Month: August 2012

I snapped this photo in the Bulk Barn aisles today. I may be retired from the business but I still admire original work.
The mosaic take-off on Munch’s Scream is made entirely of nuts and certainly draws attention to the section it identifies. Fun, too.

This makes my own semi-legible scrawl look reasonably skilled.

At the library today, I spotted one of the reasons that paper books are in trouble. The iPad book is about 5 times as thick as an iPad. It’s probably already out of date and ready for the recycle bin.

Here are some of the headlines:
Something went wrong in the TWA crash, expert says.
Police begin campaign to run down jaywalkers.
Safety experts say that school bus passengers should be belted.
Drunk gets nine months in violin case.
Stud tires out.
Farmer Bill dies in House.
Iraqi head seeks arms
Four firemen unhurt as oven fails to explode.
Prostitutes appeal to Pope.
Panda mating fails, veterinarian takes over.
Haven’t had enough yet?

No, not everyone was a racist back in 1885 when Sir John A. told the House of Commons that, if the Chinese were not excluded from Canada,

“the Aryan character of the future of British America should be destroyed …”

This report in the Ottawa Citizen says, “Lest it be thought that Macdonald was merely expressing the prejudices of the age, it should be noted that his were among the most extreme views of his era. He was the only politician in the parliamentary debates to refer to Canada as “Aryan” and to justify legalized racism on the basis not of alleged cultural practices but on the grounds that “Chinese” and “Aryans” were separate species.”
So the “A” might be for “Aryan”, not the A-word I first thought of.

I went through a stage when I nearly hurt myself laughing, reading the adventures of Bertie Wooster and his trusty butler Jeeves. The P.G. Wodehouse sense of humour has given me a lot of enjoyment, so it was a pleasure to make a logo for the local Wodehouse literary club.
The Pale Parabolites (name drawn from a Wodehouse line about the “pale parabola of joy”) will meet at (appropriately) irregular times, for lunches at Massey College.
On such occasions, they will soon sport lapel pins designed by yours truly. They will extend their identity with stationery of a similar look.

My sister Joni (who is a talented musician herself, in my completely biased opinion) was thrilled to attend a Bruce Cockburn performance in Nelson B.C. She says:

The guitar work Bruce does is all over the neck.
What inspiration! The beat he makes with his right thumb is crazy.
The traverse picking is so fast. What a talent!
He played lots and was so humble and funny and wise.
I really liked him and was so excited to say to him how much I like his work.
What an honour! What a nice surprise!

It was a surprise, because Joni had gone to Nelson to help a friend and didn’t even know that Bruce was playing, let alone that she’d be listening from a fourth row seat. Nice photo, eh?

Someone has already had fun with the new sign on the condo-to-be sales office at Woodbine and Gerrard. The message on the adjacent corner suggests that the culprit was not Blair the Crack Dealer.

I find the whole thing unfortunate. Not only has the extra bold/extra thin BEACHHILL lettering thing been done to death, the kerning is far too wide for my tastes. And why all caps? When you run “Beach” and “Hill” together like that, especially in all capital letters, you get that silly looking double H in the middle. Surely there should be a space between the words. Much nicer in upper and lower case, too. Beach Hill. See?

Can’t blame this one on Rob Ford. The contact was signed in the Mayor Miller era and we are stuck with poorly conceived public “furniture” for decades to come.
This roadside advertising frame masquerades as a bus shelter but affords no shade and no windbreak from the sides. The black strip is apparently intended to be a public message board but you can see how it is actually used. I hope you can’t see the small, cowardly racial slur that’s there. If I thought you could read it, I would have blanked it out.
“He who pays the piper, calls the tune”, goes the old saying. Clearly, the advertising company placing these poster holders didn’t have bus riders as a main concern, but the City could have done a lot more to gain useful street furniture for the public. Nope. You get what you pay for. These cost nothing and that’s about what they are worth.

I thought “Won’t Be Beat” was a competitive price slogan. Today, it seemed to mean “Won’t Be Beat By Shoplifters”.
A policy of searching customers’ bags, knapsacks and strollers is being implemented by a security guard. “No Thrills” customers are not the sort of people who take such searches quietly. They yell. They return all of their purchases and demand their money back. They resent the suspicion that they are thieves and they let it be known.
I don’t know if the store’s many CCTV cameras are new or more plentiful, but I’m pretty sure the inkjet-printed notice of the store’s “right to search” wasn’t there last time I visited. Grocery costs are climbing and so is pilfering apparently. Belittling your customers isn’t just for airline and record companies anymore. Of course, it’s “all for our own good”, as the checkout girl explained.
Good or not, it’s a lively show at the old No Thrills.