Humpty Dumpty One

Here is a Letter to the Editor in today's Province. The writer refers to a recovered addict who completely and honestly understands addictions. The writer on the other hand is a theorist who knows nothing of where he speaks. The world is topsy-turvy.

True nature of addiction

The Province

Published: Monday, September 29, 2008

Letter writer Barry Joneson and other Insite detractors don't understand the nature of addiction

You cannot force people to do something and unless society is willing to give police the power to do so, then harm reduction is the only thing that makes sense.

You can have all the treatment facilities you want, but addicts who don't want to make use of them will have only the streets to do their drugs

Brandon Parker,

Delta

Humpty Dumpty TWO

A Victoria drug addict's Charter rights were violated because he did not have access to a supervised injection site like Vancouver's Insite.

"How can someone's conduct be criminal in Victoria, but not in Vancouver, where drug addicts have access to Insite?" the addict's enterprising lawyer asked.

Lovely.

McAnecdote

Today's spurious headlines are all about John McCain's gambling habits and gambling connections.

There may or may not in time be some important information hidden in these missives, but we have yet to see it.

I good friend tells of the time he played craps at a Vegas table next to McCain for several hours a few years ago.

He says that the good Senator from Arizona was intent and focused and not particularly friendly.

As far as I know gambling is a legal activity in many places.

If we learn that McCain took bribes or did some other illegal and unsavoury acts, then we will have something about which we can complain and somewhere to point.

In the meantime, this kind of innuendo and silliness must go.

The Gambler

Rosh Hashanah

I was saddened to read in a Sun editorial the other day that there are only 13 million Jews in the world today.

There are at least ten cities in China that have larger populations than 13 million people.

The Jewish population in most countries, including Canada is much less than one per cent.

As a Jew, and a typical modern Jew in many ways, I was shocked by these numbers.

Yet, look at our disproportionate contributions.

In music, medicine and science, Jews have been extraordinary leaders for the past century.

Hollywood was and is a Jewish business.

The list of Jewish violinists, pianists, composers, conductors and singers is long and legendary.

Half the inventions in both I.T. and medical technology have come in recent years from Israel.

And make no mistake about it, the future of the Jews is in Israel.

Because those of us in the diaspora -scattered here and yon in every country in the world - are not, by and large, holding the faith.

The reason that we will celebrate the year 5769 next week, the reason that Judaism has survived almost 6,000 years, is that the religion and its customs are in the home.

Daily ritual and observance are at the table and the wash basin and the bedroom. Blessings and thanks are built into the natural rhythms of the day.

The problem, of course, is that few North American Jews have the discipline or desire to keep to the path.

Like the Chinese, we are adept at blending in to any culture and succeeding on that society's terms, while still honoring our deeply felt histories.

And like any wandering peoples, we increasingly intermarry, change our names, join the golf clubs and make observance only an occasional tipping of the hat.

I am not an observant Jew.

Yet, I am deeply, profoundly, inevitably Jewish. And happy to be so.

I love study. I love argument. I am a life-long learner. I love food and sex and passion and laughter.

If I knew another way to be, I might consider it. But I don't. This is what I know and I like it.

Even in the shadow of History's One Great Horror, the Holocaust, I am proud and happy to be a Jew.

I just didn't know, in my ignorance, that there were so few of us.

Score One

To give him his due...

John McCain may have lost the debate the other night handily, but he did get off the occasional funny line.

This was my favorite.

"I've looked Putin in the eye, and I saw three letters - KGB."

Not enough to win an election, but, hey, these are desparate times.

It's like looking for a good moment in an Owen Wilson movie.

Three Bears

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, left, Representative Barney Frank, center, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., and Senator Harry Reid, early Sunday.

I have one question.

How high is your confidence in these geniuses to solve this problem?

Weren't all four of them long in place while this madness was going on?

I have really reached the point where I find almost all politicians to be disgraceful fakes.

Officials said Congressional staff members would work to finalize the language of an agreement that would include pay limits for executives and require the government to do more to prevent foreclosures.

But yesterday a news report advised that there were many "executives" who had been on Wall Street for less than a year who would walk away from the fire with millions in compensation.

I am pleased to Renounce...

Toll Smoll.

Drek in; drek out.

Now, the Preem has taken to getting teary-eyed every time he announces one of his little pea-and-shell games.

Lord! Will someone take this poor fellow out for a quiet walk somewhere.

Moving Right Along

It's not often that I agree with a sitting government about much of anything.

But I am pleased to see the new permission by Victoria to allow pharmacists to renew some prescriptions without a visit to your local bones.

For many of us, these renewals are simple, harmless and necessary.

Why then add another $29.30 or whatever the tab is to say Hi to our family doctor. We need to eliminate useless expenditures in the medical system and this is one reasonable way to do it.

(Having nurses and other practitioners doing a host of jobs that do not need Mr. Seven Years is another reasonable way to cut costs.)

Of course, the docs are mightily upset and like good politicians everywhere, they warn of the dire consequences of asking pharmacists to be more than order takers and fillers.

Yes, this new initiative opens opportunities for mistakes and corruption.

But why should my neighbourhood pharmacist be more prone to these diseases than my doctor?

Not a Thrilla in Manila

One of our favorite sportscasters loves to shout over footage of running backs crashing towards the end zone, "Rumbling, stumbling, bumbling..."

We needed him last night at the McCain/Obama sparring match #1.

I suppose all those commentators must find "balanced" things to say after the nosebleed, but unless we were all watching very different channels, I gave Obama 15 rounds and The Old Guy zilch.

McCain was also undignified, whining repeatedly, "What Senator Obama doesn't understand is..."

Next!

Paul Newman

He should have been given a shelf of Oscars for "The Verdict."

His reading of Frank Galvin, the alcoholic Boston lawyer, was brave and unforgettable.

Redford had 6 directors quit on him when he tried to make the movie. Redford wanted the character turned into a tradional hero. That's Redford. The directors walked, and then Newman got hold of the project.

He lost that year at the Oscar's to Ben Kingsley's thorough reincarnation of "Ghandi."

He should have won a shelf of Oscars for "The Hustler." His portrayal of Fast Eddie Felson, the pool player who has to learn life's lessons at great cost is gripping and watchable year after year.

He lost unbelievably that year to Maximillian Schell in "Judgement at Nuremberg," a stolid, plodding docudrama that managed to make one of history's greatest tragedies almost boring.

(At the same ceremonies, George C. Scott and Jackie Gleason both lost in the Best Supporting Actor category for their astonishing work in "The Hustler" to George Chakiris in "West Side Story." Go figure.)

He was that rare thing - Paul Newman - a Huge Movie Star, who happened to be also a Great Actor.

And a philanthropist and social activist and a devastatingly charming handsome fellow.

We will search for some time to find his like again.

Paul Newman

Paul Newman: 1925 - 2008

27 September 2008 8:49 AM, PDT | From IMDb News

Beloved actor and humanitarian Paul Newman has died of cancer in his home in Westport, Connecticut. He was 83.

Newman, whose stunning blue eyes and immense capacity for generosity made him one of the most cherished personalities of his era, was an extremely private man and was rumored to have been seriously ill for several months. He had canceled some planned appearances in the summer.

Born in Shaker Heights, Ohio in 1925, Newman first made his mark on the stage and TV but his startling good looks and undeniable presence destined him to appear on the screen. Newman often played troubled characters with streaks of nobility such as “Fast” Eddie Felson in The Hustler, and the eponymous, irrepressible roles of Hud Bannon in Hud and the imprisoned rebel, Cool Hand Luke.

But it was his role as Butch in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, opposite Robert Redford, that thrust him into the realm of super-stardom. He followed it with other classic films including The Sting, The Towering Inferno, Slap Shot, and The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean.

Newman was a star right out of the gate, however, being nominated for an Oscar for his third major role as Brick Pollitt, the drunken husband locked in a loveless marriage with Elizabeth Taylor’s smoldering “Maggie the Cat” in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Newman’s real-life relationship was exactly the opposite. He was married to actress Joanne Woodward for 50 years. The two worked together in 1958’s The Long Hot Summer. It was the same year they were wed and that Woodward won an Oscar for her work in 1957’s The Three Faces of Eve.

It was not the end of their professional collaborations. Newman also directed her to another Oscar nomination in Rachel, Rachel (the film picked up four nominations, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay by their lifelong friend, Stewart Stern). Newman also directed Woodward in The Glass Managerie and starred with her in Mr. & Mrs. Bridge.

Nominated for seven Oscars (including Best Actor nods for Absence of Malice and The Verdict) Newman finally won on his eighth nomination for his reprisal role of Fast Eddie in Martin Scorsese’s The Color of Money (he would be nominated two more times afterwards, for Best Actor in Nobody’s Fool and Best Supporting Actor in Road to Perdition).

But of all the trophies Newman won or was awarded in his life none seem more appropriate than his honorary 1994 Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Newman’s charitable giving, from his Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, a camp for seriously ill children or his proceeds from Newman’s Own, are legendary. As was the man. As will be his legacy.

Newman is survived by Woodward, his five daughters and several grandchildren. A son, Scott Newman, died of an accidental drug overdose in 1978.

---

Paul Newman

Quote of the Day

Michael Byers is the NDP candidate for federal office in Vancouver Centre.

He lamented yesterday that "his two sons may never see polar bears in the wild."

Hahahahaha....

How many human persons have actually seen polar bears in the wild? 137?

How many might expect to?

Was this part of your plan?

I'll go to University, get a medical degree, marry Ellen, have kids, play golf and , oh yes, stop by the arctic some day to, you guessed it, see polar bears in the wild.

Running against this wizard are Hedy Fry and Lorne Mayencourt.

Somebody get out the nets.

Step Right UP!

A local radio station has been buying ads in the Sun of late.

This is what they claim:

Talk that matters to you.

A station that captivates your interests.

A station that makes you more interesting.

Hahahaha...

I didn't know that listening to a radio station could make me more interesting.

I didn't even know that one of my life goals was to be more interesting.

To whom?

The guys with whom I play bridge once a month?

This particular radio station, under the same steely-eyed management for years, has had a 1.5 share for decades. That means that 1.5% of the local audience of interesting people are listening. That's not enough to visit Tim's.

The world is completely mad, I tell you, and no where more so than in the wonderful topsy-turvy house of mirrors called Media.

J.J. McColl

I was so sorry to learn today of the passing of J.J. McColl.

She was a wonderful, writer and broadcaster and a warm and loving friend.

Brilliant Satire

Do yourself a really, really BIG favour and watch the first ten minutes of Jon Stewart's The Daily Show here.

President Bush's speech on the financial crisis is very similar to his speech on Iraq five years ago.

In fact, as Stewart and his staff put the two videos side by side, you see the full impact of the lying snake who has been the President of the United Staes of America for eight years.

The Unbearable Lightness of Bulbs

Political correctness under a new light.

Last week I stopped in at London Drugs to buy a 40 watt bulb.

They had none.

Or should I say, they had none that I could recognize as familiar.

Rather, there was a ready supply of the new twisty, twirly thingamajigs that are supposed to burn for a millennium or two. So I bought a 2-pack.

Took the creepy thing home, put one in the wall sconce above the watercolor in the hallway downstairs and behold - ugliness on display!

A light that pauses before it comes on and then glares a sheering hospital corridor brightness that changes your home into an institution.

The twisty, twirly that I put in one of my living room lamps burned out last month, long before it claimed it would.

"Bull," say I.

Whose cousin owns these godawful things? Does the Premier's uncle own the franchise.

I went into the Home Hardware on Salt Spring Island earlier this week and bought me a gross of the Old Familiars and smuggled them back on an unsuspecting BC Ferries crew.

Well, they'll never see the light, will they?

My new old bulb's casting a lovely soft glow above my painting again.

No doubt I am minutes away from the Invasion of the Correct Lighting Commitat.

Send chocolate and a saw.

Behind Door Three

Mike Howell, staff writer has given us an excellent front cover piece in this Wednesday's edition of The Vancouver Courier.

Our good friend, Victor, has exactly the same reaction to a key element of this story. The foto says it all.

But here is Victor's take:

"If you want to know everything that's wrong with Canadian politics,
please look at page four of today's Courier. There is a picture of a
bus load of Punjabi women being delivered to vote in the Vision
Vancouver nomination meeting. Sadly, the bus is a school bus, an
ironic image speaking volumes.

The greatest disrespect that can be shown immigrants is to use them as
ballot box cattle. This is a technique mastered by the Liberals over
the last 40 years but it is sickening to actually see it documented.

Please spare me the bullshit about participation in the democratic
process. Remember the Punjabi women who died in the crash of that farm
workers bus a while back. Police who interviewed other women working
at the farm reported that they could not recite their addresses and
phone numbers. In either language.

The women that Vision Vancouver herded to the meeting were undoubtedly
on a par. An ethical reporter would have interviewed them on the
aspects of Vision policy that they supported. But that would have been
deemed culturally insensitive. So we pretend and preen in or
multicultural delusions. Disgusting."

There were many reasons that I gave for not running for office. Perhaps I didn't mention or emphasize enough this kind of appalling nonsense passing for democratic process.

Armed

97 of 100 Americans has a gub.

31 of 100 Canajuns have a gub.

I'm not feeling smug and safer.