Finisterre: A Film by Paul Jackson

Paul Jackson is one of the best flickr friends anyone could ever have. He blogs (de temps en temps) here.

Things I wish I'd said (2)

Looking up, originally uploaded by The River Thief.  Copyright Ruth Seeley 2008.

In the aboriginal cemetery in Nazko, BC.

I am surprised to find that I experience the disappointment of a hope I never knew I harbored.

Louise Erdrich, The Bingo Palace

Stonehenge kept coming into my mind, making me feel our lives are short and small.... Strange how pleasure is sometimes the prelude to melancholy.

Sara George, The Journal of Mrs. Pepys: Portrait of a Marriage

The language that I have now is not adequate to the feelings that I had then.

There is sometimes no reward for patience. If hunger is the engine, life is only either underway or stalled; and desire is just a watered-down version of hunger, a poor copy.

Helen Humpheys, Wild Dogs

It's not Bob Rae's ability to lead we should be questioning

Reading about the leaked Innovative Research Group survey that found Canadians question Bob Rae's ability to lead during a financial crisis and/or recession brought back a lot of bad memories for me.

I had forgotten all about the 'Rae Days' - forced unpaid leave imposed on Ontario's civil servants as part of his futile attempt and misguided strategy to cope with a deficit he inherited and then proceeded to allow to balloon totally out of control. Someone who actually knew how to run an organization would, instead, have come up with a more creative plan to cut costs through attrition, rationalization, and by investing in technology that would have made it possible for people to work smarter rather than harder.

Rae's election as Ontario Premier was something I thought I'd never live to see. An NDP landslide, it was, after decades of Progressive Conservative rule and then a brief interlude of David Peterson's Liberals. I even recall voting in that election, and that the polling station was incredibly remote and almost impossible to reach via transit. And I voted for him - well, not for him, but for whoever was the NDP in the riding in which I lived in Toronto's Annex.

He had been in power for less than a year when he started to take away the right to strike from those who had supported - and funded - the NDP for decades, the unions. He also enacted legislation that made it legal to hire replacement workers - scabs, they used to be called. My political love affair with the NDP ended before it ever really began.

And then there was his appearance on the Ralph Benmurgui show, Friday Night with Ralph Benmurgui, which I blogged about shortly after the Liberal leadership convention that led to Stephane Dion's victory. Forget that it was a ridiculously bad show (how could it not have been? when CBC launched the new show, instead of giving them a budget for costumes, they apparently suggested the series just use the leftovers from the old Tommy Hunter show - vintage at its most eccentric).

What Canadians in general - and Liberals in particular - need to question is what, exactly, Bob Rae stands for. Given the way he behaved when he finally became premier of Ontario, it's obvious his belief system is elastic at best and totally self-serving at worst. Since then, of course, he's decided he's not an NDP kinda guy at all anymore, he's actually a Liberal. I wonder if that will ultimately turn out to have been a bad move for him. Because if he continues to seek power at the expense of rebuilding the Liberal party, he'll ensure its ruin. And the federal Liberals are already teetering on the brink of financial disaster as it is. Perhaps that's been the master plan all along and he's secretly still an NDP candidate at heart. Somehow I doubt Jack Layton will step aside for him though if he decides to cross the floor yet again.

It's so much fun being a Sagittarian

Nazko columbines, originally uploaded by The River Thief. Copyright Ruth Seeley 2008.

My (at times) uncertain sense of direction has got me lost and made me late on more than one occasion. I find it odd that there are times when I can both navigate and tell time by the sun, but this doesn't always work - I've missed planes and been late more times than I care to remember. So when I have to be somewhere I've never been before, I try to make allowances for my own navigational arrogance and at least MapQuest my destination.

My first trip to a Lower Mainland Ikea was an exercise in sheer persistence - I'm still not sure what I did wrong (and I defy anyone who doesn't live there to tell me where Coquitlam ends and Port Coquitlam begins). I was living in Lions Bay at the time and everything went smoothly till I got off the highway. A nightmare then ensued in which I kept following United Boulevard and circling the large blue and yellow Ikea sign without ever actually being able to get to it. I persisted and eventually got to Ikea, but I was in a sufficiently foul mood by the time I arrived that even the Swedish meatballs and lingonberry juice didn't quite mollify me. Fortunately it's not all that tough to get there from where I now live [although if you aren't in the right lane on Columbia Street at rush hour, good luck getting into it to make that turn onto the completely unmarked Brunette (look for Royal City Autobody when heading east - that's Brunette) that leads you to the Ikea in Coquitlam].

So in preparation for a meeting Tuesday at the Libra Room, I went to their web site to make sure I knew exactly where it was (The Drive can be a bit overwhelming at times - so many neat little shops and restaurants and such a high turnover that you're never sure whether a place you visited on your last visit will still be there, or whether it's moved a couple of doors down, or just vanished).

Something about the web site made me wonder whether they were, in fact, open for lunch or not, and so I called them to find out. Having been lost and/or separated from my companions many many times at both Expo 67 (those folks at the British Pavilion were truly wonderful - they took me down the back stairs at least four times to help me get out of there) and Toronto's Caribana parades, I didn't want to be wandering around The Drive in the rain looking for my lunch companion (although we're both pretty good about calling when we're late or lost - I guess I'm just not over the trauma of having once asked someone to meet me at the intersection of two parallel streets). And they're not, so we'll have lunch somewhere else.

But I had to laugh when I read their take on the various astrological signs. And I can't argue with any item in this description of Sagittarians. All I'll add is: 'that's childish in a GOOD way.'

SAGITTARIUS - The Promiscuous One Spontaneous. High appeal. Rare to find. Great when found. Loves being in long relationships. So much love to give. A loner most of the time. Loses patience easily and will not take crap. If in a bad mood stay FAR away. Gets offended easily and remembers the offense forever. Loves deeply but at times will not show it feels it is a sign of weakness. Has many fears but will not show it. VERY private person. Defends loved ones will all their abilities. Can be childish often. Not one to mess with. Very pretty. Very romantic. Nice to everyone they meet. Their Love is one of a kind. Silly, fun and sweet. Have own unique appeal. Most caring person you will ever meet! Amazing in bed..!!! Not the kind of person you want to mess with- you might end up crying.