Not tired yet

According to Samuel Johnson, the renaissance author and lexicographer, “when you grow tired of London you’ve grown tired of life.”

On Friday night I thought I’d grown tired of life.

I was feeling lonely, bored and just disinterested in everything.  I had done a lot of work that day at the British Library, and then of course had a few pints at a local pub.

This is not a problem, except that real ale, as much as I love it, when it is pulled from a cask, is much less fizzy than force carbonated or even bottle conditioned stuff on tap or in a bottle.  So it goes down really quickly.  I was feeling a little, just slightly, sleepy.

They say that alcohol can be a depressant, so not surprisingly, when I got back to my very humid flat, made some dinner (which ramped up the heat a bit more) and then tried to contact my two friends who live here (actually former students who have pity on a visiting former professor of theirs) and was surprised to find that I had the evening to myself, I was a just a little bummed.  I had no motivation to go out, since “out” was full of tourists, and everywhere seemed especially busy these days.  It’s the beginning of high tourist season, when all the North American schools are out, and the families and kids and teens and university students pour into London, with the intent, I figure, of using it as a jumping off point for other places.

So, I sat in my tiny, humid, rented flat, bored and a little disheartened.  That was until I got into a brief conversation on facebook with my now “ex,” (but still friend) KEL.  She berated me gently for being a self pitying slug (my term), and told me to get out there  and have an adventure.  Not knowing how to do that, and thinking I’d lost my ability to do my own thing and enjoy it, I put on my mp3 player, loaded up some wandering music (read: Josh Ritter), and walked to the Regent’s Park.  My reasoning (I always seem to need a reason) was to walk out the running route I’d take in the morning when I planned to go for a nice run over to said park.

I also bought some chocolate, which I hadn’t yet had on this visit, and which I love much more than waxy North American stuff.

Almost immediately, sugar, cocoa butter, and assorted additives, along with Josh Ritter’s songs, buoyed my spirits, and I began to walk.  I got to Regent’s Park (which is a large park in the North corner of what you might consider the large touristy area of the city) and began wandering around.  It was clearly a nearly tourist-free zone: groups playing pick-up cricket (really), I think I saw a wedding, and the many couples sitting under trees with picnics made me feel a little dejected again (read: “woe is me” lonely).

But then I got somewhere I didn’t expect: the open air theatre in the park.  There is a big open air theatre in that park.  Get it?: Theatre.  Open air.  The park.

Even better: they’re showing Macbeth and A Comedy of Errors.  It’s not free, but it’s affordable.  And Shakespeare in the park is something I almost always enjoy.

That night the play had begun, so I sat nearby, and read my newly-purchased issue of Time Out magazine. And with that I realized that I had become quite lazy in my pursuit of activities.  Here was a list of Shakespeare, both Fringe and more mainstream “West End” or (just off West End) in production at any one time.  Not to mention other great theatre.

I realized that I only have four weeks here (well, really three now) and there is only so much time to see good theatre here.  Not that I’m starved for theatre at home.  But I’ve only seen two plays in London, ever, in my nearly one dozen visits.  One was the Mousetrap, which was crap–poor production values and shitty treatment by staff.  It should be more properly entitled “The Tourist Trap.”  The other was something I saw in the mid-90s at the Old Vic, and it was quite good though I can’t remember what it was.  Maybe an Oscar Wilde?

So that’s it, I’ve not grown tired of London, or of life.  I’ve just had to refocus.  Pubs, crisps and work are not the only reasons to be here.  The chocolate helps, too.

Consuming Canada Day in London

You may know that I have a cynic’s eye for the ironic.  Yesterday was Canada Day, and someone, probably the High Commission or the Embassy or just some interloper, decided to have a Canada Day Bash in Trafalgar Square. It’s appropriate, given that Canada House (the embassy) faces into Trafalgar Square.  so it was a big party, with music, food, a ball hockey game, and promotions by provinces.

I am particularly drawn to irony, as I noted, and being a cynic, I was looking askance at the whole marketing of the stereotypes of Canada.  Of course, there was a MOuntie with a plastic horse, having his picture taken.  I accept that as a necessary thing, and really, in a country born on “peace, order and good government” the Mountie is an appropriate symbol.  But what else did I find.

Well, there’s the food.  This was one of the kiosks, one that I noticed pretty much right away.  I was looking for the poutine kiosk (though I wouldn’t brave the “gravy” because it was possibly beefy.  I didn’t anticipate the other option:

Do you get it? Buffalo wings.  Created in, and thus named after, that Canadian of Canadian cities: Buffalo, NY!  Oh, I know there are Buffalonians who wish they lived in Canada, but this misrepresents reality.

So we move around the square, past the stage, to the next food kiosk.  This one looks reminisicent of the Calgary Stampede, so I’m sure it’s a genuine Canadian affair.  I wasn’t sure that curly fries were Canadian, but I’ll accept that lie (it’s not as if they’re named after Curly, Wisconsin or something).

Is this the Calgary Stampede?

Seems pretty safe, huh?  I mean, look at the number of Canadian flags flying. They’ve got to be Canadian. Who else flies so many flags?

I wonder what they’re selling.  Probably have clever names like “Calgary curly fries…”  Right?

Let’s get a better look.

Okay, that's two

Hmm….

so enough with the food, clearly, whatever Canadian food is (and I’m not sure) it might as well be American frontier food.  How about drinks?  Surely beer is something Canadians can be proud of.

So let’s look at the drink menu.  Oh, great, Sleeman’s.  I’m impressed, given that they position themselves as a smaller, craft brewery, how did they get here?  I’m not going to remind you that Sleeman’s is owned by Sapporo, so pretty much a Japanese beer.  Nevertheless, they’re as Canadian as Labatts (Belgian) and Molson (American).   But that’s globalization.

What I think is more notable are the options to Good Canadian Cans of Beer:

Two British choices, one of which (Adnams) was actually on draught.  Unlike the “Sleemans Draught” which was in a can.  Huh? (at least they spelled “draught” correctly).

Good Canadian stuff?

Okay, all right, let’s move beyond Beer.  After all, in the UK, why would you drink shitty Canadian beer anyway?  Not that Adnams is better…

How about coffee?  Tim Horton’s (also I believe now owned by an American conglomerate) has got to be the most iconic Canadian consumable in the world.  At least if we are to believe their ads.

Here is the line for the Tim Horton’s kiosk.

Coffee me

Ah! Tim Hortons.  A beacon to all Canadians.

And how do we know that these were Canadians, not just Brits looking for shitty doughnuts?  What’s that on the left side, attached haphazardly to the Tim Horton’s sign?  A true indication that Canadians are in our midst:

How does a Canadian cool off?

Happy Canada Day!

Adventures as a talking head

So, because I am fairly heavily involved in the history of drugs and alcohol, a few weeks ago I was contacted by a producer of the Jon Dore Television Show about being interviewed by their title character and real life individual, Jon Dore (pronounced like Door).

Well, before I even saw the show, I said Oh Yes! (in my best Doctor Who impersonation).

Then I saw the show, checked out a few clips at Youtube and the show’s website, and realized that this was not what I expected.

You see, the show is a sort of fictional, or maybe better yet, exaggerated reality: Jon Dore plays an everyday guy, maybe slightly dumb (it’s a character, not really him) who wants to learn more about an issue.  For example, getting fit, getting over a phobia, finding love.  While Jon is a real guy, his persona is a little exaggerated, but he interviews real people, experts of a sort.  For the losing weight issue, for example, he interviewed among other people, a plastic surgeon about liposuction, and a behavioural therapist about his bat phobia.

Two weeks later, I was sitting in a trailer in Burlington outside of a townhouse that had been coopted as a set. I wore my own clothes, vetted by the very friendly costume person, covered in makeup to make my skin less shiny and blotchy (I looked far better than normal, I have to say), and chatting about movies, TV and drugs with a couple directors, a producer, and a few other people who seemed important, but whose job was never clear to me. I had a tiny microphone in my lapel and its cord running down my leg to a remote transmitter strapped to my ankle. I felt like I was wired for a sting operation.

Now, on his show, Jon speaks to the experts for maybe five minutes. So I was wondering why I was scheduled to arrive at 8:15 and be there for four hours. Well, let me tell you: the edit is 5 minutes, but for us it took three hours to shoot. This is simply the magic of TV. Jon would ask a question several different ways. We’d play around with answers, how I delivered them and how detailed I got. Given the length of some of my posts, you can imagine how much I can ramble on when on camera. Then they’d change the cameras around and we’d go back for another run at the interview. Jon would try various jokes out, he’d make fun of me or himself (usually himself, the schtick of the show is basically Jon plays a simple everyman with a somewhat base sense of humour – works for me) and then we’d wrap up, sti downstairs for five minutes while they fiddled with the camera, get our makeup touched up, and go back for more.

I tell you, I have not had that much fun in a long time. Not only did the staff make me feel like a star, but Jon and I seemed to get along pretty well, which made for a very easy to do interview about a topic I know quite a bit about. Of course, I inevitably got some stuff wrong, because Jon took me into topics I knew less about (how long has pot been cultivated in North America) or I was just a little camera nervous and said stuff like cocaine had been around for most of the nineteenth century – not true. But it was a lot of fun. We broke each other up a few times, and they seemed to like how well it went.

The tragedy of the whole thing was that we were shooting for the last episode of the show. It has not yet been picked up by Comedy for another season, so everyone was bittersweet. Happy to be done with it, but going to miss all of their new friends.
It was also a drag for me, because I enjoyed it so much, I wanted to go back on another show. Maybe “Jon wants to know more about alcohol” or “Jon gets addicted to crack.” I could be a regular character, like his shrink.

The next morning, I got my letter from ACTRA (Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists) congratulating me on my first gig and inviting me to join my local ACTRA branch. Given how much they paid, I’d be up for it if I though there was much of a market for historians of medicine.

“I’m a historian of medicine and I play one on TV.”

Dear university students (an open letter)

It’s the end of the term.  You are facing the challenge of essays, exams, buying other students’ notes and so on.  I have something I need to tell you that seems to be going unsaid.

Many of you appear to be completely unprepared to be in university.  Many of you seem not to have the basic analytical skills to go deeper than the surface ideas and “facts” that you are given, and at the same time lack the communications skills necessary to express whatever ideas you do have.  This is a problem.

There seems to be this idea that it is the job of universities to teach you how to write.  By the time many of you get to university (which, remember, is also known as “higher education”) you have been in some form of schooling for twelve or thirteen years.  After about grade seven, you’ve got the basic reading skills, and probably know your alphabet, how to write, and for many people these days, how to use a computer.  If you are reading this, you have logged on, probably typed in some kind of search term, and gone on to find this blog, of which, by now, youv’e read about 200 words.

So somewhere along the line the connection between basic communication and expressing more complex ideas was lost.  Where did this happen?  Was it the rise of the text message culture, where whole sentences are expressed like this or this or ROTFLMAO this?

Or is it a commercialized information based culture that fires reams of words at you, but does not want you to critically analyze those words?  Coke wants you to believe that there’s “Always Coca-cola” or McDonalds wants you to believe “I’m lovin it” or Nike tells you to “Just Do it” without you bothering to ask: what do you mean by always? or What am I lovin’? or do what!?

On top of this, it seems that the overworked and underappreciated high school teachers are letting you do things like cut and paste text from the internet and call it an essay.  You have not been asked to be critical, you have not been asked to be analytical, and you have not been asked to question the sources.  Believe me, if it is on the internet, it’s not necessarily fact.  Yeah, in fact (!) most of what is out there is not “fact” it’s just opinion or hypothesis presented as absolute truth.  It is not a fact, and neither is what I’m saying.

This is all really quite disconcerting.  When people lack these basic critical skills, they cease to recognize when they’re being handed a shit sandwich and being told it’s haute cuisine.  It has broad implications for our society at large.  When you can’t recognize crap, you can continue to be crapped upon.  (How much more scatological can I get, huh?)

Moreover, if you have an idea that something is wrong, but can’t express it clearly, then no one else is going to be able to know what the hell you’re talking about.  And if you do express your idea, but it is full of spelling errors and grammatical flubs, few people are going to take it seriously.

Don’t believe me?  When people want to express stupidity in writing, how do they do it? With the dropped “g” and apostrophe.  Not gunna take my wurd fer it?  Then wutcha doin’ still readin’ this blog?

Exactly.

And yes, this is elitist.  But it is not elitist in the way that saying some people are by birth better than others.  Because basic education is available to most, and many people, including myself, believe that education is a right.

Unfortunately, like the right to vote or the freedom of speech, many people deny themselves that right.  Oh, sure, they go to school.  They sit through class and don’t recognize that they’re not going to learn much if they are passive receptacles for information.

You know the saying “we learn from our mistakes?”  Well, it’s the same with education.  When you get something wrong, you learn that it is wrong, and maybe even what is right.  If you ask about it – say, ask the teacher “why is this wrong?” or the professor “what did I do wrong?” you might just learn something.  But few people do this.

Now, I teach at a university.  I have four hours a week set aside for students to come to speak to me about their papers.  Think that’s not a lot?  So do I.  But it’s, sadly, way more than enough.  After the first paper, on which many students did pretty poorly, two people came to see me.  Both of these students had at least a B grade, and they are probably both going to finish the course with either an “A” or at least a good solid B+.  They didn’t come to see me because they thought that I screwed them over on their papers: they came to see me because they wanted to know how they can improve.  These students were taught correctly, and know how to learn.

So please, take it from me, an anonymous professor who really likes to teach and wants people to learn.  You’ve got to step up a bit.  I have a friend who works in a big corporation, who complained to me that university grads are coming to work for him without basic communication skills.  Are they going to succeed?  I doubt it.  Unlike in university, when you get into the business world, there is not a lot of support for incompetence.  There is a door, and you will be shown to it.

So, follow these simple rules and you’ll be on your way to at least not being a total tool when you walk out of your graduation:

1. Question everything.  EVERYTHING.  Don’t become a dick in class and always say “I don’t believe you” to the prof, but definitely make sure that you have access to all the information you need.  And if there is something that really doesn’t make sense to you, speak up.
2. Use the resources made available to you.  This includes your teacher.  Their job is to teach, and if they walk out of the room at the end of the session while you still have questions, then you should be following them and asking those questions.
3. There really are no stupid questions.  There are stupid questioners, though.  I have had many students email me or (much less frequently) come to see me with a question that was answered in detail in the previous class.  These are students who chose not to come to class.  That’s stupid.  The fact that I answered the question in class demonstrates that it was not a stupid question.  The fact that they didn’t hear it… well, see the next point.
4. Go to class.  There is a saying: there are none so deaf as those who will not hear.  I had a first year philosophy prof modify that to: there are none so deaf as those who are not here.   It’s true.  How do you expect to get the information and analysis you need if you don’t come to class?  Someone else’s notes?  Do you trust them?  Apparently you missed #1, above!
5. Stop blaming others, and stop making excuses for yourself.  I know students who use every sick pass, “special needs” dispensation and excuse to get out of hitting deadlines or working.  Quit it.  It debases the time when people really do need these things (have you ever heard the story of the boy who cried wolf?) and demeans you.  Besides, no boss in the world is going to give you constant  permission to miss deadlines, claim you’re too busy to finish your work, or say “but I get nervous when I give presentations so the special needs people in my university said I don’t have to.”  Again, there’s the door.   [Listen, this is not insensitive.  I had a very good student get "special needs" to accommodate her because she got nervous before exams.  (I'd think she had a disability if she didn't get nervous!!)  She got permission to write her exam in a separate room with extra time.  She wrote easily three times as much as other students.  Was that fair to them?  Was she undermining her own integrity?  She definitely lost my respect.  Students with real learning disabilities should have access to support, but those who just take advantage of the opportunity because they get "nervous"--geesh.  That is abuse of the system.]
6. Read and write as much as you can.  By doing this, you begin to recognize how to express things clearly.  And I don’t mean read on-line.  If you’re blogging, texting, surfing and so on constantly, the odds are you’re learning to read short paragraphs, maybe a few sentences, and then moving on.  Sadly, you’ve probably quit before you got to this line.  (I’m not a Luddite, but get off the damn computer once in a while).  Take the time to read… Every word in that sentence is important, so let me break it out:

TAKE:  It’s free.  It’s yours. Seize it.

THE: Okay, just an article, but it is specific.  See below

TIME: Essential.  We have reified time, made it into something that seems subject to some sort of trade laws.  (you can buy, give, waste, spend, save, lose time: just like a commodity).  People say they have no time, but usually they are spending lots of time or wasting it, very often doing stuff that is a distraction.  Believe me, I can procrastinate like anyone else (I am after all blogging right now).  But the TIME is there.  And it is not just “some” time or “any” time.  It is THE time.  Very important. Block it out.  Seize this right of yours.

TO: Okay, preposition.  I’m not going to get into too much grammar, but it’s important in this context.

READ.  Read.  Read.  Read. Read.  Read actively.  Take the words.  Ask questions of them.  Even in fiction, (good fiction) there is a dialogue going on.  A good writer will lead you only so far, and ask you to either fill in the blanks, or to anticipate what is going to happen.  Non-fiction is even more important to actively read.  Ask questions.  If you are reading work for school, use a pencil and take notes in the margins (if its your book or article) or on a pad.  DON’T just highlight, because ultimately you’ll have blocks of words highlighted but no reminder to you of why you did it.  Every time you read you are participating in a conversation with the author.  Do you like just to sit and be told stuff? (do you really like two hour lectures?)  Then why would you do that when you read?  Engage with the author.  It’s way more interesting.

I’m spent.  I’ve been grading crappy papers by thoughtful students who don’t know how to write.  It’s frustrating.  But what’s worse is the students without a clue who also don’t know how to write.  They should not be in university until they figure it out.   But they’ll probably get the same degree as the clued-in ones in the class.  Yes, I’m elitist.  I think people who achieve should be rewarded, and people who do nothing, should get nothing in return.  Don’t perpetuate the problem.

Your friend,

Dan

Dear Sid Meier

Thank you for your creation, the Civilization series of video games.  You bastard.  Do you know how fricking addictive these games are?  I bet you do.  Geeze.  I’m sitting here, a few hours from teaching, propped up by  about ten hours’ sleep in two days and lots of coffee.  (I know, it would be a better complaint if I hadn’t slept at all, but I’m nothing if not honest).

I downloaded the demo for Civilization Revolution and was immediately hooked.  The possibilities (16 civilizations, building nuclear weapons, the united nations or a mission to Alpha Centurai) were just too tempting.  But I resisted buying the game.  I knew it would be too tempting.  I had to write a chapter this weekend.

Saturday evening, I was weak.  I had hit a wall with my work, and felt somewhat brain dead., needed chips and pops and distraction.   So, as a compromise, I headed to Blockbuster and rented your game.

It was the best decision I could have made, given my twitchy addict’s prediliciton to lose myself in simulated adventure.  That game is far too addictive to own… I’d never work again.

How could you do this to me?

I know, I’m blaming you.  But I could hardly blame myself, could I?  I mean, my ego is huge.  How could it not be?  I just conquered the world (again) this time as Isabella of Spain.

Your friend

Dan

PS. This letter was not sent to Sid Meier.

Dear WNED

I am sitting at my computer, looking at your website, wondering how the heck I can call you to give you some money.  I hear the pledge number on the radio, but when I’m listening at breakfast, my hands are full so I figure I’ll just go onto the computer, find the number on the website, and call.  The problem is, I can’t find the number.

Why, you ask, won’t I just use the on line pledge form?  Am I a luddite?  Am I afraid of sending money over the intarweb?

Nope, not at all.  Amazon.ca is my shopping mall.  But WNED is about community.  Speaking to a human being is just a little more, erm, human, than just filling in a form.

After digging around, I found a toll-free number for your membership department.  I figured, well, if this isn’t the pledge number, surely they’d be able to give me the pledge number.  But when I got the answering machine, it said nothing about the pledge line.  It was as if there was no pledge drive going on.

I kept digging; I found other numbers, the number for the program dept, the main office, other things like that.  But NOWHERE on your website have you listed the toll-free pledge number.  At least not in an easy to find way.

This seems to me to be a strategic error (or is it tactical?  I’ll ask John McCain). I have a sneaking suspicion that you’ll find many people who pledge prefer to phone; and many people who listen to WNED might not be all that comfortable sending money over the ‘net.

As far as I see it, during a pledge drive, contact information should be key.  You fill the space between songs with such pleas; why doesn’t the website (and anwering machines) include that information righ tup front.

I finally got the number when I was listening on line, but was discouraged initially when I couldn’t find it.  Others might be the same way.

It might be a small demographic for whom this appeals, but as your announcers keep reminding us, every little bit helps.

Please keep up the good programming, and I am very happy now to be a member.  With the slow choking of good classical radio programming in Canada (CBC 2′s remaining classics show is a bit of a disaster) you are an breath of fresh air.

Your friend,

Dan

Dear James Moore, MP

First of all, congratulations on your appointment as Minister of Culture.  It’s a tricky post, especially as a Conservative, because many who vote for you are characterized as philistines who think culture ends at finger painting in kindergarten.  And with a prime minister who has a pretty narrow view of arts, and a dismissive attitude towards the arts community (which he sees as elitist and out of touch) you are going to be caught in the cross fire of several ideological battles.

I hear that you have some arts cred; that you’re a big fan of Baroque music.  In the Globe the other day you were quoted as saying that you can’t do any work without it.  And for you it’s more than just audio wallpaper.  You have said that you appreciate the complexity of Baroque, its layers and intensity.  I think you could extend this to much symphonic music (so-called “classical” music, which I try to avoid using because as you know that’s a musical era as well as a broad musical genre), but I’m not going to disagree about your perspective of Baroque.  Vivaldi is pretty amazing stuff.  In high school I had a few friends who played rock guitar, and they characterized the violin playing in Vivaldi’s pieces as the early modern equivalent to wailing guitar solos of people like Yngwie Malmsteen, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. Who, and I’m not kidding here, are pretty phenomenal instrumentalists

I suspect, then, that you appreciate the value of broader  “classical” music to many Canadians.  You appreciate the depth of Baroque; you can appreciate those of us who love a good choral piece, or Stravinsky (you want depth and intensity?  Try Stravinsky).  And you could probably get behind new composers and musicians who are struggling to create modern compositions to follow the path charted by people like Vivaldi.

so you probably think I’m going to make a case for increased funding of the arts.  I could, and many will, but that’s not my purpose here.  They have voices and they can speak.  I hope they do.

What I want to ask you is this: can you do anything about CBC Radio 2′s recent format changes?  They’ve relegated “classics” to five hours in the middle of the day, possibly the same time you’ll be in the House when it’s sitting, and therefore even you won’t be able to hear it.

I know, I know, you have a loaded IPod, at least that’s what the Globe suggested, so maybe you prefer classics of your own choosing.  But surely your interest in this music began somewhere.  Was it listening to the CBC in the morning with your family?  Was it the long lost “Music for a While” after dinner, or In Performance after that?  Even if you hadn’t come to your love of Baroque through the CBC, don’t you see how some people did so?  My love of classics was through waking up to it on the radio, listening while at work and keeping it on into the evening.

Can’t your legacy be that you helped ignite a love of classical music in young people, and helped to strengthen and build a solid music community in Canada?  I mean, you Tories seem to think that patronage of the arts should come from private donors.  Be that as it may, if people don’t learn to appreciate classical music, who’s going to bother to patronize the artists?  We could be one or two generations away from no symphonies being around to play your beloved Baroque.  They’ll all be relegated to programming “pop” symphonies of the Star Wars theme, if they exist at all.

So I’m asking you as a fellow lover of classics, to nudge the CBC towards a format change.  Maybe they’ll even give you a show: Jimmy Moore’s Baroque Corner.  If that’s what it takes to expand the classics offering on the CBC, I’m willing to listen to it.

Your friend,

Dan

this message was sent to James Moore on Sunday, November 9.

Dear Timmy’s

That is the name many people give you, a nickname of affection alluding to the tender thoughts you inspire.  You are their morning double double.  You are their boost every day.  That little paper cup and the caffiene kick.  You’re so friendly and nice; your ads make it seem like you’re the best place in the world to work, and the best place in the world to buy your morning coffee.

But people are beginning to take notice of your darker side.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s about time.

Let’s forget the incredibly unhealthy food you serve; let’s ignore the encouragement of the drive-thru window which lines SUVs up around the block while people who get out of their cars and stand at the counter wait for a long time.  Forget the oddly hyper addictive coffee (it’s loaded with speed, right?).  Today we’re focusing upon your iconic little paper cup.

The city of Toronto has proposed policies to penalize corporations who sell disposable products, and your paper cups have become the center of the storm.  And for good reason.  The take-away cup is a persistent plague on communities.  Your business thrives on the take out custom; your cups are everywhere.  Recently you’ve begun to introduce recycling facilities in your store, yet when people take away, they don’t stay to use them.  You argue that many municipal recycling programs allow your cups to be recycled.

That is true, but you miss the point. Are you sitting comfortably?  Got your double-double?  Good, let’s begin.

The classic three “R”s of waste management are (say them with me): Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  Why do you think Recycle is last?  Beyond the iambic rhythm of the phrase, it’s because recycling should be the last strategy in waste management.

REDUCE.  Get rid of unnecessary waste.

REUSE: encourage the use of non-disposable implements

Then, if all other strategies are not feasible, RECYCLE.

You may wonder why this is the case.  Well, I’ll tell you.  Environmental strategies should not be taken in isolation.  Part of addressing fundamental environmental concerns is addressing the wasteful behaviours of people, and corporations.

Reducing encourages the elimination of waste that takes energy to generate. It makes corporations and individuals

Reusing puts the onus on the individual to think about the waste they are generating and reduce it (by reusing material, instead of using new, disposable material that took energy and resources to make).  It makes people be more responsible for cleaning their reusable cups, or folding their boxes for reuse later.

Recycling simply shuffles responsibility for waste somewhere else.  It allows us to continue to be wasteful, but we divert our waste elsewhere.

Let’s think about your iconic paper cup, Timmy.  I have a paper cup, which cost energy and used resources to make.  I think I’m “green” minded, so I put it in this blue or green bin, and feel that I am “doing my part for the environment” while not really having to think too much about the impact of my hyper-consumerist behaviour.  Once it goes in that bin, big diesel burning trucks take it away, energy using factories grind it up, pulp it and then new factories make new products, which is delivered by big, diesel burning trucks.

Toronto wants you to fess up to the problems you’re causing.  You balk.

Now, Timmy, you are a shrewd corporate operation.  You make this sound local but you know it’s global. You know that elsewhere around the world, governments are forcing wasteful corporations to take responsibility for their waste. You are afraid.

You shouldn’t be.  You should see this as an opportunity.

Still sitting?  How’s that double double?  Here goes the second part of the lesson. I’ll tell you a story.

When I was in the UK a few years ago I was buying books with a colleague of mine from Germany.  When the store clerk asked my friend if she wanted a bag for her book, she was bemused, a little startled.  She told me that in Germany they simply don’t use plastic bags, because corporations have had to take responsibility – that is, pay the price – of such waste.  So companies began to change their behaviour, and the people did, too.  It caused them to internalize the need NOT to have such unnecessary items as a plastic bag for a small paper back book.The result, after a little pain, was gain for all.

Think, then, about what you could be doing.  You present a warm and fuzzy corporate image to Canadians; show how homesick Canucks around the world pine for their Timmy’s; how Tim Horton’s is part of the fabric of every Canadian’s life, be it with hockey references or camps for kids; and set up shop with “our men and women” of the armed forces.  Product placement in the army. Clever.

That’s all very nice, but how about thinking bigger?  How about thinking about how responsible corporate citizens can have a fundamentally beneficial impact on the way we think about our relationship to the world around us?   How, like plastic bags in Germany, you could be at the forefront of a fundamental, widely beneficial cultural change.

Currently, when I take my reusable coffee cup to my local Tim Horton’s, I might get five cents off my $1.30 cup of coffee.  Five cents?  You know that the cup and the actual coffee probably cost about the same amount, possibly more than five cents.  Maybe you could drop the savings even more.  Encourage more people to use reusable cups.  Let people think about the impact of what they’re doing.  Maybe even give incentives to use other types of reusable containers when people buy your super fattening baked products. You’re still gonna profit, baby.  You’ll probably profit more.  Take that, Country Style.

I’m not asking you to end global oppression, to address the injustices of the poor coffee farmer who has to dance to the song you and your suppliers (hello, Mother Parker’s) are playing (though it would be nice if you could do something about that, too).  I’m just asking you to recognize the impact you have on the environment, and the impact you COULD have if you took some responsibility and leadership in pushing for change.

Still not convinced?  Visit your local 7-11 store.  If you buy a Slurpee, the big red plastic cup, it will cost you $1.69+tx. If you bring your Slurpee cup back for a refill, it costs a whopping $0.99+tx.  That’s a huge discount, something like what 40%?  do you think they’re losing money? You bet your coffee-stained ass they’re not.

Instead, you offer resistance to positive, environmentally minded public policy, and present yourself as more sinned against than sinning.  Give me a break.  To bastardize a phrase of Stuart Maclean: You may be big, but you’re small. Minded.

Until then, I’ll continue to bring my home brewed coffee to work in my vacuum flask, and drink it out of my ceramic mug.  It’s a Disney mug, which just goes to show you that I’m not without my faults.

Your friend,

Dan

This message was sent to Tim Horton’s on November 9, 2008

The Luddite’s dance

(This post is not about politics per se, but about the decision, inspired by political philistines who think “culture” is equivalent to “sitting in front of the TV after work” to dumb down CBC Radio 2 under the guise of making it more accessible.)

With what amounts to essentially the death of CBC Radio 2, I have been forced to find other ways to inject classical music into my mornings.  Living near the border with New York state, I have begun to try to listen to WNED, Classical 94.5fm (which I fondly, jokingly, call “NED”)  The problem is, owing to the positioning of my house and probably FCC regulations about broadcast range, often the music is peppered by static with a hip-hop beat.

I have been taking a Janus-faced look into technology.

In one direction is the FM radio antenna.  I bought a little wire T-shaped indoor FM antenna, which helped a bit.  But not enough.  Then I paid four times as much (which was still pretty cheap) for a TV-top UHF.VHF.FM antenna with a 15Db signal boost.  Now it’s plugged into the receiver, and the T-shaped antenna is plugged into this newer antenna.  The signal is slightly better, but still, on certain days, when I stand at certain places, I get Missy Elliot with Measha Brueggergosman.

So here’s where Janus’s face comes in.  Do I go backwards, and build or even buy an outdoor FM antenna, uncertain whether that will boost the NED fm signal?  Or do I go forwards, and buy an internet radio receiver that can plug into my stereo, and connect to the internet via my home wireless signal?

Really, this is a dilemma.  I suspect both will cost me well over $100, and both will have their pros and cons.  Going lo-tech means I don’t have to fiddle with additional inputs and devices in my stereo.  Going hi-tech means I am at the mercy of a somewhat temperamental wireless router, but I can ignore NED and go right for the BEEB!

Or maybe I should settle for the annoyingly commercial laden “New Classical FM” from Toronto, or Jazz fm, both of which have overly chatty morning DJ duos, which drives me bonkers.

Less talk, more “rock” please.  And by “rock” I mean rock=the foundation upon which all else is built.  To me, that’s the complex, intricate and transcendent compositions commonly, yet erroneously, called “classical” music.

Some days I read like a crusty old fart, huh?  I’m not so old.  But I can be crusty, and do, on occasion, fart.

The problem: it shouldn’t be a laff! riot!

I began to watch the US VP debate on Thursday night, but quickly changed over to the Canadian leaders’ debate (I’m Canadian, so it matters to me). For some reason, the VP debate bothered me.  I have it recorded and may watch it later, but I’m not sure.

Now I’ve figured out what was bothering me.

I was ready to laugh at the gaffs, to chuckle with my own self righteous sense of superiority over Sarah Palin’s vacuity.  (See my Sept 29 post for my thoughts on the laff riot this could be.)

But the thing is: this is not funny anymore! She could be the Vice President of the United States.  While it is fun to see how ridiculous the choice was, when you consider that this person could be the commander in chief… Jeeezus, this is serious shit.

How DARE John McCain make such a cynical and irresponsible choice!!  I guess maybe it made it wasn’t such a big deal for him because the odds are that Palin would take over from McCain only if old Chipmunk Cheeks shuffled off his mortal coil.   But if he wants to be president, he’s got to be able to make more responsible decisions than that.

Some say that’s just another demonstration of how McCain’s a maverick.  Sure.  If the selection of Palin demonstrates McCain is a maverick, then he should have demonstrated he was a really radical maverick and nominated an actual pit bull for VP.  It couldn’t have been a worse decision than Palin.

Today I tried to watch some of the cuts from Palin’s interview with Katie Couric but I couldn’t bear it.  The fact that this person has absolutely no clue on so many issues is not a problem; the fact that she’s running for Vice President of the United States of America is sickening.

The news media may love it, gloating over her gaffs and showing yet another example of her inexperience.  I guess it makes good TV, if all you want is to boost ratings.  The comedy shows are having a field day, and no doubt: they don’t have to write anything.  Just check out any recent episode of the Daily Show or Colbert Report (both of which I love).  They just have to run clips of Palin and then look aghast.  But that’s their job: it’s comedy.  At least recently Jon Stewart has been letting his anger at the whole thing become obvious (he can still do it and be funny, which is why he’s great).

But for the rest of you: this isn’t comedy!   This person could be in charge!! Imagine if she were in the White House during 9/11.  You thought Bush screwed things up?

It’s not funny any more, people.  This is serious shit.  And I wish people would stop dancing around it.  Someone’s gotta say to McCain: “What the fuck were you thinking!?  What kind of irresponsible dipshit are you?”

And then vote against him.  I don’t care who you vote for, just please don’t validate his idiocy, and his clear disrespect of the electorate, by voting for him.

Because a vote for McCain…

…is a vote for Palin.