random notes

While shopping at St. Lawrence Market early this afternoon, the front page of the Toronto Sun caught my eye. The Summerworks theatre festival was the target of their trademark sensationalism-in-the-name-of-showing-easily-outraged-taxpayers-where-their-money-is-being-wasted-today. Seems one of the plays takes a sympathetic view toward a convicted member of the Toronto 18. Cue outrage from politicians and lobby groups sympathetic to the paper's editorial tilt. Talk about lazy: of course if you ask the Canadian Taxpayers Federation what they think of funding anything vaguely artistic or fun, the answer is going to be no. Too predictable, too pat, too much of a reconfirmation of the views of the paper's readership.

And the play hasn't even opened yet.

Summerworks's blog has responded.

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Speaking of the Sun, amid some research I've done through its back pages lately and a recent find at Value Village, there will be upcoming posts devoted to oddball discoveries in its pages. Hint: the weekend funny pages.

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Haruki's Temporary Home

One week in and I think Sarah's "sweet beastie" Haruki is starting to settle into his new surroundings. After a couple of rough nights earlier this week, Sarah put out a box of towels, hoping that a reminder of his old home might help with the transition. So far, they aren't working too badly...

This is going to be an interesting experience, considering that this is the first time in my third-of-a-century on Earth that I have lived with a pet. Given my oft-strained relations with the rest of the animal kingdom, perhaps this will turn out to be a mellowing experience...once Haruki ceases to be afraid of me.

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One consequence of the recent changes around Warehouse head office: after a decade of service, the official Warehouse futon has been retired, much to the relief of my family. Its comfort level had waned (some would say it
was never comfy, though I slept well on it during its early years) and it was likely to go to the trash heap during any future move. No official retirement ceremony was held.

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Another change: my laptop has become my main home computer. Toward the end of June, the tower I had for four years handed in its resignation when it refused to boot properly, even after reformatting the disk. Unfortunately I had just started backing up files (go ahead, tsk tsk me), so I lost a few useful items. For a brief time I used my old, incapable-of-running-any-system-beyond-dreaded-Windows ME computer, but its limitations were quickly apparent - ten years in computers is about 276 in human time, and this was the machine the dealer laughed at when I tried to upgrade to XP. Once the laptop was set up with most of my home computing needs, both of my old computers were taken on a ceremonial drive to their final destination: the Bermondsey dump.

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Programming note: under the "Warehouse Outposts" section on the right, you'll now find a link to posts I've written for Heritage Toronto's blog, including this week's piece on the history of the Empire, Toronto's Conservative Party owned and operated newspaper from 1887 to 1895.

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