- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 347
So, starting off this week, and continuing the previous.
There's the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie, no hopeful outcomes there I think, funny that she was the target, but - wait - didn't her daughter once have the audacity to interview Jeffrey Epstein's victims? And is there a link here?
That's an underreported headline there. There's news that the FBI busted a big Pedophile ring; no, not that one, so take it with a grain of salt. Then there was Trump posting his "Ape Obama's" photo - a good 20 minutes of outrage there, then quelled. There was the threats over the Canada bridge, the shutting down of Federal Airspace over El Paso Texas, there was the Bondi Congressional "Interview", the "MAGA Father Kills Dissenting Daughter Headline"; quickly acquitted of any wrongdoing because MAGA and Texas, there was the suggestion that Jeffrey Epstein is alive and well in Israel, because he's been seen online under his username and playing Fortnight and his bank accounts all still oddly are active...
Then there was Tumbler Ridge, but that's a separate post.
All these things, the machine-gun fire of irrelevant news and conspiracies and "connect the dots" - and you can, and maybe one day someone will, but they're all to distract us - Project 2025 is halfway there inside a year.
The MAGGATS are swarming America, picking it clean, but keep everyone outraged, distracted, with these click-bait 20 minute wonders and the juggernaut will continue to roll forward...
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 366
Lunch on Wednesday I'm using up a lot of stuff from the freezer, gonna make some Tom Yum Kung. So I head out the the local grocery, and for it I'll need frozen Galangal, Lemongrass, Kaffir Lime Leaves. The cost alone - what? $35? I would have been better off just buying 5 tubs of the premix. Anyways, home to make it...
It's OK, by which I mean the Galangal is tough and has to be spat out, the frozen lemongrass (minced, they didn't have stems) I'm not sure did anything, and I have far more Kaffir Lime Leaves than ever I needed. Soup - Tasty, Recipe a failure, I should have read it more thoroughly, cooking times, etc, but I tend to wing it a little too much some times, and clearly this was one of those times.
***
In the evening I have some crackers and a slice of pizza with Steve's hot sauce. Steve, a neighbour, made me a jar, it goes down pretty easy. I have a high tolerance to spice.
Until I don't, not 10 minutes later and I'm in the bathroom, bent double on the floor, my mouth accepted it but my belly isn't, I'm dying, never had a stomach ache this bad - not an ache, an actual vivid pain, and I'm sweating and thinking who the hell wants to die on the bathroom floor, and comfortable with dying, but not in this position, and it takes me 10 minutes to stand up, make my way to the bedroom, a full two hours to recover.
Insane.
Thursday I stick close to home, for obvious reasons...
Not sure what to do with the rest of Steve's hot sauce, checking the bottle it's already eaten through the lining on the lid...
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 404
So, the past few days off. Tuesday, a reasonable pace at work, then off Wednesday and Thursday.
Chatting with friend via text Wednesday - I sent her a job posting I spotted outside the BCAA. She applies; she's been looking for work - almost 2 years now, and I'm starting to think she isn't really trying. She always reports she's "Waiting to hear back from..." and - in my books, 2 years without work, out of EI, out of everything, well, you shouldn't be "Waiting to hear back..." from anyone; you should be applying; applying; applying....
What do I know?
Wednesday night, date, friend, it goes well, a bottle of wine, pizza, there are a group of Americans at the bar. Heli-skiers. We're infested with them at the moment, while prices in town are high - for food and beverage, clearly they represent a deal for the Americans heading North. And I'm talking to one; "Seth", he's wearing a Rolex Batman, and he's friendly enough, close enough to my age; I admire his watch; his friends; then he asks the question...."Sooo...what do you think of Americans up here...." and you know; you know.
I try to brush it off, assure him they have some problems, but I'm not taking it personally; don't want to direct my rage towards him, explain it as living above a crack-house; he laughs, his minder - the tour group lead; how are they all connected? Friends? University? Alumni? Or all just booked a package tour? The "Minder" is nervous. They're probably taking courses in not offending the locals and this would be number one. Anyways, he's getting a bit defensive; immigration was a problem, damned illegals, and of course, of course - I mean, it's all rhetoric, lies, he's doing well, has a job with (KNOWN BANK); makes good money, wife and kids, and after all he's wearing a Rolex Batman...
He's in the upper 10%, so he'll survive longer than most.
I'm careful, I don't want to be unwelcoming, they're everywhere here and they'll probably be in the restaurant within the week. The invading hordes. The Moneyed invading horde; and so we welcome them with open arms.
But even that upper 10%, they're not the upper .001%, and while he doesn't see himself as having any troubles; while he still says they're a "superpower" - I'm serious, they're not. America the nation has no international credibility. It's leader is all the proof you need.
On that note; what of the little racist caricatures of the Obamas? Aww, forget about it. Forget about it all...
Date ends and really, I'm no company for Americans having read a book or two and no longer willing to shut up and play it safe.
***
Thursday, blurry, up before the liquor store and head up to visit neighbour. She's got my medicine, I grab a portion, replace it with a 2 litre later in the day...
Not much is getting done.
The day passes in a predictable fashion, I've got some trauma I'm working through in the most counterproductive ways possible.
In the evening is a clown show at the Capitol. I've bought myself a ticket. I know nothing about it; am going in "blind", I bought this ticket because it had the word "Magic" in it and I thought I'd passed on a Magic show the week before.
The magic show, an afternoon production, I love magic. I wanted to go pretty bad but was afraid I'd be disappointed with card tricks and cutting women in half, in short, a "kids" magic show and I want, need something that punches a little bit above that. So I didn't get tickets, which is good, because as luck would have it it's tomorrow. But I bought myself a conciliatory ticket to a clown show...
Now - half cut and I show up at 7:30. Turns out the show started at 7:00. Damn.
Slouched in my front-row centre seat I'm confused. The theatre is 80% empty, a few kids, parents, me. And it's a clown show.
I'm in full on disconnect. What in the hell am I here for? That said, the show ended at 8:00, I was only there a half-hour, still. WTF.
And the bigger WTF is like was I abducted by aliens? How did I end up here? And the "Capitol" - a good, great, noble cause but WTF?
Anyways, clown show. Not within my field of purvue.
Friday follows the pattern, not even barely sober and it's a busy night filled with Americans (not Seth) at work. Running nonstop and I'm nowhere in the mood; where did this come from anyways? And J***** has to stay until close and this unconsciously distresses me; it's a good money night (probably, all round, I'm not checking) - but I've grown too accustomed to sending her shortly after I arrive and Friday night, it's not in the pattern, for a couple of hours I have a co-worker and la-de-da it's like I'm working in a restaurant....
***
Temu: The Fountain Pen (Lamy)
And so this was one of my preposterous orders from TEMU. A look-alike Lamy fountain pen. It looked (in the ad) close enough to the original that I thought it might be an "overrun" and not a cheap knock-off.
I was wrong. It was most definitely a cheap knock-off, as given by it's weight and TEMU styled branding which I'm hoping wears off. That said, it writes well, and while digging through my box of old fountain pens looking for ink (yes, who has that and why?) I discover a couple of genuine vintage Pelikan pens, and spend a few hours cleaning them.
I didn't need another fountain pen, even if it was a "Lamy". But that's the genius of TEMU.
***
Wednesday or thereabouts as well I came home to a bowl of soup on my doorstep. Another neighbour, we'll call her "Neighbour Number 3". This works, as it means I only have to cook a few big meals a week and the neighbours will look after the rest. Neighbour #3 actually has some cooking creds, is dating the head chef at ******** and so provides a fine soup. Number #2; Vodka neighbour, well, she cooks OK. And neighbour #1; Kramer, same floor; a text and an IOU left on my counter, she's raided my waiter's wallet, absconded with $30 from my float, well, her secret ingredient is more salt. Enough said.
Still, nice not to have to worry about food security.
***
Which I think brings us to the present time; Saturday, I'm due to attend a roller-derby of sorts, celebrate Owen's birthday, but I've already started the internal monologue arguing against. We'll see how it goes...
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 414
And what's-her-name informs me about the members show at the Nelson Art Gallery.
All members eligible; they're using both galleries, works will remain up and for sale the entire 3 months of summer and time now for me to get off my ass, get cracking; 5 weeks isn't nearly enough time but it'll have to be enough, my jeep this summer depend on it....
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 480
Not here! The white north hath thy bones and thou
Heroic sailor soul
Art passing on thine happier voyage now
Toward no earthly pole
Now this has long been an interest of mine. The Franklin Expedition, that doomed attempt to discover the North West Passage.
40 years later, the internet, a lot of exploration and we have some pretty good answers and surmises about what became of it.
The first resource, of course, the Wikipedia Page on the Expedition.
Next: A 1927 Map that draws upon various sources and maps the locations where remains and relics of the expedition were found by various search parties, as well as Inuit (Eskimo) testimony (which it disregards or warns as 'unreliable').
Note how featureless the land is; maps are to the purpose and this is/was primarily of the route through; note as well how accurate the Inuit Testimony proved; the Terror was found sunk in Terror Bay and the Erebus in Wilmut/Crampton Bay.
Link: John Rae's initially discredited account of the expedition.
Link: James Fitzjames final letter to Elizabeth Coningham
Excerpt:
The most original character of all—rough, intelligent, unpolished, with a broad north-country accent, but not vulgar, good humoured, and honest hearted—is Reid, a Greenland whaler, native of Aberdeen, who has commanded whaling vessels, and amuses us with his quaint remarks and descriptions of the ice, catching whales, &c. For instance, he just said to me, on my saying we should soon be off Cape Farewell, at this rate, and asking if one might not generally expect a gale off it (Cape Farewell being the south point of Greenland), “Ah! now, Mister Jems, we’ll be having the weather fine, Sir! fine! No ice at arl about it, Sir, unless it be the bergs—arl the ice’ll be gone, Sir, only the bergs, which I like to see. Let it come on to blow, look out for a big ‘un. Get under his lee, and hold on to him fast, Sir, fast. If he drifts near the land, why, he grounds afore you do.” The idea of all the ice being gone, except the icebergs, is racy beyond description. I have just had a game of chess with the purser Osmar, who is delightful. He was with Beechey in the Blossom, when they went to Behring Straits to look out for Franklin, at the time he surveyed the north coast of America, and got within 150 miles of him; he was Petro Paulowski, in Kamschatka, where I hope to go, and served since on the lakes of Canada. I was at first inclined to think he was a stupid old man, because he had a chin and took snuff; but he is as merry hearted as any young man, full of quaint dry sayings, always good humoured, always laughing, never a bore, takes his “pinch after dinner,” plays a “rubber,” and beats me at chess—and, he is a gentleman.
And:
I like a man who is in earnest. Sir John Franklin read the church service to-day and a sermon so very beautifully, that I defy any man not to feel the force of what he would convey. The first Sunday he read was a day or two before we sailed, when Lady Franklin, his daughter, and niece attended. Every one was struck with his extreme earnestness of manner, evidently proceeding from real conviction.
But, just read the letter. Over-long but it hearken's back to the days of attention spans and education. A fanciful thing not spun of AI; literally a reminder of how far we've fallen.
Imagine, too, the first three years of the expedition - from the Victory Point Note we know they hung out on the North End of King William Island for 3 years, and in that time only lost about 24 men, leaving 105 left ... Inuit accounts have them hanging on another 2 years until 1850.
Another couple of maps - more contemporary, satellite views of King William Island and Beechey Island, where they lost Franklin and 3 other sailors. You can get quite close zooming on on King William Island, Beechey Island tends to be a bit low-res.
It's worth it to click on the uploaded photos of the place - note just how desolate and barren the land is; and most of the photos were taken in the fall.
Finally, an informed Reddit thread that refers one to abundant further reading on the topic. Note that some of this material looks fascinating, and as I doubt I'll find it in the bookstore I might have to check the library. And, fun fact, Michael Palin of Monty Python fame wrote a book on the expedition as well, which was made into a horror series. Anyways, a fascinating bit of Canadiana; and the thought that somewhere in that featureless hell of a landscape might lie buried logbooks or notes from the expedition is rather inspiring...
MORE: Via archive.org you can read "The Voyage of the 'Fox' in the Arctic Seas" (linked) - a search for Franklin & his men. Interesting.
And this Via CanadianMysteries.ca - a list of personages associated with the search for the Franklin Expedition.
From there click on the Introduction, and follow the links to each of the explorers and the associated Esquimaux testimony they collected.