Through The Mist Darkly

Fresh on the heels of Kurt Vonnegut Jr’s passing comes the sad news that June Callwood died this morning of cancer at the age of 82.

Ms. Callwood was a Canadian treasure.  Journalist and activist, she fought for the rights of women, gays and the underprivileged for more than 40 years.  She never shouted, she didn’t need to.  Her eloquence and passion got her points across loud and clear.

Canada  has lost an important voice.  Like Vonnegut, June Callwood looked at the world and wasn’t afraid to peek under the rug and expose the nasty bits.

  Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. died last night at the age of 84. Vonnegut wrote 14 novels including Breakfast of Champions, Slaughterhouse 5 and Cat’s Cradle.

I’ve read them all and count him as one of the greatest authors to have ever lived.  His style, humor and profoundly unique views on life struck a chord with me from the first page.

Truly sad that he has become, like Billy Pilgrim, unstuck in time and he won’t be giving us new pleasures.  Time to dust off the library and start falling under his spell one more time.

Hi Ho Mr. Vonnegut, rest in peace.

Playing with a beta version of Adobe’s new Photoshop version CS3 and I grabbed this throwaway shot that I took up at Wasaga.  Messing with some of the tools I discovered the alien living in Maxine’s garden shed.

I guess he thought he could hide there.

FINAL FINAL UPDATE:  Mats can go golfing.  The New York Islanders won their game in a shootout and the Leafs are out of the playoffs.

UPDATE:  Ok, so they beat Montreal in what was a very entertaining game (desperation brings out the best) but they now have to hope that the New York Islanders lose on Sunday.

Those lovable losers the Toronto Maple Leafs have a mathematical chance of making it to the Stanley Cup playoffs.  They have to win…someone has to lose….blah, blah, blah.  At the sake of being run out of town, I hope the Leafs lose to Montreal tomorrow night and this whole mess is over with.

 The Leafs, who haven’t won the top prize since 1967, are one of a number of mediocre teams that have a chance because only the truly dreadful teams fail to make the 2 month playoff series.

Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment owns the team and they have more money than sports knowledge.  The Air Canada Centre is filled every night so there’s really no reason to spend money or time worrying about how good the product is that they put on the ice.  John Ferguson Jr. is General Manager and the only virtue he brings to the job, as I see it, is to do exactly what the suits in the boardroom tell him.

Fine players like Mats Sundin (shown in the picture – sorry Mats) are wasted when teamed with rejects and has-beens.  No player development, no young prospects, no chances.  The only hope of making anything better is to miss the playoffs and deny MLSE the additional revenue that those games bring.  Hit ‘em where it hurts.  The bottom line is the only line they understand and something has to be done to give the long suffering fans at least a chance to relive the glory of the past.

‘Nuff said.

Excuse the crummy photo but I caught this on the way home tonight.  Someone with a sense of humor comes up with a clever business name.  Made us laugh.

George Jean Nathan

“Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles.”

The long battle to keep the Super Constellation in Toronto has been lost.  The Toronto Aerospace Museum issued this press release upon hearing that the Connie will be moving to the Museum of Flight in Seattle.

Hopefully the folks in Seattle will be able to restore the bird to the glory that she deserves and the public will be able to view her for many years to come.

In case you’re interested, the tab at the top of this page labeled “Flickr Photo Slideshow” will show all the 1300+ photos I’ve upladed to Flickr.  They’re presented in chronological order and, if you click on an image, you can see the photo’s details.