Jamal Khashoggi gave his life exposing the Saudi leadership under MBS (the media have decided his initials are enough, now).
I asked for some insight into what happened to him, and received this flash of information. The torture that killed him was ‘punishment’ for being an outspoken critic of Saudi Arabia and its ruling family. Initially, I wondered if his fingers were cut off, one at a time, and then instantly ‘saw’ that it was his hands that were hacked off.
What clued me in?
“And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and. cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee. that one of thy members should perish, and not. that thy whole body should be cast into hell.” (Matthew 5:30)
Obviously, MBS was offended by Khashoggi’s ability to write the truth about him…
They should probably change the national anthem now:
O Cannabis, our bright and shining weed…
Yesterday, pot went on sale legally for recreational use for the very first time. Justine Trudeau fulfilled an election promise made five years ago. And now people with criminal records for simple possession are getting them pardoned.
All this so that the Government of Canada, and the provinces, can get their hands on the black market proceeds of crime. Talk about ‘filthy lucre’.
But they are mistaken if the authorities think that this will put the privateers out of business: there isn’t enough product to meet demand; young people will still be wanting their own stash; and small dealers can set their prices lower than the government’s to keep competitive.
The difference will be in using law enforcement agencies to bring the ‘pot pirates’ to justice. (Oh, wait, isn’t there already a ‘war on drugs’?) I can see all the earnings from legal MJ going to cover the cost for increased policing. And the growing, packaging and delivery systems will have to learn to keep up.
All that money to be made: legally!
Conclusion
The last time I was offered a joint was in 1977, by my friend Rob Rudd. The last time I saw anyone smoking pot was in the late 80’s. I’m sure it’s been going on around me, but I’m not interested in it, so I don’t notice. And my reason that it has never interested me is one simple fact: I don’t inhale. (Now, where have we heard that before?)
The only concern I have (well, not the only concern, but one of them) is that there will be a lot more people smoking grass for the first time, and if they’re not sensible, they’ll try to operate ‘heavy machinery’ (meaning, “drive a car or truck”). We may, or we may not, see a lot of road accidents in the near future. So, if you’re reading this (and you wouldn’t see this if you weren’t), remember:
These days, if you want to portray a part of Canada in the 1890’s, you need to film in Ontario. It turns out that some of the country in and around Millbrook, in particular, will give you an idea what life was like in rural and urban PEI.
The usual view of Green Gables. This is different from the other two versions of Anne of Green Gables because the building is not so ‘picture perfect’. This looks a lot more like a farmhouse would actually appear in those days. Especially the interiors.
These are interior shots of the Anne of Green Gables museum. Again, these are modern recreations of a period farmhouse. The show is quite a bit more austere.
Charlottetown
Millbrook looks like every other small town that I knew as a child. In fact, it is in the centre of the country where my ancestors lived, so it’s in my blood, so to speak.
The old shopfronts haven’t changed in over a hundred years.
Conclusion
Most nostalgic television series whitewash the past, and give us the more fondly (but inaccurately) remembered images. In truth, not everything from yesteryear was wonderful. This version tries to present a more truthful version of life before the turn of the 20th century. And the stories are still riveting to watch.
My children loved this game. It was an interactive computer game that was played out by writing instructions. If you gave good ones, the programme would respond. If you gave bad ones, the programme would ignore you. My girls learned to navigate the story quite quickly, and learned, when they came up against a tricky situation that might cause the game to end, to save the story to the point just before it happened.
Douglas Adams had a very unique mind. His radio plays were adapted as books, a television series, a movie, and the above-mentioned computer game.
If anything, I suspect he was an alien sent to Earth to show us how ridiculous we humans are.
There was one spot in the interactive game that always caused the story to end. It was having to make a choice of two liquids.
Tea or No Tea
My memory was a bit rusty, so I asked my younger daughter, Rosanna, what the issue was. She reminded me that either choice was wrong. In fact, the game would come to an end if you chose either one.
For a long time, Rosanna puzzled this out, until she hit upon a likely solution.
This instruction allowed the game to continue, and Rosanna played right through to the end. (This was in 1993, when she was just 13.)
Conclusion
There really is only one way to get through life unscathed. Instead of choosing one side or the other (right wing/left wing), choose both. This might seem counterintuitive since we are taught from our earliest moments that there is ‘right’ and there is ‘wrong’ and we must choose ‘wisely’. But the ability to hold two conflicting points of view as both equally valid is the sign of a spiritually mature individual.
Bradley Cooper is a very smart man. Most directors would be wary of yet another remake of this story. In fact, after Barbra Streisand’s last joke of film, the idea should have been dead in the water, never to take another breath. But Bradley breathed life back into it, and brought it back to the silver screen.
His genius was hiring Lady Gaga to play Ally opposite his Jack. She makes this movie feel authentic, and she can certainly sing.
I suppose we should not have been surprised, since Gaga’s stage productions and videos are all about performance art. But she is stripped down (sometimes literally) and (emotionally) vulnerable in a way that is almost shocking, at least to me.
When Oscar time rolls this way again, I believe Lady Gaga has a definite chance at the Best Actress award. Let’s see if I’m right.
This vacation spot no longer exists. I’m not sure why. I tried finding the exact location a couple of years ago, but I believe the spot is now private property.
CKC, as our Mom noted on photographs, was a Christian meeting place in the heart of Muskoka. We went there every summer, for a week or so. between 1958 and 1964.
Here’s a postcard (courtesy of eBay.com) from that period:
I have plenty of memories of the place, including the wonderful dining, the many sports (especially shuffleboard), and taking care of my younger sister, Anne, while our parents attended meetings.
I have a version of this scene from 1964, featuring my sister, front and centre.
I also remember that it was a time of experimenting with trying to make pictures blur by opening and shutting my mouth quickly when one was taken.
CKC August 1958
But my most enduring memory is sleeping in a log cabin (not exactly a log cabin, but a wooden hut to accommodate our family). To allow us enough beds, they put me in the porch, which was screened in to keep out the mosquitoes. As there wasn’t any glass, by morning, I was chilled to the bone. I’m still susceptible to colds when I get a chill…
For more great photos, some of which echoed our own from those years, click here.
And here’s the iconic image that I took of the entrance to the property in 1964.
Series 3 has started, and already we’re going further back than we ever have before. Jack and Rebecca had their first 4 hour ‘date’ and Jack picked up the ‘hint’ to bring Rebecca’s coat back to her place the next day. But when he got there, another man was standing at her door, and when those two kissed, Jack drove away.
Episode 3 brought their starting point to a peaceful conclusion [spoiler alert], but before we got there, two separate, but connected, storylines needed to be shown.
The first one involved Rebecca’s memory of growing up in her ‘normal’ household. Her father worked outside the home, and her mother was a homemaker from the last 50’s, early 60’s era. This made Rebecca question if that was the life she wanted.
Jack’s ‘event’ was current to their meeting. He came home after seeing Rebecca kiss the other guy. His mother was as usual waiting on his father, by serving him a ‘pickle picnic’ of a sandwich, which his father tossed on the floor. After some abusive words from his father directed at his mother, Jack gave her an ultimatum: either come with him to stay at a friend’s place, or remain at the family home and Jack would kill his father. She went with him, reluctantly.
The Payoff
Later, Rebecca comes round to that friend’s place, but only Jack is there, his mother having gone out for a walk with the friend. Jack invites her in, but then apologizes for the mess still on the dining room table from the earlier meal.
Jack starts to clear away the dishes and then begins washing them in the sink. The look on Rebecca’s face told the viewer that she recognized that Jack would be the kind of man that would take care of her, not the other way around. It was an eye-opening moment.
