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An ongoing theme in my life has been ridding myself of as many shoulds as I possibly can - or, to put it more positively, to spend my time doing what I want, rather than what some voice inside my head or some external pressure tells me I ought to. We all have obligations. Work, family, exercise - there are always things we don't really want to do, but must do anyway. Then there are the obligations we give ourselves, the shoulds we add to our own too-full plates. Those are the ones I've been shedding. Lunches with co-workers that I really don't like. Extended email conversations that I don't have time for. I used to see blockbuster movies that I had no interest in, because, for some strange reason, I thought I had to. And certain books. Like so many people who love to read, I never have enough time to read what I want. So why read anyone else's idea of what I should read? Whether they're the current hip books that people are talking about, or classics we think

I can't believe how much I'm loving having access to US Netflix through our Roku device. For the price of a new router and some easy-to-follow instructions , my leisure time has been hugely improved. This is close to what I've always wanted for TV and movies: true on-demand viewing. Among the things I love: not paying for hundreds of cable channels that I never watch, not searching in vain for anything I might consider watching, being able to sample one or two shows of a series at no cost or inconvenience, watching on a TV (not a computer), convenience, selection. I can easily see this becoming the standard delivery method for all home viewing. Outside the US, after the initial investment in Roku (which we bought for baseball), plus a new router, this costs $16 per month: $8 for Netflix and $8 for the VPN. At the moment I am gorging on "Commander in Chief," Stephen Bochco's imagining of the first female POTUS, starring Geena Davis and Donald Sutherland. I sa

As you may have heard, the ship The Estelle , sailing in international waters, was illegally boarded by the Israeli navy, and its occupants taken into custody. Among those being held are Jim Manley, a Canadian, and a former New Democrat MP. The Estelle is part of the Freedom Flotilla movement, which seeks to draw attention to the illegal blockade of Gaza, to stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine, and to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza. The 30 activists on board The Estelle hailed from Israel, the US, Canada, Israel, Norway, and Sweden. In a story about the incident, the Calgary Herald describes Gaza as " the seaside strip ruled by the Islamic militant Hamas group ". This "seaside strip" is home to 1.7 million people, and Hamas is recognized by those people as their legitimate government. Of course, Hamas is an officially designated terrorist organization as defined by the US, Israel, and the EU, and since Canada takes its marching orders from the US, by

We visited family in the US this past week, and because of this, ended up hearing more about the election in two days than either of us have read, seen, or thought about in months, if not years. Which is not to say people talked non-stop about the election, only that both Allan and I completely tune out that circus masquerading as a democracy. (Apologies to circuses everywhere.) I heard something over dinner one night that stuck in my mind. My sister noted that most voters care foremost about one thing: job creation. She said, "All they talk about is taxes, taxes, taxes, when they should be talking about jobs, jobs, jobs." She remarked how nothing is made in the US anymore, noting, "We don't even answer the phone." And she wondered how anyone even could go about creating jobs, a task that seems nearly impossible at this point. This got me thinking... Bleeding jobs for decades The mainstream media discovered the exodus of North American jobs fairly recently, abo

Eponyms everywhere! Who knew? Our most recent list of eponyms was a smash success. It gave rise to at least three subcategories, as I wrote here : - Inventor/creator/discoverer, not genericized. These are eponyms, but have not entered the vocabulary as a separate noun or descriptor. Example: Alzheimer's. Compare to pasteurized. - Fictional characters --- Mythological names ----- Biblical names This list is more specific, and more difficult. Allan and I have done this one before, and even with help from a well-read listserv, came up with only a handful. (Idea for new reality show: Are you smarter than Wallace-L?) When Joseph Heller died, I marveled at how his creation has entered our vocabulary as such a widely recognized generic expression. The often-misused phrase "catch-22" was long ago separated from its origins. I'm sure many people use it who have never heard of Heller's book. I wondered if there were any other examples. Using a very strict criteria, we came

I really enjoy learning about the origins of words and expressions. (I included this in our last list .) Several words now part of ordinary vocabulary started out as proper names. In 1880, a group of Irish tenant farmers organized a labour ostracism against the agent of an abusive absentee landlord. The agent's name was Charles Boycott. Charles Ponzi was a con artist who promised investors they would double their money in 90 days. In the film "La Dolce Vita," directed by Federico Fellini, an intrusive photographer is named Paparazzo. Thomas Bowdler was a crusading editor who published a book called "The Family Shakespeare": the Bard without the naughty bits. Bowdler believed his work made Shakespeare suitable for the delicate sensibilities of ladies (i.e., upper-class women) and children. So there we have four words - boycott, Ponzi scheme, paparazzi, and bowdlerized - that are derived from people's names. Can you think of any others? Adjectives like "O

Walmart workers have been trying to reason with their employer and get better working conditions for many, many years. Walmart doesn't ignore their pleas and demands: it punishes them. Retaliation against workers who stand up for better conditions, although illegal, is commonplace. Workers who have joined OUR Walmart - Organization United for Respect at Walmart - aren't asking for some cushy new deal. They just want the basics: things like advanced scheduling, full-time work for people who want it, a living wage, and an end to forced unpaid labour. (Yes, it's pre-1865 in the Republic of Walmart). But when they ask, they are punished. OUR Walmart has had enough. They've issued an ultimatum. Walmart must stop retaliating against workers who speak out for better conditions, or on the day after U.S. Thanksgiving - what many people (although not me) call "Black Friday" - they will walk. From Salon: One day after Walmart employees in twelve states launched a major

I hardly noticed the transition from Baseball Season to Movie Season this year. With the Red Sox having their worst season almost 50 years (1965), my tolerance for the nightly loss ran out some time in July. By August it wasn't unusual for Allan to keep the game on his computer while we played Angry Birds. (We finished the whole game, then went back to the beginning to get three stars on every level. Gotta have those golden eggs.) Plus, one of the really nice pieces of dumping cable in favour of streaming has been having Netflix all year. Zip was $30/month, and I didn't want to pay that on top of all our baseball-access expense, just for off-days and rain-outs. But at $8/month, Netflix all year is no problem. So while the Red Sox were still playing, we... - finished Sherlock - can't wait for Season 3! - finished Justified - can't wait for Season 4! - watched The Big C - really enjoyed Season 1 but it seems to be falling off in Season 2, although I'll try a couple mo

Last Thursday, October 3, was a historic date for working people. For the first time in the 50-year history of Walmart, Walmart workers are on strike. Walmart is the largest private employer on the planet, with more than 2.2 million employees worldwide. Approximately one out of every 100 employed USians works at Walmart. And the company offers those employees some of the worst working conditions in North America. Walmart workers in Southern California were the first to walk out, forming picket lines last week. A few days later, they were joined by workers in Dallas, Texas, and Laurel, Maryland. The strike has now spread to 12 cities in nine states. Some are one-day job actions, some are information pickets, some are full-blown walkouts. These actions are vitally important for all working people. Please sign this statement of support for striking Walmart workers (the form is US-only, but it will accept a Canadian address), and learn about more ways you can support them . The organized

Something for all your needs, plus excellent alliteration. Down the road in Mohawk territory, in the North Country region of New York State, we saw this: Many generations of Mohawks have been ironworkers. Many of the great New York City skyscrapers were built by Mohawk labour. We didn't have a camera with us; these were just taken on my phone, the better-than-nothing emergency camera. Which made us think, with two cameras at home, why don't we always take one along, as a matter of course? A portion of the drive to Vermont is very scenic. Once you get off the 401 and cross into the US, it's rural routes through farmland and lakeside villages all the way to Burlington. Lots of autumn colours, lots of cows, horses, small main streets with the occasional stone church. Some of it is picture-book autumn in rural New England, and some of it is sad and run-down. At its best, it looks kind of like this (not my photo). On the other hand, it's also eight hours of driving, and we&#

We are in Burlington, Vermont, for a wedding. We drove here on Friday, a nice drive mostly through blue skies and autumn colours. On Saturday, we found a public library so I could do some school work. Saturday night was the wedding. The ceremony was held on a patio overlooking Lake Champlain, with a dramatic sky and setting sun as a backdrop. The wedding was fun. It was good to see some of our family (Allan's side) who we like, and do the general wedding celebration stuff. Today we hung out with our good friend Ray and took a nice walk on a waterfront trail. Now we're in a motel room watching baseball. So that's what we've done. And now a few words about Burlington, Vermont. There's not much here. It's a pretty little college town, home to the University of Vermont and some smaller schools. You always hear what a nice place this is. And it's not a bad place, it's not not-nice, but... there's just not much here. The big attraction is the Church Street

You may recall that we switched our internet provider from Rogers to TekSavvy in order to get more bandwidth, then dumped Rogers altogether by switching from cable to streaming. We bought a Roku streaming device. And I fell in love with it. No more paying for dozens of channels that we'll never watch. On-demand viewing without DVR'ing. And no more cable bill! We even upgraded one Roku to the model that has a USB port and a media server, so we can watch our own media directly on our TV. Awesome. There was only one piece missing. If you use a streaming device, and you don't live in the US, your options are very limited. For us, there's Major League Baseball, Netflix Canada, and... that's it. There is a pathetic Netflix wannabe called Crackle, and Roku hosts a zillion little homemade niche channels, but nothing that would cause you to dump cable TV. Netflix Canada has improved a lot, but it's still very limited compared with US Netflix. You also can't get Amazo

This Saturday, October 6, is an International Day of Action: Don't Attack Iran . People will be standing up for peace all across Canada. Some event listings are below, and a search on Facebook may turn up a few more. From the Canadian Peace Alliance : Almost ten years after the start of the Iraq War, we face the threat of another war. This time the target is Iran. And the process that led to war nearly a decade ago is strikingly similar to the situation today. It started with sanctions, which our government insisted were a “humanitarian” alternative to war but then lead to air strikes and invasion based on dubious claims about Weapons of Mass Destruction. At stake today is the possibility of another disastrous war in the Middle East. Over 1.5 million Iraqis died because of sanctions, and over a million more have been killed since the war began in 2003. We must not be fooled into war with Iran, especially by arguments that have long since been discredited. The Harper Government has

Kimberly Rivera, the Iraq War veteran and war resister who was forced out of Canada by the Harper government, is being held in at her former base in Fort Carson, Colorado. Supporters wishing to write to Kimberly Rivera can send cards and letters to this address: Kimberly Rivera c/o All Souls U. U. Church 730 North Tejon Street Colorado Springs, CO 80903 USA Supporters at the church will bring Kim her mail in batches. This will draw less attention to her on the base, and might circumvent some censorship. However, please be aware of her situation and refrain from messages that could be used against her. Please send messages of love and support, not anger, and nothing incendiary! Kim has not been charged yet, and at present is free to roam around the base, although not free to leave. Supporters in the area are giving her the use of a bicycle, so she can get around more easily. Kim has some limited access to internet at the base library, and the use of a cell phone, so she can call and tex

Some of us found it more than a little strange to learn that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been named World Statesman of the Year by the Appeal of Conscience Foundation. Perhaps this is to expected in a world where Barack Obama - now Commander in Chief of a military presence in more than 150 countries , waging no less than 75 "special ops" wars - is given the Nobel Peace Prize. Even Resident Bush managed to hold the number of secret wars to 67. Fear not, Canada. We will not be outdone. " A coalition of international and community groups " announced that Harper has won the first ever Richard Nixon Prize. The selection committee applauds the Prime Minister's "principled, forthright and steadfast international policies in the interests of the rich and powerful" . Because the Prime Minister will be in New York to receive another award, this one will be presented using the "empty chair" technique recently used by Clint Eastwood. The prize w

One of the wonderful things about no longer working for Evil Corporate Law Firm - and there are so many! - is no longer contributing to a firm that represents some of skeeviest organizations in the world, including the Conservative Party of Canada. I've worked for many a skeevy law firm, because writing and activism doesn't pay the bills, and a decent salary lets me do good in the world. If I were a lawyer, I hope there'd be a different equation, but as support staff, well, we don't blame fruit pickers for pesticide use. Like most corporations these days, ECLF proudly displays its green initiatives and offers incentives to get employees involved. A big favourite is one of those "green commute challenge" week, where employees can earn prizes by biking, walking, or taking public transit to work, instead of driving. Nothing wrong with that, right? Nothing, except that while ECLF is cheerleading for a green commute, it reaps its profits by representing organizatio