The Tofino curse

I’m getting a smattering of emails like the following from friends in Tofino. (Details altered to protect the …  accomplices?)
Hi greg,
A friend of mine has an apartment, it’s a new one near [location in Tofino]. Its not a bad deal, $1,200 plus utilities that run $100-150. It’s set up nicely for two people [...]

Atwood, free & easy

While i think of it, this year’s Massey Lectures were delivered by Margaret Atwood, under the stunningly prescient title (given recent events) of Payback — Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth. As the blurb says, it’s not about practical debt management or high finance. Rather, it is an investigation into the idea of debt [...]

BUY NOTHING DAY–tomorrow

I dunno where the publicity has gone for this seminal anti-celebration, launched 17 years ago by the visionary ADBUSTERS–journal of the mental environment. Probably buried under the landslide of alarmist press covering the economic meltdown.
But its message is even more relevant today, so ladies and gentlemen, i beg you, keep your wallets closed for one [...]

‘Tis the season, groaned the Earth

Here at Aimless Ranch, we’re preparing to get and give our usual roster of gifts this Christmas season: nothing at all for or from anybody. I don’t advocate that for everyone. But please, in these sensitive environmental times, if you’re going to indulge, please think about what you buy and its effect on the bigger [...]

My letter to Steve

I caught this CBC story this morning, which begins with the lead:
The Conservatives are poised to eliminate the public subsidies that Canada’s five major political parties receive, a move that would save $30 million a year but could cripple the opposition.
The story, posted last night at 11 p.m., has already garnered some 850 comments, mostly [...]

Deep artsy thought (not mine)

Here are a couple of pithy ideas taken from from the endnotes to Voyage Along the Horizon, by Spanish novelist Javier Marías (written at the age of 21). Longest literate sentences i’ve ever read, by the way.
[The] end of a novel isn’t usually very important. In fact, people never seem to remember the endings of [...]