Head Tale

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!)

¶ Posted 14 June 2021 § Internet § MusicMonday § PopCulture § Sports ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: hockey, language, sports

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.

An addiction model may actually explain tribalism, confirmation bias, and even conspiracy theories/Qanon. Let’s unpack….

Several years ago I started observing the parallels between addiction and political tribalism as marriages/friendships/families imploded over politics….1/ https://t.co/jCNGeN42l2

— Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych (@Nick_Carmody) June 13, 2021

¶ Posted 13 June 2021 § Internet § Meme § News § Politics § PopCulture § United States § Wisdom ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: atheism, Covid, education, language, science

Saturday Snap – Witch In-Law is Witch?

My in-laws having some fun at our campsite…

¶ Posted 12 June 2021 § Family § Humour § Photo § SaturdaySnap ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: camping

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”!) 🙂

¶ Posted 11 June 2021 § Censorship § FridayFunLink § Humour § Internet § Library § LibrarySchool § PopCulture § Technology § Wisdom § Work ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: economics, education, language

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! 😉

¶ Posted 10 June 2021 § Baby § Family § MemoryLane § Pace § ThrowbackThursday ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: Covid, education

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! 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yh89aftLtw

¶ Posted 09 June 2021 § MemoryLane § News § Saskatchewan § Sports § Video ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: hockey

107 Year Old Irish Farmer Reflects on Changes He’s Seen (1967 Interview)

The single best presentation I did in library school was on the evolution of streaming video online and how it’s biggest benefit was how online video eliminates constraints of both time and distance that all previous dominant mass communications mediums – radio, television – suffered from.

Like most 70s kids, I was pretty obsessed with TV. Then, in the 90s, I even ended up with a job selling cable TV subscriptions door-to-door. This was around the time I discovered the Internet too and I still remember obsessively downloading short, grainy clips of hockey highlights and music videos and Simpsons scenes, even before YouTube existed.

I don’t regret much about how my life is gone but admit I often wonder how my life might’ve been different if I’d pursued this area of interest more actively – instead of being a librarian, I might be working for a traditional or new media company.

At any rate, I’m still interested in developments in streaming media but every time I come across a clip like this one, I still think of that original library school presentation I did *fifteen* years ago.

¶ Posted 08 June 2021 § Internet § Jobs § Library § LibrarySchool § MemoryLane § News § Technology § UK § Video ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: education, history, language

Music Monday – “Let’s get friendship right/Get life day to day/In the forget yer skates dream/Full of countervailing woes”

“It’s A Good Life (If You Don’t Weaken)” – The Tragically Hip with Feist

¶ Posted 07 June 2021 § Canada § MemoryLane § MusicMonday § News § PopCulture § Video ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: language, music, television

Secular Sunday – Residential Schools: A Timeline

*Literally* the first words of this timeline discuss the central role of various churches in the creation of schools that took Indigenous children from their parents, communities and culture.

For more than two hundred years [from 1600-1800], religious orders run mission schools for Indigenous children, the precursors to the Government of Canada’s residential school system.