Really, I still have better things to do. Yesterday I accomplished quite a bit toward packing and cleaning up. Today I put fenders on my bike – my Giant Yukon- , to anticipate riding in the rain and on wet roads.
I’ll still get wet, but I won’t be spraying my crotch and my face with my front tire and my neck and back with my rear tire. It was originally a hard frame mountain bike and over the last three years has been transformed, by tires, gears and other adaptations into a hardy urban cruiser. One of the benefits of my new job in Victoria is that the employer has a bike lockup, showers and change rooms to accommodate people who want to cycle to work. Victoria has dedicated trails including the Galloping Goose, and I should be able to cycle to work without having to travel on major roads. The Yukon is going to become my commuter bike.
Author: Tony Dalmyn
Murrow
For fans of George Clooney’s movie “Good Night, and Good Luck”, a discussion of the work and influence of Edward R. Murrow from the New Yorker: THE MURROW DOCTRINE, Why the life and times of the broadcast pioneer still matter, by Nicholas Lemann.
Raised by Sewer Rats
The Foxtrot cartoon strips published on several consecutive days starting Monday January 23, 2006 have been a brilliant satire of the publishing industry and Oprah Winfrey’s influence and taste.
Talking Back to the Hand
Denis Dutton, the editor of Arts & Letters Daily likes Roger Sandall, who publishes essays online at a site or sites called The Culture Cult and Spiked.
His most recent essay is called “See Here, Ms Truss, The Civility of Archaic Man”. (The dateline at the end says January 2005, which is wrong – the essay mentions Peter Jackson’s King Kong). He mentions the latest book by Lynne Truss, Talk to the Hand: the Utter Bloody Rudeness of Everyday Life and by Theodore Dalrymple, Our Culture, What’s Left of It.
His subject is culture – the cultural restraints on individuals in primitive culture, the failures of decadent primitive cultures, the modern Western myth that primitive cultures were personally and sexually liberated, and their members fulfilled and happy. Nice writing, interesting arguments from cultural anthropology.
Moving On
The idea that I needed to find another job, and to make a break from practising law in private practice in a small firm has been growing for a while – perhaps for well over a decade. The job market in Winnipeg was not great for an experienced, mature lawyer, and Iast spring and summer I started to apply for government jobs in other provinces.
I applied for a job with the British Columbia Attorney General’s Department, in the Legal Services Branch, in August 2005. I was interviewed in October. I was advised by telephone, just before Christmas, that I have the job. The written appointment came in the first week of the New Year.
I was treated well and I was impressed by the hiring process. I knew about my destination after a few visits over the years, and I liked what I saw on this visit. It was a simple decision, although the process of moving is going to be a struggle. I accepted the job. I have told my family and friends, I have listed my house for sale, and I am preparing to move to Victoria, British Columbia.
Underclass
Theodore Dalrymple has produced a steady flow of articles and essays, published in The Spectator, The New Criterion, and City Journal. Denis Dutton has featured many of his essays at Arts & Letters Daily. In 2001, Dalrymple published a collection of his essays in City Journal, over the period from when he first wrote for City Journal in 1994 to 2000, as a book, Life at the Bottom, The Worldview that Makes the Underclass. I can’t handle online material for sustained reading, but the essays are available on line at City Journal. I will mention some of the essays, which can be found in the list generated by searching his name as author.
Link farm
When my future ex-wife started using the Internet, and when her mother and aunt started using the Internet, they used to forward email chain letters to me. I sent them information about web sites with information about virus hoaxes and urban myths, and explained how to bookmark them (I like bookmark – a much better word than Microsoft’s Favorite).
Wolfgang Stiller had a site at www.stiller.com/hoaxes.htm. He called his site Stiller Research. Quite a few pages linked to his hoax information page. He had developed a shareware virus checker called Integrity Master. He seemed to be a serious and knowledgeable person, regarded as an authority on viruses, data security and virus hoaxes. Googling the name brings up the president of the North European division of Alcan, an artist in New York, a mountaineer in Colorado Springs, and lots of hits relating to virus information – most of them going to stiller.com. He may be the mountaineer in Colorado Springs.
His hoax page is gone. Googling Stiller Research still brings up hits at stiller.com, but it has become a link farm. Nothing but ads. The page source suggests the site has been taken over by hitfarm, a notorious adware site.
Meth Scare Stories
Steve sent me a link to the George Mason University’s STATS site which “monitors the media to expose the abuse of science and statistics before people are misled and public policy is distorted”. They issue an annual list of stories that used misleading or false information, the Dubious Data Awards. Their top story for 2005 was Meth Mania.
Coming Up for Air
After The Road to Wigan Pier, George Orwell’s next book was Homage to Catalonia, which was about the Spanish Civil War. In 1939, he published the novel Coming Up for Air, a first person narrative covering a few days in the life, and many years in the memories of George Bowling. Bowling is a 45 year old insurance representative, living in a London suburb. He lives on commission, he travels, he tries to enjoy life. The story is about Bowling’s decision to play hooky – from work and from his family – for about a week to visit the once-rural, once-small village where he grew up before the first World War. The story is the story of his life.
Another Meth Story
The Free Press has published a couple more stories about crystal meth addiction and the governments’ strategies to restrict supply of meth.
Last Tuesday, January 4, 2006, there was a Bruce Owen, “Mom blames crystal meth for daughter’s death”, published electronically at McIntyre’s site. On Friday, January 6, 200, there was a story that pharmacists had agreed to move products that contain ephedrine and pseudo-ephedrine behind the counter, and to limit the amount sold.