will spill, whose heart will break Who'll be the last to die, for a mistake The wise men were all fools, what to do The sun sets in flames as the city burns Another day gone down as the night turns And I hold you here in my heart As things fall apart A downtown window flushed with light Faces of the dead at five Our martyr's silent eyes Petition the drivers as we pass by Who'll be the last to d...

We saw Bruce Springsteen at the Air Canada Centre two nights ago. It was a terrific show. I've seen Bruce in concert maybe eight or ten times - although not since 1988 - and he never disappoints. First, there's Springsteen, an incredibly charismatic performer. In his younger days he was nonstop energy, a skinny, sweaty whirling dervish. He talked about giving his absolute all at every show, because kids spend their hard-earned money to see him and deserve his absolute most and best every single night. You'd leave one of those four-hour shows exhausted, and wondering how he managed to do it night after night. It was more than just raw energy: it was the way it felt so genuine. Springsteen's obvious pleasure in what he was doing, his total absorption in the moment, his seeming complete lack of artifice, goofing around onstage like a kid singing in front of his mirror with a comb-microphone, was infectious. Although his music with the E Street Band has a big sound, and he ...

If anyone is interested in reading my profile of Canadian MP Steven Fletcher, which ran in the September issue of New Mobility magazine, here it is . I'm not thrilled with some of the editing - I think the piece I turned in was a bit livelier - but other than that, I'm happy with it. I very much enjoyed interviewing Fletcher. Although I don't agree with his politics, I fully admire the man. I very rarely feel sorry for the people with disabilities I interview. They lead full lives, and their burdens are not necessarily greater than those of non-disabled people, just different. I've gone beyond disability rights ; I subscribe to disability pride . Fletcher, however - like Brooke Ellison , who I've written about several times - evokes different feelings for me. Being unable to walk does not seem particularly tragic to me, and to many wheelchair-users. The circumstances that result in disability are often traumatic, but life itself may be very ordinary. In a fully acc...

The Liberal Party is like a bunch of spoiled brats, in reverse. If things don't go their way, they don't stomp out of the room, they stay in it. Hey Liberals, I got an idea: do what's best for Canada for a change, instead of what's best for yourselves. The NDP knows this Conservative government is not worth propping up; so does the Bloc. It's time for the Liberals to stop staring at themselves in the mirror and get to work. If non-Canadian readers are wondering what I'm referring to, last night was the Throne Speech. The Governor General , the Queen's representative in Canada , read the Speech from the Throne , which outlines the Government's agenda and goals. In Britain, Canada and other other parliamentary countries that retain a link to a monarchy, the Throne Speech is read by the Head of State, who is neutral, but it is the Government's (think: administration) agenda. Canada's current Governor General is Michaëlle Jean , who I love. Canada...

Frank Rich in the New York Times : "Bush lies" doesn't cut it anymore. It's time to confront the darker reality that we are lying to ourselves. Ten days ago The Times unearthed yet another round of secret Department of Justice memos countenancing torture. President Bush gave his standard response: "This government does not torture people." Of course, it all depends on what the meaning of "torture" is. The whole point of these memos is to repeatedly recalibrate the definition so Mr. Bush can keep pleading innocent. By any legal standards except those rubber-stamped by Alberto Gonzales, we are practicing torture, and we have known we are doing so ever since photographic proof emerged from Abu Ghraib more than three years ago. As Andrew Sullivan, once a Bush cheerleader, observed last weekend in The Sunday Times of London, America's "enhanced interrogation" techniques have a grotesque provenance: "Verschärfte Vernehmung, enhanced or...