What I’m doing on my summer vacation

What have I been up to? Well not posting here obviously. Since I am not doing the cartoon regularly to a deadline I’m just not paying a lot of attention to the local news. And city council has gotten quiet as all the problems are solved and it’s summer.

That pesky no fly list

Stephen Harper and Abousfian Abdelrazik

Cull or be culled

Yes! The city is in safe hands!

This comes and goes.

No positive.
No negative.
No up nor down.
Not inside or outside.
Even that space before these things arise
That space which is wanted
Must be abandoned
When it is found.

It can’t be lost because that means a seeker.
It can’t be found by anyone who is looking.
Sit. Just! Sit.
It rains.

Paul, there’s a difference between apples and oranges

In a story in the Free Press about London’s proposed anti-idling bylaw:

…proposals ran afoul last night of Coun. Paul Van Meerbergen.

“It incorporates a bigger, fatter big brother to tell Londoners what to do,” he said.

A gallon of paint emits more than a modern vehicle driving from here to Vancouver, Van Meerbergen said. “Is that what we’re going to do next? Ban paint?” he said.

More what Paul? Emissions from combustion?

google search =A+gallon+of+paint+emissions

Industrial paint shops are already limited by zoning.  Nobody burns buckets of paint on the street, Mr Slippery Slope.

Bird on a wire

Sent from my iPod

The Fig

The Fig, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_gesture

Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa June 9, 2009. REUTERS/Chris Wattie (CANADA POLITICS)

Cat and mouse

I don’t get it. The cat brings in a mouse out of the thunderstorm. Take the mouse away from the cat. Feed the mouse. Put the cat back out into the rain.

Ohmygawd. Now they’ve made a little box with blueberries and cheese. And tissue paper. Its pouring rain and they’re taking and putting the precious creature out in the garage

The cat is at the window in wide eyed panic.

Old South Artists Exhibition

Original Kids Rent

What an amazing bunch of kids. Powerful voices and wow! have some of them come a long way – from thinking they couldn’t sing – to lead. Great staging. Great blocking. Powerful singing and strong strong dancing. And the book ain’t bad either. Micheal Paylor. Congratulations. And it’s only halftime.

Update 4:34:38 PM I’m only a casual parent of some Original Kids, but I can’t speak enough of how amazing it is to watch kids from this program move and grow and have the strength and talent and confidence to put this on. I am not moved so much by the play itself, but I am moved by seeing these kids pull it off.

Archie and Veronica

Well, I was always a Betty guy myself. Even over Wilma.

But this is a standard comic book trope nowadays. Flash marries Iris. Flash dies. Spidey marries Gwen. Spidey reboots. Reboots again. Superman (yes he did) married Lois. Reboot. Superman dies.

So Archie is going there too. Archie marries Veronica. Archie dies. Reboot.

Bye, Phil…

There’s a curious turn in Philip McLeod’s last column for The Londoner:

There are no printers any longer in the newspaper business. Daily, it seems, there are fewer writers, too.

I mention all this not for any particular longing for the ‘good old days’, because I’m not sure they were, but simply to acknowledge I’ve seen a lot of change in my years of working for newspapers in the way the daily emerging facts about a community are gathered and disseminated.

I’m not sure it’s all for the best. And when you reach that point – as I’ve argued often enough about other people in similar circumstances in other occupations – it’s time to make room for those who do.

So this is my last column as editor of The Londoner. On Friday I’m ‘retiring’ – again – from journalism and leaving the newspaper I started seven years ago in the hands of those with a fresher sense of where this business is going.

The Londoner, as our legions of faithful readers will know, started with a determination to bring positive, hopeful stories to local attention. This has turned out to be more difficult than imagined, not because there is a dearth of such material but because you often have to look hard to find it in the landscape so soiled by negativity.

And I don’t blame the media, at least not exclusively, for that. Almost weekly I fend off callers who maintain The Londoner would be better if it was badder. Well maybe. But, personally, I worry about journalists and a society with such a strong fixation on the dark side.

I tend to parse this as indicating a scramble for the advertising buck and a dispute over editorial direction. Standard Quebecor results upcoming? Fewer local columns and more of syndicated columnists and cartoons? We’ll just have to wait, at this point.

Mulroney cat

Over the moon

Cpt. Jeremy Hansen who was born in London – ’cause that’s where the hospitals are – raised in Ingersoll, whereas another article cites Ailsa Crag, is one of Canada’s newest Astronauts.

It’s a bit of a critical time for NASA, with only nine scheduled shuttle flights left. Two ships are on the design boards, one for cargo, another to carry humans, both capable of going to the moon.

Best story at the CBC

Update Thurs, May 14, 2009

The Freeps reports today:

In the backyard of the family farm near Ailsa Craig, Jeremy Hansen made dials out of cardboard and turned his treehouse into a spaceship.

Star Trek!!!!!

Finding this set of pages 10 Best Star Trek Moments at Time was thrilling. Maybe my tech naiveté is showing, but I can’t believe all these episodes are on YouTube, let alone the *!BEST!* Next Generation episode ever!  Yesterday’s Enterprise.

Of course the followup episodes where she was a Romulan captive were just stupid.  Maybe we could forget those ones ever happened.