[caption id="attachment_9552" align="alignright" width="250" caption="Too damned many."][/caption] In response to my note about the 40-something Norwegian who had never seen a snow day until he came to Nova Scotia, Contrarian reader Joyce Rankin of Mabou Westmount blames consolidation of schools and secularization of society for the proliferation of snow days. Her response sparked a lively email debate. I remember we never used to have snow days either. But then again, we were close enough to school that we could walk. The questions to ask, for a proper comparison, would be how far children in Norway travel to school, and how far people drive to...

12 March, 2012

Contrarian reader Silas Barss Donham [Disclosure: Gee, that name seems familiar] can put up with most of the steps required to heat his Orangedale house with wood: the cutting, hauling, splitting (or paying someone to), the stacking outside to dry, tossing into the basement, re-stacking inside, carrying upstairs to the fireplace, and the constant sweeping of ashes, bark, and furch. But he grows weary of making "the daily, just-so crumple of old newspaper to light the fire." Not being a daily newspaper reader, I have to go from store to store to collect enough expired papers (avoiding the new Globe and Mail...

11 March, 2012

I met a Norwegian immigrant last night, a man in his 40s. He has lived in Nova Scotia for four years. At one point, the conversation turned to snow days. "You know," he said, "in 40 years in Norway, I never saw one snow day. Not from school. Not from work." Four years in Nova Scotia, and he's seen about 40. Just saying'....

07 March, 2012

Tragedy in a Cape Breton community, as rendered by the amazing Kate Beaton. What's so stunning about this is its absolute, pitch-perfect authenticity. H/T: Alicia Penney via Dream Big Cape Breton. See more of Kate's work at Harkavagrant....

06 March, 2012

The Harper government has mounted a classic bucket defence* against charges it illegally steered opposition voters to faraway, fake polling stations in a deliberate attempt to discourage them from voting. Their defenders say: 1. Nothing serious happened. 2. It happened to us too. 3. There's no proof we did it. 4. In fact, it was the Liberals who did it. 5. The calls didn't work anyway. 6. Voters don't care about it. 7. It'll blow over in a day or two. Some of this commentary is just the predictable party-line pandering from pro-Harper media, but a Globe and Mail story purporting to show...

06 March, 2012

In the interests of tying up loose ends, here are a couple of final notes about the insulated orange lunch bags the Department of Education handed out to grade primary students in four school boards this winter. I voiced suspicion that the selection of the color orange was a transparent political ploy, and even suggested the NDP should reimburse the taxpayers for their cost. It's clear I was wrong. The detailed explanation provided by Ann Blackwood, Executive Director of English Program Services for the Nova Scotia Department of Education, has the unmistakable ring of truth. Education bureaucrats chose the color for reasons that...

05 March, 2012

Remember the Ottawa Press Gallery's rending of garments over the "despicable" violation of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews's privacy when Vikileaks30 revealed seamy details from the public record of his divorce proceedings—details that called into question the minister's personal adherence to the family values he used to denigrate gay Canadians and oppose their exercise of equal rights under the law? The view that embarrassing details from a cabinet minister's private life are off-limits, even when they conflict with his sanctimonious public pronouncements, has suddenly acquired unanimous support among Canada's major media organizations. Why, suppressing such details is practically a sacred duty. Parliamentary reporters...

05 March, 2012

Sometimes the movies understand issues that reporters and editors seem incapable of grasping. Like the entrenched police habit of grossly inflating the value of illicit drugs they seize, values almost always reported as Received Truth. In The Guard,  John Michael McDonagh's hilarious comedy about the culture clash between an uptight FBI agent and a small town Irish cop, FBI Agent Wendell Everett, played by Don Cheadle, is briefing members of Ireland's Garda police force about a drug ship carrying $500 million worth of cocaine, when Sgt. Gerry Boyle, his small town Irish counterpart, played with impecable timing by Brendan Gleeson, interrupts. Wendell Everett: That's...

02 March, 2012

Climate change deniers like to seize on instances of unusually cold weather to debunk the scientific case for climate change. This video, from the Norwegian infotainment program Siffer, explains the fallacy. H/T Nathan Yau...

02 March, 2012

Last Friday, Rosa's school had an in-service day, so Rosa went birding at Point Pleasant Park. She brought the cardboard binoculars she got for Christmas. She spotted a Common Loon trying to swallow a whole crab: Way off the tip of the park, she spied a Common Eider Drake: A Northern Pintal was hanging around First Beach. Notice his blue bill? Here he is again, standing on one leg: A Pintail-Mallard hybrid was resting on the sand: A Red-Breasted Merganser was drying his feathers in the sun...

25 February, 2012
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