Prophetic Words?
I was 16 and sitting in the office of my first editor. We were chatting it up, as we normally did after I submitted a piece. It was just as I was collecting my stuff and leaving that he said something that I never have, and never could, forget.
"Someone who can write when they're 19 is a phenom. Someone who can write when they're 23 is just another someone who can write when they're 23."
Ouch. 23. Feeling that statement.
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I was 16 and sitting in the office of my first editor. We were chatting it up, as we normally did after I submitted a piece. It was just as I was collecting my stuff and leaving that he said something that I never have, and never could, forget.
"Someone who can write when they're 19 is a phenom. Someone who can write when they're 23 is just another someone who can write when they're 23."
Ouch. 23. Feeling that statement.
Mickey D's Munchies?
SAN BENITO, Texas (AP) - A teenager says she found a partially smoked marijuana joint in her frozen yogurt parfait at a McDonald's in south Texas.
Valerie Valle, 16, of Round Rock, Texas, and seven other family members were returning home last week from a vacation on South Padre Island, Texas, when they stopped for breakfast.
Valle said she waited in line on July 22 to return the parfait and replied "no thanks" when asked if she wanted another one. The restaurant refunded the money.
According to a San Benito police report, only two McDonald's employees made parfaits that morning. Restaurant management told police the employees take drug tests. No charges have been filed.
"We're conducting our own internal investigation into this incident," said Joe Magliolo, operations manager for the company that owns the McDonald's franchise. "Obviously, it would be inappropriate to come to any conclusions as to what did or did not happen until all the facts are known."
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SAN BENITO, Texas (AP) - A teenager says she found a partially smoked marijuana joint in her frozen yogurt parfait at a McDonald's in south Texas.
Valerie Valle, 16, of Round Rock, Texas, and seven other family members were returning home last week from a vacation on South Padre Island, Texas, when they stopped for breakfast.
Valle said she waited in line on July 22 to return the parfait and replied "no thanks" when asked if she wanted another one. The restaurant refunded the money.
According to a San Benito police report, only two McDonald's employees made parfaits that morning. Restaurant management told police the employees take drug tests. No charges have been filed.
"We're conducting our own internal investigation into this incident," said Joe Magliolo, operations manager for the company that owns the McDonald's franchise. "Obviously, it would be inappropriate to come to any conclusions as to what did or did not happen until all the facts are known."
Shwarma Summer
My latest obsession... bring on the garlic sauce...
Shawarma Palace. Rideau Street. The only worthwhile late-night eats in Bytown, and just kitty corner from my apartment. Praise it.
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My latest obsession... bring on the garlic sauce...
Shawarma Palace. Rideau Street. The only worthwhile late-night eats in Bytown, and just kitty corner from my apartment. Praise it.
Where I'm at, July 27, 2004.
I have tangible goals, I just always end up on tangents...
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I have tangible goals, I just always end up on tangents...
The Lessons of Zahra Kazemi
There is much to be learned from the case of Zahra Kazemi about the administration of justice, the fundamentals of justice, and international/diplomatic relations.
Within those broad strokes, it is perhaps most important to recognize that Zahra Kazemi has come to embody the very things her photographs warned of; her work primarily depicted the plight, and the hidden strengths, of women living in Muslim countries.
And now here she is, the victim of a savage beating - punishment for her efforts to put the truth on record - with her murderer roaming free. This Iranian woman, in Iran, robbed of her civil liberties and her life. Even after her death, with her case being handled by Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize winner and arguably the most powerful (non royal) woman in the Muslim world, Kazemi's voice - much like the voices of so many other women - remains silenced in the public sphere.
Kazemi herself is now the stuff of her photographs, as she continues to educate us all.
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There is much to be learned from the case of Zahra Kazemi about the administration of justice, the fundamentals of justice, and international/diplomatic relations.
Within those broad strokes, it is perhaps most important to recognize that Zahra Kazemi has come to embody the very things her photographs warned of; her work primarily depicted the plight, and the hidden strengths, of women living in Muslim countries.
And now here she is, the victim of a savage beating - punishment for her efforts to put the truth on record - with her murderer roaming free. This Iranian woman, in Iran, robbed of her civil liberties and her life. Even after her death, with her case being handled by Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize winner and arguably the most powerful (non royal) woman in the Muslim world, Kazemi's voice - much like the voices of so many other women - remains silenced in the public sphere.
Kazemi herself is now the stuff of her photographs, as she continues to educate us all.
Van den Heuvel's Blog
A long-time fan of prescient Nation E-i-C, Katrina Van den Heuvel, I've only recently become a regular on her blog. Well worth the scroll.
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A long-time fan of prescient Nation E-i-C, Katrina Van den Heuvel, I've only recently become a regular on her blog. Well worth the scroll.
Honky-Tonk Town
I wasn't expecting much of Ottawa in terms of nightlife. But even with such low hopes, O-Town has still managed to disappoint.
Anyone out there have suggestions? Anyone? Bueller?
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I wasn't expecting much of Ottawa in terms of nightlife. But even with such low hopes, O-Town has still managed to disappoint.
Anyone out there have suggestions? Anyone? Bueller?
Fancy Shmanzy New Blogging Options
Those crazy cats at Blogger just never quit with the improvements. As of this posting, I have all sorts of new options for fonts, colours, and... the big one... file uploading!
Does life get any better?
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Those crazy cats at Blogger just never quit with the improvements. As of this posting, I have all sorts of new options for fonts, colours, and... the big one... file uploading!
Does life get any better?
Quebec crime tabloid to swim with the fishes
The owners of the crime tabloid Allô Police will kill off the Quebec publication because of falling circulation.
Section Media Rouge said it will stop publishing the tabloid in order to focus on its other more profitable publications. This month's issue will be its last.
Since 1953, Allô Police has fed Quebecers a weekly diet of grisly crimes, sex and pictures of strippers. But behind its cheesy headlines were meticulous reports of local police and court proceedings.
The tabloid had a lot of pull in the crime community. When Hells Angels chief Maurice (Mom) Boucher wanted to publicize a meeting with members of the a rival biker gang, he summoned an Allô Police reporter and photographer to record the event.
Other journalists and lawyers say they used the tabloid to do research.
At its height during the '60s, Allô Police sold 100,000 copies a month. That has dwindled to 20,000.
Publisher Richard Desmarais blamed the advent of supper-hour TV news shows. He said the shows now cover the same ground as the tabloid, with crime becoming their "bread and butter."
He also said Allô Police had trouble getting shelf space in the supermarkets and drugstores. Corner stores, where readers would often pick up their beer, cigarettes and a tabloid, have become less popular with Quebecers.
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The owners of the crime tabloid Allô Police will kill off the Quebec publication because of falling circulation.
Section Media Rouge said it will stop publishing the tabloid in order to focus on its other more profitable publications. This month's issue will be its last.
Since 1953, Allô Police has fed Quebecers a weekly diet of grisly crimes, sex and pictures of strippers. But behind its cheesy headlines were meticulous reports of local police and court proceedings.
The tabloid had a lot of pull in the crime community. When Hells Angels chief Maurice (Mom) Boucher wanted to publicize a meeting with members of the a rival biker gang, he summoned an Allô Police reporter and photographer to record the event.
Other journalists and lawyers say they used the tabloid to do research.
At its height during the '60s, Allô Police sold 100,000 copies a month. That has dwindled to 20,000.
Publisher Richard Desmarais blamed the advent of supper-hour TV news shows. He said the shows now cover the same ground as the tabloid, with crime becoming their "bread and butter."
He also said Allô Police had trouble getting shelf space in the supermarkets and drugstores. Corner stores, where readers would often pick up their beer, cigarettes and a tabloid, have become less popular with Quebecers.
Say Hello
... to Goodbye Lenin, one of the most charming films I've seen all year. It has, well, just all the necessary elements.
Go.
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... to Goodbye Lenin, one of the most charming films I've seen all year. It has, well, just all the necessary elements.
Go.
Dateline: Kabul
Not me, no fears. I'm stuck in Bytown for the foreseeable future.
Sutton, on the other hand... well... bring on the burqas. That's right, the woman's off to the land of land mines, where the warlords and the Taliban roam.
The paper's sending her, 22-year-old cub reporter, Sutton.
It's pretty overwhelming.
But like I told her, it's a right of passage for all the greats. Friedman in Beirut. Amanpour in Kabul, Baghdad. Safer in Ho Chi Minh City.
Not to mention Conrad in the Belgian Congo, Hemingway in Spain during the Spanish Civil War.
They've all done it. War zones. Strife. Blood. Guts.
And all live in the comfort of our living rooms that evening, our kitchen tables the next morning.
Rock it...? Oh hell yeah. She'll rock it.
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Not me, no fears. I'm stuck in Bytown for the foreseeable future.
Sutton, on the other hand... well... bring on the burqas. That's right, the woman's off to the land of land mines, where the warlords and the Taliban roam.
The paper's sending her, 22-year-old cub reporter, Sutton.
It's pretty overwhelming.
But like I told her, it's a right of passage for all the greats. Friedman in Beirut. Amanpour in Kabul, Baghdad. Safer in Ho Chi Minh City.
Not to mention Conrad in the Belgian Congo, Hemingway in Spain during the Spanish Civil War.
They've all done it. War zones. Strife. Blood. Guts.
And all live in the comfort of our living rooms that evening, our kitchen tables the next morning.
Rock it...? Oh hell yeah. She'll rock it.
Divergence
Does divergence begin the moment you say goodbye? Is it a gradual progression that starts at that second when your bodies first part, when that seemingly endless hug actually ends?
Or is it only over the course of days, weeks, and months, that tangible change actually occurs? Or is it simply that those incriments of time provide the means of measurement needed to recognize that two people, who used to be closer to one, are two again...?
A year can be both a blink and an eternity. Sometimes it can be both concurrently. Makes me believe that we are in fact not the same people we were yesterday, nor are we now the people we will be tomorrow.
I never imagined that two roads, in that proverbial yellow wood, could diverge so significantly, so quickly.
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Does divergence begin the moment you say goodbye? Is it a gradual progression that starts at that second when your bodies first part, when that seemingly endless hug actually ends?
Or is it only over the course of days, weeks, and months, that tangible change actually occurs? Or is it simply that those incriments of time provide the means of measurement needed to recognize that two people, who used to be closer to one, are two again...?
A year can be both a blink and an eternity. Sometimes it can be both concurrently. Makes me believe that we are in fact not the same people we were yesterday, nor are we now the people we will be tomorrow.
I never imagined that two roads, in that proverbial yellow wood, could diverge so significantly, so quickly.
![[Click for official biography]](http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/justices/photo-De.jpg?1299748013-0.1-974446364)