Archive for November 2013

Memo to Bill Maher .. Rob Ford may seem to make a few good points .. but he’s no disciple of Lenny Bruce

Nov 26th, 2013 | By | Category: Key Current Issues

In my advancing age “Real Time with Bill Maher” on HBO TV is one of the highlights of my Friday nights. I’m sad to think that this past Friday’s episode (November 22, 2013) will be the last until the new year. For my money Bill Maher actually is a spiritual descendant of Lenny Bruce. And […]



Conspiracy theories, Camelot, and Glocca Morra – On the 50th anniversary of the assassination of JFK

Nov 22nd, 2013 | By | Category: In Brief

This Friday, November 22, 2013 marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, shortly after noon (Central Standard Time), as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas. George Skelton recalls, in the Los Angeles Times : “Most folks in their mid-50s or older remember where they […]



Doug Ford as some major league democrat is more than a bit of a stretch

Nov 19th, 2013 | By | Category: In Brief

It is now about 3 AM on the morning of November 19, 2013. And what may or may not prove to be Toronto City Council’s successful attempt yesterday to deal with the Jones brothers’ strange new concept of democracy in northern North America lingers on. (Oh and you should know, if you don’t already, that […]



Another tale of two cities : Toronto and San Francisco – in the wake of Rob Ford

Nov 18th, 2013 | By | Category: In Brief

The question many are asking in Toronto these days, of course, is just how much harm is the growing “international” notoriety of Mayor Rob Ford doing to the city’s reputation? (I put “international” in quotation marks because most of the notorious attention Torontonians and even some other Canadians are half-gloating over has come from the […]



Lester Pearson’s hope for a Canadian republic .. after the fall of France in 1940

Nov 13th, 2013 | By | Category: Canadian Republic

Remembrance Day 2013 – the day before yesterday – is still somewhat on my mind. And I am remembering that the fall of France in June 1940 had a brief dramatic impact across the sea in Canada. As the historian Arthur Lower explained in his old textbook Colony to Nation : “When the fall of […]



O valiant [Toronto] hearts who to your glory came .. your memory hallowed in the land you loved

Nov 11th, 2013 | By | Category: In Brief

Every Remembrance Day for a while now I’ve tried to find some particular music on You Tube – without success. It all goes back to when I played in my high school marching band in Toronto, in the first half of the 1960s. The folkways of the British empire still weighed more heavily on the […]



Rob Ford’s strange comedy has become a story about how Toronto is changing .. and maybe Canada too?

Nov 8th, 2013 | By | Category: In Brief

The English actor Patrick Stewart on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show last night made the telling point that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is some new kind of comedian. (At least that’s what I took him to say.) In a similar spirit I’d give a prize to Stephen Lautens’s tweet : “It’s easy – just tell Rob […]



Mayor Ford tells it like it is : “Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine” (and maybe the Mounties will exonerate Mike Duffy?)

Nov 5th, 2013 | By | Category: In Brief

“I wonder what’s going to happen with Rob Ford today,” my wife said as we woke up this morning. Quite mistakenly, for the umpteenth time, I said I thought the whole thing would cool down for a bit. Then, watching cp24 TV while brushing my teeth, I saw Doug Ford (Rob’s big brother) ranting away […]



How much longer can the streetcar named Rob Ford go on?

Nov 4th, 2013 | By | Category: In Brief

We decided a while ago that paying too much attention to Toronto Mayor Rob Ford just encourages him. And we retired our ”Streetcar Named Rob Ford” page this past spring. Yet it does seem to be one of Mayor Ford’s talents that just when you sensibly decide to forget his antics until the next election […]