test blog #10

An ongoing theme in my life has been ridding myself of as many shoulds as I possibly can - or, to put it more positively, to spend my time doing what I want, rather than what some voice inside my head or some external pressure tells me I ought to. We all have obligations. Work, family, exercise - there are always things we don't really want to do, but must do anyway. Then there are the obligations we give ourselves, the shoulds we add to our own too-full plates. Those are the ones I've been shedding. Lunches with co-workers that I really don't like. Extended email conversations that I don't have time for. I used to see blockbuster movies that I had no interest in, because, for some strange reason, I thought I had to. And certain books. Like so many people who love to read, I never have enough time to read what I want. So why read anyone else's idea of what I should read? Whether they're the current hip books that people are talking about, or classics we think ...

I can't believe how much I'm loving having access to US Netflix through our Roku device. For the price of a new router and some easy-to-follow instructions , my leisure time has been hugely improved. This is close to what I've always wanted for TV and movies: true on-demand viewing. Among the things I love: not paying for hundreds of cable channels that I never watch, not searching in vain for anything I might consider watching, being able to sample one or two shows of a series at no cost or inconvenience, watching on a TV (not a computer), convenience, selection. I can easily see this becoming the standard delivery method for all home viewing. Outside the US, after the initial investment in Roku (which we bought for baseball), plus a new router, this costs $16 per month: $8 for Netflix and $8 for the VPN. At the moment I am gorging on "Commander in Chief," Stephen Bochco's imagining of the first female POTUS, starring Geena Davis and Donald Sutherland. I sa...

As you may have heard, the ship The Estelle , sailing in international waters, was illegally boarded by the Israeli navy, and its occupants taken into custody. Among those being held are Jim Manley, a Canadian, and a former New Democrat MP. The Estelle is part of the Freedom Flotilla movement, which seeks to draw attention to the illegal blockade of Gaza, to stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine, and to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza. The 30 activists on board The Estelle hailed from Israel, the US, Canada, Israel, Norway, and Sweden. In a story about the incident, the Calgary Herald describes Gaza as " the seaside strip ruled by the Islamic militant Hamas group ". This "seaside strip" is home to 1.7 million people, and Hamas is recognized by those people as their legitimate government. Of course, Hamas is an officially designated terrorist organization as defined by the US, Israel, and the EU, and since Canada takes its marching orders from the US, by...

We visited family in the US this past week, and because of this, ended up hearing more about the election in two days than either of us have read, seen, or thought about in months, if not years. Which is not to say people talked non-stop about the election, only that both Allan and I completely tune out that circus masquerading as a democracy. (Apologies to circuses everywhere.) I heard something over dinner one night that stuck in my mind. My sister noted that most voters care foremost about one thing: job creation. She said, "All they talk about is taxes, taxes, taxes, when they should be talking about jobs, jobs, jobs." She remarked how nothing is made in the US anymore, noting, "We don't even answer the phone." And she wondered how anyone even could go about creating jobs, a task that seems nearly impossible at this point. This got me thinking... Bleeding jobs for decades The mainstream media discovered the exodus of North American jobs fairly recently, abo...

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. - Fictional characters --- Mythological names ----- Biblical names This list is more specific, and more difficult. Allan and I have done this one before, and even with help from a well-read listserv, came up with only a handful. (Idea for new reality show: Are you smarter than Wallace-L?) When Joseph Heller died, I marveled at how his creation has entered our vocabulary as such a widely recognized generic expression. The often-misused phrase "catch-22" was long ago separated from its origins. I'm sure many people use it who have never heard of Heller's book. I wondered if there were any other examples. Using a very strict criteria, we came...

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. The agent's name was Charles Boycott. Charles Ponzi was a con artist who promised investors they would double their money in 90 days. In the film "La Dolce Vita," directed by Federico Fellini, an intrusive photographer is named Paparazzo. Thomas Bowdler was a crusading editor who published a book called "The Family Shakespeare": the Bard without the naughty bits. Bowdler believed his work made Shakespeare suitable for the delicate sensibilities of ladies (i.e., upper-class women) and children. So there we have four words - boycott, Ponzi scheme, paparazzi, and bowdlerized - that are derived from people's names. Can you think of any others? Adjectives like "O...