Mary Soderstrom's Blog, page 101

I didn't think this was for real when I first saw reference to it, but here's the clip. According to the Huffington Post, his staff today, as Sandy raged, reaffirmed this position.

 "Absolutely," Romney said in this primary debate. "Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that's the right direction. And if you can go even further, and send it back to the private sector, that's even better. Instead of thinking, in the federal budget, what we should cut, we should ask the opposite question, what should we keep?"
 

Well, actually it's not supposed to be so bad here. But I couldn't resist. [image error]

I must have walked by this house on  Chemin de la Côte Ste-Catherine thousands of times, literally, but always on the other side of the street.  This week I took a closer look though, and discovered that the house is 135 years old.

There's a plaque in front, saying that it was built in 1867-68 by a pioneer in the neighborhood   David Edward who was the first mayor of Outremont after it was incorporated in 1875.  The house now sit on a busy thoroughfare, which still follows a curving track made by    Native Canadians  who took it around Mount Royal.

This time of year the trees surrounding the house are turning colour, and the flower beds are full of autumnal asters.  But it hasn't turn so cold that the fountain has been turned off, so the splash of water competes with the traffic noises. [image error]

The first time I heard this was in 1960 when George and Ira Gershwin's Of Thee I Sing was performed  at UC Berkeley with the Kennedy-Nixon presidential campaign in the background. 

I was charmed and I've always thought that the spoof had many interesting things to say: remember it was first performed in 1931 when Hoover was president, and FDR was preparing to run for the office.  The musical ran for 441 night on Broadway, and what FDR accomplished ran four nearly five decades (check out Paul Krugman on that.)

Anyway, with the Romney-Obama face lurching toward its conclusion, this is worth laughing at, it seems to me.
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[image error] What you see to the left is part of the cash that Guy Suprenant, the Montreal engineer who accept wads of money for boosting payments to dishonest contractors, turned over to police before he began testifying to the Charbonneau commission on fraud in the construction industry.

He's said that he received more than $600,00 straight out and another $100,000 in jaunts and dinners and golf trips.  Part of the cash he used to buy presents for his children, but he didn't know what to do with the rest.  Finally he started spending it at the Montreal casino, because at least thata way it would go back int he province;s coffers, he's said.

Then yesterday the anti-fraud squad seized the contents of several safety deposit boxes belonging to Gille Vaillancourt, mayor of Laval, the suburb north of Montreal.  It has not been officially confirmed, but the boxes also contained lots of cash.

And then there's the weird case of Brian Mulroney who had several hundred thousand in a safe at his home: how it got there is an interesting story, why he kept it there is probably even more interesting. 

Because the fact is that it's really hard to get rid of ill-gotten gains.  You can't declare them on your income tax, deposit them in the bank, invest some for a rainy day  and  then just spend a bit at a time.  You'll be leaving a paper trail that is hard to deny.  You may even feel guilty...


[image error]

[image error] What you see to the left is part of the cash that Guy Suprenant, the Montreal engineer who accept wads of money for boosting payments to dishonest contractors, turned over to police before he began testifying to the Charbonneau commission on fraud in the construction industry.

He's said that he received more than $600,00 straight out and another $100,000 in jaunts and dinners and golf trips.  Part of the cash he used to buy presents for his children, but he didn't know what to do with the rest.  Finally he started spending it at the Montreal casino, because at least thata way it would go back int he province;s coffers, he's said.

Then yesterday the anti-fraud squad seized the contents of several safety deposit boxes belonging to Gille Vaillancourt, mayor of Laval, the suburb north of Montreal.  It has not been officially confirmed, but the boxes also contained lots of cash.

And then there's the weird case of Brian Mulroney who had several hundred thousand in a safe at his home: how it got there is an interesting story, why he kept it there is probably even more interesting. 

Because the fact is that it's really hard to get rid of ill-gotten gains.  You can't declare them on your income tax, deposit them in the bank, invest some for a rainy day  and  then just spend a bit at a time.  You'll be leaving a paper trail that is hard to deny.  You may even feel guilty...


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The celebrated Canadian publisher Douglas & McIntyre has  just announced that it is filing for protection from its creditors.  In other words, it is trying to avoid bankruptcy and complete meltdown by reorganizing financially.  This means, most likely, that its creditors will be forced to accept only a percentage of repayment, which further means that writers once again are going to be standing with their hands out, hoping for a few pennies.

At the same time, The Globe and Mail is going to a protected website where you'll have to pay for on-line access after you view 10 stories in a month.  There is a way out: subscribe to the print edition.  Fine, if you can get home delivery in your area, but otherwise it's another blow in the battle for the future of publishing.

Presumably those writing for the Globe will be paid for what they're doing.  The wars over compensation for articles done from a newspaper and published on the web seem to be over.  Some back pay for articles stolen  was won.  Newspapers are back using  freelancers, it seems, but nobody is making the kind of money that used to be paid for a good, meaty article 15 years ago, according to my friends who continue to that sort of writing.

 No, it's hard to see just where publishing is going, but the future doesn't look bright for anybody who hopes ot make a living at it.

Vito Rizzuto who recently finished a prison term in the US for involvement in a gangland killing, was whisked back to Canada as soon as he stepped out of jail. Conrad Black, who renounced his Canadian citizenship before his financial shenigans landed him in jail, came back on a temporary permit as soon as he was released.

But Omar Khadr, arrested at 15 in a war zone,  had to wait in the Gitmo prison for years before he was re-admitted to the country where he was born. 

Another example of the Law of Very Important Persons, it seems to me. 

Time to do something about the garden.  I spent most of the morning cleaning out the compost bin, including watering various places with the compost tea that collects in the bottom of our system.

The stuff is stinky, and must be diluted about 1 part to 10 parts of water, or it burns plants.  One of my nightmares is that for some reason I don't empty the gunk in the fall, the liquid freezes furing the winter, and bursts the recipient so that come spring, the potentially good stuff pools around the bin, killing everything it touches. 

But that job is done for this year, as is planting  a dozen daffodils in front.  They are my favourite flower and are supposed to naturalize in a garden like mine.  That's never happened, but I keep hoping, putting in a few bulbs each fall to come up along with the tulips, snow drops and scylla, all of which return year after year with no help from me. 

The planting and preparation for the next year are a gardener's magical investment in the future.  There, you are in effect saying, we'll get through this winter all right, the sun will come up tomorrow morning, and life will go on. 

Roses are related to apples. I always that was an interesting fact, one of those things to tuck away to bring out when playing a trivia game. 

But this picture of rose hips shows just how much the mature seed pod of the rose looks like an apple.  They're also supposed to be full of vitamin C, so that drinking herbal teas made from them is touted as being very healthy.

They're pretty too, particularlyl this time of the year, just before the rose leaves fall.