Way Out In The Margin

Media: Goodbye, KGO Newstalk 810

2011-12-02T23:40:00.006-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - There have been a lot of events in the past year or so since I ceased blogging regularly that should have brought me back to the keyboard for the hour that it normally takes to write a standard entry. Considering that this blog started with the 2008 Federal Election in Canada, it was especially hard to sit out the 2011 election, but my present employment had me in California for virtually the entire campaign, and besides time pressure, I did not wish to be commenting from a distance. There have been plenty of special events that I have attended, not just in my beloved Toronto but around the North American continent that warranted coverage, from a Maritime Festival in Seattle to scientific symposia in Montreal. There have been plenty of developments in United States politics on which I could offer a personality perspective that might be of value. There have been deaths, from Roger Abbott to Steve Jobs to Osama Bin Laden to Andy Rooney that I could have commented on. Yet, in the end, what has driven me back is the end of radio station KGO as we knew it.

It's not like those in the industry, or even observers like me, didn't see this coming. I'm written about changes at this iconic radio station multiple times as the handwriting on the wall became more and more indelible, perhaps most strongly back in 2010 when Mickey Luckoff resigned. Yet, just because it isn't a surprise--the recent change in ownership to Cumulus meant it was only a matter of time--doesn't make it any less remarkable. As of Thursday, KGO ceased to be "Newstalk 810". It fired the majority of its talk show hosts (leaving only Ronn Owens on weekdays) and is now heading toward a news-based format with the new slogan, "The Bay Area's News and Information Station."

While it may not have technically been the first all-talk radio station, when KGO adopted a talk format in 1962--yes, that's right, almost 60 years ago--it was a pioneer that would change the industry. It came to not only dominate ratings in its home market of the San Francisco Bay Area, but to be a model for stations across the country, and it had remained a leader, really right up until now. While I had been introduced to the talk format on local stations in Seattle as a youth, it was tuning in KGO at night that caused me to really appreciate the potential of the format to inform and entertain concurrently and really justify radio listening as a background activity while doing other things.

In fact, it's not saying too much to say that KGO, along with other quality stations in the market such as KCBS and KQED, was a big factor in convincing me that I should go to college in the Bay Area, setting me on the life course that I am on now. Any area that could support such a good radio station and have such good callers to talk shows must have a population that was worth living amongst (a logic that I would later apply to Boston and the whole nation of Canada as part of my calculus in later moves as well, something that will never be repeated now).

While since leaving the Bay Area, my KGO listening over the Internet has been reduced to God Talk with Brent Walters and Brian Copeland on Sundays (which, ironically, continue onward--but nobody assumes they will survive the changes for long), there is no question that KGO has been part of my life since I was a youth. The end of KGO as a talk station means the end of what will stand as a significant era in my life, no matter how much longer I live.

Over on my web page about what makes a good radio station, after the 2010 update, KGO was the only talk radio station I felt was worth mentioning anymore. Now, there are none. There is no commercial talk radio station I find generally worth listening to anymore, anywhere in the world. Sure, there are individual programs out there, mostly on public radio, but no station cultivating quality talk programming as part of its identity. The genre of radio that once dominated my listening habits is gone, completely gone.

I will not argue that KGO had not become somewhat stale. It was easy to parody many of the hosts on their schedule (especially John Rothmann's penchant for political connections, Ray Taliaferro's mannerisms, and Dr. Bill Wattenburg's technological fixations). Their ratings had been falling for reasons besides new ratings technology. But, I would contend that the formula for making a great radio station has not changed. I happened to write my essay on the topic in 1998, but it could have been written in 1958, 1978, or now.

Instead, KGO's new owners want to take on market leader KCBS in news. It's folly. As much as I admire the San Francisco market, there's no way any new contender is going to beat out not just KCBS (which is on AM and FM these days) but also KQED, KALW, and KPFA on the public radio spectrum, where more and more people are tuning for news. In particular, they're not going to accomplish it on the limited budget that Cumulus will devote to the process. Making good radio costs money, partially for talent but also for operations, and owners don't want to hear that anymore. Instead, it's a race to reduce costs, leaving no product of any value. Some believe that KGO may fail so badly with an all-news format that its 50,000 watt signal may end up doing brokered foreign-language programming before long.

The argument has been made that what I would consider good radio isn't supported by markets. It is difficult to explain the health of public radio in light of that argument--more and more public radio stations are garnering ratings that would make commercial stations drool, and they find ways to raise money to pay for the programming that is accomplishing that. No, instead what we have is an oddly distorted market in which demand is very elastic and the suppliers can't seem to understand how the quality of their product impacts the demand curve--made all the more complicated by the fact that the customers are advertisers, not the audience immediately served by the product.

The commercial radio industry is broken, like many things in the United States. The end of KGO as a newstalk station demonstrates just how far it has fallen. I believe it is an unnecessary shame, and I will miss Newstalk 810.

Language: End of Day

2011-10-18T22:12:00.003-04:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Once upon a time, I was one of the plethora of readers of William Safire's "On Language" column in the New York Times. Since the end of that column, its place in my ongoing language education has been taken by the Verbal Energy column from Ruth Walker in the Christian Science Monitor, a column cited in this blog before.

Walker has now delved into one of my other favorite things, radio, to create what may be
my favorite Verbal Energy column of all time. I'll sign off now.

Culture: Song of 2011?

2011-05-21T23:08:00.005-04:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Will this stand as the symbolic song of 2011 when we look back upon it? (Yes, we will look back upon it...)

Rooster Teeth's Doomsday

...and if you don't get the joke, refer to:

Rebecca Black's Friday

and

Brent Walters' interview of Harold Camping on KGO's God Talk

Dining: Began's Classic Italian Pizza

2011-01-15T23:46:00.005-05:00

Began's Classic Italian Pizza is hidden away in a strip mall in Tempe, Arizona, as observed on 15-January-2011

TEMPE, ARIZONA - While I can get excited about world-renowned pizza restaurants like New Haven, Connecticut's Pepe's and Sally's, I really appreciate trying out lesser-known establishments and finding surprisingly good pizza. When I received a tip that such a pizzeria might exist in suburban Phoenix, Arizona--which some classify as better than Pizzeria Bianco reviewed last year--it made my agenda for my next visit to the Copper State.

Began's Classic Italian Pizza is well-hidden in Tempe, Arizona. If my "brother" cousin had not known where it was, I might have had trouble finding it--while it has a Baseline Road address, it is not visible from that street, nor it is readily seen from the other streets surrounding the strip mall east of Rural Road where it is located. It seems symbolic--you're not going to find out about this place from world pizza guides; knowledge has to come by word-of-mouth.

Unlike Bianco or the New Haven establishments, there is often not much of a wait for tables at Classic Italian Pizza. While we had reservations, we didn't observe people waiting very long for a table, especially if they were willing to sit outside, which even in January is a comfortable prospect in this part of Arizona. That doesn't mean that one doesn't wait, however. After placing our order, it was over ninety minutes before the pizza was served. That might be acceptable for a special social event, but with young children, it was almost intolerable. Frankly, waiting outside where the youngsters could run around was actually a better experience.

Plain cheese, Diavola, and Cappricciosa pizza slices from Began's Classic Italian Pizza were observed on 15-January-2011

Our order included a plain cheese pizza (er, Margherita holding the basil), the classic Diavola with sausage, pepperoni, red peppers, and jalapenos, and a Cappricciosa with ham, salami, mushrooms, tomatoes, black olives, and artichokes amongst other vegetables. The ingredient quality on the toppings was second-to-none, and I was especially impressed with the sauce, which might be the best tomato pizza sauce I've ever experienced in the world. However, the crust, while clearly baked in the wood-fired oven and of far above average quality, did not stack up to the best of the New Haven restaurants, not being remarkable in taste or texture, and soggier than it needed to be at the very center of the pizza.

Still, Began's Classic Italian Pizza is a gem of a restaurant. If you don't mind waiting for a quality pizza, it's a better experience than its more famous downtown Phoenix competitor, and even if it isn't the best pizza in the world, it is clearly top-echelon and the best pizza in Tempe.

Culture: Good Times at the Farm

2011-01-14T07:21:00.004-05:00

Students played Ultimate Frisbee at Roble Field on the Stanford University campus in Palo Alto, California on 9-January-2011

PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA - It's not immediately obvious walking around campus on a Sunday afternoon, as I did last weekend, but it's a good time to be on the Stanford University campus, colloquially known as "The Farm." A smaller number of students than I typically remember was playing Ultimate Frisbee on Roble Field, and the path around the former Lake Lagunita was nearly empty, but there was a certain vibe on campus that was undeniable.

The reason was obvious only when heading to the upstairs area in the Stanford Bookstore where athletic gear was sold. The mood had started to become super-enthusiastic when the Stanford women's basketball team defeated the University of Connecticut on 30-December-2010, ending the Huskies' record-setting 90-game winning streak. While the victory was at Maples Pavilion walking distance from here, it wasn't particularly close--71-59, and by all accounts, it felt better than that for the Cardinal. Interestingly, the last UConn loss had been to Stanford as well. Within days, the bookstore here had been stocked with t-shirts proclaiming "All Good Things Must Come to an End."

The biggest reason for the good mood, though, comes from the performance of football team. The Stanford team may have a long history, with its first Rose Bowl appearance in 1902, but for most of my life, it's been at best a mediocre team, overshadowed in the strong Pac-10 conference by contenders for the National Championship like the University of Southern California, the University of Washington, or this year, the University of Oregon. Their last Rose Bowl appearance was under coach Tyrone Willingham in 2000 (a loss); their last season ranked in the top 10 was 1992 under coach Bill Walsh.

This year, under coach Jim Harbaugh, the Cardinal (remember, that's the color) had its best season in terms of win-loss record since 1940, losing only to Oregon. I was amazed to see the team creeping up in the rankings, and ultimately qualifying for a Bowl Championship Series bowl, the Orange Bowl. On my second night back in the Bay Area, the game was played, and after listening on commercial radio for a time, I realized that I really should have been listening on Stanford's own radio station, KZSU at 90.1 FM. By that time, the outcome of the game was not in doubt, and the announcers had become somewhat casual. Stanford would win the Orange Bowl 40-12 over Virginia Tech, its first bowl victory since the 1996 Sun Bowl.

As students were just gathering on the Farm to start winter quarter, this was quite a way to begin a term. I can only imagine the celebrations in the main quad. Of course, it didn't take long for the Stanford bookstore to come up with Orange Bowl champion t-shirts--but by the time I was on campus about a week later, that would be the only tangible evidence of the accomplishment.

Culture: Gatherings at the Cathedral

2011-01-12T23:32:00.006-05:00

The Trinity Cathedral in San Jose, California was observed prior to the Gathering at the Cathedral on 9-January-2011

PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA - One of the real gems of commercial talk radio in the United States is God Talk, a Sunday morning show on KGO Newstalk 810 in San Francisco, California. Hosted by San Jose State professor Brent Walters, what has been for the past few months a one-hour show at 5 am (after decades of being a three-hour show) presents religious topics in their proper historical context, leading to the kind of insight that one usually only receives in a college lecture.

As a long-time listener to the program through KGO's Internet archive, I have been following the fate of this show as it was almost canceled in the past few months, as reported on this blog. When Walters announced that he would be holding an in-person "Gathering at the Cathedral" while I was planning to be in the Bay Area, I decided to make sure that I could attend.

Somewhere around fifty people gathered at Trinity Cathedral in downtown San Jose last Sunday at 5 pm. The somewhat diminutive 1861 building is simply gorgeous from an architectural perspective, and I probably could have spent time just taking in the stained glass and displays inside.

Brent Walters spoke to the audience at the Gathering at the Cathedral in San Jose's Trinity Cathedral on 9-January-2011

However, we were there for a lecture, and after a brief introduction from the Cathedral's Dean, the Very Reverend David Bird, Brent Walters went right to the topic of the day, the historical context of the Gospel of James. The lecture format worked much better than the radio show for getting complicated material across, as the questions remained relevant, there were no commercial breaks, and the visual slides helped keep focus on the matter at hand.

Furthermore, in a one-hour lecture context, Walters was able to get across material in a way that was much more effective to me. I had no idea of the symbolism of many Biblical names--that the same word was used for both Jacob and James, or for Joshua and Jesus, connecting them. Walters made a compelling case for the Book of James being the oldest Christian document that exists, being written by a brother of Jesus who would lead what was then a Jewish movement when he became an elder at age 40. The context of James considering himself a "slave," meaning that he was repaying the debt of the people, was clearly presented and served as a great case study to the kind of historical analysis that is Walters' bread and butter.

While the content of the evening was why we were there, the real treat for me was getting to see Brent Walters in person and meeting some of the rest of the God Talk audience, most of whom were locals but some of whom were from even farther away in England. Walters was clearly an experienced college lecturer, notable as he walked back and forth in front of the audience, and it was amusing to see his Dr. Pepper bottle next to his Apple computer during the talk. His analogy of Wisdom Literature to using Twitter, while possible to take too far, was something I found quite insightful.

Regardless of the fate of the radio show, the Gatherings at the Cathedral will continue monthly, on the first Sunday of each month. For more information, watch Brent Walters' God Talk web site or contact him directly at the e-mail addresses listed on that page.

Margin Notes: Rainbow Transport Egret

2011-01-10T23:00:00.009-05:00

A PCC streetcar pulled onto Market Street near the Ferry Building in San Francisco, California on 3-January-2011

PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA - It was like being in transportation mecca when minutes after I arrived in the state of California last week, I stepped off a BART rapid transit train and surfaced at the Embarcadero Station to find myself just steps from a cable car line, the Market Street streetcar line (pictured above), trolley and diesel buses, and the ferries to the north and east bay--and I wasn't far away from the Caltrain commuter rail station (which could have been reached via MUNI light rail). So what did I do? I hopped a bus across the bay to catch an Amtrak train, of course.

* * * * * *

The other thing that was rather mind-boggling to hear as I surfaced was the news that Jerry Brown was just being sworn in as the 39th governor of the Golden State (he had also been the 34th, from 1975 to 1983. It seems like yesterday (well, 1999-2007) that he was the mayor of Oakland, seemingly at first with no higher aspirations. Then, he was suddenly attorney general, and now a hopefully very mature governor--I agree with Mark Shields that his inaugural speech set a very realistic and constructive tone. The question is whether legislators in Sacramento from both parties will be equally sober in facing the state's incredible problems.

* * * * * *

Construction on the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge was progressing along as viewed from the old bridge on 3-January-2011

Coverage of the Brown inaugural was playing on the radio as the bus crossed the Bay Bridge between San Francisco and Oakland. The new cable-stay eastern span is coming along as seen above--the portions of the bridge that are complete appear to have signs posted and lighting fully completed just a few feet from the current end of the structure, which is a bit different to see.

* * * * * *

A Great White Egret was found in the drainage area outside the W Hotel in Newark, California on 4-January-2011

I had decided to take an Amtrak ride after landing for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was that I was not expecting another chance this week. I chose to go as far as Modesto and then return, creating about a 200-mile round trip including scenery through the Delta to Stockton that I had not seen in more than twelve years. The wildlife in that portion was disappointing, but a Great White Egret was noted along San Pablo Bay. I thought that was pretty neat--until I noted a Great White Egret just outside my hotel's parking lot the next morning.

* * * * * *

That hotel that my new company's travel agent had booked me into was a W Hotel in Newark, California. I don't care what owner Starwood thinks; this new chain is nearly as weird as Virgin America airlines. Techno music plays in the common areas, the lighting is all muted and colored, and the rooms clearly favor form over function. It was rather a relief to move to a Quality Inn.

* * * * * *

A circular rainbow was noted outside a plane to San Francisco, California on 3-January-2011

I suppose I should have been in a psychedelic mood after seeing a circular rainbow during my flight westward. The above photo shows the double rainbow around what was apparently the shadow of the plane at the center of the rainbow, a rather fun phenomena to observe in the air.

Photos: Holidays in the Pacific Northwest, 2010

2011-01-09T23:46:00.006-05:00

One of the many scenes at the Garden d'Lights in Bellevue, Washington was observed on 22-December-2010

PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA - This week's update to my photo site features holiday displays from the Pacific Northwest. The Garden d'Lights in Bellevue, Washington was observed on 22-December-2010, and Winterfest at the Center House in Seattle, Washington was visited on 27-December-2010.

Culture: The New Year's Run

2011-01-02T15:43:00.008-05:00

The two miniature trains operated by the Toronto Railway Historical Association on New Year's Day were side-by-side near Don Station in Toronto, Ontario on 1-January-2011

TORONTO, ONTARIO - The first real run of the miniature railway in Toronto, Ontario's Roundhouse Park took place on 1-January-2010. With a tradition thus established, the Toronto Railway Historical Association that runs the miniature railway decided to run again on New Year's Day this year.

The "Romulus" miniature steam locomotive pulled some of the passengers from the public past the turntable with full-size equipment at the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre on 1-January-2011

The weather was not so cooperative for the second annual event. It rained most of the day, rather steadily during the entire time the miniature railway was operating from about noon to 3 PM. Still, there were people wandering through the park even on a rainy day, and they were treated, if desired, to a free ride on the half-kilometer loop.

Arno Martens had just thrown the switch in the rain to permit Michael Guy running the "Romulus" steam locomotive to take the appropriate track into Don Station in Toronto, Ontario on 1-January-2011

One of the purposes of the event was to test recent changes to the "Romulus" miniature steam locomotive. The locomotive was found to be in good running order, and carried a number of passengers until a new coal supply was tested and was found to be inadequate for steam locomotive boilers, ending that testing for the day.

It might seem silly in the rain, but steam locomotives need water in their tenders to operate, and Arno Martens handled the topping up of the "Romulus" on 1-January-2011

This was also the first run day for the new trackage at the junction between the wye to the maintenance depot and the station sidings. The new configuration felt much better to me as a rider, and the new flexibility proved itself when the decision was made to back the steam train from the inside station track to the depot, which would not have been possible under the old layout.

Most of the group from the Toronto Railway Historical Association that operated the miniature railway was captured on 1-January-2011

With the successful testing completed, the Toronto Railway Historical Association will return to its restoration work for the balance of the winter; the miniature railway is not expected to operate again until the spring.

Radio Pick: Capitol Steps

2011-01-01T23:44:00.002-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This week's radio pick comes from the Capitol Steps. While it gets off to a rather slow start, the quarterly satire show from the Capitol Steps this New Year's is worth sticking out, with a George W. Bush parody of "Feelings," the "Queen Berets," a speech from Joe Biden, a dating service for Al Gore, and of course some new amazing phrases in the Lirty Dies segment leading to a very entertaining 58-minute show.

Listen to MP3 of the Capitol Steps "Politics Takes a Holiday"

Transport: New Year's On a Train

2011-01-01T23:23:00.004-05:00

Wilson Lau, Dan Garcia, Michael Guy, and Arno Martens of the Toronto Railway Historical Association posed in front of the GO Transit locomotive that carried them to Oshawa, Ontario on 31-December-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Yesterday, GO Transit offered free service on its commuter trains after 19:00 to discourage drunk driving on New Year's Eve. A group from the Toronto Railway Historical Association decided to take advantage of the policy to mark the turn of the year on-board a Lakeshore East GO Train.

This wasn't the first time I had celebrated the New Year aboard a train. As 2006 turned to 2007, I was aboard VIA Rail Canada's "Canadian" eastbound across northern Ontario. As the "Canadian" is a first-class train (at least in the sleeper section), that was a real celebration, with champagne served as the train rolled through the darkness of the Canadian Shield.

Last night, our group of five people from the TRHA had to develop our own celebration. A vice president brought spanakopita and various other finger foods, another brought homemade cookies, and there was plenty of chocolate to go around. We caught train #934, departing Union Station at 22:13 for Oshawa, Ontario.

Wilson Lau, Dan Garcia and Michael Guy enjoyed a New Year's Eve aboard a GO Transit train to Oshawa, Ontario on 31-December-2010

On the return trip on board train #939, between Pickering and Rouge Hill, Service Manager Louise gave a countdown to the New Year over the Public Address system (which was accurate according to my GPS receiver). Some fireworks were noted in the distance a few minutes later. It may not have been champagne on the "Canadian," but it was a different way to bring in the New Year.

Culture: Employed Lifestyle

2010-12-31T20:30:00.004-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Today is not only the last day of calendar 2010, but the last day of my working for my employer of the last two months.

Regular readers of this blog may not even have been aware of the fact that I was working again. I made no announcement on this forum. Careful re-reading of the last two months of entries will reveal only a few very oblique references to e-commerce, but also a lack of references to being unemployed, which were never especially common here in the first place.

It wasn't that I wasn't proud of what I was doing, that I wasn't enjoying the customer service position, or that I was anticipating that I would be switching jobs so rapidly, which wasn't at all obvious to me until well into December. Instead, I had long structured many aspects of my life such that returning to a regular 9-to-5 job, as this one was, would have minimal impact on my activities. Sure, I wouldn't be going railfanning in winter daylight hours, or listening to daytime radio live, but little else needed to change. This blog had for many months generally been written in the late evening intentionally so that my routine would not need to change when I became employed. Sure enough, I started a job, and the impact on my blogging was nearly imperceptible.

One thing that I learned in the past two months is that, indeed, I could have a very comfortable lifestyle in Toronto working a 9-to-5 job. A look at this blog will see that I attended not only events at the CBC (a very short walk from where I was working) but also evening community events around the city. My social life, such as it is, was not suffering as a result of the position. My weekend activities had no need to change whatsoever.

I had long suspected that commuting by subway to downtown, which took me only about 45 minutes each direction, would be far more sustainable than my previous mostly-bus commute into the suburbs, which could take 80 minutes on a bad day. Even when the subway was disrupted, as happened at least three times I remember in the past two months, it never took me much more than an hour to complete the commute. During the winter, especially, it was quite nice to be mostly underground.

Fundamentally, the job that I held for my first two years in Toronto always felt unsustainable, even in the beginning. The hours and the commute were always draining; I slept in significantly on Saturday by necessity. For the last two months, I've instead been getting up earlier on Saturday for volunteer work than on weekdays. There's no way I could have done that before.

I could have kept going in my recent job for a long time; I could easily imagine staying with that employer for years. However, when one is aggressively pursued by an employer in a potentially-growing industry, it's pretty hard to ignore and turn down an attractive offer.

My cushy, predictable lifestyle is over, at least for the foreseeable future. I will now be in field service, with unpredictable travel. I have no idea what this will mean for the publishing schedule of this blog. Yet, I am satisfied that I have demonstrated that blogging can be part of a sustainable lifestyle. It's not inconceivable that I might miss that.

Culture: 20 Years, 59 Million Later

2010-12-30T23:32:00.005-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Twenty years ago, I filed the following Student's Notebook report from Bellevue, Washington:

This year, the US Census Bureau started out with a rather aggressive attempt to make sure everyone was counted. The bureau sent out extensive forms to each permanent residence, requiring the forms to be returned by April 1st, but later extending the deadlines well into June and making radio commercials to prod people into sending in the materials as early returns were pathetic.

Meanwhile, local bureau employees were supposed to take to the streets to count the homeless. Though their attempts were well-documented, urban special interest groups contested the figures almost from the start, claiming the bureau had mis-counted by as much as one-half.

The census takers also had the duty to visit households where forms had not been returned. These visits resulted in rumors that some houses had been counted twice, or that others had sent in two forms and been visited but still hadn't been tallied.

Regardless of the objections, the census bureau has now released its final figures, subject only to appeals. Our population in the United States is now 249,632,692, an increase of 23,086,887 from 1980, meaning that each of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives should have 572,466 constituents.

Here in Washington state, our population has gone from 5,346,818 in 1980 to 6,216,568 now, meaning that our state has earned another seat in the House of Representatives, to be carved out of Rod Chandler's 8th and John Miller's 1st congressional districts.

The states that really will gain in influence, though, are California (7), Florida (4), and Texas (3). Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia also gained seats. New York lost 3, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania 2, and Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Montana, New Jersey and West Virginia all lost a single seat.

What does this mean in political terms? The gains were primarily made in Republican areas, but in the primarily Democratic Hispanic population. We'll have to wait and see.

Change the exact numbers, to a population of 308,745,538 in the United States and 6,724,540 in Washington state, and the number of seats changing hands (Texas gained four seats, Florida two, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah and Washington one, while New York and Ohio each lost two seats and Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania each lost one), and the story looks almost exactly the same in 2010.

Margin Notes: Travel, Fountain, United, Flags

2010-12-29T22:17:00.006-05:00

The International Fountain at the Seattle Center puts on impressive shows, though in this 27-December-2010 view it was far from its peak 120-foot height

TORONTO, ONTARIO - As a final follow-up on my recent visit to the Seattle Center, the most interesting scene at the Seattle, Washington tourist attraction is likely the International Fountain. This isn't the fountain I remember from my youth, but a 1995 installation by WET Design that shoots water up to 120 feet in the air in patterns coordinated with music. It may not be the Bellagio in Las Vegas (also a WET installation), but it's worth seeing if you're at the Center--and it even keeps performing in the rain.

* * * * * *

While rain may be the defining characteristic of the Puget Sound region, militant secularism is another. Thus, perhaps it is not surprising that I think I heard "Merry Christmas" or even "Happy Holidays" uttered less often in public that in any time in my lifetime. People were definitely shopping, celebrating, and giving to the Salvation Army, but they weren't greeting each other much when I was around.

* * * * * *

The holiday spirit did not seem to be missing at Customs and Immigration. Both entering the United States and returning to Canada were far more straight-forward than usual in the past few years--some of the basic questions weren't even asked, and the US agent was even polite for the first time in recent memory.

* * * * * *

A United 777 in the new paint scheme prepared to depart Denver, Colorado for Zurich, Switzerland on 22-December-2010

While I also have no complaints about United Airlines for the first time in recent memory (I still had frequent flier miles to use), I encountered a United plane in the post-Continental merger paint scheme for the first time. Frankly, I thought the 777, bound from Denver to Zurich, looked terrible. When the same paint scheme was used by Continental, at least the airline name was in a serif, sophisticated font. The sans serif, all-caps font used by United with the colors looks terrible to me.

* * * * * *

As a final transportation note that I keep neglecting to make on each trip to the Pacific Northwest, the city of Kirkland, Washington deserves credit for the pedestrian flags it places at crosswalks. A holder on each side of the street is filled with flags that pedestrians can use to signal that they want to cross the street and stop traffic. It seems to work quite well--though I still think that Toronto's directions to simply point at the other side of the street seems to accomplish the same thing without all the infrastructure used by Kirkland.

Culture: Seattle Consensus

2010-12-28T23:40:00.004-05:00

An outdoor portion of the Fun Forest in Seattle, Washington near the Space Needle was observed dormant on 27-December-2010; the site will now apparently be split between KEXP studios and a Dale Chihuly glass museum

TORONTO, ONTARIO - I've long stated that Seattle rarely recognizes just how much it was culturally influenced by native peoples. The environmental influence often receives recognition, with Chief Sealth of the Duwamish tribe's famous speech taught in Washington state schools, whether he actually gave it or not. The far greater contribution, in my opinion, is primacy of consensus in decision-making. Building consensus--no matter how much it slows down progress--is more prominent in Seattle politics than anywhere else I've spent time in the United States, sometimes to an almost comical extent. A member of one of the Salish tribes inhabiting the area three hundred years ago might well recognize the process.

A case in point has surrounded the Fun Forest at the Seattle Center. Seattle Center itself was created for the 1962 "Century 21" World's Fair, and its various infrastructure largely re-purposed afterward. The Fun Forest has been a set of indoor and outdoor amusement rides that have existed outside the Center House for my entire lifetime. As the years have gone on, revenues at the Fun Forest have declined, and it was announced in 2009 that the Fun Forest would close before the end of the year.

Instead, the Fun Forest was still open earlier this week (though it will close within days) as debates have gone on within the city of Seattle about what would take its place. In the end, two alternatives emerged--new studios for world-famous alternative radio station KEXP 90.3 FM and a new Dale Chihuly glass museum. Exactly why Seattle needs a Chihuly museum when the Museum of Glass exists in nearby Tacoma has never been clear, and parodies of the proposal included the well-publicized Sir Mix-A-Lot proposal.

So what was the Seattle solution, after nearly a year of talks? Earlier this month, Seattle mayor Mike McGinn announced that the city would build both, along with a kid's playground as a partial replacement for the Fun Forest. If every problem could be solved this way, Seattle would do it. If it could build a replacement Alaskan Way viaduct, a tunnel, and a surface solution all at the same time, it would. When the city really has to make a choice, it takes even longer than when it does a grand compromise as with the Fun Forest site.

Somewhere, I think Chief Sealth and his peers are smiling.

Holiday: Winterfest

2010-12-27T17:21:00.008-05:00

A model train passed a scene including a school yard at the Winterfest display at the Seattle Center House on 27-December-2010

BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON - For as long as I can remember, there have been two significant model railroad displays around Seattle, Washington during the holidays. One is in a store window at the Bon Marche (now Macy's), where one puts a hand on a designated spot on the window to make a train move, and the other has been in the Center House at the Seattle Center.

People gathered around the Winter Train and Village display at the Center House in Seattle, Washington on 27-December-2010

Much has changed in the Center House over the years. The Bubbleator, left over from the 1962 World's Fair, has been gone since the 1980's. Shops on the lower level have given way to the Children's Museum. Yet, there's still a Pizza Haven (see photo above) near the walkway to the Monorail (another World's Fair holdover, this year decorated for the Harry Potter exhibit at the Pacific Science Center), and the "G gauge" setup of the Winter Village still appears during Winterfest.

A train based on a Colorado narrow gauge prototype passed exited a tunnel at the Winterfest display in Seattle, Washington on 27-December-2010

Winterfest itself has varied over the years. The ice skating rink (in recent years in the Fisher Pavilion) and Winter Village train display have been staples, but there have been various other activities over the years. Back when KING television was a sponsor instead of KOMO, there was a "Holiday Sleigh Ride" in which local television personalities would introduce you riding Santa's Sleigh--easily my favorite VHS tape of my family.

A model of Seattle's King Street Station was where the controls of the Winter Train display were located on 27-December-2010

The train display itself has been interactive in recent years. For a $2 donation, one can become an engineer for a few minutes of one of two trains that run through the display. The trains aren't the only things that move, either, as a hot air balloon regularly takes off from the village for a trip through the sky, and ice skaters rotate through the center of the well-detailed town, amongst other scenes.

Both of the model trains operating at the Winterfest display in Seattle, Washington passed the Engine House on 27-December-2010

Winterfest continues through 31-December-2010 at the Seattle Center, with ice skating extended through 2-January-2011; see the web site for details.

Photos: Holidays in Toronto, Part II

2010-12-26T23:59:00.002-05:00

A portion of the Toronto, Ontario Christmas Market was found in an alley of the Distillery District on 9-December-2010

BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON - This week's update to my photo site features more coverage of the holidays in Toronto, Ontario. The German-style Toronto Christmas Market, the Trail of Lights in Downsview Park, making mulled wine, store windows, and more scenes taken between 3-December and 20-December-2010 are shown.

Culture: Pole Position II

2010-12-26T22:59:00.002-05:00

Gunnar Stenseth continued a holiday tradition of playing Pole Position II in Bellevue, Washington on 26-December-2010

BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON - It's hard to claim anything other than a spoiled childhood when there was a full-size arcade video game in your room. Granted, my mother won it in an Atari contest in 1983, but it's still not normal to have such an expensive and physically large toy completely at one's disposal.

When she won the contest, there was a choice of three games--one was a Star Wars game of some kind and I don't recall the third, and I remember going to a local video game parlor to try them out. There wasn't much question that Pole Position II was going to be the choice. Not only did both my father and I prefer racing games, but it was pretty clear that there was a timelessness to a driving game, while the other games would be somewhat dated.

Fortunately, I do not know how many hours of my life have been spent playing the game, because the number would be scary. It rains in the Puget Sound region, and many a rainy summer day was spent driving the four virtual race courses--Fuji (from the original Pole Position game, with a mountain in the background), Test (a basic oval), Seaside (with an amusement park background), and Suzuka (in many ways the most twisting, challenging track). After many years of trying, I would earn the Pole Position on all four courses in qualifying, and would earn over 64,000 points on each course after the four-lap race.

While driving might be a universal game theme, some of the details of Pole Position are quite strange. In what kind of real race are all the other cars so slow that you pass them going more than twice their speed? How can be that all the sets of cars on the course take on the same lane configurations, so that if one remembers what the last set of cars looked like, the ones around the next corner can be anticipated? And how is it that when driving the Suzuka course, which crosses over itself, there is no sign of this crossing in the scenery at all? Never mind the fact that one immediately receives a new car in the same track position after having a catastrophic, explosive wreck with another car or a roadside sign, at least until time expires!

Three complete races led the leaderboard on the Pole Position Fuji racetrack on 26-December-2010

Over the years, the game has fallen largely into disuse, and it has spent many years with its accelerator pedal in disrepair. Today, though, the game proved to be in mint condition when younger members of the family decided to give it a try. When it was idle for a moment, I decided to jump on, and was shocked to manage a 60,000-point race on Fuji in my first attempt. A couple races later, I not only had driven from the Pole Position on Fuji, but I had broken 63,000 points, which would have been respectable even in my prime gaming days. At the other end of the score board, a five-year old "nephew" had a score well under 10,000. If the game lasts, he might be beating me someday.

A quarter-century later, Pole Position II is still providing the same entertainment it did on day one.

Radio Pick: Monetarily Assured Destruction

2010-12-25T23:32:00.000-05:00

As much as I'd like to cite a holiday program this week, the clear stand-out program was a podcast from Open Source at the Watson Institute, Christopher Lydon's interview of political economist Mark Blyth. Blyth presents the concept of "Monetarily Assured Destruction" amongst other reasons why the coming year may not be economically inspiring, but won't be nearly as bad as it theoretically could be in this wide-ranging 27-minute interview.

Listen to MP3 of Open Source "Mark Blyth on 2011"

Holiday: Garden d'Lights 2010

2010-12-24T23:53:00.009-05:00

What has become the premier scene at the Garden d'Lights in Bellevue, Washington, the pond scene, was captured on 22-December-2010

BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON - It seems that all really good free things come to an end, and such is the case with the holiday season Garden d'Lights in Bellevue, Washington. Since 1994, the ever-growing light display had been free, but this year, outside of a few early-season dates, it cost $5 for adults and reservations were needed as total admissions were limited to keep the Botanical Gardens from becoming overcrowded, as had happened on several nights in the 2009 season.

An octopus was targeting a starfish for lunch in the aquarium scene at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens in Bellevue, Washington on 22-December-2010

The display now features more than 500,000 individual lights in dozens of scenes that stretch throughout nearly the entire Botanical Gardens complex. The display is always different each year, so while one can expect listeria at the covered walkways and a pond scene on the upper lawn, some of the better animals like the monkey and the slug could be found in different locations, and there were plenty of new scenes throughout the park.

A gardener watered potted plants near gourds at the Garden d'Lights in Bellevue, Washington on 22-December-2010

While the original idea behind the Garden d'Lights had been to highlight plant life as a winter nighttime extension of the Bellevue Botanical Garden's daytime and mostly fair-season mission, the most popular parts of the Garden d'Lights have mostly become the animals. Some years, kids were given a list of animals to find hidden around the displays, and certainly the rabbit with its carrot and the spider with a fly caught in its web have become perennial favorite scenes, with new ones added each year.

A turtle was one of the prominent animals scattered about the Garden D'Lights in Bellevue, Washington on 22-December-2010

Still, the bulk of the lights in the Garden d'Lights are devoted to plant representations, with quite a variety, from desert succulents to both the blue and pink versions of hydrangeas, with just about any flower imaginable seen somewhere in the gardens. I wish some of them could be labeled just like the various real plant species in the garden have signs with their names that can be seen in daylight.

A typical scene with a variety of plants was seen along the hillside of the Garden d'Lights in Bellevue, Washington on 22-December-2010

The size of the garden was expanded significantly this year to include new portrayals of salmon jumping in a rapidly-moving stream. This display was especially appropriate considering the Botanical Gardens' proximity to Kelsey Creek, a stream that is alive with migrating salmon at certain times of year.

Salmon jumped up a creek in a new display for 2010 at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens' Garden d'Lights on 22-December-2010

With all the new displays, even with the $5 charge, the Garden d'Lights still compares favorably with other similar displays. It remains open through 1-January-2011--remember to make reservations if you wish to go!

Holiday: Northwest Christmas Music

2010-12-23T23:32:00.002-05:00

BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON - It rained here today. It didn't just rain for an hour; it rained for essentially the whole day. This is normal in Seattle during the winter, which is to say during the holiday season. Thus, holiday lore about a "white Christmas" does not seem particularly relevant in the Pacific Northwest--and neither is it especially welcome, since the region is so unprepared for its occasional snowfalls that if there is a white Christmas, everyone's plans are generally ruined.

This sentiment is reflected in the regional holiday music that has gained popularity over the years. Probably the quintessential Seattle Christmas song is Brenda Kutz White's Christmas in the Northwest. Originally released in 1985 as a fundraiser for Children's Hospital in Seattle, it eschews the idea of a white Christmas, noting that the holiday "Is a gift God wrapped in green." The ideas of sharing--relatively emphasized in the Pacific Northwest at any time of year compared with the rest of the country--and dreaming is mentioned several times. The song has been released multiple times, remains commercially available, and is consistently one of the most requested songs on the local all-Christmas radio station, Warm 106.9 FM.

While not as widely distributed, there is another Seattle holiday song that more directly addresses the weather. Released in 2003, the Pysht River Troubadours' Let's Have a Seattle Christmas does nothing except describe the downpours. It includes the line "There's so much water, it won't drain." There are references to the weathermen on each of Seattle's major television stations, the late Seattle Mariners baseball announcer Dave Niehaus, and even that Santa will need to trade his reindeer "for a Husky-powered hydroplane," which may the ultimate in local references. To me, nothing captures the local climate reality better than this song.

The song regarded (at least by Amazon--which as a locally-based business ought to know) as the most popular in the Pacific Northwest radio history actually has nothing to do with the region or its weather. Recorded in Swansea, Wales in 1981 by the Cory Band and the Gwalia Singers, Stop the Cavalry had been written by Jona Lewie about soldiers away from their families at wartime. It seems to have been lost to history who first played the song in Seattle, but by the mid-1980's, it had become a holiday staple on just about every station from KOMO to KLSY. If one wants to establish credibility as a northwest resident in past quarter-century, it's Stop the Cavalry, not Christmas in the Northwest, that one should bring up as the unique holiday song of the region.

Personally, especially on a day like today, it's "Let's Have a Seattle Christmas" that really resonates--"Get out the lifeboats and the dinghys, Captain, it's a Grand Tsunami... 'cause it doesn't just rain on Christmas, it's every day, every day, every day."

Culture: Opposing Transit

2010-12-22T23:21:00.004-05:00

BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON - Walking around this mostly-affluent suburb of Seattle today, I was surprised to see a substantial number of "No Trains in Our Neighborhoods" signs. What was especially strange was that many of these signs were located more than a fifteen minute walk away from the closest proposed light rail alignment. I can understand some opposition to light rail, but the flavor in Bellevue is really hard to explain.

Sound Transit plans to build the East Link light rail line from the current north-south Central Link near downtown Seattle to Bellevue and Overlake. Based on the timetable voted for by the public in November 2008, construction would begin in 2013 and the first segment of the line to Bellevue would open by 2020. One of the first steps in the planning process was to determine the design and alignment of the line.

The alignment preferred by Sound Transit would stop at South Bellevue Park and Ride and then head north roughly along Bellevue Way and 112th Ave SE to downtown Bellevue. As urban rapid transit systems go, the route has relatively low residential density. However, it's still higher than an alternate alignment (B7) that would avoid South Bellevue Park and Ride, head east to I-405, and then north along the currently-dormant railway right-of-way toward downtown Bellevue. While it could serve a Wilburton Park and Ride lot, there are almost no residences within walking distance of stop(s) on that route, and it adds trip time over the preferred alternative.

The opposition to the preferred alignment comes from an anticipated decline in property values as a result of the line construction, because of increased noise and crime. As far as I know, such a decline in property value has never occurred after the construction of a modern transit line. Instead, property always increases in value, especially near the station locations. I haven't seen statistics yet, but I would be pretty surprised if crime rates have increased in the Rainier Valley or near the Tukwila station as the result of the arrival of light rail. As a result of gentrification (driven by the rise in property values), it would actually be expected to go down. Beyond these arguments, it starts to get really absurd, like an actual web site comment claiming that light rail advocates did not understand the damage that would be done by taking the space for two tennis courts away from the Bellevue Club (an institution whose membership rates are so high they don't release the rates publicly).

Even if any of these fears were justified, they only would affect residents within at most a radius of a few blocks of the tracks, if that. The anti-light rail signs appear throughout essentially all of the South Bellevue, including households a substantial distance from the preferred alignment. There's no way a house along 108th Ave SE south of Bellevue is going to be affected by a light rail line running on an elevated right-of-way more than a block and a steep hill away, more than a half-mile away from the nearest station.

There are some reasons to oppose transit systems. The arguments being observed in southern Bellevue have to be amongst the most pathetic I have ever observed.

Holiday: Processing Cards

2010-12-21T23:37:00.002-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - I was late with holiday cards this year, much more so than usual, for a variety of reasons. As I was struggling to get the last of my set destined for the eastern United States finished earlier this evening, it struck me just how detailed the tradition has become for me--right down to the exact pens that I use.

The process begins with updating my address book. I suppose the very first step is making a fast check of that spreadsheet and counting up how many holiday cards I need to order. I then make up the cards and have them printed. In the old days, that meant taking a negative to the photo drop-off location at the grocery store, but in the digital era (for me, that's since 2005), that's meant going to one of the on-line photo sites to put the card together.

Then, after checking alumni web sites for any changes amongst my more distant past peers, I usually send out several dozen e-mails to people that I either know or suspect may have moved over the course of the year. While some of us could be counted on to move regularly during graduate school, I haven't noticed much decrease in the number of people moving as my friends have aged. When I think I've gotten most of the address update replies, I print out the spreadsheet.

The next step is writing up my holiday letter. Once upon a time, I used to have several distinctly-written versions based on the intended audience (e.g. former high school teachers) and didn't do much customizations to those forms. In recent years, I've just had one version, and have attempted much more customization, which usually works out pretty well for the first several dozen and not so well with a week to go until Christmas.

When it comes time to actually send the letters, I group by geographic area and work through the list. Cards bound outside North America come first (those are all late this year--sorry), followed usually by Canada, the eastern United States, and the western United States last, though the order can vary based on where I'm actually located when doing the cards. If I remain in Canada until late in the season, then those for the western United States go first and the Canadian cards are last, since they still have a fighting chance to be delivered on time.

When I choose which card I'm going to do next, I customize the holiday letter if I'm doing one (those I see in person or otherwise communicate with frequently and know what I'm up to generally don't receive a letter), send it to the printer, and then pull the same blue Eppendorf pen I've been using since at least 1999 to do the inside of the card. After signing the letter with the same blue pen, I then switch to the same black pen I've also been using for at least a decade to hand-address the envelope. It occurred to me this year how amazing it is that I've been using the same pens for this purpose for an entire decade and through multiple geographic locations. That may reveal just how infrequently I use the pens outside of the holiday season. For that matter, I'm still using the same printer toner cartridges that I've been using since 2006--five years of holiday cards on the same toner strikes me as a pretty good record.

Once postage is affixed, I use a pencil to put a check mark next to that line of the spreadsheet, and move on to the next card. The process is repeated dozens of times, over many nights, until I'm finally done. This year, that probably won't happen until tomorrow night.

A friend recently asked why I still do printed cards and letters, considering all the on-line services I could use for the same purpose that would be much cheaper and much easier. Besides tradition, I still have too many older relatives that really can only be reached by postal mail or phone. It still isn't really an accepted practice to send on-line holiday greetings to business colleagues, either. So, until those two things change, I'm sticking with the traditional process, no matter how much work it turns out to be.

Media: Air Farce New Year's Preview

2010-12-20T22:49:00.008-05:00

One of the monitors showed the title screen for the Air Farce's only 2010 appearance, the New Year's Eve show, during a taping on 16-December-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Originally a radio satire show, long a weekly television show, the Royal Canadian Air Farce has been reduced since 2008 to a single annual appearance--an hour-long special that airs on New Year's Eve. When an e-mail went out to past attendees about the 2010 taping, I responded in about 45 minutes and figured I had a chance of getting a seat. I was at least 30 minutes late--the shows had been filled in less than fifteen minutes, and supposedly there were enough ticket requests to fill 21 shows. Yet, the high demand apparently scared potential rush ticket seekers away last Thursday night--there were only five of us, and we were all allowed in!

Original cast members Luba Goy and Roger Abbott chatted with the crowd between scenes during Air Farce taping on 16-December-2010

Not only was I allowed in--I ended up in the front row! I had the best possible photo angles of the set, right in front of the house band when they came on stage, and I was close enough to smell Luba Goy's perfume. Goy, one of three remaining cast members from the radio show still with the program along with Don Ferguson and Roger Abbott, clearly was enjoying doing the show again. All three original cast members made a point of talking to the audience as much as possible between skits.

Alan Park played President Obama and Luba Goy played Secretary of State Clinton in an Old Spice commercial parody on 16-December-2010

For those used to the fast-paced humor of The Daily Show or even the CBC's own This Hour Has 22 Minutes, the Air Farce has a completely different feel. Rather than a series of one-liners, the show takes its time to develop and deliver humor, whether in the form of a long parody of the Old Spice commercials with President Obama in place of Isaiah Mustafa, or a scene about the planning of next year's royal wedding.

Director Pat McDonald spoke with Alan Park between takes of a bed bug skit during the Air Farce taping on 16-December-2010

Attending a taping is so much more interesting than just watching the show not only because of the art of television can be observed, but because the humanity of it can be observed, as things go wrong and re-takes occur, and people have to wait. Nobody on television will see Penelope Corrin trying to hide a recycling bin with her skirt (or Alan Park pretending to be groping Corrin from a distance). At an Air Farce taping, much of that humanity is centered around director Pat McDonald, whose admonishments that "This is still funny" before a re-take, or "This one really made me laugh in rehearsal" delivered in his dry style helped set the tone for the audience. It's hard to imagine an Air Farce show without him.

The "Ground Crew" of David Matheson and Maury Lafoy had donned heavier clothing during taping of the Air Farce on 16-December-2010

There's substantial down time in a live taping while sets are moved and costumes adjusted, and to fill that time for the audience, they play the pre-recorded "Farce Films" to be used during the show. This year, a number were filmed at Roundhouse Park, a treat for me. Most of the time, though, was filled by the Air Farce house band, called the "Ground Crew," consisting of David Matheson and Maury Lafoy. While it is amazing that the whole cast and crew manages to come back together for just one show a year, the consistency of the "Ground Crew" with their old performances from the regular show run was amazing, singing such standards as "Raccoons" and "The Lake's Largest Johnson"--with only holiday songs added to mix to match the time of year.

The final "F-Bomb" of the Air Farce show was dropped during the taping on 16-December-2010

Without giving away the ending, suffice to say that the crew was worried enough about splattering the audience that those of us in the front row were asked to hold a plastic sheet in front of us to catch any flying debris. The camera zoomed in on those of us holding the plastic, so if the footage from Thursday and not the second taping on Friday is used, I will likely appear on television.

The Air Farce New Year's special will air at 8 pm on 31-December-2010 on CBC Television, with a repeat at midnight.

Margin Notes: Mulled Wine, Birds, Joe Canadian

2010-12-19T19:21:00.006-05:00

Proud Bavarian Matthias Oschinski poured rum on the sugar cone as part of the process of making mulled wine at his apartment in Toronto, Ontario on 17-December-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - One of the highlights of my visit to the Toronto Christmas Market (covered previously) was the mulled wine, which was a really nice (and warm) treat in the cold weather. When my friends Karimah Huddah and Matthias Oschinski invited me over to actually make their own mulled wine, there was no way I was going to turn that down. Friday night, I was treated to how it is actually done in Germany, prominently using bags of spices, a cone of sugar, a special copper pot, and of course red wine, amongst other details. A native Bavarian, Matthias had expressed minor dissatisfaction with the offering at the market, and after drinking his version, I understood why--the spices were much more nicely accented, leading to a taste that isn't quite like anything else I've ever had. I can understand why Matthias and Karimah make mulled wine an annual tradition.

The blue, alcohol-based flame surrounded the sugar cone as mulled wine was prepared on 17-December-2010

* * * * * *

An annual tradition for most North Americans around this time of year is shopping, and malls know that. It surprised me when visiting the Eaton Centre here in Toronto this fall that it looked like their construction project involving flooring and railings wasn't going to be complete in time for the peak holiday season. Sure enough, when I went to shop there on Friday night, the crowds were having to work their way around the construction. What in the world were they thinking when they scheduled that work?

* * * * * *

I'd also like to know what the CBC was thinking when it named the new co-host of the flagship As It Happens show on Radio One. When the CBC fired Barbara Budd as co-host earlier this year, it claimed it wanted to replace presenters with journalists. So who did they hire? Jeff Douglas, best known as the actor that portrayed "Joe Canadian" in the famous Molson Beer "I am Canadian" commercial. Granted, Douglas has done significant documentary work, promises to push social media for the show, and I rather like him, but it sure doesn't look like the point of replacing Budd was to find a journalist. It makes the whole process look rather cold.

* * * * * *

A small bird braved the elements at Toronto's Lambton Park on 19-December-2010

The weather has been cold in Toronto for the past week, and it has looked like a winter wonderland for about the past week. I went out in the elements today and spotted a Cardinal, but as is usually my luck when male Cardinals are around, I didn't manage to get a decent picture. I had to settle for a LBB ("little brown bird") instead, shown above at Lambton Park.

Radio Pick: War Against the Internet?

2010-12-18T23:36:00.003-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This week's radio pick is technically an audio pick as it comes from a podcast. I have largely found the coverage of the Wikileaks story to be at best burying the lead, but Jesse Brown and TVO's Search Engine had their pulse on it. In Brown's monologue and an interview with David Weinberger, the core topics about the consequences for free speech and the Internet in general are more fully explored that I had heard elsewhere in this 18-minute podcast.

Listen to MP3 of Search Engine "War Against the Internet?"

Culture: Ode to a Phone

2010-12-17T23:00:00.001-05:00

My first cell phone, a 2005-era Nokia 6010, sat retired on 17-December-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - In this day and age of throw-away technology, in which electronic devices are considered obsolete after two years at the most, it is remarkable when devices last much longer than that. I try to use things for as long as possible, but it seems like I go through about a portable radio or MP3 player each year--which is why I never get a particularly expensive one.

One device that I did get a decent amount of use from was the first cell phone I ever purchased. After several years of carrying a company "roving" cell phone on business trips, I decided that for a vacation to the Pacific Northwest in the fall of 2005 that I wanted to have a phone of my own. Not knowing how long I would want to hang on to it, I went with T-Mobile pre-paid and had to actually buy the phone, a basic Nokia 6010, and decided to get a Seattle number so my relatives could call me as a local number.

That arrangement worked so well that I have kept the SIM card for that account ever since, even after I moved to Canada. It's actually cheaper to maintain the US account and get domestic rates while in the United States--the cost can be as small as $25 per year--than to rove into the United States on a Canadian phone.

Furthermore, I was so used to how the Nokia phone worked that I didn't like the new, basic Sony Ericsson phone I had to buy when opening a Canadian account. So, I had my Nokia 6010 unlocked and have been switching SIM cards at the border ever since, using a Canadian provider in Canada and a US provider in the United States ever since.

Thus, the Nokia 6010 has been my cell phone essentially continuously for more than five years. The amazing thing is that it is still in relatively good physical condition (see the photo above) and seemed to function as new. Sometimes a SIM card wouldn't be quite seated correctly upon a change, but that was always readily addressed by putting in the phone again.

Finally, this past summer, one of the buttons on the phone quit working. It's not a particularly important button, being the upper left button mostly used as the "back" button in the menu system, not for dialing or anything especially important. Thus, for a time, I didn't let it bother me very much. However, I knew it was only a matter of time before something else broke--a five year old cell phone is living on borrowed time.

A few weeks ago, I spotted an especially good deal on an unlocked Nokia 2720 on an eBay auction and put in what proved to be a winning bid. About the only thing that had annoyed me on the Nokia 6010 was occasionally having a button pushed while the phone was in my pocket, or alternately, having to unlock the keyboard before every use. Thus, a very basic flip phone seemed like what I wanted as a replacement, and the Nokia 2720 was what I settled on.

Thus, my first cell phone has now been relegated to backup status--but only after more than five years of quality service. I will be happy if my new cell phone lasts even two-thirds as long as its predecessor.

Holiday: Trail of Lights 2010

2010-12-16T23:15:00.007-05:00

The entrance to the Downsview Park Trail of Lights was viewed on 15-December-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Considering that the holiday season occurs around the shortest days of the year, it is not surprising that outdoor lighted displays have become popular just about everywhere in North America. Amongst these, Downsview Park's Trail of Lights here in Toronto seems to be rather struggling to find a defining identity.

Snowflake arches were found along the Trail of Lights at Downsview Park in Toronto, Ontario on 15-December-2010

When I last visited in 2008, the Federal facility had created its light display for pedestrians, and the two-kilometer walk seemed stuffed full of displays. However, two kilometers was apparently felt to be too long of a walk for the average person, and the trail was instead opened to vehicles in 2009. This year, it went to a hybrid format, with driving days on Thursday through Sunday and "Walk-Through Wednesdays" for pedestrians.

A flower bloomed after watering along the Trail of Lights in Toronto, Ontario on 15-December-2010

With the majority of nights devoted to the automobile, the layout of the trail was clearly car-oriented, with distances that felt quite long between the displays. It seemed far more like a winter hike through the snow that happened to have some lights along the way than a holiday light display. I happened to choose a particularly cold night to visit yesterday, with the wind chill reported as -15 C while I made the circuit, and that made it less than pleasant.

A squirrel jumped between trees on either side of the Trail of Lights in Toronto, Ontario on 15-December-2010

Many of the displays have motion involved, whether deer or squirrels jumping across the trail, a Jack-in-the-Box springing up, a bucket coming up from the bottom of a well, or a volcano erupting. Some of the best scenes were sports scenes, with a baseball pitcher striking out a batter, a football place kicker scoring points, and a soccer player scoring a goal. I was disappointed, though, that the displays were almost all the same as two years before, so there were no pleasant surprises to be found along the trail.

A long exposure captured all the positions of the football player kicking a goal at the Trail of Lights in Toronto, Ontario on 15-December-2010

The price also seems quite steep--$8 to walk through as an adult pedestrian, and $25 per carload. At least as a pedestrian, it takes more than a half hour to walk the route, without stopping for pictures or admiration. In a car, it would take far less than that. Considering all the free displays and events in the Toronto area, it's not surprising that there was quite light patronage during my visit.

Santa and his reindeer were found along the Trail of Lights in Toronto, Ontario on 15-December-2010

The Trail of Lights remains open (except Mondays and Tuesdays) through 2-January-2011 from 6-11 pm. The entrance is not far from Keele Street in Downsview Park, so those taking the TTC can use the Keele bus, Shephard West bus, or the Downsview Park bus. For more information, see the official web site.

Culture: Eye for Eye Plus Some Turning Cheek

2010-12-15T23:12:00.004-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - If I didn't know better, I would think that the staff of WNYC's Radiolab also recently read Francis Collins' "The Language of God" and wanted to explore the topic I raised in my blog entry about altruism not being so clearly counter to evolution. This week's podcast (and show), entitled The Good Show, explored the idea of how goodness might have a biological basis.

While much of the show could be summarized as exploring different forms of Richard Dawkins' selfish gene theory, the key final segment focused on the work by Robert Axelrod. He decided to set up mathematical models of different one-on-one competitions in which cooperation was most rewarded, but one of the individuals could defeat the other. Various strategies were tested for participants, ranging from the "Jesus" participant that always cooperated to the "Lucifer" participant who always tried to defeat the other party. It turns out that a "tit for tat" participant, who cooperates if the other party cooperates but attacks if the other participant attacks, survived in basically any environment, even if surrounded by mostly "Lucifers". Indeed, as long as there were at least a few "tit for tat" participants that could find each other and cooperate, they would rout out even the "Lucifers" over the course of generations.

Granted, this is a greatly simplified model that assumes that cooperative behavior is beneficial and that the behavior of individuals is consistent. However, this implies that if a population of "Lucifers" has a few mutations into "tit for tat", the mutants that have some goodness in them can thrive. Furthermore, Axelrod found that the ideal participant seemed to be the default "tit-for-tat" but adding about 10% of its decisions as being always cooperative ("tit-for-tat" with 10% "Jesus")--that allowed the potentially-cooperative individuals to better find one another and gain the advantages of the cooperation without making them too vulnerable to "Lucifers" that would take advantage of their demeanor.

Radiolab makes the comparison of "tit-for-tat" with the Old Testament "eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-a-tooth" and "Jesus" with the New Testament "turn the other cheek." However, from the standpoint of Collin's book, I think this may be the "moral code" in mathematical form. The reality of the human being "moral code" is not that of the "Jesus" stance from the Axelrod experiments. Human beings don't feel the need to be nice to people that attack them--they only tend to be nice to other people that are nice back. The "10% Jesus" represents a default stance to offer kindness until the other entity proves not to be worthy of cooperation. I think Axelrod has come up with a reasonable mathematical approximation of the "moral code"--and furthermore, demonstrated that under natural selection, it wins out.

Granted, the Axelrod experiments were simplistic simulations, and don't explain pure altruism. Yet, I don't think it's a large logical leap to go from the Axelrod experiments to the idea that the "moral code" (at least the "tit-for-tat with 10% Jesus" form) could have evolved. Furthermore, knowing that most animals have a range of traits, it's not hard to believe that the average human might be "tit-for-tat with 10% Jesus" but that certain individuals would be "Jesus" (seemingly pure altruism) or "Lucifer" (seemingly pure evil) with many along the spectrum in between.

This Radiolab episode has solidified my stand that Francis Collins is probably not correct when he makes the assertion that natural forces cannot explain the "moral code." It seems to me that Robert Axelrod has come close enough that it doesn't take much imagination to come up with a plausible evolution process.

Politics: The Passing of Richard Holbrooke

2010-12-14T23:31:00.003-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - American diplomat Richard Holbrooke died yesterday at the age of 69. I never met Holbrooke; I may have never even met anyone who met Holbrooke. Yet, at more than one juncture in my life, I would have cited him as one of the individuals that I admired most in the world.

I obviously chose not to enter diplomacy, or even public service of any kind, in my life. Fundamentally, I considered my own personality to be ill-suited to diplomacy--I'd much rather express my opinion than try to convince a foreign entity to get in line with a policy with which I might not fully agree. Based on all accounts (especially good ones have come from Fouad Ajami and HDS Greenway), Holbrooke may have had a similar personality--he was certainly known for forcefully expressing his opinion, in particular to people above him like a series of presidents.

What Holbrooke often accomplished, though, was saving lives. Obviously, his work in Bosnia in brokering the Dayton peace accords may have been his best moment, but it was more typical than atypical of his career, being exceptional perhaps only in its scope and visibility. To me, there are few higher callings than bringing peace to the world, and Holbrooke has done more in my lifetime toward that end than almost any other single individual.

While there has been plenty of praise of Holbrooke in the United States after his death, there has probably been more from the rest of the world. The news of his death led both the BBC and the CBC this morning, and one CBC reporter probably put it best: "There aren't a lot of American diplomats respected by the world, but Richard Holbrooke was almost universally respected across the world."

Holbrooke never served as the nation's chief diplomat, the Secretary of State (though Greenway notes that Al Gore and Hillary Clinton probably each intended to place him in that role), but that very fact was one of the things that made him so admirable--he found ways to make the most of whatever position he was placed in, and better the world from it.

I chose to take a very different path in life than Richard Holbrooke. His passing makes one ponder if it would not have been more meaningful to have tried diplomacy, even if it would have meant only having a small percentage of the impact that Holbrooke had on the world.

Culture: Growing T-Shirt Sizes

2010-12-13T23:25:00.002-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - One of the annoying things about living in Canada is the lack of availability of retail items compared with the United States. If one prefers men's pants with an odd-numbered waist size in Canada, for example, forget it. Almost no retail stores will stock these sizes, and not many more on-line retailers will allow special ordering. Compare that with the United States, where even the most basic discount store will have these sizes. Apparently human waists only vary in two-inch increments in Canada; either that, or the belt manufacturers have some unusual hold on retail distribution.

What's really surprised me, though, is that sizes seem to be getting bigger. Canadians used to pride themselves on not being as physically large as their counterparts south of the border, but in recent years that difference has been decreasing, and now it seems that this reality is being reflected in sizes.

In the United States, I used to buy undershirts that were labeled as "large" size, 38-40. That might seem a bit big for someone my size, but considering that undershirts tend to be all cotton, they shrink to an appropriate size for me in one washing, and then last a very long time. After moving to Canada, I discovered that undershirts here are rarely sold in numerical sizes, but simply small, medium, large, and extra large. Figuring that all my stock from the United States said "large," that's what I bought.

However, the Canadian large is significantly larger than the 38-40 to which I was accustomed. They're definitely too big, perhaps the size I might wear on an outer shirt, but not as an undershirt. That purchase has been relegated to layering in the winter months. So, not too long ago, I decided to try the Canadian medium. Again, it wasn't marked with a numerical size, but I figured if the large was too big, the odds of medium being appropriate would have to reasonable.

Wrong. The medium-labeled undershirts were not significantly smaller that the larges I had purchased a few years before. Even after washing, they still were bigger than the "large" shirts in my collection, some of which are now nearly a decade old, that I had purchased in the United States. The only possible explanation is that the sizes are getting larger in response to average body size here. It's a very good thing I didn't try to buy "large" again.

In the interim, I had taken to buying undershirts while visiting the United States. I may return to this practice, as at least as of a couple years ago, the US "38-40" large was still the same size it had always been. The weakening US dollar also encourages this practice; the last time I bought undershirts in the US, the loonie was worth more than the US dollar, and that may happen again soon. If Canadian retailers want my business, they need to start selling my size--or at least keeping their sizes the same.

Photos: Holidays in Toronto, Part I

2010-12-12T23:38:00.002-05:00

Toronto's City Hall was green with the reflection of fireworks during the Cavalcade of Lights on 27-November-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Coverage of the holidays in Toronto, Ontario continues this week on my photo site with the Cavalcade of Lights concert and fireworks on 27-November-2010, the visit of the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train on 29-November-2010, and the CBC Metro Morning "Sounds of the Season" live broadcast on 3-December-2010, along with other scenes around town.

Margin Notes: Holidays, Devil, Pinkos, Osgood

2010-12-12T17:43:00.008-05:00

One of the scenes in the store windows at The Bay in Toronto, Ontario was captured on 9-December-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Once upon a time, the store displays in big cities were a major draw of the holiday season, with people coming from outlying areas not only to shop, but to see what might be in the windows. I've been pretty disappointed with the store windows in Toronto the past few years. It's tough to complain about The Bay, since at least it has holiday displays unlike some retailers that do nothing, but they've mostly been repeats of winter scenes (like the one above) and Santa's shop for the past few years. The recession is over--it's time for some displays!

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A rather naughty Santa Claus was noted along Jane Street in Toronto, Ontario near Bloor on 11-December-2010

Of course, the quality of the display does matter. One of my neighbours has chosen to set up a rather naughty scene in his front yard in which Santa Claus periodically lowers his trousers to reveal "Ho Ho Ho" on his behind. I'm not really certain that one is the best to place on a busy street, and I hesitated before placing it on this blog, but near as I can tell no children are reading here anyway.

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One might say that the devil is behind that display. My favorite customer service request of all time may be the following: "Please remove the devil from all Tampa [items]." (A reference to the re-naming of the Tampa, Florida baseball team from the Devil Rays to the Rays.) It seems to be the business should retort, "What? You're paying me to do exorcisms now?"

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The devil apparently has been exorcised from local mall owners in the Toronto area. At the beginning of the season, there were several news articles on different malls that had banned the Salvation Army from ringing its bells at donation locations. Well, one by one, the malls bowed to public pressure and changed their policies. The last hold-out, the Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto, reportedly changed its policy this week, and the signature bells of the season are again ringing all over. (Never mind that too few people bother to carry change anymore.)

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That kind of controversy sounds just like the kind of thing that new Toronto mayor Rob Ford would get involved in. Conservative sports anchor Don Cherry received quite a bit of publicity for insulting anyone that disagrees with Ford at his inaugural this week, calling them, amongst other things, "left-wing pinkos." As a result, liberal councillors have been wearing pink, and Spacing magazine is having trouble keeping up with the demand for pink buttons. It's going to be a long four years.

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Speaking of conservatives, has anyone else noticed that CBS commentator Charles Osgood seems to be taking over from the late Paul Harvey of ABC as the conservative voice of short-form radio? Listen to the 06:25 broadcast on Tuesday, the 06:25 broadcast on Wednesday, or the 07:25 broadcast on Friday and tell me if there isn't a right-wing slant in the presentation.

Radio Pick: Engineering Search

2010-12-11T22:31:00.003-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - CBC producer Ira Basen has been written about in this feature before; pretty much everything he's been involved in has been gold from my perspective, so it's not surprising that he has again earned my weekly radio pick. His latest effort documents how Google became so dominant in search and the Internet in general, airing originally as a 30-minute documentary in the second hour of The Sunday Edition and appearing about 36 minutes into the podcast.

Listen to MP3 of The Sunday Edition "Engineering Search"

Transport: Only the Downtown Relief Line

2010-12-10T23:16:00.005-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Canada's largest city now has a mayor that intends to cancel the light rail-based Transit City plan and instead build a much smaller distance of subways. Never mind the politics involved, which have already started to become intense, or the philosophy of subways versus light rail, on which my position is essentially the same as Steve Munro's, not the mayor's--for the sake of argument, let's accept that we're going to build subways. The ones everyone is talking about are not the subways that should be built--Toronto should start with the Downtown Relief Line, which nobody is talking about.

While the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) has not specified its plans for subway expansion in the Rob Ford era (and rightfully should have some time to come up with them), the basic outline does not seem to be in much dispute. The Shepherd subway--yes, the one that was designated for shutdown in the political theater of a TTC funding crisis not long ago--is to be "completed," probably to a connection with the Spadina subway at Downsview in the west, and probably to Scarborough Town Centre in the east. Instead of replacing the Scarborough Rapid Transit line with light rail, as currently planned, it would be replaced with an extension of the Bloor-Danforth subway.

The problem with this expansion--and with Transit City, for that matter--and more importantly, the currently under-construction expansion of the Spadina subway into Vaughn and the proposed Yonge subway expansion into Richmond Hill, is that they funnel even more people than today onto the north-south subways through the downtown core. A visit to the platforms at Bloor and Yonge at rush hour will make it very obvious that the Yonge portion of the subway is at capacity. The University portion is only modestly better--it is not unusual for northbound trains in the afternoon rush hour to be crush-loaded after Osgoode station and leave people on crowded platforms at St. Patrick, Queen's Park, and Museum before reaching the transfer point at St. George. The least bit of a service disruption and either of these lines resembles Tokyo. They can't handle more people.

There is a solution to this problem, the long-proposed Downtown Relief Line. The line would provide an east-west underground route through the downtown core, likely under King Street but perhaps under Front or Queen, that would turn north on either side of downtown and head up to meet the Bloor-Danforth subway, probably at Dundas West in the west and Pape in the east. A fair portion of the riders of the Bloor-Danforth subway line that currently have to transfer to the Yonge or University subways to reach the downtown core could instead transfer to this line, freeing up capacity on the two existing lines. With effectively four routes out of downtown instead of two, additional traffic on the two existing lines could be accommodated.

Per kilometer, the Downtown Relief Line would undoubtedly cost more than the Shepherd Line or the Scarborough extensions. But, it would clearly carry a lot more people, and would actually open the useful possibilities for transit expansion in the rest of the city, as there would be capacity where many transit patrons are headed--the dense downtown core. With the Downtown Relief Line in place, a Scarborough extension of the Bloor-Danforth line, for example, might actually create a more attractive option to commuters (who might not be crushed loaded after their transfer at Yonge station) and thus make more sense.

Yet, nobody is talking about the Downtown Relief Line. Not former mayor David Miller or most Transit City advocates (Steve Munro himself rather regularly does point it out) nor the subway advocates like Rob Ford. The political scene is so focused outside the pre-1998 "old" city of Toronto that one of the key problems in the system, with serious consequences for the attractiveness of transit as an option to average people, is being completely overlooked.

I can get behind some new subway construction in Toronto--but only if it starts with the Downtown Relief Line.

Holiday: Toronto Christmas Market

2010-12-09T23:06:00.008-05:00

The entrance to the Toronto Christmas Market, sponsored by Lowe's, was observed on the evening of 9-December-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - One of the delights of the holiday season in central Europe are the Christmas markets in most towns of any size. These outdoor markets attract crowds with their outdoor huts of all kinds of gifts and foodstuffs. On business travel, I've had the privilege of being able to see Christmas markets in such places as Basel, Switzerland and Konstanz, Germany, and really enjoyed doing some Christmas shopping there.

Some of the vendors at the Toronto Christmas Market were observed in their authentic huts on 9-December-2010

When I heard that Toronto was going to have a German-style Christmas market this year, I was initially quite skeptical. While placing it in the Distillery District, which has a rather European atmosphere with its older brick buildings and small alleyways at any time of the year, seemed a good fit, I wasn't convinced that any such event in North America would be able to capture the feel of the European markets.

A choir performed German and North American Christmas favorites at the Toronto Christmas Market on 5-December-2010

When I arrived at the opening of the market last Friday night, however, I was pleasantly surprised. The shops looked straight out of Germany. Furthermore, the place was packed--it was barely possible to move around the central area around the stage and Christmas tree in order to explore the entire market.

Look closely at the turkey at the center of the Leonard Cakes store at the Toronto Christmas Market--it's actually a cake on 9-December-2010

There are only thirty stores at the Toronto Christmas Market, many fewer than a typical German market, and I was initially unimpressed, but after talking to some of the vendors, I changed my views. There were German-heritage businesses from as far away as Peterborough, Ontario, businesses that are normally on-line deciding to take up a holiday booth, and an interesting collection of entrepreneurs including a children's book author--all in all, very similar to the kind of mix found in Europe. Undoubtedly, as words gets around, there will be a larger number of more varied vendors next year.

One of several beer gardens at the Toronto Christmas Market, associated with a very fine German beer, was noted on 9-December-2010

While I might have been happy, the real test was the opinion of a native German. I had the opportunity to go to the market on Sunday with a group headed by a relatively-recent German transplant. He was duly impressed. He even managed to find the mulled wine, which was available at one of the beer gardens though it wasn't particularly promoted. While it wasn't as spiced up as it should have been, he was still quite happy that an effort had been made to offer it.

A puppet troupe performed for passers-by at the Toronto Christmas Market on 5-December-2010

Children have plenty to do at the Christmas Market as well, with roving entertainers, a real Gingerbread House to observe, a maze to walk through, and an "Elves' Workshop" where they can draw or write a letter to Santa. For more information on the Toronto Christmas Market, refer to its website but plan to visit soon--the market closes after this Sunday, 12-December-2010.

Media: The Death of FSRN?

2010-12-08T23:23:00.002-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - One day in the spring of 2001, I decided to scan the dial while walking home in the 6 pm hour. Normally, I would have been listening to WGBH TV channel 2 from Boston, Massachusetts for the airing of what was then called the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, but something caused me to turn to something else. I tuned in WMBR 88.1 FM out of Cambridge, the MIT radio station, expecting to find the Pacifica Network News, which I normally listened to off the Internet later in the day. I thought I had found it, but then I realized that the host was Verna Avery Brown, who hadn't been with Pacifica since late 2000--and that the show was just packed with content, which the Pacifica news had ceased to be. At the end of the half-hour, I discovered that I was listening to Free Speech Radio News, and it immediately replaced the Pacifica Network News in my listening habits.

FSRN was started by the reporters that had gone on strike against an increasingly corporate Pacifica in 2000. A worker-run cooperative, FSRN was a whole new way of doing radio news. Taking advantage of the Internet for gathering content and for producing the program in distributed locations, and decreased satellite feed costs for distributing the program, FSRN enlisted reporters all over the world to file stories when news of significance was happening locally. The program was so packed with content, clearly more substantive than the Pacifica Network News had been even before the strike, that it began attracting a serious following and direct donations from listeners.

By April 2002, the FSRN collective had effectively won. Verna Avery Brown became a leader at the Pacifica network, the Pacifica Network News was canceled, and FSRN effectively took its place on the network, with Pacifica providing much of its funding. Since then, FSRN has continued to provide coverage using local reporters based all around the world, leading to quite interesting coverage of world events. It's been a staple of my radio listening ever since I discovered it, and I was one of many thousands of individual financial contributors to the broadcast.

The recession changed all that. When people like me became unemployed, they quit contributing to FSRN. Pacifica starting running into financial difficult, and started making late payments to the FSRN cooperative. In the end, when Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding to Pacifica came through, FSRN would again be caught up. However, Pacifica is now in such a dire situation that it couldn't catch up with its commitments to FSRN or other programming (leading, amongst other things, to the current controversial situation with morning show at network-owned KPFA in Berkeley, California, in which the network canceled the station's top local fund-raising show).

As a result, starting on Tuesday, FSRN is no longer what it used to be. Reporters are no longer being paid to file stories, and none are airing. The program consists of the permanent staff doing two-way interviews with experts and a lot of filler talking about the crisis. If you are unfamiliar with FSRN's programming, don't listen to a show from this week--pick something out of the archives from the first ten years of its existence and listen to that. If money is not raised quickly, the program will no longer air at all after 20-December.

In its page on the crisis, FSRN reveals that it can air a week's worth of programming for $3600. (Imagine what the cooperative could do with the CBC's funding!) Will this programming resource really disappear for the equivalent of the salary of one business executive? Unfortunately, in the next two weeks, we may find out.

Culture: Disagreeing with Francis Collins

2010-12-07T23:07:00.003-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - I recently finished reading the The Language of God by Francis S. Collins, the well-known geneticist that amongst other things led the government portion of the Human Genome Project. I'm probably one of the few readers who started the book without any wonderment about the fact that a prominent scientist like Collins could be religious--I've long held that there isn't necessarily a conflict between the two, and on Collins' key points in the book on the potential harmony, I essentially found myself in agreement. Instead, I read the book to find out what had compelled him to have faith--and found it quite unconvincing.

The key part of Collins' argument for the existence of God is the idea of the "moral code," or the nearly-universal tendency of human beings to exhibit a degree of selfless altruism. I agree with him when he points out that it is contrary to evolutionary theory in that "it cannot be accounted for by the drive of individual selfish genes to perpetuate themselves" since many exhibiting this behavior die before reproduction. Clearly, something other direct natural selection as described by Darwin or even Richard Dawkins' selfish gene theory is at work in creating this behavior.

Yet, I found Collins quite quick to dismiss possible explanations. He completely discounts the possibility of selflessness being a positive attribute in mate selection. He cites studies of "nonhuman primates that often reveal just the opposite--such as the practice of infanticide by a newly dominant male monkey, in order to clear the way for his own offspring" but fails to recognize other studies often held up Robert Sapolsky at Stanford that show "Alan Alda" male chimpanzees having reproductive success simply by being around females more often, rather than by being the alpha. It seems that even amongst non-humans, there are multiple paths to reproductive success, and altruism might actually help in attracting mates in some of them, thus potentially perpetuating itself.

What really surprised me, though, is that a geneticist would overlook the argument that a mutation that created altruism might also create another trait with a more clear evolutionary advantage and thus be perpetuated even though it might be harmful itself. The most common example of this kind of situation is sickle-cell anemia being linked with malarial survival--the same mutation that causes the sickle cells affords that person malarial resistance, which might actually be a net positive trade-off in survivability. Considering that we have yet to determine the chemical mechanism of altruism, it seems a bit presumptuous to assume that we will not, and that it might not be linked to something else that confers emotional strength, disease resistance, or some other clear advantage.

Furthermore, I find it rather ironic that Collins spends an entire chapter pointing out how new scientific discoveries are rendering the arguments made by intelligent design advocates moot--such as gaps in the fossil record (many of which have now been filled in by later discoveries). Could not the same process of continued discovery and improved theories eventually render his own arguments about the "moral code" being divine look unnecessary if a scientific explanation eventually comes forward? I don't know if that will ever happen, but the fact that Collins doesn't even seem to see the possibility is rather disappointing.

While I've never met him, the ideas expressed by Francis Collins in his book suggest to me that he is exactly the kind of deeply religious person with whom I could get along. He thinks about his beliefs in profound ways, applies critical thinking to his faith, and reconciles it with the world around him. I might reach a different conclusion based on the same facts, but there would be no arguing about the facts themselves, and any argument about the conclusions would be educational. People trying to reconcile science and religion should find value in his perspective, and more importantly can respect his leadership in trying to point out that reconciliation is not such a difficult task. In the end, that's why I was so disappointed in his reasoning in favor of faith--it doesn't offer much challenge to those who start out from an atheistic perspective.

Economy: Putting a Very Public Face on It

2010-12-06T22:16:00.004-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - At long last, the mainstream media in the United States has started to focus occasionally on the long-term unemployed. I found it especially significant to hear a systems engineer from California as a guest on the NPR talk show On Point when it explored the topic, as that could have easily been me with slightly different life decisions. Yet, it was another radio show that provided an example that may resonate with just about anyone that's lived in northern California in the past generation.

On Brian Copeland's Sunday morning talk show on KGO in San Francisco, he took a call twenty minutes into his third hour from a Mike in Vallejo. The Mike was soon revealed to be Mike Pechner, the well-known meteorologist who worked at rival KCBS in San Francisco for forty years. I even knew Mike Pechner's name before I moved to the area from listening to the station at night from Seattle and while visiting the area--for people that grew up listening to KCBS for news, Pechner was an absolute institution. Probably nobody was more closely identified with morning weather forecasts in the Bay Area than Pechner, certainly not for as many years as Pechner was on the air.

Furthermore, I had met Mike Pechner. Besides being a radio personality, he is a railroad enthusiast, a member of many of the fan groups that I also participated in while in the Bay Area and especially active surrounding any railroad in the north bay where he made his home. He has been an outspoken advocate of the restoration of service in that region, all the while providing expert forecasts to railfans who wanted to check out train action on Donner Pass around snowstorms.

So, needless to say, I perked up when it became clear that it was Mike Pechner calling in. It turns out that since he was laid off by KCBS, he has become a member of the long-term unemployed. He described how he has unsuccessfully tried to pursue alternate careers to broadcasting but that his age--he is now 64--was proving to be a major problem. About the only way he had found to earn a partial living was substitute teaching--but with the rash of teacher layoffs in California, this was becoming less and less frequent.

Anyone that has met Mike Pechner knows that he is a hard worker--and I suspect most people who heard him on the radio don't have much difficulty imagining that. While I haven't seen him since I moved out of the area, I had heard second-hand even before this radio call that he is nearly as vigorous today as I remember him from a decade and a half ago. He is a classic example of an older worker with a lot to offer the world--but in this economy, he's just another member of the long-term unemployed.

If a man that more than a generation grew up listening to as their weatherman can end up without a job for more than two years, just about anyone can. Besides being a quality radio conversation between two pros in Pechner and Copeland, this segment of a radio program provided the most compelling example of just how bad this economy is for so many people. If everyone in northern California had been listening to the Brian Copeland program and heard the call from Mike Pechner, there would be almost nobody there left not supporting the extension of unemployment or some other assistance to the long-term unemployed. I encourage everyone to listen to it before it disappears from the KGO archives next Sunday.

Photos: Toronto's Santa Claus Parade 2010

2010-12-05T23:58:00.002-05:00

The Lowe's-sponsored float in the 2010 Santa Claus Parade in Toronto, Ontario had a bird theme on 21-November-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This week's update to my photo site looks back at the Santa Claus Parade. The holiday season has traditionally started in greater Toronto, Ontario with this parade. Held this year in moderate temperatures on 21-November-2010, a record number of floats and bands created a bit of a varied and very long experience for those that stayed until Santa Claus at the very end.

Margin Notes: Tiger, German Market, Redwood

2010-12-05T23:03:00.006-05:00

A tiger was noted displayed for the holidays in Toronto, Ontario's Koreatown on 4-December-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - One of the disadvantages of doing most commuting underground in the subway is that one is completely oblivious to what's above ground. Apparently, the holiday light display shaped like a tiger pictured above has graced Koreatown here in Toronto near Christie Pits Parks each December since 2008. I didn't notice it until this year, and I have to say it may be my favorite lighted sculpture in the city.

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The crowds were so thick it was difficult to move near the performance stage during the opening of Toronto Christmas Market on 3-December-2010

Genuinely new this year is the German-style Christmas Market in the Distillery District of Toronto. I arrived late to the opening ceremonies on Friday night to discover that so many people had shown up that it was almost impossible to move around the stage, as shown above. This event is the best approximation of a German Christmas Market that I've seen in North America; I'll have more to say about it in a future post as I plan to go back at a quieter time--but it only runs through next Sunday.

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Winter will probably arrive in Toronto by next Sunday. We haven't had significant snow accumulation yet this season, but there were snow showers off and on all day today, and for the first time I decided to pull out my warmest winter hat to deal with a wind chill factor approaching -10 C even at mid-day. Of course, in a month, that will probably seem warm.

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It's warm inside the John Street Roundhouse this winter, the first season with interior heating in the museum stalls. The roof of a 1931 Canadian Pacific sleeping car is currently under restoration in those stalls, including the replacement of rotten wood. The kind of wood found on that roof was not what I would have expected--the restoration contractor, Tom Murison, identified it as California Redwood. If California Redwood was used on Canadian passenger cars in the 1930's, its use must have been quite widespread in the industry!

Radio Pick: Female Entrepeneurs

2010-12-04T23:44:00.004-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - A show that I regularly listen to but hasn't risen to the level of being a pick has finally become my weekly radio pick. Radio has been trying to hard to reach a younger audience. Interestingly, the programs that seem to be surviving while succeeding in that endeavor are not those who jump frenetically from one topic to another, but ones that emphasize production values and sound and try to take on topics of interest to younger people. A classic example is CBC Radio One's Spark. This week's 53-minute show was an especially good case study, taking on relatively heady topics like the small number of females leading start-up companies and copyright law, but making extensive use of production gimmicks and a focus on practical consequences to a tech-savvy audience to create a great listening experience anyway.

Listen to MP3 of Spark "Female Entrepreneurs"

Holiday: Sounds of the Season 2010

2010-12-03T23:50:00.008-05:00

All the artists from the live broadcast of CBC Radio One Toronto's "Metro Morning" Sounds of the Season broadcast were on-stage for the finale on 3-December-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Once a year, CBC Toronto holds an entire day of live and studio audience tapings of its programming at the national headquarters building in Toronto, Ontario. For the second straight year, I chose to get up early to be down in the Glenn Gould Studio in time to watch the taping of "Metro Morning," the morning drive-time show on CBC Radio One which airs from 5:30 to 8:30.

Host Matt Galloway took a moment before the show opened to send a picture of the audience to Twitter on 3-December-2010

While he had done plenty of live "Sounds of the Season" broadcasts as host of Here and Now, this was host Matt Galloway's first year doing the "Metro Morning" live broadcast. Galloway can hardly be accused of not being technologically adept--as we awaited the beginning of the show, he took a picture of the audience with his phone and posted it to the Internet via Twitter. As luck would have it, I happened to sit just a row away from Galloway's parents who had come to see their son at work!

Denzal Sinclaire performed the "Little Drummer Boy" during the Metro Morning Sounds of the Season live broadcast on 3-December-2010

The real draw of live broadcast is the musical artists that perform. This year, the Metro Morning broadcast featured the Toronto Mass Choir, Pavlo, and Daniela Nardi. Probably the most unusual performance was Elizabeth Shepherd and her Swedish husband Johan Hultqvist (of Mr. Something Something) who did a duet of a Swedish traditional holiday song. However, two performances really blew me away--Denzal Sinclaire, dressed
in jeans, singing the "Little Drummer Boy" with a great jazz sensibility, and Shakura S'Aida doing a wonderful rendition of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch."

Shakura S'Aida performed the "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" impressing the audience in Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, Ontario on 3-December-2010

For radio fans like myself, the other big draw of "Sounds of the Season" is the chance to actually see all the radio personalities who are normally just voices. As a past attendee, such broadcasters as traffic reporter Jim Curran, news reporter Jill Dempsey and business commentator Michael Hlinka were familiar faces, but medical columnist Peter Lin was a new face to me and it was equally fun to watch him tease Matt Galloway as it is to hear it on the air.

Dr. Peter Lin shared a lighter moment with host Matt Galloway during the live broadcast of "Metro Morning" on 3-December-2010

At one point, I pulled out my walkman to discover that the there was absolutely no delay in the broadcast--exactly what was happening in front of our eyes was going straight out to 99.1 FM without any buffering. In an age of digital broadcasting, that was remarkably refreshing.

Daily Bread Food Bank Executive Director Gail Nyberg spoke with Matt Galloway about fund-raising totals during the "Sounds of the Season" broadcast on 3-December-2010

Of course, the whole point of the broadcast was to raise money for area food banks including the Daily Bread Food Bank. It doesn't take a special day for that--donations are accepted anytime.

More coverage of the Sounds of the Season Metro Morning broadcast will be forthcoming in an update to my photo site

Radio: Dr. Dean Edell to Retire

2010-12-02T23:49:00.003-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Other talk show hosts from Larry King (leaving his daily CNN show on 16-December) to Dr. Laura Schlessinger (leaving her daily syndicated show for satellite radio at the end of December) have received more publicity for their retirements this year, but the most significant announcement may have come yesterday. Dr. Dean Edell, the long-time medical advice talk show host, has stated that he will be retiring at about the end of the year.

While I first encountered Dr. Dean Edell when he appeared on KVI in Seattle as a weekend tape-delayed show along with Rush Limbaugh, he didn't really become significant to me until I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. There, he has aired live at 1 pm (or noon, for some years) on his flagship station that gave him one of his first big breaks in broadcasting, KGO Newstalk 810 in San Francisco. Edell's show has been a fixture on KGO since 1978. Whenever I didn't have class or work as an undergraduate, Dr. Edell would be my after-lunch education and entertainment, and always seemed worthwhile. Generally, my class schedule allowed me to hear at least one day of the broadcast a week.

Yet, Edell's significance is not so much as an early doctor on the radio or even as a long-term host on one of the premier talk radio stations in the world, but as a pioneer in syndication. In the late 1970's, local content was considered essential in radio, and there was great resistance to airing the same program in multiple markets. While network programming (including at the time Larry King) did air in multiple markets, that was a different, centralized model intended to air on all stations in a network. Syndication was about providing a program that individual stations could independently choose to air or not. Edell's medical show and his handling of callers was so unique and compelling that it broke through. It was syndication that brought him to WGY in Schenectady, New York--the station on which I used to hear Dr. Edell on Sunday afternoons when I lived in Boston. It was in fact the syndicated network founded by Edell that started to distribute Rush Limbaugh and created the conservative talk radio revolution in the 1990's.

After making his announcement on Wednesday's program, Edell discussed some of his broadcasting and syndication history. However, his impact on people's lives soon came front and center. Former producer Daphne Brogdon (who was Edell's producer during my undergraduate years and until 1999; successor Heather Hamann is largely credited with Edell's high ratings in recent years) called in and emphasized this point. Edell's scientific method-based and often leading-edge opinions on topics like homosexuality, circumcision, vaccination, and over-prescription of medication have pushed his audience and attracted the most educated listeners amongst syndicated hosts in the United States.

The relation between KGO's recent scheduling changes which were moving Edell's show to tape delay and Edell's retirement is not clear--the host mainly cited a desire to be a more active grandparent. While Edell announced plans to find a successor host during the Wednesday show, those listeners all across the United States will still inevitably find a big hole even if a syndicated medical advice show in the current time slot continues. No longer we will be greeted with "Hello Friends" and told to "Be Well" each weekday.

With the retirement of Dr. Dean Edell, the radio world is losing not just an old, comforting friend. It's losing one of the most significant figures of his generation.

Holiday: Canadian Pacific Holiday Train 2010

2010-12-01T23:31:00.009-05:00

The CN Tower was also decorated in holiday colors in the background as the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train arrived for its performance in Toronto, Ontario on 29-November-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Toward the beginning of the holiday season, communities across the northern United States and southern Canada receive a special visit. The Canadian Pacific Holiday Train rolls along its home rails, stopping in communities large and small to introduce Santa Claus, provide some musical entertainment, and raise money for local food banks.

The smoke cleared after the stage door opened for the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train's performance in Toronto, Ontario on 29-November-2010

For the third straight year, the Toronto performance of the train took place at the West Toronto Yard in The Junction neighborhood. The train was again decorated along its entire length with Light Emitting Diodes of shifting holiday scenes, with an emphasis on this "Canadian" train (a second train mostly visits communities in the United States) on packages and sleds, along with the famous four boxcars writing out "Canadian Pacific Holiday Train" in large lettering.

The locomotive of the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train was decorated with packages and bells as seen at West Toronto Yard in Toronto, Ontario on 29-November-2010

The main entertainment this year came from The Odds. They opened their performance with their most popular hit, "Someone Who's Cool," so it was instantly clear what band was playing. I found their performance especially amusing this year, as they intentionally mixed up Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman and otherwise tweaked holiday traditions. At one point, they brought a Canadian Pacific employee on-stage to play the harmonica with them, which was a nice way to connect with the audience, heavy on railroad employees.

The Canadian Pacific's Scott Nelson played the Harmonica with The Odds during the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train's performance in Toronto, Ontario on 29-November-2010

Of course, the main purpose of the train was raise money for local food banks. In Toronto, that means the Daily Bread Food Bank, and executive director Gail Nyberg was on hand to collect an oversized check from Canadian Pacific. Outgoing city councilperson Bill Saundercook was also part of the presentation in what may prove his last public appearance as an elected official; he talked about continuing the event next year as if he were not leaving office.

City councillor Bill Saundercook and Daily Bread Food Bank executive director Gail Nyberg held an oversized check from the Canadian Pacific on 29-November-2010

For the first time in recent years, the Holiday Train did not have to rush off for another performance in Vaughn, Ontario, the same night; the train instead backed up to overnight at Toronto Yard in the Agincourt neighborhood. Still, the performance was only about a half hour, and that actually felt way too short to me, though it's tough to complain about free, quality entertainment.

The rear of the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train was quiet as the train sat in Toronto, Ontario on 29-November-2010

The Holiday Train continues west, stopping for more performances every day, until it finishes in Port Moody, British Columbia on 17-December-2010. See the Canadian Pacific web site for schedule information.

Culture: The Busiest Time of the Year

2010-11-30T23:58:00.005-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - At midnight, the eleventh month of the year comes to an end and the twelfth begins. That's my way of avoiding saying that there are barely over three weeks to a certain major winter holiday that tends to involve a lot of shopping. I wasn't trying to avoid writing "Christmas," but when one grows up in secular greater Seattle, one by necessity learns the multitude of ways to avoid making any references that could be construed as religious.

Just because there are only "giving" and "holiday" and not "Christmas" trees around Seattle (at least if taxpayer money is in any way involved) doesn't mean that people take the winter holiday any less seriously. The "shopping season" begins abruptly the day after US Thanksgiving with stores opening--well, in recent years 5 am has seemed late with some opening at midnight for overnight bargain hunters. Holiday cultural events, office parties, and other time sinks make it difficult to work in all the shopping and preparation right through to the family vacations at the end of the month.

Once upon a time--when I was an undergraduate--my routine was to start on holiday cards the Saturday after Thanksgiving by writing up a letter, and getting them all mailed by the middle of the following week, the first weekend of December at the very latest. That was quite a bit easier when my address book was smaller.

By those standards, I'm already behind. I haven't mailed a single card. I just received my custom-made order today, and even if I had them earlier, I'm not prepared with a letter or even finished e-mailing people for address changes. My European friends are just going to have to live with late cards.

I'm not going to catch up. There's too much to do--special events to attend and cover on this blog, parties to attend, and shopping to do, never mind that normal life activities don't stop for the month of December. Most years this blog has to go silent for a few days while I try to catch up in mailing cards. This year will likely be no different.

Some people send new year's cards instead of Christmas cards. I can respect that, but on the other hand I rather like being done with the process before the celebrations for the same reason that I preferred academic schedules with finals before the holidays to the Harvard-style schedule with finals in January. A busy December is a great excuse for relaxation during the last week of the year and, for that matter, well into January.

In the end, it's that tradition of trying to do everything in December and doing almost nothing in January, not any particular religious, spiritual, or other cultural tradition, which I observe and intend to keep respecting for the foreseeable future.

Holiday: Cavalcade of Lights

2010-11-29T23:13:00.008-05:00

Red and green fireworks lit up City Hall in Toronto, Ontario during the Cavalcade of Lights fireworks on 27-November-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Traditionally, the Cavalcade of Lights here has been a nearly season-long event, with part of the idea of the festival being that there would be happenings at Nathan Philips Square on a number of evenings to draw people to the holiday-related businesses downtown. However, this year, with the area under construction, it was decided to run the event for just a single night. I wasn't sure what that would mean for attendance--would it be like any other single night of past cavalcades, or would it attract a season's worth of attendees?

The balcony above Nathan Philips Square was nearly as stuffed with people as the ground level during the Cavalcade of Lights in Toronto, Ontario on 27-November-2010

The truth turned out to be much closer to the latter. In comparatively mild weather (especially compared with the wind and snow that had started the day), Nathan Philips Square was stuffed with people--it was difficult to walk around the skating surface, and perhaps even more surprising, people were coming down from the balcony level because there weren't any good viewpoints left there. Estimates in the media stated only "hundreds" of people, but it seemed to me there had to be more than a thousand.

Toronto's official Christmas tree had just been lit when this photograph was taken on 27-November-2010

Because of the construction, the Christmas tree (and yes, it is officially a Christmas tree, not a Holiday tree) was not in its normal location near the northeast corner of the square; instead, it magically appeared with the flick of a switch in the northwest corner not long after the event started at 7 pm.

Divine Brown performed during the Cavalcade of Lights in Toronto, Ontario on 27-November-2010

The hosts for the evening were from CHUM-FM, a hit music station, and the three Canadian artists to perform three songs each were all straight off that radio station's playlist, Sarah Slean, Shawn Desman, and Divine Brown. None seemed to especially move the audience, who became increasingly impatient for the fireworks.

Haut-Vol from Levis, Quebec performed acrobatic acts during the Cavalcade of Lights in Toronto, Ontario on 27-November-2010

What did capture the crowd's attention was Hault-Vol, an acrobatic troupe from Levis, Quebec that went up and down a large structure to the right of the main stage. This was a different and very interesting attraction that the portion of my crowd probably would have been happy to watch for much longer than five minutes.

Red fireworks exploded around Toronto's City Hall during the Cavalcade of Lights on 27-November-2010

What we came for, though, were the fireworks. With only one display this year, it seemed like the whole season's worth of displays had been packed into this one evening. It seemed much longer than the eight minutes that it actually lasted, a very satisfying cap on the evening for those of not choosing to remain around and ice skate into the night.

More pictures from the Cavalcade of Lights will be featured in a future update to my photo site

Photos: Top Holiday Photos

2010-11-28T23:43:00.004-05:00

The Canadian Pacific Holiday Train stopped in the background behind the Holiday Tree in the Distillery District of Toronto, Ontario on 3-December-2007

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This week's update to my photo site features a retrospective. Coverage of the holiday season begins with the best of my holiday photographs from the digital era, covering the holiday seasons from 2005 to 2009. Displays, lights, parades, events, and trains from across North America are included.

Margin Notes: Grey 3D Calvacade of Public Radio

2010-11-28T19:28:00.006-05:00

Fireworks lit up Toronto, Ontario's City Hall during the Cavalcade of Lights on 27-November-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - The Christmas (er, Holiday) tree in Toronto, Ontario was lit last night during the Cavalcade of Lights in Nathan Philips Square. Because of construction, the tree is in a new location on the eastern side of the space, near Bay Street. The real highlight of the event, though, was the fireworks display around City Hall. Traditionally a multi-night event, this year the fireworks were last night only, and as a result the display was rather extended and spectacular; there will be more coverage of this event in a future blog post.

* * * * * *

If one prefers holiday atmosphere in one's own home instead of from a special event, there's always the Yule Log Channel. While WPIX in New York, New York has been running a two-hour show of only a Yule Log and holiday music since 1967, usually on Christmas eve, it took the digital era to introduce an entire Yule Log channel to bring the fireplace into one's home whenever it was desired. For Comcast, even that was not enough--this year, The Yule Log Channel is going 3D. At some level, I understand the Yule Log Channel as background--but 3D programming is, by its very nature, designed to be engaging. How long can one actively watch a Yule Log?

* * * * * *

Some would say background programs are more appropriate on the radio than in 3D, and in the realm of radio holiday traditions, the Poultry Slam on This American Life has to be one of the strangest ones. This week, the program replayed perhaps the best of its Poultry Slam programs, the 2003 Poultry Slam. For those not acquainted with this tradition, listening to "Fish," old episodes of "Chicken Man," and an account of photographing chickens may be the only way to figure it out.

* * * * * *

This American Life has become such an iconic public radio program in the United States that it is not surprising that cultural references to the medium now inevitably feature it in some way. This month, a rap about public radio by a fan in Corvallis, Oregon has gone viral on YouTube, and besides programs like All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, and Fresh Air, it features This American Life. Conspicuously absent, though are references to On Point, Diane Rehm, or the CBC, so only those in the United States or United Kingdom will appreciate it, not those of us in Canada.

* * * * * *

Festivities surrounding the Grey Cup had taken over the area around the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario including Roundhouse Park as seen on 25-November-2007

As I type this, most Canadians are likely watching the Grey Cup, the championship game of the Canadian Football League, this year in Edmonton, Alberta between the Montreal Alouettes and Saskatchewan Rough Riders. The event is quintessentially Canadian--fans from all the teams, not just those playing, show up and actually interact with each other in surprisingly friendly fashion in the week before the game. I experienced the phenomenon three years ago first-hand when the game was played in Toronto--several interactions that might have led to a fight outside the Superbowl in the United States resulted in nothing more than a bit of verbal sparring here. This week's Cross Country Checkup on the CBC explored the topic of Grey Cup culture and taught me something I didn't show--the Atlantic Schooners are the only CFL team with a perfect record--they've never lost a game because they never actually played a game before folding.

Radio Pick: Upcycling

2010-11-27T23:52:00.003-05:00

This week's radio pick comes from To The Best of Our Knowledge. Despite having lived in areas with radically different recycling policies, I'd never thought of recycling as something distinct from upcycling and downcycling, nor had I realized that most of what North America views as recycling is really downcycling. These concepts were explored in the depth that only public radio tends to provide in a 53-minute program from Wisconsin Public Radio.

Listen to To The Best of Our Knowledge "Upcycling"

Radio: Review of Day 6

2010-11-26T20:30:00.005-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - It's been some time since I've reviewed a radio show on this blog, and I don't normally wait several months after the start of a new program to subject it to such a treatment. However, it's probably time to weigh in about CBC Radio One's new Saturday morning program, Day 6.

Essentially replacing the former "GO!" variety program (to which I almost never listened), host Brent Bambury has carried over from the previous show and continues to provide a lot of energy to the new broadcast. While focused on popular "cultural touchstones" as opposed to hard news, Day 6 is in a very real sense a "heavier" program than its predecessor. The Issues of the Day are discussed, often comically, between Bambury and a string of guests, even if those issues are anti-Muslim preachers and whether Craigslist runs adult-oriented material and not timelines for leaving Afghanistan, health care reform, or whether the Canadian senate is functioning properly. The production values, as we come to expect from the CBC, are second-to-none.

What was striking from the first show, though, was the sheer amount of material from the United States being presented. While in some sense this is recognition that events in pop culture in the United States drive much of pop culture in Canada, it is a little jarring to see a Canadian-produced program focusing on events in the US. Not only have movements like Islamophobia and the TEA Party been explored, but in one early show, the trivia question for the day was about the event when President Obama's seal fell off a podium where he was giving a speech.

I may have found that notable from the first show, but it didn't really strike me as going too far until The Big 6 contest was announced last week. Listeners are being asked to vote on which stories they think best represent six categories, Newsmaker of the Year, Trend of the Year, Flameout of the Year, Feel Good Story of the Year, Comeback Story of the Year, and Feel Good Story of the Year. The show presented one suggestion for each category. Of those six suggestions, only one--Justin Bieber for Trend of the Year--was Canadian, while three--the TEA Party, Conan O'Brien, and Jersey Shore--were American. For a show on a network chartered to showcase Canadian culture, this seemed a major failing.

Perhaps the CBC is minimizing the Canadian content in Day 6 in an attempt to make it palatable for syndication in the United States. Yet, there's already an overload in Saturday morning public radio programming to run after Weekend Edition in the United States--with Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me, Car Talk, Whad'Ya Know, This American Life, West Coast Live, and Bob Edwards Weekend just to name some obvious options. Good production values are not going to be enough to give Day 6 a slot in many, if any, markets.

I don't see Day 6 living on in its current incarnation. Perhaps with more emphasis on Canadian content, it can continue with a similar format for some time in the future.

Transport: The Loss of the Lacey V. Murrow

2010-11-25T23:46:00.003-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States, but twenty years ago, 25-November fell on a Sunday, and it was quite an interesting day. From my 25-November-1990 Highlight report:

When it was opened in 1940, the Lacey V. Murrow floating bridge was the longest floating bridge in the world. It served well as US 10 and temporary I-90 until the new, third Lake Washington floating bridge opened parallel to the old bridge last year. The classic old span began to be renovated, with some of the work, including the eastern approach and part of the decking completed by the beginning of the Thanksgiving work break.

However, when workers arrived to check on the bridge this morning, they found one of the middle pontoons rapidly taking on water and sinking. They immediately went to shore for safety, and as they called in help, a loud cracking noise was heard. The bridge broke in two, with a middle pontoon immediately sinking. The western section broke away from the approach and began drifting southward. The eastern section remained attached to shore, but continued to take on water.

By this time, the local media had arrived on the scene, and live coverage of the disaster soon reached the airwaves. Another pontoon began to lean downward and bubble. Water come over the roadway, and then the section tipped downward, causing a construction crane to topple into Lake Washington. The pontoon soon followed in turning over and sinking, sending up circular bubbles on the way down.

A few more pontoons went down in such dramatic fashion before the remainder of the bridge stabilized. A tugboat was called to drag the drifting section and hold it against the shore. At the end of the eastern section, the last pontoon hung facing downward, threatening to break off and sink.

Meanwhile, the new bridge was shut down as a precautionary measure and it will remain closed tomorrow morning which will certainly cause a traffic jam the likes of which have never been seen in the Seattle area. Once the new bridge is confirmed safe, the investigation into what happened to the old bridge this morning can begin.

It turned out that the sinking pontoons had snapped some of the cables attaching the new bridge to its southern anchors, meaning that there was stress on the bridge from the still-tensioned northern anchors, threatening to break that bridge apart as well, though it was not in danger of sinking. A fleet of tugboats and other heavy watercraft were recruited to pull on the old bridge until new anchors could be attached.

The old bridge had been undergoing hydro-demolition, the process of using pressurized water to break apart the concrete surfaces that were to be removed. If that doesn't sound ill-advised enough on a floating bridge, the waste water from the process was being stored inside the pontoons, and some of the water-tight barriers had been removed to facilitate this practice. The significant storm that hit around the Thanksgiving holiday was enough to combine with these factors to sink the fifty year-old bridge.

As the parallel Homer M. Hadley Bridge had just been recently designed and completed, it was a comparatively simple process to adapt the plans for that five-lane bridge to the replacement three-lane Lacey V. Murrow Bridge, which was constructed on a somewhat expedited schedule and opened in 1993--with the insurance company of the contractor on the original bridge's refurbishing paying a good portion of the bill.

Now, the 1990's-era bridges are a fixture between Seattle and Mercer Island, and the only controversy surrounds whether to install light rail tracks on the Homer M. Hadley Bridge.

Politics: Greenwald Portends the Right

2010-11-24T21:51:00.003-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - On the busiest travel day of the year, pretty much every program that I listen to, short form or long form, news, talk, or entertainment, American, Canadian or British, brings up the topic of the new invasive security procedures at airports in the United States. If I hear one more comment using the word "junk" I think I will go crazier than those personally assaulted by the procedures.

The media boom surrounding this story is remarkable. At the beginning of the month, right after the election, Salon.com's Glenn Greenwald seemed like a lone voice on the topic. In a speech in Madison, Wisconsin (available on-line), Greenwald framed the civil liberties debate somewhat differently than I had heard before. He made the case that civil liberties were a well-defined thing that it doesn't take a lawyer to explain. On the other hand, terrorism is fundamentally an undefinable thing to the point that just about anyone can be considered a terrorist from some warped frame of mind, and pretty much any terrorist could be considered a patriot from a different warped perspective. Greenwald's point was that it is insane to give up a definable quantity, civil liberties, in order to prevent an undefinable quantity, terrorism.

While that expression of the idea resonated with me, it didn't attract much media attention--a friend who reads the on-line magazine had to point me to Greenwald's speech. Instead, what resonated with the media was the video taken of a libertarian's encounter with the Transportation Security Administration in San Diego, in which he ends up accusing them of sexually assaulting him. Everybody has seen that now, along with even more offensive tales of stripped seven year-olds, punctured urine bags, and removed prosthetic breasts.

All of the sudden, instead of the far-left like Greenwald talking about the topic, the same anger that fueled the fiscal-oriented TEA parties is leading the charge from the right. Dave Ross of CBS has even suggested that TEA now stands for "Touched Enough Already" instead of "Taxed Enough Already." The rational amongst us are asking why Israeli-style security has not been implemented, and the irrational are calling for protests to slow down security lines.

Sometimes, the far left and far right both go so far that they meet. In this case, though, the discontent is pretty much universal across the political spectrum. It's only a matter of time before these security measures are dropped, or the Obama administration can forget about ever being re-elected.

Culture: Fumbling Happiness

2010-11-23T22:59:00.003-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - In his best-seller, Stumbling on Happiness, Daniel Gilbert makes the case that the main reason people are not as happy as they could be is that they don't believe the examples they see around them. Rather than evaluating what would make the "average person" happy and following that path, they consider themselves as too different from the average person and come up with reasons why that wouldn't work for them, and instead stay within their less satisfactory comfort zones or otherwise undermine their own happiness.

I actually have a slightly different take on the human tendency to not accurately foresee what will make oneself happy. While I probably have a better case to make about being far from average than most, I can accept that my tendency to be happy in a given situation is at least reasonably similar to people from the "spiritual" world of personalities, which if we believe Bob Cooley represent about a quarter of the population. I've always watched how other people, whether "spiritual" or not, react to situations and tried not to personally repeat their mistakes, marveling at other people that had to actually try everything themselves and experience exactly what others had already gone through.

Yet, I still think Gilbert's advice is difficult, if not nearly impossible, to follow. It's not because I don't believe that I won't react to things the way other people will, but because my circumstances are not similar enough to those that other people have faced. On truly generic matters, like reaction to switching between the eastern and western coast of the United States, or moving far away from family, I can believe that I would react like an average person. But, when facing nuanced decisions between alternate paths that really matter in life, the details matter, and finding situations with comparable details is almost impossible.

For example, I've heard about a number of people who chose between living where they wanted to live and taking a job that would have been much better. There is data to use in evaluating that decision. Yet, couldn't it make a difference if that better job actually involves a team of people that one not only has worked with before, but strongly trust? How many people do you know that had that element in such a choice? There are plenty of situations in which someone made significant career or personal sacrifices for the sake of a romantic relationship. But, don't the qualities and longevity of that relationship make a difference, as well as the absoluteness of the sacrifices? How does one find a similar enough relationship, with the sacrifices coming at a similar point in that relationship, to use as a guide?

Gilbert can argue that statistics can be our best friend, that the average reaction of a large group of people is most likely to be our own reaction in similar circumstances. Yet, if one can't amass enough valid statistics because it's hard to find someone else with such a unique background that might impact on the success of one's own decision as the person actually involved in one's life, then it's hard to garner a large enough sample for statistical validity.

Anyway, that's my excuse if I make a decision that doesn't make me happy.

Holiday: Santa Claus Parade 2010

2010-11-22T23:01:00.009-05:00

WestJet has at least one aircraft that isn't a 737--this balloon was part of the Santa Claus Parade in Toronto, Ontario on 21-November-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - In the lead-up to the Santa Claus Parade this year, I commented to a friend that snow seems to magically occur more often than not during the event which marks the beginning of the holiday season in Toronto. While the forecast early in the week called for sun, it gradually changed over the course of the week to clouds to rain showers to show showers, and sure enough, snowflakes were seen yesterday morning before the parade. While the crowds gathered and remained for the procession itself, though, it was simply a cold late fall day.

A Canada Post worker collected a letter for Santa Claus from the crowd at the Santa Claus Parade in Toronto, Ontario on 21-November-2010

The parade traditionally opens with a group of Canada Post letter carriers collecting letters for Santa Claus, and tradition was honored this year. Following closely behind the walking postal boxes were the first set of clowns, throwing candy so often into my section of the crowd that even I ended up with my first candy cane of the season despite giving at least five away to children behind me and some late-arriving spectators.

A clown threw candy to rain on the crowds at the corner of Bloor and Avenue Road in Toronto, Ontario during the Santa Claus Parade on 21-November-2010

In recent years, I had found the parade somewhat disappointing, with few new and creative floats and the main attraction being the traditions from the beginning of the event to the end. This year marked a distinct shift. Organizers claimed it was the largest parade in event history, with thirty-one floats, many of them new, unlike the twenty-six mostly repeats in 2009. The parade went on for over two hours at my location, though it was stretched out by the 35 minute break between the first set of clowns and mayor-elect Rob Ford. As a result, it almost seemed too long. The number of people that left after an hour or so was much larger than I remember in previous years.

The Yogi Bear "Jellystone Park" float, to promote the new 3D Yogi Bear movie premiering soon, was one of the new floats in the 2010 Santa Claus Parade on 21-November-2010

Some of the new floats were quite interesting. A Sears float featured a snow blower at its front end, the Swarovsky swan fit in to the winter theme quite nicely, and the Eaton Centre float looked rather plain, but shot simulated snow in the form of streamers into the air, sometimes being picked up by the wind and delivered blocks away, just like real snow. As always, many of the new floats celebrated entertainment products being launched this year, from the Yogi Bear 3D movie to a Barbie float that some around me mistook for Prince William and Kate Middleton until they realized the woman on the float was blonde.

A group of skunks in the parade played dead in the middle of Queen's Park Crescent in Toronto, Ontario on 21-November-2010

The costumed groups of individuals are also a highlight of the parade. I always scratch my head a bit about the bears carrying fish, but the highlight this year may have been the skunks that periodically played dead in the middle of the road--I have to wonder what the kids were thinking each time they did that.

Santa Claus made his way down Bloor Street in Toronto, Ontario to end the Santa Claus Parade on 21-November-2010

Of course, what kids come for is the end of the parade--the reindeer, the sleigh, and Santa Claus bellowing out "Merry Christmas" to the thousands of people crowding every inch of the six kilometer route. Nobody leaves this parade unhappy.

Many more pictures from the Santa Claus Parade will be included in a future update to my photo site.

Photos: Autumn Wrap-Up

2010-11-21T23:40:00.004-05:00

The leaves were falling from the trees in Trinity-Bellwoods Park in Toronto, Ontario when viewed on 28-October-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This week's update to my photo site features a round-up of fall scenes in the Greater Toronto Area in 2010. Included are foliage scenes, the Harvest Festival in High Park, special White Coat, Black Art and Quirks and Quarks events at the CBC, evening meetings with politicians and historical societies, a trip out to Hamilton, Ontario to view the Hunter Street Station historical display, and more.

Margin Notes: Parade, Ford, Survey, Chetzy

2010-11-21T21:27:00.007-05:00

The Swarovsky swan was one of the new floats this year in the annual Santa Claus Parade in Toronto, Ontario, seen in front of the "Crystal" at the Royal Ontario Museum on 21-November-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - The holiday season has officially started in the Greater Toronto Area, as Santa Claus arrived on the streets of Toronto in the annual Santa Claus Parade. While snow showers were noted earlier in the day, spectators stayed dry if more than a little cold as more than 30 floats, quite a few of them new, graced the route ahead of Santa Claus himself. More coverage will be forthcoming on this blog and my photo site.

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Toronto mayor-elect Rob Ford appeared to be at least as large as the elephant walking beside him in the Santa Claus Parade on 21-November-2010

Mayor-elect Rob Ford walked in the Santa Claus Parade today. I was planning to be easy on him, at least for the beginning of his administration, but today he opened himself up to such easy shots that it is difficult not to take them. For someone trying not to emphasize his weight, was it really wise to walk the parade route next to an elephant that had a smaller torso than the mayor-elect? And for someone who many fear will create gridlock in the city council, was it really wise to delay the parade by 35 minutes, the gap created between the group ahead of him and the slow-moving, shaking-every-hand politician? I thought about yelling out to Ford that he should apologize to the children for delaying Santa Claus, but then decided that wouldn't be Canadian.

* * * * * *

Pollster Angus Reid offered some insight into what it is to be a Canadian this week. When asked to choose what would be most important to them, 47% of Canadians chose being healthy, 13% of them selected being rich, and just 9% of them selected being successful. I have a feeling the results from our southern cousins would not match those figures.

* * * * * *

On the other hand, in the Pacific Northwest, those in British Columbia are somewhat envious that those in Washington state have a new ferry. The 64-car Chetzemoka entered service last Monday on the Port Townsend-Keystone (er, Coupeville) route after ceremonies on Sunday, the first of three planned Kwa-di Tabil class vessels. So far, reaction to the vessel seems to be positive--though I note that it has already had runs canceled because of a storm and tides, and its elevator is already out of service. (The elevators are also not working on the Hyak and Issaquah at last report, but they aren't new ferries.) "Eileen" (nicknamed for its list when unloaded) may have a good career ahead of it yet.

Radio Pick: Proxy Weddings

2010-11-20T23:49:00.003-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This was a good week for seeing unusual impacts of technology, and the Marketplace Tech Report (the new name for Future Tense) was all over it, from Google Maps prompting a Nicuraguan military action to the Lose It weight loss app. Host John Moe delivered some of the best five-minute features I've heard in a long time all week, but the clear highlight was the description of how same-sex couples are pushing the envelope in proxy weddings, with potential implications for everyone, the radio pick of the week.

Listen to MP3 of Marketplace Tech Report "Texas Couple Gets Married Via Skype"

Media: The End of God Talk?

2010-11-19T22:53:00.004-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - About a week ago, word leaked that the radio station recognized by many as the premier commercial talk radio station in the English-speaking world, KGO Newstalk 810 in San Francisco, California, was making its first schedule change since the resignation of long-time General Manager Mickey Luckoff. While most attention focused on the end of the live broadcast of Dr. Dean Edell, the doctor whose medical advice show has aired in the afternoons on KGO since 1978, the most devastating change is the cancellation of the Sunday morning God Talk show.

Dr. Dean Edell is not being canceled. Instead, his live show will no longer air on KGO weekdays at 1 pm, but instead on tape delay from 1-4 pm on Saturdays (a slot which has been filled by rotating guest hosts since Bob Brinker quit broadcasting on Saturday), and from 6-8 am on Sunday. The Noon News, which has come and gone over the years, will return to the schedule, and legal talk show host Len Tillem moves into's Edell's current slot. In addition, Brian Copeland's "haiku of talk radio," currently airing from 9-11 am on Sundays, would be extended to 8-11 am, the standard show length on KGO. That leaves no room for the current occupant of the 6-9 am Sunday morning slot, God Talk.

That show also has a long history on KGO, having been on the air since 1979 with only three regular hosts. I discovered the show in the mid-1990's while living in the Bay Area when it was hosted by its second host, the now-infamous Bernie Ward; I never had the pleasure of hearing original host Tom Hunter, who passed away in 2008. While it might have been on Sunday morning and called "God Talk," it was nothing like other religious programming I had heard. Nobody quoted scripture; it was perhaps best characterized as a newstalk show focusing on ethics and values. Host Ward was willing to take on hypocrisy in any religious institution, including his own Catholic church. He was one of the most outspoken voices against the priest child abuse scandal as it first broke. More than anything else, though, the early hours of the show gave it a very intimate feeling and it spawned a community of generally ecumenical people that wanted to bring out the best in religion. Anyone that listened in that era looked forward to hearing from Susan Prather of Fresh Start, Stan from Oakland, and Steven from Santa Rosa--not to mention the theme of "Amazing Grace" played on bagpipes.

That community was badly strained after Ward was taken off the air in December 2007 and ultimately jailed for trafficking in child pornography; not long afterward, Stan from Oakland and Prather both passed away. Interim host Ravi Peruman, a KGO reporter active in interfaith circles, did a yeoman's job of trying to hold it together until a permanent host was named--and what a pick it was.

Brent Walters, owner of a 25,000 book library and professor at San Jose State University, took over the show in spring 2008 and took it to a new level almost unprecedented in commercial talk radio. He began exploring various religious topics by putting them in a detailed historical context, which often revealed amazing chasms between those times and modern practices. The information content of the show became like that of a college class, but the inclusion of callers kept the emphasis on community. KGO had often been called the "college education of the airwaves," but it had never been so true as when Brent Walters was on the air. Not a polished broadcaster at first, he rapidly learned the medium, choosing the new themes, Linus of Hollywood's "Sunday Morning" and Scouting for Girls' "I Need A Holiday" to wonderfully set the mood for each show.

In announcing the cancellation of the show last Sunday, Walters stated that the decision was final and no amount of public outcry was going to save it. However, in his newsletter this week, he stated that the response to the announcement had been loud enough that the station was considering an abbreviated show or "guaranteed weekly podcast." It seems there is room to contact KGO Program Director Jack Swanson, General Manager Diedra Lieberman, and even Citadel Broadcasting President Farid Suleman--who is rumored to be the driving force behind the schedule change--to try to save the show.

For those (like me) concerned about the future of KGO, the very fact that Walters was given two weeks notice demonstrates that the classiness of the station has not yet disappeared, something many credit to Swanson, who has been in his role continuously since 1994 as well as from 1982 to 1990. Will Brent Walters join the likes of David Brudnoy (in 1990), Bernie Ward (in 1997), and Steve LeVeille (in 2009) as hosts saved on the air by their listeners? Only time will tell, but if he is not, the quality of my Sundays will decline considerably.

Culture: Why Not Market to Potential Terrorists?

2010-11-18T23:27:00.004-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This blog has spent a rather substantial number of electrons contemplating the "emotional world" nature of culture in the United States, including the primacy of marketing in that culture. The country has favored VHS over Beta, extreme politicians over centrists, Windows over OS/2 or MacOS, and brand names over generics not because they were better products, but because their marketing was more aggressive or simply more effective.

Yet, when it comes to the task of selling the culture itself as something to be respected or at least left alone, instead of an object for destruction, marketing suddenly takes a back seat. Military action (and the threat thereof) has been the preferred mode for defending the country against mostly Islamist extremists who profess the desire to destroy the United States and have been identified by most analysts as the greatest threat to the country's future.

Marketing to Osama Bin Laden and committed members of Al Qaeda is likely fruitless, but at some level they're not the long-term problem. The real problems are young potential recruits for Al Qaeda and similar groups who need to choose whether to devote their lives to an organization dedicated to destruction, or live their lives as most of the rest of the world does, without a focus on violence. If nobody wants to give up their lives for Al Qaeda, then it won't have enough people to pose a long-term existential threat to the United States.

By choosing military action as the principal means of containing terrorist organizations, the United States has taken actions that have included substantial collateral damage, making the victims of that damage more amenable to becoming terrorists. The more known enemies have been eliminated, the more potential enemies have been created, in too many cases.

The best marketing minds in the world operate in the United States. They should be enlisted to come up with campaigns to present how Muslims are integrated into American society, how Islam and the US Constitution are aligned, and how the United States is not a threat to a young man in a place like Yemen or Afghanistan. It should go beyond rhetoric. There ought to be viral marketing campaigns, "astroturfing," "walking around money" and other more covert and subtle techniques used.

American marketing firms can sell tap water for $3 a bottle even if they can't quite sell ice to the Eskimos. It seems hard for me to believe that they cannot be a much stronger component of efforts to contain terrorism by convincing young people that it isn't in their interest.

Economics: Even Smith Knew...

2010-11-17T23:31:00.004-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Those on the political left often decry the consumer culture of North America (and, for that matter, most of the world). They point out that wealth--at least above a certain threshold associated with rising out of poverty--does not correlate with happiness. Capitalism, they argue, does not serve to foster human happiness.

What I somehow missed in my education is that the oracle of capitalism, Adam Smith himself, actually acknowledged that free market economics does not lead to happiness. I only learned that from reading Daniel Gilbert's "Stumbling on Happiness." Granted, Smith's analysis of happiness was not in "Wealth of Nations" but in "The Theory of Moral Sentiments," a document I had never read. However, it is pretty stunning prose:

In what constitutes the real happiness of human life [the poor] are in no respect inferior to those who would seem so much above them. In ease of body and peace of mind, all the different ranks of life are nearly upon a level, and the beggar, who suns himself by the side of the highway, possesses that security which kings are fighting for.

Not only did Smith recognize that happiness was not correlated with wealth, but he actually believed that people needed to be deceived into consumerism in order to create a sustainable economy.

The pleasures of wealth and greatness... strike the imagination as something grand and beautiful and noble, of which the attainment is well worth all the toil and anxiety which we are so apt to bestow upon it... It is this deception which rouses and keeps in continual motion the industry mankind. It is this which first prompted them to cultivate the ground, to build houses, to found cities and commonwealths, and to invent and improve all the sciences and arts, which ennoble and embellish human life...

Contrary to what some on the left might prefer, I don't see this as hypocrisy or as an argument to do away with free market economics. Instead, it demonstrates to me that Adam Smith was an even wiser individual than I already believed, and more important to me, a very human one with more than a reductionist view of human behavior. It doesn't diminish his economic theories, but rather puts them in the appropriate context of advancing technology and standards of living, rather than as an end to happiness.

Rather than indicting Smith, I see these statements as indicting those who take a fundamentalist stance on Smith's theories. Smith understood that free markets were not the most efficient way to happiness--just the theoretically most efficient way to organize an advancing economy. Realizing this leaves room for society to value something besides that advancing economy while still pursuing that growth. Market fundamentalists can't seem to countenance that there is anything other free market principles that might matter. Everyone should learn Adam Smith's economic theories--and learn that he understood they weren't linked directly to happiness, and then reach their own conclusions about how they want to see that reflected in their own lives and in society around them.

Transport: Never Mind Rail...

2010-11-16T19:30:00.004-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This blog has been relatively cynical about the $8 billion that was to be devoted to "high speed rail" projects from the Recovery Act in the United States, as announced in January. While calling it all "high speed rail" was an almost-pathological overstatement of the projects that were funded, it looked like some serious improvement to rail infrastructure was going to take place in a number of states, and California and Florida, at least, would actually be able to start building true dedicated right-of-way, 200+ mile per hour lines that most of the world would view as high speed rail.

One election later, that's apparently not the case. Most dramatically, almost immediately after the election, Wisconsin stopped all work on a project that would have created a high-speed passenger rail corridor between Madison and Milwaukee. Governor-elect Scott Walker had promised during the campaign that he would kill the project to save money, re-iterated after the election that he would keep this promise, and as a result sitting governor Jim Doyle, a rail supporter, immediately halted all work so as to avoid throwing money away on a project that would be stopped just months later. Assuming that nothing changes, Wisconsin will forfeit the $823 million in Federal funds it had been awarded for the project--and it isn't especially clear how much money it will actually save the state, as the federal money was going to fund essentially the complete project, assuming no cost over-runs.

The same thing has happened in Ohio. Newly elected Governor John Kasich also campaigned against the creation of a rail corridor in his state. As a result, work is being stopped on the "3C" line connecting Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland, and as a result $400 million will be returned to Washington D.C. The situation in Florida may prove similar--Rick Scott campaigned against the Orlando to Tampa true high speed line because it was expected to cost the state about $280 million, but seems to be doing a reasoned analysis now, rather than simply rejecting $2 billion in federal money that most expect to grow to about $2.3 billion if the project proceeds. It remains to be seen if Florida will really leave $2 billion or more on the table.

Adding to the anti-rail environment while not part of the Recovery Act situation, New Jersey governor Chris Christie has also killed a $8.7 billion project to create an additional rail tunnel under the Hudson River. Of all the projects mentioned here, this one did stand on the most dubious financial ground--New Jersey could have been on the hook for substantial potential cost overruns--and the political history of the project could be characterized as sketchy. Still, it fit the pattern of a Republican governor killing a rail infrastructure project.

With the money to be refunded to the Federal government only available for rail projects by law, some of the states whose projects were underfunded or not funded at all may yet end up getting funds. Many pundits, however, believe that the returned money will end up going to California, which still seems to be serious about building its high speed line despite its overall financial situation--and it is possible that new legislation may be passed that will simply eliminate the funds and put them toward debt reduction.

What Walker, Christie, Kasich, and (at least during the campaign) Scott all have in common, besides being Republicans, is the claim that their states could not afford rail infrastructure, that it was not an appropriate thing for the state to be spending money on, and that the projects would be a waste of money as not all state citizens would use the systems. The logic really doesn't hold up--taxes go to everything from public schools to air traffic control that not everyone uses, and rail infrastructure is no different conceptually from road infrastructure that seems to draw no complaints when it is funded by stimulus funds.

The truly amazing claim is the first one, that the rail infrastructure cannot be afforded. People from the same party that constantly claim that the United States is exceptional and does not need to look to foreign models are basically admitting that we do not have the money to spend on infrastructure that China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, and even Turkey do have. When the United States wakes up and discovers that it is in the in a second tier of nations, one thing it will be able to look back on is the mass cancellation of rail infrastructure projects in 2010.

{And it's hard to ignore the Onion's take on the situation.}

Culture: Freedom and Fear

2010-11-15T22:50:00.002-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Nobel laureate Aung Sang Suu Kyi's sentence of house arrest in Burma, also known as Myanmar, ended on Saturday. She was allowed to leave her residence for the first time in more than seven years. In some of her early statements, she noted that she had actually been more free than many others in her country while under house arrest, as she had little to fear. This view of the concept of freedom is one that I believe to be more meaningful than others I have encountered.

The linking of freedom and fear is hardly a new idea from Aung Sang Suu Kyi. Arguably her most famous speech is the "Freedom From Fear" speech from two decades ago, in which she goes on at length about the power of fearlessness. Yet, the concept of being free while under house arrest, while others that were not legally restricted were fearful and thus not truly free, is a further extension of that famous speech and even harder to grasp for most westerners.

In the west, the dictionary definition of freedom is usually something to the effect of "the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint." That's normally taken to mean having no government restriction on speech and activities. If there's no legal restrictions on one activities, then one is free. I've long thought the concept has become especially contorted in the United States, where freedom has been equated with the ability to spend money, as if money were a direct proxy for ideas, and people seem very willing to give up legal freedoms in order to feel safer through things like the Patriot Act.

Yet, the words of the definition fit Aung San Suu Kyi's viewpoint. If one is in fear, then there is a hindrance and a restraint on their lives, and thus there is not freedom. What doesn't seem to be accounted for in North America is that there are potential sources of fear besides the government. Ask a homosexual individual in many (but not all) societal contexts, and they'll say that they do fear violence by bigoted individuals, and thus temper their behavior--their behavior is restrained, and thus they are not truly free. Minorities of all kinds, based on skin color, education, or even interest in targeted activities like protesting or photography, feel like they have to restrain their behavior, not going certain places for fear of their own safety. They are not truly free.

People in the United States seem obsessed with the idea that they need to protect their freedoms from a socialist government like that found in Western Europe or Canada. Yet, I personally feel less restrained in my behavior walking the streets of Zurich, Switzerland or even Montreal, Quebec than in Boston, Massachusetts or Sacramento, California because it seems to me there is less to fear in terms of random crime and being questioned or persecuted about one's activities or demeanor. If I were a visible minority, it would probably be an even more profound difference.

Anyone that has had similar feelings likely understands what Aung Sang Suu Kyi was saying. Nobody should need to be under house arrest to reduce their fearfulness, but pretending that money is freedom is not a superior illusion. No society I have encountered lacks issues to work on, but those that have gone farther in reducing the reasons for all their residents to be fearful have gone farther in promoting freedom than those that simply minimize symbolic intrusions.

Photos: TRHA's First Season, Part II

2010-11-14T23:44:00.004-05:00

Mike Salisbury ran steam locomotive #3 past a "Pumpkin Post" at the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre on 31-October-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This week's coverage of the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre's first season on my photo site focuses on special events, both planned and unplanned. These ranged from decorations for Canada Day on 1-July-2010 to the special Halloween night run on 31-October-2010, with many special trains, photo shoots, book signings, and visitors in between.

Margin Notes: Holidays, Crate, KGO, Rankings

2010-11-14T19:29:00.007-05:00

A wreath was prepared at the TD Canada Trust branch at Bay and Wellington in Toronto, Ontario on 13-November-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Whether we like it or not, the holiday season is upon us. The decorations are going up all over Toronto; in addition to the wreaths and other holiday displays being erected at the TD headquarters downtown shown above, I noticed that the tree structure has been placed over the Alex Ling Fountain in my neighbourhood, seemingly the same as last year's edition, though its lights have yet to be turned on. eBay is kind enough to remind us that there are only 41 more days until Christmas.

* * * * * *

The iconic holiday tree to many is the Douglas Fir, native to the Pacific Northwest. I did not learn until this week, from a segment on KUOW's The Conversation with Ross Reynolds, that the tree was named for Scottish explorer and botanist David Douglas, who explored the region in the 1820's and 1830's. Why didn't I learn that in Washington State History class?

* * * * * *

An interesting advertising campaign featuring a crate was noted above a bus stop at Front and Bay in Toronto, Ontario on 13-November-2010

I have yet to see a Douglas fir decorated around Toronto, but what is apparently a clever marketing campaign has appeared a bus stop at the northeast corner of Front and Bay in Toronto. A crate, with the markings "Destination: Haiti" has been mounted above the bus shelter. The crate is rather neurotic, if we read its web site at whatsupwiththecrate.ca. (I note that this domain was not even registered until 1-November.) Presumably, there will be some sort of announcement about this crate and two others tomorrow, involving Haitian aid.

* * * * * *

No official announcement has been forthcoming from station management, but changes are afoot at KGO radio in San Francisco. It has leaked to the ba.broadcast newsgroup that Dr. Dean Edell's syndicated show, for which KGO was the flagship, will be moved from its live weekday 1 pm slot to tape-delayed (apparently) on Saturdays, with radio lawyer Len Tillem moved into Edell's time slot and the Noon News returning to what is now Tillem's slot. Meanwhile, on his show today, God Talk host Brent Walters announced that the 30 year run of that unique institution will end this month; the replacement is not yet known. Want to know what the death of a great radio station looks like? These are some of the first steps.

* * * * * *

Those changes will likely have an impact on KGO's rankings amongst radio stations, but it was college football rankings that surprised me this week. I haven't watched a single game of NCAA football this season, so it came as quite a shock to me to find that my alma mater, the Stanford Cardinal (yes, that's singular and represents a color, not a bird) are 9-1, losing only to #1-ranked Oregon, and in the top 10 in all the major polls. We all thought Jim Harbaugh was going to be a good coach and that the team would make some bowl games, but nationally ranked? The Big Game next Saturday--against California in Berkeley--will really mean something for a change.

Radio Pick: My Oh My!

2010-11-13T23:18:00.002-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - There's no question what the radio pick should be this week. While it takes listening to entire games to appreciate Dave Niehaus' story-telling abilities, the current Seattle Mariners flagship station (710 ESPN) has released a three-and-a-half minute tribute of his calls from significant franchise moments that will bring back memories for anyone that lived in that region from the formation of the team in 1977 until Niehaus died this week at the age of 75.

Listen to MP3 of "My Oh My - A Tribute to Dave Niehaus"

Media: Remembering Dave Niehaus

2010-11-12T19:27:00.004-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - With the exception of a scant few seasons, the Seattle Mariners have never been much of a baseball team. Yet, their popularity throughout the Pacific Northwest grew to remarkable levels and has endured in large part thanks to the effort of one man to build interest--their lead radio broadcaster, Dave Niehaus. Neihaus was the voice of the team right from its inception in 1977 until his voice was silenced on Wednesday from a heart attack. He was 75.

Whether on KVI, KIRO, or KOMO, Dave Niehaus' distinct voice immediately let you know that the Mariners were playing. Since 1983, he has been paired with Rick Rizzs (except for a time in the early 1990's when Rizzs went to Detroit), and the two have combined to narrate the summers of anyone that cared about baseball with story-telling skills that would impress the Greek epic poets. Growing up in the area, I took them for granted until I lived somewhere else--the broadcasters working the Oakland A's simply could not stack up, and if I wanted to listen to baseball, I would tune in Eugene's KPNW 1120 AM--a Mariners affiliate in that era that came in quite clearly in the Bay Area at night. Niehaus would be there to keep me interested.

Niehaus probably made a greater impact on the vocabulary of the Pacific Northwest than anyone else, certainly more profound than Howard Schultz teaching us Italian names for drink sizes. I considered any well-lit ball to be "belted," since Niehaus always used the phrase "swung on and belted deep to {whatever} field"--in Boston, the verb drew strange looks. If a Mariner hit the ball over the fences, he would continue, "and it will fly away, MY OH MY!" What he really thrived on was coming up with nicknames. Niehaus might not have been the first one to codify Ken Griffey Jr. as "The Kid," Alex Rodriguez as "A-Rod," or Jay Buhner as "Bone," but he was the one to introduce me to those short-hands. Once he started using them, the whole Pacific Northwest started using them, and at least in the case of "A-Rod," the entire world followed.

I've actually encountered a small minority of people over the years that didn't like Niehaus as a broadcaster. Uniformly, they all considered him too much of a "homer," or always focusing on the Mariners at the expense of the other team. They missed the point. That was his job--he was paid to make people interested in the Mariners, and he did this better than anyone else ever will.

This talent was so widely recognized throughout the sport and the industry that Niehaus was the second person to be inducted in the Mariners' Hall of Fame and he earned the Ford C. Frick Award in 2008, the sport's top honor for broadcasters. After his death, even my local morning show here in Toronto played a clip of Neihaus' famous call of the Mariners victory in the 1995 American League division series. I can't think of another local Seattle figure ever even mentioned on that show before.

There are no "happy totals" (as his partner Rizzs would say) right now, but Niehaus broadcast 5,284 Mariner games, nearly all of the 5,385 games so far played by the franchise. That's well over 10,000 hours of live entertainment. Mariner fans have gone through Neihaus withdrawal before, as previous heart problems had taken him off the air for limited periods, but we always knew he would be back. It's hard to imagine that the era is really over now. Niehaus would find a way to turn our attention to the future and create excitement, but it is probably a good thing the only thing in season is the Hot Stove League. It will take until the spring to face a Mariners future without Dave Niehaus.

Culture: Make It a Statutory Holiday

2010-11-11T23:03:00.004-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - North American society spends a lot of time lamenting the commercialization of our holiday traditions. While Christmas and Valentine's Day are the most extreme examples, any barbecue salesman knows the sales peak that occurs around Independence (or Canada) Day and any clothing retailer knows how to make money from Presidents' Day (or Family Day) sales in February. One of the reasons that the latter marketing campaign works so well is that there is really nothing specific or traditional to do on a February holiday.

Veteran's Day (or Remembrance Day) is not like that. While the observances may be somewhat more ritualized in Canada, ceremonies to mark the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month take place at memorials and other gathering places all over the continent. It's very clear what there is to do on 11-November--and it occurs right at mid-day.

Furthermore, remembering veterans is something that everyone should take more time to do. Those that know my attitude about the use of force and war know that I stand somewhere between Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell, but once a conflict has started, it seems to me that a nation owes those that served in its armed forces a huge debt. It is inexplicable to me how a nation can cut the funding of its veterans' hospitals or breach the privacy of the records of its veterans. Someone that spent time away from his or her family to defend everyone else's right to live their normal lives without interruption deserves first-class treatment.

To me, it's highly symbolic that November 11th is not a statutory holiday for everyone in either Canada or the United States. We're not serious about providing services to veterans in either country, and so why would we want the whole population to spend 0.27% of the days of the year thinking about what veterans have done for the country? It's much better to let people "trade" Veteran's Day for the Friday after Thanksgiving, or Remembrance Day for the August Civil Holiday.

It may be a symbolic gesture, but I think it's time, while we have recent veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq on our minds, to make November 11th a statutory holiday and encourage people to attend ceremonies. Maybe then, we'll meet a few veterans and hear their stories. Maybe then, the public pressure to treat veterans with the respect they used to receive will grow and governments will be shamed into actually funding services. It's worth trying.

Personality: Evolution of Personality

2010-11-10T23:48:00.005-05:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - When discussing the meridian personality classification system, called the Genetic Personality Types (GPT) by their discoverer, Bob Cooley, the subject of which of the sixteen personality types or four worlds amongst them is the most "advanced" sometimes comes up. Anyone asking this question has really missed the point. One of the most appealing aspects of the theory is that each of the sixteen types brings its own geniuses to the human race, that everyone can access them whether they naturally exhibit them or not, and that human interactions depend on the presence of all types. In a very real sense, all sixteen types are not only on an equal footing, they all represent the advancement of the human race.

Yet, few people would argue that all animals, or even other mammals, exhibit the sixteen types. Ever heard of an appendix-type cat that seems to have a natural sense of acupuncture points on its siblings? Or a kidney-type dog that amuses itself and those around it by imitating its human owner? I sure haven't. It's easy to see that domesticated animals, especially, have individual and greatly diverging personalities, but mapping those personalities to the human GPT classifications doesn't seem straight-forward.

So how did the GPT personalities evolve? We may never know the answer to that question, but psychologists may have come across a clue. Daniel Gilbert, in his best-selling book "Stumbling on Happiness," makes the case that it was the development of the frontal lobe that made us human. What goes on in the frontal lobe? The ability to conceptualize about the future. Gilbert puts it bluntly: "The human being is the only animal that thinks about the future."

In the GPT theory, orientation to the future is a characteristic of the types in the "Thinking" or "Analytical" world. The development of the "Thinking" world may be what caused the species to move from ape to human. Yet, it is not clear what existed previously. Did the "Emotional" world and its ability to draw so profoundly on the past exist in apes in the same way as it does in humans? Or did apes, like other animals, have only a rudimentary sense of the past, the same way that a squirrel could bury an acorn before the winter but not really have the ability to contemplate its future? Since the "Thinking" and "Emotional" worlds balance one another, it might make some sense that the greatest evolutionary advantage would be in their evolving simultaneously, rather than one after the other, but one could also have developed in response to the other.

The focus on the "Thinking" world as being the key evolutionary step as embodied in the frontal lobe also seems rather counter to the traditional way of differentiating humans from animals, which is in terms of spirituality. Religious doctrine only put words on a sense that seems to be quite common in this species that we are the only ones with "souls," not other creatures. This is generally linked to the "energy" sensitivity of the "Spiritual" world. And, by the same argument that there is an evolutionary advantage to balancing worlds, one might imagine that the "Spiritual" world developed to balance the present-focused "Physical" world that seems the most instinctual and animal-like.

Yet, I'm quite convinced that this rather belittling view of the "Physical" world is unfounded. The "Physical" world may be focused on the present, but is that present the same as the animal's present any more than the human's view of the past is the same as the animal's view of the past? Are there skin-type animals convincing other individuals to do what they want? Are there lung-type animals taking the kind of leadership in groups that humans do? I hardly find the alpha male gorilla to be analogous to a lung-type human leading a construction or research crew. (Of course, as a spiritual type, I would have a hard time belittling the "Physical" world.)

The bottom line may be that the human brain fundamentally views time differently, no matter what GPT world it emphasizes. If it is the sense of time in all its categories, not just the future, that is indeed defining, and that ability came from the development of the frontal lobe, then all four worlds may have been developed roughly simultaneously in evolutionary terms. That would certainly be a more satisfying conclusion for those that want to believe in the equality of the sixteen geniuses.

Heritage: Architecture in the "Flowery Suburb"

2010-11-09T22:29:00.004-05:00

Architectural historian and Heritage Toronto board member Marta O'Brien introduced her topic while waiting for a projector to be fixed on 8-November-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Heritage Toronto generally doesn't put on a lot of lectures. The bulk of its activities are walks or dedications, usually outside. So, perhaps it should not have been surprising that an illustrated lecture entitled "Parkdale: The 'Flowery Suburb'" drew a standing-room-only crowd to the Community Room at the recently rehabilitated Bloor-Gladstone Library in Toronto, Ontario last evening.

The talk was given by Architectural historian and Heritage Toronto board member Marta O'Brien, who had clearly enjoyed her exploration of what is now a somewhat neglected neighbourhood on the western side of town. O'Brien noted that Parkdale had been incorporated as a village in 1874 with a population of just 875; by 1886, it had become a town with four wards, and it was absorbed into Toronto in 1889. I loved the quote from 1881 that only two policemen "one for night, one for day [were] sufficient for public order."

The talk weaved the history of Parkdale with pictures of its architectural landmarks, some of which survive to this day, but others do not. I was struck by one of those losses, Elm Grove constructed in 1836, as it was a regency-style building designed by John Howard that bore a strong resemblance to other Howard buildings in Toronto, including Howard's own surviving home, Colbourne Lodge in High Park, with its large veranda.

The yellow tones of the projected images were only a minor distraction to the talk on Parkdale's architectural history by Marta O'Brien on 8-November-2010

While projector issues delayed the start of the talk and caused a colour shift in the images, this was only a minor distraction to a knowledgeable audience. The Scholes Hotel, built in 1884, was recognizable as being at King at Roncesvalles. The house at 63 O'Hara is a rare wood structure dating from before 1884. Amongst the classic Victorian and Queen Anne homes along King, the 1890-era building at 200 Dunn featured a monogrammed roof which I had never noticed before.

In its earliest days, as its name implied, Parkdale was trying to be a cleaner, healthier alternative to Toronto and some of its other suburbs, as pushed by (amongst others) a man named William Irvin Mackenzie, who became known as the "father of Parkdale" in the 1870's. Thus, there was a certain irony that row houses he opposed, including the 1883 Trenton Terrace and 1889-91 Melbourne Place, both planned by Alway Beecroft, have survived to this day. Perhaps the biggest irony, though, surrounds 103-105 West Lodge. The 1965 structure has become symbolic of the poor landlords in high-rises along Jameson in southern Parkdale and is largely reviled today--yet it won an architectural award prior to its opening.

O'Brien's presentation made me want to go look at many of the surviving structures in Parkdale--but the schedule for Heritage Toronto walks, undoubtedly including the neighbourhood, won't be released until spring.

Culture: Ode to a Pair of Shoes

2010-11-08T23:16:00.002-05:00

My last pair of walking shoes were photographed shortly before their retirement on 2-November-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - I'm not especially proud of my shoe-buying record. Over the years, I have tended to purchase Chinese-manufactured shoes from discount retailers like Payless Shoe Source (or of late, at Sears Canada). I keep coming back to this practice because the shoes I purchase there consistently provide good value--especially when on sale, they are as cheap as any I can find and they last much longer than any other shoes I can find.

A clear case in point are the pair of shoes pictured above that I finally disposed of last week after the soles started to come unglued. I purchased them in early 2009 and started wearing them essentially daily in June 2009--whenever I wasn't wearing steel-toed shoes or dress shoes for an interview, I was wearing that pair right up until recent weeks. In that kind of situation, I would be happy with shoes that would last through six months of daily use; in fact, if they were as cheap as these were ($30), I wouldn't complain if they lasted only four months of heavy use. These shoes lasted almost sixteen months.

Furthermore, they didn't receive light usage. These shoes went hundreds of miles, walking significant distances in places like Seattle, Washington; Sacramento, California; Portland, Oregon; Owosso, Michigan; and Windsor, Ontario. Here in Toronto, Ontario, they could easily see twenty-five miles a week or more, as I might do two roundtrips to downtown Toronto (six miles each way) in that time, not to mention more routine trips around my neighbourhood. Even if a very conservative estimate of 10 miles per week is used, these shoes did more than six hundred miles--I'm pretty sure the real figure was closer to one thousand.

I purchased their successors--a very similar design from the same off-brand--when the front of this pair started to fray in spring 2010, but they seemed to be completely repaired with a bit of glue and served on for another half-year, with a break only on a June trip when I decided not to trust them in favor of the new pair. It's really hard to argue with this performance. If the pair I'm wearing now lasts as long, I might be wearing them when the next US Federal election occurs in 2012, if I ultimately wear dress shoes instead of walking shoes to a job on weekdays.

I was briefly excited that the Dakota-brand work shoes that I bought at Mark's Work Wearhouse and still wear on average one day a week have lasted since spring 2008, but then I realized that they are made in China, too. Whatever else we think of that country, China knows how to make durable shoes.

Photos: TRHA's First Season of Operations

2010-11-07T23:31:00.003-05:00

Mike Salisbury ran steam locomotive #3 with a train load of visitors through the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre in Toronto, Ontario and underneath the Pyke rail crane on 19-September-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - The Toronto Railway Heritage Centre closed for the season after a night run on Halloween. A look back at first summer of operations will appear in two parts on my photo site. This week, the pictures are from the exhibits, routine operations including the miniature railway, and work projects from July through October 2010.

Margin Notes: Veteran's Week, Quarters, HAL

2010-11-07T17:57:00.004-05:00

An example of a 2008 "Remembrance Day 90th Anniversary" Canadian quarter was photographed on 7-November-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - In the United States, Veteran's Day is this coming Thursday (in Canada, it's called Remembrance Day), but I don't recall hearing the phrase "Veteran's Week" until this year, referring to the week before 11-November. Here in Toronto, everyone is wearing poppies in support of veterans, so it seemed entirely appropriate that I would stumble upon a quarter with a poppy on it (pictured above) at the beginning of Veteran's Week. Canada issued 11 million such coins in 2008 in honor of the 90th anniversary of Remembrance Day, and it was a essentially a re-issue of a 2004 coin that had been the first colored coin placed in circulation in the world.

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My poppy has been pinned on my winter jacket, which I started wearing as a result of the snowfall last Sunday. It occurred to me that I've never put a poppy on anything other than a winter jacket--the fact that I didn't wear one until nearly November was the strange thing this year.

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As the month turned to November, the picture on my Swansea Historical Society calendar changed to one showing construction on the old streetcar loop near Bloor and Jane here in Toronto--ironic, considering that Bloor street is currently torn up in the same location for re-construction. Sometimes history just repeats itself. The 2011 Swansea Historical Society calendar is now available at Swansea Town Hall and other neighborhood locations for just $8.00, featuring photos of such lost locations in the area as Harvey's Pond and the Minnies.

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That calendar was produced with the help of a computer. I only learned this week from an article in an alumni magazine that the most famous of movie computers, the HAL 9000 from "2001" was named after IBM. Move each letter of IBM back one in the alphabet, and it becomes HAL. As my Bellevue High School math club predecessor Jim Ferry once put it, "It's obvious if you think about it."

Radio Pick: Political Satire

2010-11-06T23:33:00.002-04:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - There was entirely too much political coverage in both the United States and Canada this week, and while some of it was excellent, I was more interested in making fun of it. Surprisingly, this did not mean the Capitol Steps became my weekly radio pick. Instead, Harry Shearer's LeShow received the nod. An amusing episode of "Clintonsomething" and the inclusion of "Yes We Can But" by Will.i.never were amongst the highlights of his 59-minute Halloween broadcast.

Listen to LeShow "Pre-Election Show"

Heritage: Films from the Archives of Ontario

2010-11-06T22:51:00.005-04:00

Stewart Boden (right) of the Archives of Ontario received recognition from the West Toronto Junction Historical Society after a presentation in Toronto, Ontario on 4-November-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - In April 2009, the Archives of Ontario moved to a new location on the Keele campus of York University. As the new purpose-built facility is less accessible to many than the previous location in the core of Toronto, the archives have tried to do more outreach, and Stewart Boden of the archives provided one such experience with a talk at the West Toronto Junction Historical Society on Thursday night.

The presentation focused on some of the films from the archives, and they were quite a cultural tour. The first clip came from an early provincial production called "Her Own Fault" which showed two independent women, one of which was a very proper and good employee with hygienic habits and the other who did everything wrong. The latter ended up with tuberculosis (though was well cared for by the provincial health care system, of course)--can one imagine such a message being delivered by the government even a generation ago?

Probably my favorite public health clip from the presentation, though, featured a borrowed character. Apparently "Murphy the Molar" was the mascot of the Ontario Dental Association, and the province adopted him for a series of spots on dental hygiene. A particularly amusing example showed Murphy recommending the use of a mask when playing hockey, complete with music from the famous Canadian folk group The Travellers.

Another great set of ads, somewhat more modern in origin, warned motorists to respect snow plows that moved slowly with their blue beacon lights on while removing snow. While the sample shown on Thursday was rather amusing, featuring a sports car snow plow, there was apparently a spot produced that featured a snow plow that fired upon any cars approaching too close. That one apparently didn't last very long on the air.

Of course, no summary of Ontario government-produced films could be complete without the only one that actually won an Academy Award. I had heard many things about "A Place to Stand," used as a promotional film by the province at Expo '67 in Montreal, Quebec (a short clip is here). However, I had never actually seen more than a brief snippet of the film with its famous lyrics, "A Place to Stand, A Place to Grow, Ontari-ari-ari-o" and then-innovative split-screen visuals. That wasn't the case for the rest of the audience on Thursday. Once it started, everyone else started to sing along.

I can't think of a reason why I will need to go to the Archives of Ontario in the future, but with 15,000 feet of year of new documents being added, maybe someday I will. After the presentation on Thursday, I certainly view it as more than a repository of genealogical information for the province of Ontari-ari-air-o.

Media: Goodbye Hot Talk, Hello Greatest Hits

2010-11-05T22:14:00.002-04:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This week, Fisher Broadcasting in Seattle, Washington announced that it would be changing the format of one of its radio stations. KVI at 570 AM will no longer have the conservative talk radio format that it has aired since 1993 and instead will become a full service (yes, that means news breaks) station airing oldies music, not entirely dissimilar to the format that aired on the station before it became a talk station in 1992.

KVI is not just any radio station in Seattle. With roots dating back to 1926, the station has competed for top ratings in the market in several eras, most notably the 1970's and mid 1990's. It was once part of Gene Autry's radio holdings. The Seattle Mariners baseball team was broadcast on the station from their first season in 1977 to 1984--somewhere in my possession I have an old Mariners cap with a KVI logo on it.

My first memories of KVI were in its oldies era, when it went by the slogan "Solid Gold Rock'n'Roll, KVI." It had lost the Mariners to KIRO by then, but it ran the Unlimited Radio Network with unlimited hydroplane coverage, which was still reasonably popular in Seattle at the time (though those races would spend some years on KIXI and even KWYZ out of Everett before returning to KVI), so that drew me to the station.

Then, in 1992, the station went all-talk. Rush Limbaugh was aired live 9-noon, the first time the already-famous conservative talker aired on a significant Seattle signal (Seattle listeners had previously been best off listening to him on a midnight replay on KNBR out of San Francisco). I started listening to the weekend re-runs of Limbaugh's programs. Initially, there was some political balance to the station, but then, in 1993, KVI went to all conservative talk. It became the first major-market all-conservative talk station in the entire country. Now there are too many to count.

Despite the liberal nature of the Seattle area, KVI thrived, competing with KIRO and FM music stations KMPS and KUBE for top ratings in the market. Much of the competition centered around the 9-noon slot, where KIRO tried various local hosts to try to go head-to-head with Limbaugh, removing Jim French from his long-standing slot in favor of San Francisco transplant Lee Rodgers (from KGO, who would later return to KSFO) and eventually settling on their own homegrown talent in Dave Ross. KVI was so successful that it attracted copycats; at one point, KTTH "The Truth", KKOL 1300 AM, and KVI were all running exclusively conservative talk.

In 1994, KVI and KPLZ-FM were sold to Fisher Broadcasting, which already owned KOMO-AM. As time went on, KVI received less and less attention from its new owners. KTTH stole Limbaugh away, leaving KVI with Tony Snow in the morning. Ratings started to decline. Meanwhile, it also had fewer and fewer local hosts. KOMO increasingly received the best talent, with a final straw earlier this year being the move of "The Commentators" (Ken Schram and John Carlson), then airing on KVI, along with Carlson's former afternoon drive show, to KOMO. That left morning drive host Bryan Suits as the last remaining local talent. With syndicated programming repeating during the day, it was clear something would need to change before KVI was left with no listeners and advertising revenue.

On Monday, the change will occur with the beginning of the oldies format, this time not as "Solid Gold" but as "Seattle's Greatest Hits." Fisher is actually bringing back DJ's identified with the 60's and 70's music, with Tom Hutyler (KJR/KOMO, as well as the PA voice of the Mariners and a KVI news voice) and Marina Rockinger (KBSG and KOMO) in the mornings, Mark Christopher (KBSG) in the afternoons, and Ric Hansen (KJR) at night. The prospects of an AM oldies station garnering an audience in a market with an FM oldies station (albeit a rim-shotter, KMCQ from Covington at 104.5 FM) seems remote.

Still, I've been an advocate of full-service stations, and perhaps the element of adding news to the music will allow the new KVI to find a niche. Fisher was one of the last owners to re-format a full-service station in a major market (KOMO in 1995), and now it is the first to bring back a full-service station. It's certainly an interesting experiment.

Heritage: Toronto the Warrior City

2010-11-04T23:34:00.007-04:00

Paul Federico, an expert on military history and artifacts, spoke to the Swansea Historical Society in Toronto, Ontario on 3-November-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - In the modern era, thinking of Toronto (or even Canada as a whole) as a place of warriors seems rather bizarre. However, in his presentation to the monthly meeting of the Swansea Historical Society last night, Paul Federico made the case that Toronto has long been a city of warriors, dating back to pre-Colombian times.

Uniforms including silver leaf were amongst the artifacts brought by Paul Federico to Swansea Town Hall in Toronto, Ontario on 3-November-2010

That thesis might be a bit of a stretch even in Federico's eyes, but there are definitely some great stories in Toronto military history, and he told quite a number I had never heard before. The term "sedentary militia," for example, refers to those in the era of the war of 1812 that were assigned to stay and defend their local communities instead of being commanded on a campaign. He pointed out some of the ridiculous uniforms worn in that era as well, with ornamentation that actually made it easier for the other side to take aim. He also mentioned that during the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, the "English" troops actually included 1,500 Scots and 900 Irish amongst 4,800 total--and that John Graves Simcoe had been designated to lead the fight against Napoleon until he died prior to taking command. Imagine how that might have changed history, or at least the perception of Ontario's (er, Upper Canada's) first Lieutenant Governor.

Paul Federico held up material used by British troops to make socks in the nineteenth century while speaking to the Swansea Historical Society in Toronto, Ontario on 3-November-2010

Another interesting anecdote was that 350 local Mohawks had been sent to paddle up the Nile during the Mahdist Revolt of 1884, since they knew how to handle themselves on Ontario waterways--but they did not arrive in time to save Charles George Gordon. Probably my favorite story from Federico related to the blue laws that once so defined Toronto. As troops were not allowed to purchase alcohol in the city, they came up with the idea of sending out a dog with a money pouch, who was trained to go a specific store, where he would be outfitted with two kegs of ale and would then return to Fort York. The practice proved controversial, but was ultimately ruled legal since dogs had the "freedom of the city" and were allowed to carry alcohol, and certainly the practice improved troop morale.

Some stories went beyond the troops. After the United States captured Toronto in the War of 1812, they made the captured troops sign a parole document saying they would not fight for the next year before they were released. There were only 300 troops at Fort York at the time--yet 1300 people signed parole documents. It seems potential draftees from all around Toronto came into town to sign the documents in order to avoid being called up to military service for the next year.

A variety of World War I through 1990's artifacts and accouterments provided by Paul Federico were found in Swansea Town Hall on 3-November-2010

The future for military artifacts in Toronto may be quite bright. Currently, there are quite a number of things preserved, but they are located in scattered locations, mostly active or retiree posts of various kinds. However, the Stanley Barracks from "New Fort York," which has most recently been a vacant building on the Canadian National Exhibition grounds, is slated to become a military museum under the care of the 32nd regiment as part of the construction of a new hotel. When that opens, it won't be necessary to find Paul Federico to learn about Toronto as a warrior city.

Politics: Rational Decisions

2010-11-03T23:10:00.002-04:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Much has been made in the media of the substantial gains made by the Republican Party in yesterday's elections in the United States, with that party taking control of the House of Representatives by a comfortable margin, gaining a clear majority of governorships, and gaining six seats in the Senate (with two races technically uncalled). Yet, while there was a clear mood of discontent and desire for change, there also seemed in the results to be a tremendous reminder that all politics is local, as looking at most races revealed a lot of rational decisions by voters.

If the best one-sentence summary of the mood of the electorate was "we want government to work better," that led to a hard choice when the options were the party in power and the party that was in power until two years ago. When other choices were available, the voters often took them seriously. Lincoln Chafee, who has been heavily critical of the Republican party of which he once was a member as well as the Democratic Party, ran as an independent and won the governorship of Rhode Island. Chafee, once described as a moderate Republican, was supposed to be symbolic of the changes in that party as it seemed he had no future--yet voters decided he was actually the best person to run his home state. His political career was hardly over.

Yet, most states did not have a viable third-party, new-thinking alternative with the name recognition of Chafee. (Notably, Maine's Eliot Cutler lacked only name recognition and almost defeated Republican Paul LePage, but came up short.) In those cases, when it came down to a Democrat and Republican, it often came down to local issues and candidate quality, which is why Connecticut went all-Democratic at the Federal level, and Pennsylvania substantially Republican.

If there was a long-standing Democratic incumbent (like Representatives James Oberstar and John Spratt or Senator Russ Feingold), that person tended to be quite vulnerable to the discontent of the voters. But, if the alternative were perceived as somewhat fringe (such as Sharron Angle, Christine O'Donnell, or Tom Tancredo) or simply not politically experienced enough (Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina, and arguably even Dino Rossi), then the incumbent Democrat tended to be chosen anyway.

Much has been made of the rise of the TEA parties, but in the Senate, there were really only two TEA party victories, and neither of those may have had much to do with the TEA parties per se. Both Marco Rubio in Florida and Rand Paul in Kentucky are gifted politicians, whatever one thinks of their policy ideas, and would have been strong candidates in any year. Compare that with O'Donnell and Angle, who appear to have cost the Republicans easy-to-win seats, and the fact that Lisa Murkowski appears to have won a write-in campaign over the Sarah Palin-endorsed Republican nominee Joe Miller in Alaska, and it's not at all clear that the TEA parties made a big difference in general elections.

Instead, what I see is a country of discontented voters looking for fresh ideas that were moderate and productive in nature, and when they couldn't find that, trying to make a rational choice between the two main parties. In a year in which so much outside money was spent on the election, that's not a bad thing to observe.

Media: Quirks and Quarks 35th Anniversary

2010-11-02T23:11:00.008-04:00

Ten scientists joined host Bob McDonald for the taping of the Quirks and Quarks 35th anniversary show at the Glenn Gould studio in Toronto, Ontario on 2-November-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - The first Canadian radio show that made it into my permanent listening habits was CBC Radio One's science show, Quirks and Quarks. The program, traditionally airing at noon on Saturday, is only a matter of months younger than I am. While I didn't discover it until 1993, it had been airing since 1975, meaning that it turns 35 this fall.

Host Bob McDonald introduced the 35th anniversary Quirks and Quarks taping to a live audience in Toronto, Ontario on 2-November-2010

Originally hosted by David Suzuki (its second host, Jay Ingram was in attendance), the program has been hosted for the last 19 seasons by Bob McDonald, whose enthusiasm for space and physics and propensity to use very simple props in television appearances has inspired considerable satire. To open the evening, McDonald asked questions based on this season's programming and gave away Quirks and Quarks t-shirts; a particularly smart couple sitting in front of me each won a shirt to go along with the "Corporate Ladder" puzzles given to each attendee.

Each attendee of the 35th anniversary taping of Quirks and Quarks received a "Corporate Ladder" puzzle seen on 2-November-2010

The audience of the show, and in particular this taping, tends to be quite educated and technology-savvy. Quirks and Quarks was the first CBC show to offer on-line streaming audio, MP3 downloads, and a podcast--I remember each. High-powered scientists fit right in the group--someone who turned out to be geneticist Marla Sokolowski actually spent some time with the general audience line trying to figure out where she should go as a guest on the show!

Geneticist Marla Sokolowski spoke with host Bob McDonald during the 35th anniversary show of Quirks and Quarks on 2-November-2010

The person that really stole the show, though, was Dr. Lee Smolin. The theme of the show was the greatest change or discovery in a variety of fields in the 35 years that Quirks and Quarks had been broadcasting. Smolin stated that for basic physics, the biggest surprise was that there had been no surprises in those 35 years--relativity theory had largely held up, and no unified theory had emerged. What resulted was a wonderful exchange between host McDonald questioning whether the field was progressing and Smolin talking about his excitement about experiments about to be run in supercolliders.

Lee Smolin and host Bob McDonald shared enthusiasm for physics in a great exchange during the 35th anniversary show of Quirks and Quarks on 2-November-2010

Quirks and Quarks may last another 35 years. In her introduction, Denise Donlon, Executive Director of English Radio Services, pointed out that the Australian science radio show on ABC, The Science Show, is equal in age with Quirks and Quarks, and she wants the CBC show to last longer. In any event, the 35th anniversary show itself will air on 13-November-2010.

Culture: Halloween in Roundhouse Park

2010-11-01T23:13:00.010-04:00

The steam-powered miniature train at the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre in Toronto, Ontario prepared to leave Don Station past a giant pumpkin on Halloween, 31-October-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Amongst the changing social expectations of suburbia in the 1990's, it was possible to put out a Jack o'Lantern and even decorate one's house and still have few or no local trick-or-treaters stop by, in particular if the weather was unseasonably cold or wet. On the other hand, one could simply leave the porch light on and get dozens of costumed youngsters. Therefore, it was not entirely predictable how many children would come to Roundhouse Park in Toronto, Ontario for a scary, after-dark train ride and treats.

The windows of Don Station in Toronto, Ontario were decorated with scary Halloween imagery on 31-October-2010

The Toronto Railway Heritage Centre was not going to be caught unprepared. Volunteer Bob Dickson led an extensive decoration of Roundhouse Park with holiday decorations. Halloween-themed music videos played inside Don Station, pumpkins of various sizes appeared along the tracks of the miniature railway, and a graveyard suddenly appeared in a desolate portion of the park.

A dancing skeleton entertained a child at Don Station in Toronto, Ontario on Halloween, 31-October-2010

For a day that started with snow showers, visitors to the park provided a reasonable stream of business for the miniature railway. A few came in costume and enjoyed the displays around the station, including a dancing skeleton that sang Halloween-themed music whenever anyone passed nearby.

A diesel-powered miniature railway train ran through the "graveyard" in Roundhouse Park set up for Halloween on 31-October-2010

The steam engine came out for the evening in the late afternoon, with cool temperatures allowing it to more visibly emit steam through the park. A few more children arrived in costume around dinnertime. When darkness came, though, the flow had stopped. This would be one of those nights without trick-or-treaters.

The miniature railway train sat amongst the ghosts and goblins in the graveyard of Roundhouse Park in Toronto, Ontario on 31-October-2010.

So, the gathered volunteers went to a backup plan--turning the evening into a night photo session. The steam train was posed amongst the various Halloween displays and in front of the light show put on by the CN Tower, with special attention paid to the graveyard.

The miniature railway train itself looked like a translucent ghost, as a timed exposure captured its departure from Don Station in Toronto, Ontario on 31-October-2010

Next year, with more publicity and likely a different plan, the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre will probably be again prepared for Halloween. For more coverage of this year, watch the TRHA web site.

Photos: Trip to California, October 2010

2010-10-31T23:25:00.004-04:00

The city of San Francisco, California was partly obscured by clouds when viewed from the air on 18-October-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - A short update this week to my photo site features pictures from a recent trip to the state of California. The trip mostly offered the opportunity for aerial photographs across the landscape of the United States and Canada, but also a few shots on the ground in Roseville and Placerville, California on 18-21-October-2010.

Margin Notes: Halloween, Snow, Hawk, KPFA

2010-10-31T21:28:00.006-04:00

The Toronto Railway Heritage Centre's miniature train paused in Roundhouse Park amongst gravestones and ghosts in the "graveyard" on 31-October-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - With no trick-or-treaters passing by after dark, the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre's run on Halloween night turned instead into a ghostly night photo session on the miniature railway. The train was posed at various decorated locations in the park, mostly notably a "graveyard" scene with headstones, ghosts, and artificial fog. More coverage of this event will be forthcoming in a future post.

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One of the first snow showers of the season brought snowflakes to the Halloween scene at Don Station in Toronto, Ontario on 31-October-2010

While the evening was cold and mostly sunny, today didn't start that way. I walked out of my residence into a snow storm, and the snow showers didn't subside until the afternoon, including the one captured above with the holiday decorations at Don Station in Toronto's Roundhouse Park.

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What may have been a red-tailed hawk flew high above the Don River in Toronto, Ontario on 27-October-2010

Just four days before, temperatures had been approaching twenty degrees, and I was treated to some wildlife I don't often see in the city as I spent time along the East Don River, including various woodpeckers and a chipmunk. The clear highlight was what appeared to be a red-tailed hawk which circled above the river for nearly a half-hour that day.

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Some might accuse the executives of Pacifica radio in the United States of being worse than hawks. The Pacifica network owns five stations across the country, and on Thursday announced plans to replace a quarter of paid staff at KPFA in Berkeley, California with volunteers, resulting in an outcry. Picketing is planned for this coming Thursday. The workers' perspective is covered here. KPFA has a long history of such disputes, and this blog will be watching this one.

Radio Pick: This Party Sucks

2010-10-30T23:53:00.005-04:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This week's radio pick provides a preview of sorts to next week's election, but far more so into the sociology of political parties. Leave it to the documentary team from This American Life to look at both political parties and raise questions about how either is organized enough to mount a successful campaign in a 59-minute broadcast.

Listen to streaming media of This American Life "This Party Sucks"

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I don't normally pay much attention to interviews of actors, but two of them deserve honorable mention status this week.

Melissa Block's interview with Noomi Rapace, the Swedish actor who plays Lisbeth Salander in the movie versions of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, is worth listening to at a minimum for her description of putting the character to sleep and physically purging her. The featured aired on Friday's All Things Considered.

Listen to streaming media of All Things Considered "Noomi Rapace"

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Similarly, Scott Simon's interview with Sir Michael Caine was remarkable, if nothing else, for the story of how he met his wife. This feature aired this morning on Weekend Edition Saturday.

Listen to streaming media of Weekend Edition Saturday "Michael Caine"

Media: Changes Twenty Years Ago

2010-10-29T22:22:00.003-04:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Lest anyone think I haven't had some practice commenting on changes in radio and lamenting the future of the medium, try to think back twenty years and read my Highlight report from 29-October-1990, which came from a decidedly Seattle-centric perspective:

Today, for the first time, I saw a Judy Muller feature, on elder surfers, on ABC Television's World News tonight. Muller used to be a regular CBS radio commentator, and I enjoyed her features nearly as much as Charles Osgood's. When she left CBS last August, my radio listening enjoyment decreased considerably. In fact, in my opinion, radio in general has been getting worse all year. Stay tuned. [An Audi commercial played in the original audio version of this essay.]

I used to really enjoy listening to the radio, at virtually any time of the day or night. All my weekend nights would be spent listening intently to the highly professional Mystery Theater. However, as of January 1st, the Mystery Theater went off the air and its replacement six months later, the KIRO Mystery Playhouse, just doesn't stack up in suspense and quality endings.

At the end of the summer, more little changes occurred. Judy Muller left CBS radio, and several Seattle-area FM station changed their format, to less likable combinations of present-day music and classic rock'n'roll. Just when I had adjusted to these losses, more changes happened.

KOMO radio abandoned its weeknight program October 22nd in favor of Sally Jesse Raphael and Tom Snyder shows. I like being able to consistently hear Tom Snyder, but I will miss the excellent local news of KOMO's News at Ten.

This Monday, National Public Radio abandoned their evening Heat program with John Hockenberry. Though I wasn't a consistent listener, whenever I did tune in, I was always impressed by the quality of the satire on Heat.

The final straw is coming this Thursday, November 1st, when my favorite radio station, San Francisco's KCBS, will go to an all-news format. No longer will I be able to hear Art Finley's Nightbeat, in my opinion the most entertaining talk show on the air between 8 and 11 pm.

Change is inevitable, but I don't understand why all these reformattings and dropped programs are usually very negative and at best are quite mixed. At least Judy Muller will have an opportunity to be creative on ABC TV.

Twenty years later, it's interesting to see where some of these individuals have ended up. Judy Muller is still a television correspondent for ABC News. The KIRO Mystery Playhouse, produced by Jim French, has since become the syndicated Imagination Theater and still produces a one-hour show each week. KOMO radio dropped talk in favor of all-news, though its daytime format now includes talk shows from 9 to 3. John Hockenberry worked for NBC television for a time, but returned to public radio and now hosts the youth-focused morning show, The Takeaway. KCBS is still an all-news station, and now simulcasts on FM. Art Finley retired as a news anchor in 1995, and reportedly lives in British Columbia.

Transport: Leaves? Oh, come on...

2010-10-28T22:52:00.006-04:00

GO Transit's Barrie-Bradford Line train #801 departed Toronto, Ontario on 28-October-2010 with a locomotive on each end--an unusual practice designed to deal with fallen leaves

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Earlier this week, GO Transit, the local commuter rail operator in the Great Toronto-Hamilton Area, made the news by canceling a train because of leaves on the tracks. While loose leaves on the track certainly can lead to adhesion problems, this is far from a new problem and there are plenty of known mitigation techniques for the seasonal phenomenon--it's pathetic that GO would have to cancel a train because of leaves.

The cancellation of the train on Tuesday was especially ironic considering that GO had already taken action to ensure continued service on one of its lines. Starting last week, GO started placing engines on each end of the first two trains that ran on its Barrie-Bradford Line in the morning and afternoon commutes. Normally, GO runs its trains in a push-pull fashion with one engine on the east end of the train; these trains ran with an engine on the west end and the east end; I photographed one of these trains earlier today as shown above. The idea was that with double the power available on the train, any problem from leaves would be overcome, and indeed trains on that line have been operating normally.

However, no such precautions were taken system-wide, with is not necessarily surprising, since GO does not have two locomotives for each of its trains. There are plenty of other ways to avoid the issue, though. Network Rail in Britain goes out of its way to trim trees along its right-of-way, but perhaps most relevantly, operators in the northeastern United States use water to blow the leaves off the tracks.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's "Spray Train" was noted in action on the Lowell Line in Medford, Massachusetts on 26-October-2005

Both the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) around Boston, Massachusetts and Metro-North, the operator from New York, New York to east of Hudson River and Connecticut destinations, use this technique. The MBTA's "Spray Train" was photographed above five years ago, and Metro-North's version is known as "Waterworld". Each uses high-pressure streams of water aimed at each rail to clear the immediate vicinity of flying leaves.

The MBTA "Spray Train" worked its way back to Boston at Medford, Massachusetts on 26-October-2005

Falling leaves are an annual event in Ontario. GO Transit may not need "Waterworld" to run its trains in the autumn, but it needs to do better than it did this week--there's no excuse for canceling trains because of leaves.

Politics: Don't Be Certain About Senate

2010-10-27T22:09:00.006-04:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - The prevailing wisdom on the upcoming Federal elections next Tuesday in the United States is that the Republicans will take over control of the House of Representatives, and the Democrats will retain control of the Senate. While many responsible observers emphasize the volatility of the situation--the Republicans could pick up more than 70 seats in the house, or fewer than 40 such that the Democrats maintain control--the election is getting close enough now that big movement is unlikely. Looking at the discrete races involved in the Senate, it strikes me that scenarios in which the Republicans take over are being discounted--because of potential defections.

The election website that I pay the most attention to, Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight.com, now hosted by the New York Times, currently places the chances of a Republican takeover of the Senate at 12%, compared with 83% in the House. Certainly, 12% is far from zero. But, in his extensive model, Silver only accounts for the elections themselves, in which he projects 52.1 Democrats and 47.8 Republicans as having seats. The model doesn't account for what happens with some sitting senators.

After Scott Brown's win in the Massachusetts special election earlier this year, the Republicans have held 41 seats in the Senate to the Democrats' 59. To take control of the chamber, they need 51, as the tiebreaker, vice president Joe Biden, is a Democrat. Most analysts have seats in North Dakota, Arkansas, and Indiana as certain takeovers for the Republicans. That brings them to 44. If the election were held today according to FiveThirtyEight's models, Republicans would also gain seats in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Illinois, and Colorado. That takes them to 49. Assuming that Democrats indeed hang on to contested seats in West Virginia, Washington, and California and the rest of the "safe" seats don't result in any surprises, the Republicans would be two seats short of control.

I'm not certain that, in such a scenario, the Democrats would actually hang on to their majority. Democrat Ben Nelson of Nebraska has a very conservative voting record, and there is persistent speculation that he could be convinced to switch parties. He may face a challenge in the Democratic primary in the next election cycle (though considering the TEA party movement he might well face one in a Republican primary as well--there's little room for centrists anywhere, as Arlen Specter learned in Pennsylvania). Considering that he was accused of holding health care legislation hostage for special preference for his state, it does not seem difficult to imagine that he could be enticed to the Republican side if it were the majority.

However, that only gets the Republicans to 50. They would still need one more defection, and it's pretty obvious who that might be. "Jolly Joe" Lieberman of Connecticut has already shown that he is willing to ignore the Democratic party, running as an Independent (later "Independent Democrat") in his last election after losing in the Democratic primary. He almost became the Republican nominee for vice president with John McCain in 2008--most reports say McCain wanted him and Lieberman was willing to do it, but the Republican establishment wouldn't accept it. Some incentive concerning the pharmaceutical industry in Connecticut, and it would be easy to believe that Lieberman would caucus with the Republicans instead of the Democrats, and with both Nelson and Lieberman, the Republicans would have control.

This scenario seems entirely plausible to me. The Democrats can still maintain control by winning more seats than currently predicted (as finding more than two senators who would be willing to change parties seems far-fetched), but if things play out and eight senate seats change party hands, I strongly suspect it will result in Republican control of the Senate, not the slim Democratic majority it would seem on the surface.

Culture: Some Morbid Tales

2010-10-26T22:46:00.004-04:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - With Halloween approaching, this seemed a good time to dig up one of my favorite audio commentaries from my childhood archives. "Some Morbid Tales" was written for the 29-June-1989 Glitchon File:

In Pasco, Washington, near Interstate 182, there is an old graveyard, originally built near a grove of trees due to its proximity to the Northern Pacific railroad. The only way to reach this cemetery is via a small lane that goes from the funeral home to Oregon Avenue.

So, when people went to this shady location to pay their respects to lost friends or relatives, they passed a yellow, diamond-shaped sign reading "Dead End." Of course, this was referring to the street, but people were nonetheless quite disturbed since some people rested in their dead ends at the end of the street.

The city of Pasco changed the sign in the 1970's to read "No Outlet." For those that believe in souls, this seems equally disturbing.

For a person who died far from his hometown cemetery, there was only one outlet before the early 1960's. Their body had to ride home on the railroad, as special cargo in a baggage car. The corpse was usually accompanied by a relative who would ride the train with a normal ticket.

Since the body was an unusual article for the railroad to carry, they turned to their old fashioned way of doing tings. Attached to the coffin would be a fill-in card with instructions on it, called a skeleton ticket.

Needless to say, people were again offended by this use of a skeleton ticket for a skeleton, so the railway made a new type of ticket for coffin traffic.

However, in the 1950's, it was still possible to have a corpse transported using a skeleton ticket to Pasco, where a hearse would take it down a dead end street to a cemetery.

After hearing all this, don't go out and change your will to state that you want to be cremated. I'm sure the airlines do something offensive with ashes. Remember, no smoking on domestic flights under two hours.

As a footnote, on my last visit to Pasco, Washington earlier this year, I drove by the entrance to the City View Cemetery. There is no longer a "No Outlet" sign or a "Dead End" sign along Oregon Avenue at its entrance.

Politics: Shifting of the Guard

2010-10-25T23:21:00.003-04:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - So, let me get this straight. One major Canadian city this month had an election based almost entirely on the discussion of progressive-minded local issues, resulting in a wide-open race of quality candidates that ended with the election of a fresh figure who happened to be Muslim, but nearly nobody cared about that. Another major Canadian city this month had an election based almost entirely on anger that attracted an underwhelming pool of candidates, none of them with any sort of positive vision to take the city forward, and resulted in the election of a candidate who makes racist comments and would like to end immigration to the city. The first city was Calgary, and the second was Toronto?

Even before this month, I was not particularly inclined to knock Calgary. Despite the fact that it consistently elects Conservatives to the Federal parliament (as did the entire province of Alberta except for one Edmonton riding), it was in many ways much more progressive than Toronto as a municipality. Perhaps because it is the headquarters of many companies operating in the contentious tar/oil sands, it has probably provided more leadership in renewable energy than any other major city, even if the claim that its light rail system runs entirely on clean energy is somewhat overblown. The fact remains that it has been building a light rail system and seems serious about continuous improvement of its public transit infrastructure.

This month may have marked the moment when Calgary took the mantle from Toronto as the most attractive Canadian city to the outside world. (Montreal and Vancouver would dispute the duopoly, but I'll leave that for another time.) As Rob Ford made the case that Toronto has no more room for immigrants and still won election as mayor in a city where half the population was not born in Canada, Calgary did the unthinkable in North America and elected Naheed Nenshi, a Muslim, attracting worldwide attention. Furthermore, in quintessential Canadian fashion, the world took more notice of Nenshi's religion than the people of Calgary, who just wanted someone to move the city forward, of any background.

The people of Toronto, by electing Ford, have sent the immigrants of the world a message that they are not welcome here. While it is doubtful how much of Ford's agenda will actually be realized in what initially appears to be a very divided city council, he wants (among other things) to cut social services, arts funding, and end streetcar service. Facing such a climate, why would an immigrant not choose, if at all possible, to head instead for a city with a lower unemployment rate, an apparently more stable (if resource-based) economy, and which at least symbolically accepts them rather than rejecting them.

Toronto often seems to be hand-wringing about whether it is a world class city. Its residents just voted not to be, and I expect that it will not recover from that for a generation, if ever. In contrast, the residents of Calgary decided to behave like they lived in a world-class city. In a decade, the nation and the world may wonder what happened for Calgary to overtake Toronto, much as Toronto once surpassed Montreal. They'll look back, and say the real transition started with these two elections.

Photos: Ukrainian Festival

2010-10-24T23:50:00.004-04:00

The local Buduchnist Credit Union marched in Ukrainian colors during the Toronto Ukrainian Festival Parade in Toronto, Ontario on 18-September-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This week's update to my photo site features the Toronto Ukrainian Festival, held in my home neighborhood of Bloor West Village on 17-19-September-2010. Highlights included the parade and opening ceremonies on 18-September-2010.

Margin Notes: Chill, Houses, Grover, KGO

2010-10-24T23:22:00.008-04:00

Wilson Lau ran the steam locomotive at the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre on 24-October-2010, with the chilly air resulting in a nice plume of steam

TORONTO, ONTARIO - There has yet to be a low temperature below freezing this season in metropolitan Toronto, but temperatures have been creeping down, enough so that steam locomotives are much more spectacular. Locomotive #3 put off nice plumes of steam in the chilly weather all day today--and probably will again in its final weekend of operations for the season next Sunday, including the evening runs for Halloween--see TRHA web page for details as they become available.

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It's not cool temperatures but flooding that is the concern in New Orleans. A new floating house has been developed that normally sits at ground level but will rise to float if flooding occurs, as has been widely reported. Why weren't these brought to North America long ago?

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Perhaps everyone has been too busy watching Sesame Street's parody of the recent Old Spice commercials, "Smell Like A Monster." For those that have missed Grover imitating Isaiah Mustafa, check it out on YouTube, or check out this amusing re-mix.

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That skit will apparently not be a permanent fixture on Sesame Street, but KGO radio has made an interesting change in the San Francisco Bay Area. For some years, KUOW Seattle has made a practice of saying that various features would be coming up in "X minutes." As I heard while visiting the area, KGO hosts including Ronn Owens and Gil Gross have started saying that a topic will be coming back in, say, "3 minutes" before a commercial break, or "6 minutes" after the news. It sounds very weird on a commercial radio station.

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As a final note from my trip west, I should credit Virgin America airlines for actually delivering an orange juice shortly after I ordered it on the return trip, unlike on the initial trip. Apparently, the ordering system works after all.

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Finally, those into airline call signs may find it amusing to learn that Virgin America, a Burlingame, California-based airline, uses the call sign "Redwood." If you initially missed the double entendre, then you should be congratulated for having a clean mind.

Radio Pick: Naheed Nenshi

2010-10-23T23:44:00.003-04:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This week's radio pick comes from the CBC. In a time when the German chancellor speaks about giving up on multi-culturalism, Toronto may vote for a anti-diversity mayor, and Juan Williams gets fired from NPR for saying he is afraid of Muslims, there's something to celebrate in the election of Naheed Nenshi as the first Muslim mayor of Calgary. Furthermore, his election had everything to do with issues, not his background, as he told Anna Maria Tremonti in this 27-minute segment of The Current.

Listen to MP3 of The Current "Naheed Nenshi"

Media: The Rim-Shotter

2010-10-22T23:46:00.002-04:00

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Part of the bargain of private broadcasting is putting up with commercials. In an era in which the "spot load" on some stations has exceeded 20 minutes per hour (compared with a maximum in the industry of 18 minutes per hour that seemed to exist for years), though, the quest for a station with more programming and fewer commercials can be enticing. In the days before satellite radio and portable digital media devices, one way to satisfy this quest was to listen to "rim shot" radio stations, or weak stations from outside the market whose signals just barely enter a metropolitan market.

Sometime in high school while living in the Seattle area (and after the demise of i107.7), I decided to carefully go through the dial on a great receiver my parents had in the living room and discovered KISM 92.9 FM from Bellingham, Washington. At the time, it had an Adult Album Alternative format, which for some reason had yet to appeal to me on "the Mountain" (KMTT 103.7 FM) but really impressed me on KISM, serving as my introduction to artists like the Crash Test Dummies and Suzanne Vega. The most compelling attraction, though, was that it played fewer commercials, being in a smaller market. The reduced spot load was the main reason that one radio spent a lot of time on KISM--though it was the only radio in the house that could get that signal clearly (and in stereo). In fact, I would keep tuning in KISM when I returned to Seattle until it re-formatted to Classic Rock in 1999.

Having found one "rim shot" station, I later spent time scanning the dial for other stations that receiver could pull in. "Mix 96 FM" (KXXO 96.1 from Olympia, Washington) turned out to be my preferred light rock station when I was in heartache, both for a larger playlist (I can't think of a Seattle station that played Roxette's "Almost Unreal") and a much lower spot load than local adult contemporary stations. I also sampled another Bellingham station, "the soft rock KAFE" (104.3 FM, since moved to 104.1 FM) when I tired of local radio.

It took me years in the San Francisco Bay Area before I found a "rim shot" station. One evening while riding Caltrain back to Palo Alto from San Francisco, I was scanning the dial and discovered KKIQ 101.7 FM, out of Livermore and Pleasanton. Running a hot adult contemporary format, it didn't have a strong signal on the peninsula, but once more, its reduced spot load relative to the San Francisco and San Jose stations caused it to displace KEZR as my preferred music station for quite some time.

When I moved to Boston, it took much less time for me to find the rim-shotters. Once I got used to "Mix 98-5" (WBMX 98.5 FM, now 104.1 FM), WBOS (92.9 FM, now reformatted), and "Magic 108" (WXKS-FM at 107.9 FM), I very rapidly discovered that WXLO, a hot adult contemporary station out of Worcester, Massachusetts at 104.5 FM, had a smaller spot load, and made it my preferred station. I also spent time listening to WHEB 100.3 FM out of Portsmouth, New Hampshire when it had a Top-40 format, and of course the most significant rim-shotter of all in Boston continues to this day to be "The River" 92.5 FM, WXRV out of Andover, Massachusetts (formerly Haverhill, Massachusetts).

In the age of digital music, though, I haven't bothered to find the "rim shot" stations around Toronto. When one can listen to "The River" (WXRV), Alice (KLLC), or any number of preferred stations off the Internet, never mind listening to one's own collection of MP3's with no spot load at all, there's not a lot of incentive to scan the dial.

Travel: Looking Down

2010-10-21T23:03:00.005-04:00

The town of Verdi, Nevada, not far west of Reno, was viewed from the air on 21-October-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Over the years, I have often been surprised at what I have managed to recognize as I looked down from the window of a commercial airplane. While I have experienced a fair portion of the western United States, especially, on the ground, my mind doesn't seem to have much difficulty realizing that scenes that I had seen only from the ground before were appearing outside a window five miles above them.

The first time I really surprised myself was on a flight from Denver, Colorado to Seattle, Washington. The plane had gone above the clouds shortly after departing Denver. When the clouds cleared and I looked down, I immediately recognized the location as being Baker City, Oregon, not exactly a common destination in my life, in the middle of the Blue Mountains crossing of Interstate 84. As the flight path would essentially follow that freeway to the Columbia River, it was pretty straight-forward to verify that, indeed, I had correctly recognized Baker City, as LaGrande, Pendleton, and Herimston followed.

On another occasion, I had been engaged in reading something interesting when the descent toward Sea-Tac Airport south of Seattle, Washington caused me to look out the window. Within seconds, I realized that I was looking at Index, Washington, with its railway loop away from US Highway 2 along the Skykomish River. As Gold Bar, Monroe, and Everett soon followed, it became clear that I once more had been correct.

It hasn't only happened on the west coast, but just about anywhere I've been on the ground. On a flight back to the United States from Europe, I once looked down to recognize Acadia National Park in Maine, picking out Cadillac Mountain and thinking that I was glad I had not noticed the planes above when I had been there.

Downtown Sacramento and West Sacramento, California (note the Capitol building in the lower left) were viewed from a flight on 21-October-2010

So, it should not have been terribly surprising to see some familiar scenes from a window seat today. Leaving San Francisco, the plane entered a cloud bank, but it cleared in time for a view of Sacramento, then I started to read after Roseville, throwing a glance out the window to recognize that I was looking at Verdi, Nevada. It would have been nice to visit Cabela's or shoot pictures of trains crossing the Truckee River, but the plane had long since reached cruising altitude, so I went back to reading.