Holy Crap

I don't eat mammal sandwiches, mammal lasagne, mammal burgers or mammal anything anymore if I can do so politely and I'm someplace where there is a food option.

I do eat poultry, probably because chickens are so mean and I eat fish because ... well,  I guess they just aren't cuddly enough. 

I tried the complete vegetarian thing but when my fingernails started peeling away I knew for me, it wasn't going to be an option.

However my foray into the world of vegetables did leave me with an amazing respect for people who can do it.  Especially the vegans.

I stand in awe of the Vegans.

Therefore I was quite happy to see Holy Crap on the top shelf of my local grocery store.

I know that I am probably the last person in the world to try

"The world's most amazing breakfast cereal"

 which is vegan and is

"made in paradise

on the Sunshine Coast, British Columbia, Canada".

(Apparently, in B.C., they are only allowed 10 French words for every 200 English words on their cereal boxes because the only French I could find was "la plus incroyable cereale petit dejeuner du monde"."

Holy Crap is made of hemp hearts and all kinds of organic stuff - except wheat.  It is wheat free.

It looks very different from my usual Quaker Oats.  I guess the little roundish things are the hemp hearts. 

And I agree with you completely. How many hemps had to die so that I could try a vegan cereal?

But then there is so little of it in your bowl - you only eat 2 tablespoons of Holy Crap at a time, so one has to assume there are still vast herds of hemps grazing across the B.C. interior at this very moment.

So how did it taste?

Holy Crap!

You should try it.

Butterbrains and the Olympics

Butterbrains Gets Prepared

Image via Wikipedia

Last week scientists decided to publish their research on the making of a highly contagious form of the deadly avian flu virus. I first read that it was American and Dutch scientists but the link below suggests that Japanese scientists were also involved. 

Related articles

• Studies on lethal avian flu should be printed: WHO (japantimes.co.jp)
• Avian flu controversy comes to roost at WHO (blogs.nature.com)

Image via Wikipedia

Ye Olde and Ye New Public Library



Image by Getty Images via @daylife

If you borrow a book from the public library on your e-reader you'll quickly find out that the library lendeth and on the due date the library taketh away.

"A Clockwork Universe" was 'takethed' away from me yesterday.

One minute I finished the book, (luckily), and was reading the acknowledgements, the next minute it was gone.

Just like that.

Disappeared.

Kaput.

There's none of the old, "Oh I think I'll keep the book a few extra days and pay a nickel fine" stuff anymore.

So I didn't get to do my blog on Galileo's Awesome Infinity Theory.

The new Public Library is very efficient.

And so impolite it feels totally  not Canadian.

I think there should have been a pleasant little warning. 

 Something like:

Dear  Patron,

Please read faster and take whatever notes you need because we are taking out book back in 10 minutes. Thank-you.

Sincerely yours,
The Public Library

I've worked in many libraries.  I think my favourite was the old Whitehorse, Yukon Library with its library cat curled up in one of the comfy chairs that sat around the roaring fireplace in the middle of the room.

Sigh.

I'm all for progress, but progress can sometimes leave you cold.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Time and Infinity

Image via Wikipedia

A woman stands in a room.

Her goal is to cross to the other side.

Before she can get to the other side she must take the time to go half way.

Then she will need to spend some time crossing half the distance that remains.

Then time for half the remaining distance

and so on.

A trip across the room passes through an infinite number of stages because each takes more than a zero amount of time.

Therefore her trip across the room takes, literally, forever.

A parable about infinity and time told by Zeno, a Greek philosopher who lived 400 B.C.E. as retold by Edward Dolnick in his excellent book, The Clockwork Universe.

The Clockwork Universe  is from the public library and is loaded onto my e-reader.  It is about the great thinkers of the 17th century. 

I know that sounds about as interesting as televised curling but trust me, this is a great read about a time of plagues, wars, diseases, religious intolerance, cities filled with human waste and the people who loomed above it all.

I'm having trouble putting it down.

Next: Galileo defines infinity.

P.S. Zeno didn't know if time is infinite or comes in tiny little units either.

Miss Eulalie Goes Home

This is Bridgit.  She is my awesome supervisor at the Museum.

She agreed to shake the box and pick the name of the person 

with whom Miss Eulalie will reside.

And the winner is

Congratulations Jane!

Jane's Jewels is a a unique,
sometimes mystical, sometimes amusing,
always fascinating blog that you can find on my sidebar.

The runner up was Janet for this written entry:


Tecumseh's father and mother!


Tecumseh's father, Puckshinwa (Alights from Flying)  was married to Methotaske (One Who Lays Eggs In the Sand).
In 1759, Methotaske's band decided to move west into Ohio country.

"Not wanting his wife to choose between him and her family, Puckshinwa decided to travel north with her. 

Tecumseh (Shooting Star)  was born in the Ohio region in 1768, thus being in the right place and time to help the British and Brock in the Siege of Detroit in 1812. 

The city surrendered with Tecumseh's tricky tactics!


How great is that!

    Because of Puckshinwa's romanticism (perhaps???)  Canada became what it is today!

What a guy!

What an entry!  Thanks, Janet!





Jane, send me your address and I'll get Miss Eulalie, her activation spell
and chocolate out to you asap!

francie.mcglynn@gmail.com


Thanks to everyone who entered. 

Wish I had a Magic pig wand for everyone.

Miss Eulalie, the Magic Pig Wand

Miss Eulalie, the magic pig, is ready to go to her new home. 

She is anxious to go to work for YOU taking the calories out of chocolate cake, chocolate fudge, chocolate cookies, chocolate pie, chocolate pudding, chocolate bars, etc.

She comes with instructions, which include the magic spell

AND

of course a little bit of chocolate!



But the contest ends at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning. (Toronto time).

To enter you have to name a pair of famous lovers.

The catch is that because this year we are celebrating 200 years of peace with the U.S.  the lovers have to have a Canadian/American connection.


Enter here or on my facebook wall or e-mail me.

So Help Me Google

Image via CrunchBase

Yesterday I was sitting at my computer laughing at Geezer Online's post about the right way to walk up and down stairs, (aka Doug Jamieson - see the link on my sidebar.)

When I finished I wrote a comment and hit enter.

A message came up that asked if I would like to use my Blogger profile.

Now I often post comments on Doug's blog.  And as far as I could see I hadn't done anything unusual so I clicked 'okay'.

It seemed like the right thing to do.

It wasn't.

Not only was my comment on Doug's blog lost,

my own blog disappeared!

Just like that.

The whole thing.

Gone.

And, if you can believe it, a message appeared on the blogger dashboard asking if I'd lost my blog.

"Scoundrels!" I cried. "You know darn well that my blog is gone!"

Unfortunately, once I admitted that I had lost my blog I had to start following Google's instructions to find it. 

I tell you, Hansel and Gretel had an easier time - even after the birds ate their bread crumbs.

They only ended up in the witch's pot, I ended up in Google Help.

Go there, do this, click that, quack like a duck, curse like a pirate.

At one point Google's mechanical voice phoned me with a secret access code.

Still no blog.

In exasperation I finally shut my computer down and took Flynn he Dog out to wash the spy car.

When I came back I girded my loins for a new foray into the cyberspace underworld.

I flicked on my computer and -

my blog appeared.

Looking no worse for wear except for one thing -

My own picture has been added in with the pictures of my followers.

I'm now following my own blog.

Eek.

How navel gazing and self-centred does that look?

 And I haven't been able to figure out how to unfollow myself.

Anyway,  I guess both of me will  announce the winner of the Magic Pig Wand right here on Wednesday about 1 p.m. Toronto time.

Jeesh.

Not So Brave New World

There's nothing like getting something for free.

Especially when you are getting it from your favourite credit card company.

I'm embarrassed to tell you that all of my life I have gone to great lengths to avoid using my Visa card.

So great was my fear of the interest rates that I only handed the card over in the most dire of circumstances and with such ill will that most businesses would probably have preferred not to take my money.

All that changed last year when I decided to switch to online banking.

While the bank lady was helping me set up my account she said, "Oh, I see you have accumulated a lot of points from Visa."

She showed me how I could redeem those points for soma.

I mean for things.

Anyway, I have to tell you that I was vaguely aware of Visa's point system.

I just never believed that they meant it.

They do.

 

For example, recently I decided that an iPod would be handy. 

I went to my online banking website and ordered one.

And lickity split, Visa had it delivered right to my door for free!

 
Now I use my Visa card all of the time and accumulate points the way Midas accumulated gold.


Do I care about the blood sucking interest rates anymore?

Or the fact that Visa's CEO made $11 million last year while more and more families are forced to turn to our depleted food banks every week? 

Nope.


I got a free iPod.


"The policemen shoved him out of the way and got on with their work. Three men with spraying machines buckled to their shoulders pumped thick clouds of soma vapour into the air."

Aldous Huxley, Brave new World


***

Note # 1: The draw for the Magic Pig Wand will be Wed. Feb. 8th (not Tues. Feb. 7th)  Got my days mixed up.

Note # 2: Wow! Thanks to Jane from Jane's Jewels (see my side bar for a link to this great blog) for the WHOO LOVES YA AWARD!  Humbled and honoured, Jane

Killing For Honour

This week in Kingston, Ontario, a mother, father and son were found guilty of murdering three of the family's daughters and the father's first wife in his polygamous marriage.  They are Muslim Afghan immigrants who believed that the girls had become too westernized. It was a horrendous crime which was classified as an 'honour killing'.

Is multi-culturalism at the root of honour killings in Canada?

 Ezra Levant's column, "Death and dishonour in Kingston", (St. Catharines Standard, Tues. Jan. 31, 2012),  stated that there have been "more than a dozen honour killings in Canada in recent years" all perpetrated by "Muslim extremists".

He wrote that even though the young Shafia women reached out, people who were in positions to help them did not do so because the women were part of the Muslim community. 

Those in authority backed off, according to Mr. Levant, "in the name of multiculturalism".

It is interesting to note that in 1998, for example,  67  women - that's more than 5 dozen in one year, were killed in Canada at the hands of husbands, boyfriends, ex-husbands or ex-boyfriends

and In 6 out of 10 cases the police were  aware that violence characterized the relationship but were unable or unwilling to help.  

Violence against women is found in all areas of society.

Suggesting that the Shafia women could have been saved if it wasn't for multi-culturalism is silly and in this case more likely meant to inflame the post 911 distrust of Muslims, most of whom do not terrorize and murder their daughters.

Jeesh.

Related articles

• Shafia verdict prompts debate: Honour killing, or just plain murder? (calgaryherald.com)
• Were Shafia murders 'honour killings' or domestic violence? (thestar.com)