Friday Fun Link – The Covid-19 Vaccine Explained

 

Throwback Thursday – #tbt – “Trump Trips Up” (~May 1991?)

I was going through some old papers in a box under the stairs recently and came across a folder of articles I’d clipped and saved, long before most articles from popular magazines were available online from databases or from the magazine’s own web site like they are today.

Had to chuckle for a couple reasons:

* first, that in 1991, there was something in an article about Donald Trump “tripping up” that caught my attention so much, I decided to save it.  (I was looking for something else so snapped this picture but didn’t bother to re-read the article…hmm, I should do that.)

* also funny that this desire to archive and preserve articles (even creating my own very basic index) was so strong in me that it was perhaps no surprise I would end up becoming a librarian.

* …and of course, it goes without saying, I was a uniquely nerdy kid as I suspect this was probably not typical behaviour among my peer group, even among the other nerds! I guess I could reach out to ask how they catalogued their D&D manuals to be sure though! 😉

Why Bo Burnham’s “Inside” Is So Good

Maybe because, like “Nanette” by Hannah Gadsby, it totally deconstructs what a “comedy” special is?

Or maybe because it’s one of only a handful of truly reflective, unique artworks created during Covid that capture what this past year has been like?

Or maybe because I’m pretty sure he does this by not mentioning Covid once during the entire show?

Or maybe because, if he truly shot this all himself, that’s an unbelievable achievement in terms of the lighting, sound, composition and even “set design” for lack of a better term?

Or maybe because it is a prescient commentary on Internet culture which has only grown more central (and insidious) to our lives during the pandemic?

Or maybe because it shows enormous artistic and personal growth from his controversial beginnings?

Or maybe I just like it because I’m a straight white man?

 

Wouldn’t It Be Funny If Anti-Vaxxers Were Just People Who Are *Really* Scared of Needles?

 

Music Monday – “Whereas some of us weren’t always fair/To the Native kid on borrowed skates/Chippy Goolies and Ukrainians/In the corners with our elbows up”

Goolie was originally a derogatory term referring to people of Icelandic descent who settled in Manitoba. The derivation of the word remains a mystery. The most plausible origin I encountered while researching When Falcons Fly was that the first Icelandic settlers had thick Norse accents and pronounced the word “goalie” as “goolie.” Interestingly, the word is specific to Manitoba and is unknown in other areas of Canada, Iceland, or parts of the U.S. such as Salt Lake City with large Icelandic populations. Today, the word has lost its insulting meaning and is considered a term of endearment for Manitobans of Icelandic descent. (source)

https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/rivertonrifle” – John K. Sampson

(I was today days old when I realised this song title was also the URL of an actual petition that you can sign!)

Secular Sunday – An Addiction Model May Explain A Lot of Our Current Societal Issues (That Don’t Normally Seem Like Addiction Issues)

This is a fascinating thread which encompasses a lot of interesting ideas – tribalism, how people get sucked further into wilder conspiracy theories, and even whether QAnon is showing signs of moving from a fringe political theory into a full-fledged religion.

it’s conceivable to conceptualize political tribalism (& perhaps even cultism), through an addiction model where there’s a cocaine-like hit on the front end that pulls them in… ….and an opioid-like withdrawal that prevents them from pushing away.

Saturday Snap – Witch In-Law is Witch?

My in-laws having some fun at our campsite…

Friday Fun Link – Fair Dealing Decision Tool (Maybe?)

Somebody sent this tool around at work so I thought I’d post it here (though if you know how I feel about copyright, you’ll know that I’m also not the best person to ask about whether something falls under copyright or not as I have a *very* generous understanding of what constitutes “fair dealing”!) 🙂

Throwback Thursday – #tbt – Grade Eight Graduation (May 2007)

This little baby is about to graduate Grade Eight in a couple weeks!  (And my mask is very fashionable – who knew that fourteen years later, I’d be wearing one every day!) 😉

And yes, the rotating seasonal display in the alcove at the entrance to our house has become a temporary shrine to the grad! 😉

Legends of Hockey: The New York Islanders

When I started following hockey as a young kid around the age seven or eight, the Islanders were the best team in the league. (Interestingly, I clearly remember friends who cheered for Boston, Toronto, Montreal, Chicago, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Philadephia but no one else seemed to have latched on to the Islanders which is another reason I liked them as they were “my” team.)

Their amazing dynasty won four Stanley Cups in a row from 1980-1983 and featured one of the most competitive, money goalies of all-time in Billy Smith, one of the best pure goal scorers of all-time in Mike Bossy, not one but two outstanding Saskatchewan players in Bryan Trottier (one of the most well-rounded players in the game at the time) and Clark Gillies (who was one of the toughest players in the league but still had top line level skills), one of the greatest defensemen of all-time in Denis Potvin and a strong supporting cast of role players from Bob Nystrom to John Tonelli to Butch Goring to Ken Morrow and more, all under the guidance of one of the game’s great coaches, Al Arbour.

In comparison to their glory years, the Islanders went through one of the worst stretches in professional hockey through most of the 90s where they were simply awful and missed the playoffs completely in 1990, 1991 and then consecutively from 1994 to 2000– in essence they were not a playoff quality team for most of the 1990s.

Between that terrible stretch plus the fact that we moved to Calgary in 2001, I became a Flames fan.  But the Isles always had a spot in my heart and are still who I consider my second favourite team though I don’t follow them nearly as closely as I used to.

So, especially with the Flames not even making the playoffs this year, it was great to see the Islanders beat Boston tonight to advance to the Final Four of this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs.  Who knows?  Maybe they’ll win the Cup and make me feel like a kid again! 🙂