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An Antidote to COVID Boredom: Virtual Book Clubs As winter settles in on the North Island, and we continue social distancing to lessen the risks of contracting COVID-19, life can sometimes get a little monotonous. Boredom is bad for our mental health. Plus, it's boring! If reading is one of your pleasures, perhaps now is the time to try reading with a group – a book club. The Vancouver Island Regional Library (VIRL) is offering three virtual (online) book clubs with three different themes. Like all library programs, you can join in for free. All you need is a device and an internet connection. All the selections for these virtual book club titles will be available as eBooks and eAudiobooks with no waiting. " Our Shared Shelf " Book Club is focused on children's chapter books that the whole family can enjoy. November's title was Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu, an adventure story about a brave 11-year-old girl on a supernatural mission to save her best friend Jack from m

Homeschooling? Your Library Can Help One of the many ways COVID has changed our lives is an increased interest in homeschooling. Of course no parents want their children to be exposed to the virus. But many families face health challenges that make the possibility of exposure much more dangerous. Parents may have many reasons for preferring homeschooling, and the pandemic has brought them front of mind. If you're a homeschool family, you already know that the public library is an invaluable resource. But the Vancouver Island Regional Library (VIRL) can support your efforts in many ways that you might not be aware of. One of VIRL's most popular resources for homeschool families are our Tinker Totes . Tinker Totes help you bring STEAM learning to life in your own home. STEAM – which stands for Science Technology Engineering Arts Math – activities encourage creative thinking and build problem-solving skills. With STEAM learning, children learn through hands-on experience, rather t

New E-Resources – and New Hours at the Port Hardy Library The Vancouver Island Regional Library (VIRL) has added some terrific new e-resources to our catalogue. If you read this column, you've read a lot about e-resources. VIRL gives you access to digital tools that focus and it's all free. All you need is a library card. Our newest e-resource is Clicklaw . Clicklaw provides legal information and education, specifically for people in BC. The law affects our lives in countless ways, and Clicklaw can help you understand your rights and your options. It's kept updated with the most current laws, and can connect you to expert knowledge and advice. Some of the categories of information in Clicklaw are money (debt, pensions, benefits), families (divorce, abuse, wills), housing (landlords, tenants, neighbours), consumer (contractors, warranties, lending, credit), and employment (hiring and firing, harassment, benefits). These are just a few examples. Clicklaw is also a great resou

 Catching up on my "At Your Library" column in one of our free local newspapers. September Is Literacy Month When you hear the word "literacy", you might think of reading and writing. That is the traditional definition of literacy, but did you know there are many different kinds of literacy? Numerical literacy is the ability to do the basic math that is needed in every day life – to make change, add up a budget, or read a graph. Digital literacy means having basic computer skills, being able to use technology to access information, solve problems, and make your life easier. Contrary to what many people think, young people aren't necessarily digitally literate. Health literacy means being able to communicate with health-care providers, follow instructions for medications, find health information, for some examples. Financial Literacy means the ability to understand and manage your finances. Media Literacy means sorting through and understanding the messages we ge

Taming the Tiger , 1998 Taming the Tiger is markedly different than Joni's previous album, Turbulent Indigo . Where Turbulent Indigo is dark, intense, and enigmatic, and the lyrics largely topical, this one has a light, lyrical feel, the music shimmering and weightless, the lyrics more personal. Many critics regard it as Joni's best "latter day" album, perhaps because it's more accessible. I wouldn't go that far -- Turbulent Indigo and Night Ride Home are both better, in my view -- but Taming the Tiger is a solid album. To me, the name of the album and the title track are self-referential -- Joni, the fierce and dangerous tiger is now a domestic house cat. But in every cat there lurks some tiger; after all, this is "taming", a process, not past tense.  The title song's refrain see-saws us from the house cat to the tiger and back, using bits from the William Blake poem to a new purpose. Tiger tiger burning brightly (You can't tame the ti

Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor by Steven Greenhouse is exactly what the subtitle says: a history and analysis of the rise, decline, and re-emergence of the labour movement in the United States. Although the context is American, the lessons in the stories easily apply to Canada, and perhaps globally, to labour movements everywhere.  Greenhouse covered labour issues for The New York Times for more than 30 years. It's obvious that the research for Beaten Down, Worked Up was vast and meticulous, but the book is never bogged down by too much detail. The writing is clear and accessible. Greenhouse is unapologetically pro-labour, but not a cheerleader for unions.  I found the book easy to read and compelling, and I recommend it highly both to readers of nonfiction with an interest in history and to labour activists. It should be required reading for all workers who are union skeptics! I really appreciated how this book was organized. Greenhou

When we were in Salt Spring Island , we went to the Saturday Market, and I instantly fell in love with this man's work.  Salt Spring artist Lorne Tippett uses wine-barrel stays to create a hanging frame, and carves the designs from reclaimed wood. We splurged and bought one. It's not like we're spending money on anything else this year! It's now hanging on our covered deck. We hung it where you can also see it from inside the house. I love the shape of the wooden base; it echoes the mountains we see all around us. The fish are carved from Pacific yew, spalted yellow cedar, black walnut, and gory oak.  Shortly after this, something amazing happened.  Our favourite restaurant here is Cluxewe Waterfront Bistro . It is open only from May through the end of September, and has far and away the best food and most creative menu in our region. The food is not just great for our area, it's just great food. This year we tried to go as often as possible. Cluxewe hosts Chris and

We had a bit of excitement last week, and I realized I shared it only on Facebook. I'm sure wmtc readers want an answer to the burning question, What is Cookie up to now? This is what she's up to!  She Who Cannot Be Contained must have put her paws on the kitchen counter -- I had been cooking and she was looking for morsels -- and on the way down, hit the stove, turning on a burner. The Instant Pot lid was resting on the stovetop.  I was on a zoom meeting with my door shut, but Allan (who has almost no sense of smell) smelled fumes -- went downstairs -- and found the kitchen and hallway filling with smoke. The smoke detector never went off. The smell of burning plastic lingered for days. New Instant Pot ordered. Batteries in smoke detectors changed. Guards for the burner knobs ordered.   Reading reviews of various knob guards on Amazon, more people needed them for dogs than for children! In case you are wondering, Cookie is still finding ways to leave the house -- unauthorized

Many well-known rock and pop musicians have died lately, including Helen Reddy, Eddie Van Halen, and Jerry Jeff Walker. More names will be coming fast and furiously as the icons of the Boomer generation age.  One such death came to the country and blues music communities recently, that of Billy Joe Shaver.  Shaver's songwriting epitomized the outlaw-country ethic and apparently so did his life. He talked the talk and walked the walk. He was outlaw-country before the movement had a name. Shaver wrote songs for Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley. On a 2007 country-gospel album, he sang duets with Cash, Kristofferson, and Tanya Tucker, backed by notables such as Randy Scruggs and Marty Stuart. In 2010, Willie Nelson called Shaver "the greatest living songwriter". In his younger days, he hung out with Townes Van Zandt -- and really, what more can you say? Some 30 years ago, Allan and I attended the New Orleans Jazz Festival, which is not reall

  I was very saddened to hear of the too-young death of Robert Fisk, veteran war journalist, author, and truth-teller. Fisk was often criticized for "politicizing" war reporting, or for not being "objective". Most war journalists are little more than propaganda mouthpieces for the wealthy countries that invade and seek to control poorer countries, whether directly or by proxy. This highly biased view is said to be apolitical and objective, when it merely reflects the politics of the dominant point of view. The only difference between Fisk's reporting and almost every other war journalist's reporting was that he was honest and up-front about his point of view. Fisk was one of the few English-language journalists (perhaps the only one?) who didn't allow themselves to be "embedded" with the invading and occupying forces of Iraq. In other words, he did his job , while all the others allowed themselves to be used as propagandists. I looked to him fo

 Honour the dead by working for peace.

When I scroll through my ridiculously long book list, the name Frans de Waal appears again and again. I read reviews of his books, they sound appealing, they go on the list -- and there it ends. This has been going on since the 1990s, and now in 2020, I had yet to read one of his books.  Finally, my reading plan (originally here , with updates here and here ) put de Waal back on my radar. At Russell Books in Victoria , I found two of his books, and I put two more on hold at my library. I've read one so far, and I'm pleased to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. De Waal is a primatologist -- he studies primates, the group of mammals that includes apes and humans. He's that rare gem, a high-level scholar who writes with a breezy, accessible style, weaving wonderful examples from his own research and from popular culture. Our Inner Ape is de Waal's answer to a popular conception of humankind's "animal nature" -- the brutal, violent, combative human, which is kep

United States Vice Presidents After the positive result in the US election, so many of my fellow leftists refuse to find joy in the occasion. They seem determined to not admit that something good happened. The worst president in the history of the United States has been handed his walking papers. This is a good thing!  Does that mean I expect anything but business as usual from a Joe Biden administration? Of course not! But will Trump's ouster improve people's lives? Absolutely it will. People's lives are more important than Marxist theory. Reform is not The Answer but it is a net positive, and that counts. Some other good things happened in this election, too. * The first female Vice President was elected! She is also the first person of colour to hold that position, both Black and South Asian. Does this mean I love Kamala Harris? Of course not! But visibility is important. Diversity is important. This moves the needle. Full stop. * All four of the Congressmembers referred

      From the Ministry of Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction.  Donald Trump won the 2016 Republican nomination Donald Trump became president. Now I am relieved and happy that Joe Biden is POTUS.  I have a pretty good imagination but never ever did I foresee any of these things.  All pundits should now retire. The world is far too strange for anyone's predictions.