Dear Editor
I cannot decide which environmental story this week is most insane. 1. A Swedish university has received $590,000 to measure the greenhouse gases released when cows belch(95 percent of the methane comes out this end of the cow). 2. Ontario wants to end clothesline ban by summer(dryers use about 900 kilowatt hours of electricity a year on average). 3. Farmers do not wish to grow biofuel (food comes from farmers not from Safeway). 4.Global warming denier (liar?) Tim Ball is coming to Stavely (to prove 99 per cent of the world's scientists are all wet). When the earth has been subdued by our collective stupidity, perhaps a cow will belch our epitaph, I told you so.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Monday, January 7, 2008
SICK IN AMERICA
JAN 2008
We spent Christmas past with Linda's family in NE USA. At Chicago airport people lined up to buy flu shots that we got free at home. Linda's parents met us in New Hampshire and drove us to their retirement complex. Sticking out of 3 foot snow banks were election signs and I wondered if Dennis Kucinich was running as strongly here as indicated in the daily emails his campaign sent me. That night after I ate some bad clam chowder, I felt hot and turned beet red from head down to my belly (never looked below that. Reminder of bee sting reactions when we had hives in our trees. Linda and her dad took me to the hospital emergency where, after an hour of some young women trying to get my billing information (not my credit card as Sicko led me to expect) I saw a doctor. He decided it was something ON my seafood. Next day we 4 drove to SW Massachusetts where Linda's brother, Kenny and partner Peter have a country home. (They work and live in NYC) This place dates back to Dutch Indian trading times and the underground railway. They feel poor because they can't afford to put in a swimming pool. We celebrated Linda's Dad's 80th birthday and presented him with a book of his life, nicely compiled by Linda's sister Pat. Over Christmas we ate turkey, ham and roast beef (no sea food) plus Linda's mother's great cheesecake. We donated to Oxfam as presents and received some books and things as presents. We played lots of games led my Linda's nephew Jamie (8), a very talented singer piano player and a demanding drama teacher who did not like me in his class. Then we drove in convoy to New Hampshire behind Pat and her partner, Diane. Back in Concord I planned to visit Kucinich's office but did not find it. (Where art thou Dennis?) Pat and Diane gave us a ride to Boston airport where they caught a flight to California. Linda and I spent 2 days in Boston checking Impressionist art (is there any other?) at Boston and Harvard museums. We also saw a film "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" about a family killing off each other. (Made me miss MY family). I recommend it for the Philip Seymor Hoffman (Capote) performance. We missed a sold out jazz concert and stayed in nights which was good for my emerging cold. (I only get sick when I travel). Linda's folks came to Boston and joined us for our last 2 days at an airport hotel overlooking Boston's harbor. (The $5 bottle on water in our room made the tap water seem tasty). We all subwayed into Boston on a Charlie pass (Kingston Trio had a song about this) to see the Isabel Stewart Gardener Museum. We tried to find ice sculptures but it was raining! We played euchre at the hotel and awaited the fireworks on Boston's First night. Quite a show. Next morning we flew late to snowy Toronto missing our Calgary flight and almost our alternative one. (Why do we travel at Xmas?) We were met in dry Calgary by Byron with our car. His wife, Ann, fed us supper before letting us drive back to Nanton and our animals not fed that day.
While settling into laundry and credit card bills we watch the US presidential debates as well as crisis in Pakistan and Kenya. (nobody asks an opinion of latter from Obama, the son of a Kenyan) I have not yet received a bill from the hospital but did get an email from Kucinich saying he was excluded from the N Hampshire debates. Shame Americans won't hear a distinctly different voice from the one person who voted against going to Iraq and who favours universal health care. (He'd be elected in Canada) I have started reading "The End of America" by Naomi Wolfe, the book Kenny gave me (wish I'd bought him Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine" when I saw it in the Harvard Bookstore.
We spent Christmas past with Linda's family in NE USA. At Chicago airport people lined up to buy flu shots that we got free at home. Linda's parents met us in New Hampshire and drove us to their retirement complex. Sticking out of 3 foot snow banks were election signs and I wondered if Dennis Kucinich was running as strongly here as indicated in the daily emails his campaign sent me. That night after I ate some bad clam chowder, I felt hot and turned beet red from head down to my belly (never looked below that. Reminder of bee sting reactions when we had hives in our trees. Linda and her dad took me to the hospital emergency where, after an hour of some young women trying to get my billing information (not my credit card as Sicko led me to expect) I saw a doctor. He decided it was something ON my seafood. Next day we 4 drove to SW Massachusetts where Linda's brother, Kenny and partner Peter have a country home. (They work and live in NYC) This place dates back to Dutch Indian trading times and the underground railway. They feel poor because they can't afford to put in a swimming pool. We celebrated Linda's Dad's 80th birthday and presented him with a book of his life, nicely compiled by Linda's sister Pat. Over Christmas we ate turkey, ham and roast beef (no sea food) plus Linda's mother's great cheesecake. We donated to Oxfam as presents and received some books and things as presents. We played lots of games led my Linda's nephew Jamie (8), a very talented singer piano player and a demanding drama teacher who did not like me in his class. Then we drove in convoy to New Hampshire behind Pat and her partner, Diane. Back in Concord I planned to visit Kucinich's office but did not find it. (Where art thou Dennis?) Pat and Diane gave us a ride to Boston airport where they caught a flight to California. Linda and I spent 2 days in Boston checking Impressionist art (is there any other?) at Boston and Harvard museums. We also saw a film "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" about a family killing off each other. (Made me miss MY family). I recommend it for the Philip Seymor Hoffman (Capote) performance. We missed a sold out jazz concert and stayed in nights which was good for my emerging cold. (I only get sick when I travel). Linda's folks came to Boston and joined us for our last 2 days at an airport hotel overlooking Boston's harbor. (The $5 bottle on water in our room made the tap water seem tasty). We all subwayed into Boston on a Charlie pass (Kingston Trio had a song about this) to see the Isabel Stewart Gardener Museum. We tried to find ice sculptures but it was raining! We played euchre at the hotel and awaited the fireworks on Boston's First night. Quite a show. Next morning we flew late to snowy Toronto missing our Calgary flight and almost our alternative one. (Why do we travel at Xmas?) We were met in dry Calgary by Byron with our car. His wife, Ann, fed us supper before letting us drive back to Nanton and our animals not fed that day.
While settling into laundry and credit card bills we watch the US presidential debates as well as crisis in Pakistan and Kenya. (nobody asks an opinion of latter from Obama, the son of a Kenyan) I have not yet received a bill from the hospital but did get an email from Kucinich saying he was excluded from the N Hampshire debates. Shame Americans won't hear a distinctly different voice from the one person who voted against going to Iraq and who favours universal health care. (He'd be elected in Canada) I have started reading "The End of America" by Naomi Wolfe, the book Kenny gave me (wish I'd bought him Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine" when I saw it in the Harvard Bookstore.
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