A childhood friend found this disturbing 1956 photograph by the late Life Magazine photographer Gordon Parks on the Facebook page of the African-American history group BlackPast.org. She reposted it on her own Facebook page, and I reposted to to mine, adding, "It's worth remembering that this was less than 60 years ago." It didn't take long for Gus Reed to post this photo of the posh Hydrostone restaurant Epicurious Morsels, adding: 60 years ago there was a separate entrance for African Americans at the Birmingham bus station. 60 seconds ago, this was the wheelchair entrance at a restaurant in Halifax. One of...

05 February, 2014

To make sport of bad English translations by non-English speakers is to flirt with, nay dive headfirst into, unbecoming condescension. But sometimes, it's irresistible. "Please use it referring to as equipped," has been an all-purpose mantra in my house ever since those words arrived on the wrapper of a Honda Civic air filter sometime in the 1980s. Last weekend, my son Silas received a set of Chinese-made Edifier speakers he had ordered on line. Among the packaging, he found this poetic brand testimonial: I believe this can only be fully appreciated as blank verse: Big surprise, astonishment, and enjoyment. Ever from the sparkles of ideas...

22 January, 2014

As recounted here last August, John Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox, bought another great Boston institution, the Boston Globe, for just $70 million. That's $1.13 billion less than the New York Times paid for it 20 years ago. The Times retained the paper's $110 million in pension liabilities, so you could say the price was negative $40 million. So grim are the economics of newspapering in the 21st Century, lots of industry watchers thought Henry was nuts. Late last month, he took to the paper's editorial page to explain what motivated him. I have been asked repeatedly in recent weeks why...

12 November, 2013

“Life is like a public performance on the violin, in which you must learn the instrument as you go along,” wrote E.M. Forster, in Room With A View. I don't know much about life, but getting fired, unexpectedly, publicly, certainly feels like that. Having gone through it, I'm always interested to see how others handle the experience. Hours after Rogers Media sacked him and 10 other News Radio 95.7 staffers, right-wing talk radio host Jordi Morgan posted "A note to Maritime Morning listeners" on his Facebook Page. As you may have heard I will no longer be hosting Maritime Morning on News...

06 November, 2013

Cliff White sides Bousquet: I love the discussion about the superports. Tim Bousquet nailed it. You will remember that a lot of the hype about the Atlantica concept was based on the same false assumptions. During that debate one brilliant supporter suggested reducing transportation costs by hiring Mexicans at low wages to drive the trucks. At the time I was working for The Council of Canadians. I was heavily involved in organizing against the initiative, until that is I realized it was a delusional pipe dream cooked up by AIMS and some elements of the business community.  At that point I stopped...

01 November, 2013

James and Deborah Fallows have been visiting remote corners of the US by small plane to tease out the secrets of successful local economies. In Eastport, Maine, they heard lots of talk about the potential of Eastport's deep, ice-free harbour, and relative proximity to Europe, to attract European trade. I noted that the same case has been made for Canso, where construction of the causeway to Cape Breton in 1955 inadvertently created a similarly deep, ice-free superport. Inveterate boosterism deflator Tim Bousquet of  The Coast, a Halifax newsweekly, isn't impressed: I think boosters of both the Canso and the Eastport "superports"—and you and...

31 October, 2013

Loran Tweedie and I attended the biweekly meeting of Richmond County Council last night, where we met Lorenzo Boudreau, ago 90. It was Loran's and my first time attending a Richmond Council meeting. It was Boudreau's 854th. He's been coming since 1984. "To the best of my memory, I haven't missed a single meeting," he said. His memory appears to be good. When Loran introduced himself, Lorenzo asked if he was Jack Tweedie's son. "Grandson," said Loran. "On January 29, 1953, Jack was working at Sydney Auto Parts." "He did work at Sydney Auto Parts," said Loran, "but why do you remember that particular day?" "Because...

31 October, 2013

A disgruntled shopper of our acquaintance recounts his efforts to buy a shed. A shed he could see, but could not buy. Me: I’d like to buy the pre-assembled shed advertised outside your store for $600. Kent guy: We don’t have any. Me: But I see one outside you store. Kent guy: That’s the display model. Me: So the display model is not for sale? Kent guy: No. It’s the display model. Me: So the display model is advertising an item you don’t have for sale? Kent guy: I could order one in for you. Me: Wonderful! Kent guy: It wouldn’t be assembled, though. Me: OK, so I would have to...

31 October, 2013

Perhaps you have seen this speech Kevin Spacey gave at the Edinburgh Television Festival last month. It's been making the rounds on tech and entertainment sites, and has more than a million views. But if not, please take four minutes for the pithiest explanation I've heard of the disruption that has upended the television and motion picture industries. [Video link] A few excerpts: The success of the Netflix model—releasing the entire season of House of Cards at once—proves one thing: The audience wants the control. They want the freedom...

08 September, 2013

Yachtsman Silver Donald Cameron writes: Canada's Economic Action Plan, it appears, doesn't reach Baddeck. In that picturesque village, federal agents are trying to kill an iconic small business oriented towards a US market—and that after decades of government investment and effort to strengthen and grow such businesses in chronically jobless Cape Breton. The business is the Cape Breton Boatyard, created in 1937 to serve the fleet of yachts associated with the family of Alexander Graham Bell and their friends, and owned for the past several decades by Henry Fuller. Since the beginning, the main clientele of the boatyard has been visiting yachts...

06 September, 2013
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