Brushes with Stardom #396

How's this for One Degree of Separation?

Watching much of "The Way We Were," the 1973 Streisand-Redford hit of 1973, I suddenly realized that I had played in a TV episode with Patrick O'Neal, one of the supporting cast of "The Way We Were."

O'Neal, who was personally chosen by Tennessee Willams to play the original role of Reverend Shannon in "Night of the Iguana" when it first appeared on Broadway, played a high powered and corrupt real estate salesman in an episode of the "J.J. Starbuck," a short lived detective series starring the former movie cowboy, Dale Robertson.

I play a very wealthy client who discovers O'Neal's shenanigans. Not a good move. O'Neal shoots and kills me.

Our scenes were filmed in an extraordinarily flashy mansion in West Vancouver and a fabulous gun cabinet filled with gun treasures was brought in from a private collector in Langley just for the murder scene.

It was great fun.

For the record, when the Streisand-Redford movie first came out, I hated it.

Now, over the years, I confess it has seeped into my bones and I love watching it. Corny, glossy entertainment beautifully done.

Barbra - The Way We Were

News Flash - From a Commentor

Having decided that the Detroit Red Wings technically won the 2008 Stanley Cup, the Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers and Dallas Stars have formed a coalition demanding a three way ownership of the league title.

Rationale for their decision revolves around their total combined scoring in the 2008 Semi-Finals, their total share of season ticket holders versus the Detroit Red Wings, and their horror at discovering the Detroit Red Wings are using a more cost effective and efficient, but non-union made silver polish, to keep the Stanley Cup gleaming.

The three teams are being assisted in their bid to overturn the traditional results by members of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League who have no real interest in the success of the NHL in general but sense an opportunity to demand Zambonis and other critical equipment be manufactured in Quebec.

Player representatives, team owners and Nike are expected to submit their proposals to Don Cherry in the next few days. Fans and ticket holders are neither being asked or allowed a voice in the final decision.

Leaders of Our Times

Nothing speaks to the incompetence of the Federal Bumbling, Stumbling, Rumbling Liberal party better than this:

"Adding to the discomfort with his leadership was the fact that last night Mr. Dion and his team couldn't even get his televised national address – a speech intended to counter Mr. Harper's appeal – to TV networks on time.

The production values of the tape were also poor, with Mr. Dion out of focus at times. It appeared his head was emerging from the shelf behind him."

The above is taken from a Jane Taber piece in this morning's Globe.

By now, you may have learned that Parliament has been shut down until Jan. 26th.

Here are the opening paragraph's of the Globe's on line news just after noon, eastern time.

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper has obtained Governor-General Michaëlle Jean's consent to temporarily shut down Parliament, a move that allows him to avoid a confidence vote next week that he was expected to lose.

It's a blow for the Liberal-NDP coalition, backed by the separatist Bloc Québécois, that was seeking to replace the minority Conservative goverment.

The development buys time for Mr. Harper to assemble an economic package that he hopes will discourage the multiparty alliance from taking him down at that time.

Have yourself a merry little...

Boo! (We don't really like you.)

It's a classic example of how the politicians and the mandarins attack the good works of someone they don't like, someone who threatens them with her honesty or bad news.

The someone in this instance is BC's children's watchdog, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond and we have written often on these pages in her praise.

In the latest skirmish, her own government has been questioning her right to rent office space.

She's supposed to invite her staff over to her breakfast nook at home, unplug the toaster and the microwave and light up the notebooks?

These are such old, such tired, such cheap, such transparent tricks, this so-called budget committee should be given the Casper the Ghost Award for Silly Spookdom.

It's the Little Things that Hurt

A tiny little insert in the newspaper this morning caused my shoulders to sag.

A large truck was caught last night at midnight doing wheelies over the lawns and flower beds of Victoria's Beacon Hill Park. The damage is about $10,000.

I've just returned from a wonderful two weeks in Victoria and the house i rented was very near Beacon Hill Park. I walked past it every day along the open ocean front of Dallas Road, in my opinion one of the greatest city walks anywhere in the world.

But aside from my sense of personal connection to this small story, the content says so much about our seemingly total abandonment of respect and community and the social compact.

It's often too ugly out there, boys and girls.

Buy it on Amazon

Tony Bennett, 82 years young, has a new album out.

"A Swinging CHristmas" is recorded with the Count Basie Orchestra.

The man is amazing.

Here's a little preview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDmQlAN3I9g

Closing Time

Gary on Hornby Island has submitted this marvelous Leonard Cohen video for our enjoyment. The piece has been "embedding disabled" so all I can do is give you the URL:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVt6vhRAu3k

It's a beaut.

Thanks, Gary.

Petition

Petition to Members of Parliament



The Liberals and NDP seem poised to form an alternative
government by joining forces in a coalition -- supported by the
separatist Bloc Quebecois. This unholy alliance is saying they simply
want to spend more money to stimulate the economy, but when asked for
details, they don't have an answer. Apparently they're prepared to take
the "ready, shoot, aim" approach to spending and sign blank cheques to
bail out industries in financial trouble without even knowing what will
actually help specific industries, without knowing what Barak Obama has
planned, and without working in concert with the other G-20 countries.
It's a recipe for a fiscal disaster.


More importantly, it's a democratic disaster. During the
campaign, Liberal leader Stephane Dion said he would not and could not
have a coalition with the NDP, because their policies would destroy the
economy. Apparently that principled position has now gone out the
window. Now we have the prospect of the Liberals (with 77 seats)
joining with the NDP (with 37 seats) to unseat the democratically
elected Conservatives (with 143 seats). Of course, the only way to do
that would be with the support of the separatist Bloc Quebecois, who
bring their votes to the table in exchange for their separatist agenda.
The three left-leaning parties in Parliament are willing to risk it all
in order to gain power through the back door, power that was denied to
them in a general election.



An organization called Canadians for Democracy has put
together a petition urging Members of Parliament not to change
governments without an election. Given the speed at which the
Liberal/NDP/ Bloc coalition is moving towards their goal of overthrowing
the duly elected Government of Canada without an election, the petition
should probably be addressed to the Governor General. But the coalition
is moving very quickly and I urge anyone who would oppose the potential
coalition to sign this petition:




The Petition


PETITION TO THE MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT OF CANADA:

WE, THE UNDERSIGNED RESIDENTS OF CANADA, draw the
attention of the House to the following:

THAT in the recent federal election concluded October
14th, 2008 Canadian voters provided the Conservative Party with a clear
and strengthened mandate to lead Canada through the current global
economic crisis.

THAT the opposition are looking to impose an unstable,
unelected Liberal-NDP-separatist coalition that during said election
they promised they would not entertain, with the Liberal leader
expressly rejecting such a move as being bad for the economy.

THAT Canadians have the democratic right to choose who
will govern them and not have a surprise Prime Minister chosen through
an unseemly and undemocratic backroom deal.

THEREFORE your petitioners call upon Members of
Parliament to oppose any political arrangement that would replace Her
Majesty's democratically elected government without first consulting
Canadians in an open and democratic election.



Sign the petition at: http://www.canadians4democracy.ca/
. It takes only a couple of minutes
and may help to save Canadian democracy.








--
Sincerely yours,

BAKER & BAKER

JONATHAN BAKER
www.bakerbaker.ca
jbaker@bakerbaker.ca

Science Update

Thanks to Chris Tibbs and our regular commentator, MURDOCK, for this ditty. Perhaps it will bring a smile to your face.

Governmentium: A New Metal?

Lawrence Livermore Laboratories has discovered the heaviest element yet known to science.
The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neutron, 25 ssistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded byvast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.

Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected, because it
impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, to take
from 4 days to 4 years to complete.

Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2- 6 years. It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places.

In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time,
since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.

This characteristic of morons’ promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration.

This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass. When catalyzed with money,
Governmentium becomes Administratium, an element that radiates just as much energy
as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.

Gordon's Party is More Fun Each Day

The Olympic Games are truly here.

Aside from the Who Can Throw the Most Cow Pies the Farthest at the Olympic Village contest, there are now two new events:

Suing the Cops at Sea and Hiring your Best Francophone Friends.

In the first instance, the RCMP have cancelled their deal with the Love Boat people to house 5000 security staff on ships. The cruise company is suing.

In the second instance, Canada's Commissioner of Official Languages (God save us!) has demanded of VANOC that it hire more bi-sexual ...oh, sorry...bi-lingual folk for La Grande Sport.

Only in Canada, you say? Pity

Schreiber Lives On

The Airbus/Mulroney/Schreiber file is alive and well.

It is chronicled it great dripping detail in this morning's Globe.

Read it and cackle.

The foto, right, is of Fred Doucet, Mulroney's long time friend and Chief of Staff, who after claimng he knew nothing about airplanes, will now have to explain all the letters and documents to and from him to the contrary.

Flying Low

Air Canada has locked itself into a financial hell.

This summer, Canada's favorite airline entered a fuel hedging arrangement that saw it agree to prices into the known future.

Now that crude has dropped 68%, and the rest of us are enjoying some momentary relief at the pumps, AC is still shelling out the big bucks and will continue to do so for some time.

Brilliant! More! More!

TV ALERT

The Dope will "address the nation" sometime tonight.

Could be better than a Seinfeld re-run.

Nah...

Getting Benath the Skin in Mumbai

Fabulous piece in this morning's NY Times called, "What They Hate About Mumbai."

After all that has been written in the aftermath of the attacks, this was the first article that gave me any real sense of the city.

Odetta, Voice of Civil Rights Movement, Dies at 77

Oh, how we loved her.

How we adored her.

All you had to do was say her name. "Odetta."

The name, like Pete Seeger, said "authenticity."

Read the NY Times piece here.

That was a time, a mighty time.

Here she sings Water Boy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSDeROnTq64

Whose Funeral?

Court bans Prime Minister from politics for five years

Oooops...

That's from Thailand, not Ottawa.

Too bad.

Have you ever seen such an unholy mess?

Stephen Harper has committed one of the greatest public toe-stubbings in Canadian history. What a klotz.

And the idea that Stephane Dion could be interim Prime Minister for even a nano-second threatens the nation with mass cardio problems.

The Liberal Party has no money. It just a few weeks ago won the lowest share of popular votes in history and Dion has been the least popular leader of all time.

Yet thanks to Harper's Hubris and colossal misreading of every pulse in the land, that troika of red-nosed clowns may be (mis)leading the country for some time to come.

And none of this addresses the airline industry (Air Canada is bleeding.), health, education, crumbling roads, highways sewers and other infrastructures, forests and tourism just for starters.

None of this addresses anything other than the Shakespearean ambitions of tiny little men with tiny little weenies.

So much of their energies are taken up now and will be taken up well into the future with these selfish intrigues that they cannot possibly focus serious attention of the problems ahead.

And the problems are huge and complex.

The TSX dropped more than 800 points yesterday. What visits America follows swiftly north, the incubation period usually being about three months.

The house is burning and these irresponsible children are arm-wrestling to see who gets the last chocolate bar.

Holding on to History

Justine Hunter is the daughter of Greenpeace Founder, novelist, essayist and TV reporter, the late Bob Hunter.

She has been writing from Victoria and Vancouver Island for years, including her current assignments with the Globe & Mail.

Her lead story this morning on the problems of a Port Hardy native reserve is very powerful in its simplicity and its horror.

One woman has 19 grandchildren in government care. Most of this woman's children are addicts. 27 people living in a single family house. Most houses carrying deadly moulds.

Last week, Mark Milke wrote a piece describing the simple fact that First Nations people who live off the reserve make on average 40% more income.

I look forward to the day when reservations are a thing of the past, when First Nations people join in the rest of the circus with Germans, Jews, Irish, Latvians et al and continue to honor their past. I am sure it is the height of political incorrectness to say that the very idea of reserves is offensive and that the living proof of their ineffectiveness should be enough for more and more natives to consider abandoning them.

Granville Street Redux

Hi David,

Here we go again. They are doing yet another beautification project for
Granville Street. I was the project coordinator for the one done in
1974. Council was anxious to complete the project quickly so as to
minimize disruption to merchants. I wrote the report to City Council
which concluded with the following ditty:

The problem concerning the Mall
Is whether to start it this fall,
Or study and wonder
And worry and ponder
And maybe not do it at all.
There are problems of course if we hurry,
That may give you some reason for worry,
The pavement may turn out mauve, purple and blue,
The trees may not transplant,
The merchants may sue,
But somehow I think we can all pull it through
And if not we'll find work in Surrey.

A few years before Granville Mall there was the Theatre Row
beautification project done by the firm of Hoppings Kovacs and Grinnel
in 1967. It added cute street lamps and red sidewalks.

There is nothing wrong with fixing up streets, paving them and planting
trees. That is what City Hall is supposed to do. The City Hall staff
report however is something else. There are no poems. It purports to
give a history of street renovations and gets the facts and dates all
wrong. It speaks of returning the street to a "Great White Way" even
though it no longer is a theatre row. (This will be accomplished with
white light columns redolent of Albert Speers at his best.) It suggests
that it is going to return it to the good old days. However, I recall
very clearly (and have a copy of the Sun somewhere) that in 1972 the
Headline was, " Street People Sink Granville ins Shame!"

The ultimate conceit is this: Planners still imagine that by beautifying
the street they are going to solve the same problem that existed in the
late sixties and early seventies and in spite of successive waves of
beautification, never went away.

What really got to me however was that they cut down trees that were 35
years old. These beech trees were saplings when they were planted. Now
for a couple of blocks the street had at least that going for it. A week
before the new council took office they chopped 'em down. I will be 105
years old when the new ones are the same size as the ones they replaced.


Below is a copy of a letter to the editor I just sent to the Sun.

"There is good news and bad news.

The bad news is that most of the trees on Granville Street have been cut
down.

The good news is that the Engineer and the Planner have wonderful things
in store. According to a Report of May 22, 2008 buried in the City’s web
page, the trees had to be removed to make Granville a “Great Street.”
They are doing this to “elevate community pride” and create a “sense of
place.” Better yet, they tell us that they are going to make it a super
duper “Great White Way”.

Yes, and they are going to plant even better trees. While the seedlings
grow we will all have an uninterrupted view of the glorious facades of
Granville Street.

If tree removal works as well as they expect maybe they’ll try it on
Clayoquot sound."



JONATHAN BAKER

House Cleaning - We are Bonded

Yesterday's posting (We are Sinking) might also have been been called Political Leadership is an Endangered Species.

This morning I am not sure I have ever seen such gutter level behaviour from the elected shamans in Ottawa.

They are all, each and every one of them, sorry excuses for citizens, let alone national leaders.

Harper, in actions revealing all the worst that people have feared and predicted of him, made sweeping announcements only a few days ago that showed absolutely no interest in the nation. End the government dole for election financing and close down the right of civil servants to strike. In a time calling for prudence and some wisdom and some sense of what Barbara Brandon and Carl Crofton might be experiencing, Harper pulled a Nixon - strangle your enemies and do it large and in public. Nice.

The Disarrayed who call themselves The Other Guys, not wishing to be outdone in the Department of Cheezy and Self-Serving have rushed into washrooms and other secret gathering places to plot The Great Take Over. Just what Canadians asked for, right? Stephane Dion and Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe in permanent party mode. That'll be an effective and fine kettle of fish, won't it now?

Could the Four Fools disgrace themselves any more? Could they abandon the Canadian public any further?

Let's put it on the table here.

Duceppe has never been on my radar, not for a second. I cannot take seriously a party or a man who believe that they are in a separate country, except for when the purse need be opened. To me, the Bloc is like a petulant teen-age daughter who hates everything you do, except I need another Lexus and iPod, Dad.

Layton is a pleasant enough fellow, but he has overstayed his welcome. No Ed Broadbent. No chance of revitalizing the NDP.

Dion could never be taken seriously. Who is this guy?

Which leaves Harper. I have steered largely out of the Demonizing Harper camp because until now I have seen him as a not very interesting human being, who nevertheless was doing a reasonable enough job of managing the files. I have been listening to the He's Really Evil, You Know bleating for several years now and I have smiled patiently.

Now, suspension of mistrust and judgement has been put side.

Harper is the tiniest of political minds, a tinpot, partisan, taking-everything-personally oligarch of the worst kind.

We need a House Cleaning.