Edmonton driving tip #2

If you're lost, I recommend pulling into a parking lot, and checking a map, or maybe pulling into a service station and asking directions. What I don't recommend is stopping in the middle of the road with a vacant look in your eyes, as the driver who took a left across traffic did in front of me, leaving the back end of my car exposed to all sorts of oncoming traffic when I followed.

Driver of the red Accord, may I suggest a glance at Google Earth before you depart, next time?

Urban futures

Via The Velvet Lounge, I've discovered what can only be seen as a love letter to Detroit. Not thoughtless or cheering, but an honest view of the very epitome of a industrial city in a post-industrial age.

After reading about the changing face of Detroit in the July issue of Harper's, I'm interested to watch how it's all going to turn out, and the Detroit Blog seems like an excellent place to follow. How much of Alberta's urban landscape will have to be rethought as well, as the world moves past oil?

Daily KKKos

Bill O'Reilly has declared that Daily Kos is a hate site. "It's like the Nazi Party", says Billo. Does one get thirsty from talking out of one's ass? Just in case, Bill, here's a nice big cup for you. Drink up!

Putting aside the obvious absurdity of this accusation, one of the points of evidence he uses is that a commenter (not a contributor, but a commenter) at Kos called the Pope a primate. Shocking!

I haven't found the comment in question, so lets not eliminate the possibility the commenter meant "Primate" in the ecclesiastical sense. This is strictly true, then, because the Pope serves as Primate of Italy.

Or perhaps it was used as Billo wants us to believe it was used, that the commenter intended "primate" in the biological sense. Again, how hateful, to say what is true about the Pope, not to mention Billo's beloved President of the United States, Billo himself, me, HRH Elizabeth II, the Hot Chick from That One Show, That Guy with the Shirt, and very probably you, unless you happen to be a search engine bot or a houseplant that's gained sentience by being placed too close to a leaky microwave for too many years. We're all primates. Fortunately, not all of us are morons.

Why does Bill O'Reilly hate science? Yes, it's a rhetorical question.

In the news today

I found the following on the CBC's website, in the local news section:










Do I have to draw a line through these three stories? A million Calgarians, in the absence of a real development plan, give new meaning to the word "sprawl". We encroach on our once wild spaces. Nature encroaches right back.

It is more than high time we recognized that if Alberta's cities are going to keep growing, we need to stop the "out" and work on "up".

Boy Wizards and such

Here's some fun things to do this weekend:

Go for a midnight trip to your local bookstore on Friday, and buy an armload of books - anything except Harry Potter. For added fun, buy nothing but expensive coffee-table erotica. Tell the cashier "I didn't expect to see you open, but I was passing by. Are you always this busy this late?"

If there's a reading of the first chapter or two, sit and listen. Then, ask the reader when you need to come back to hear the rest of it. Ask the reader to sign your copy, and compliment him or her on the writing.

Travel to another bookstore on Saturday. Casually lean against one of the many pallets of Deathly Hallows. Ask a passing employee if they have a copy of the new Harry Potter book.

Ask another employee if they know when Joanne Rowling will be passing through on the book tour.

If anyone during these visits says "Voldemort", put on your best expression of insane fear and scream "Don't! Say! The Name!"

Or, here's a better idea. This book is being sold as a loss leader in the big stores. Go to your little local bookstore, go buy it there for a few extra dollars. Perhaps buy another copy or two from a store you don't like very much that's eating a loss on the book, and donate it or them to your local library. Their wait lists are going to be gross on this book for a good long time.

Spin cycles

Those of you who don't spend quite the hours I do listening to CBC Radio One (current motto: "The Branch of the CBC Even the Tories Think is Good Value for Money!"), you may have missed this lengthy documentary that played on Sunday Edition last winter. Sunday Edition is replaying it this summer, which sent me on a search that led me to this page: all six episodes, fully downloadable. If you've never listened to a radio documentary, and if you have any interest in what I've always felt this blog is primarily about (critiquing and sometimes untangling spin), your time will be well-rewarded .