"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Friday 12 December 2014

I depressed myself with my last post. It's one thing to pay passing attention to politics at the provincial and national level. Writing about it means you have to think. And that is positively perilous. To-day I'm going to get my hair done and lunch with friends. My iPad is doing queer things.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope you had a good day away from your office - it was kind of the wind to stand off so the sun could do some good.

Anonymous said...

We do tend to forget that you have a life to live. Sorry.

Anonymous said...

Good for you. Hope you can get to have more of these types of days. You deserve it!

Anonymous said...

I think I might have a funny story for you but there is a tinge of pathos, maybe anger.
This morning I was at a public school having laughingly made my way past budding snow sculptures and through numerous snow ball battles.
As I went down the hallway, the PA system kicked in
A female voice called attention to students. Sort of like a fire alarm.
" ALL SNOW MUST REMAIN ON THE GROUND "
She went on and on with cautions and threats of discipline.
Appalled, I met the eyes of a teacher heading in the other direction who just nodded silently as she went by.
The good news is that the PA system was not working well outside the school and when I left the building the usual chaos was still in full swing.
So for residents of Aurora thinking of having their kids build snowmen or throw snowballs at their siblings =
ALL SNOW MUST REMAIN ON THE GROUND

Anonymous said...

20:29
I would have joined in on the fun.

Anonymous said...

All comments just brought a smile to my face.

Anonymous said...

I give up. How do you get a snowman's head to its shoulders ?

Anonymous said...


There is a fascinating and inspiring story in today's Globe and Mail.

It's headed: Lessons from a Big Bore

And it's about a 7.2 metre-wide tunnel-boring machine that is digging its way beneath London to create a tunnel for a new subway, at a cost of $27 billion, a third of which is being funded by that city's businesses.

London First, a lobby group representing the city's biggest corporations played a key role in promoting the project. A vital part of the Crossrail pitch is that it is about economic regeneration, not just moving people. And key to that is how it taps into East London, traditionally a less developed part of the ciy.

George Iacobescu, a Romanian-born engineer went to England more than 25 years ago to help Canada's Olympia & York build its renowned redevelopment of Canary Wharf. Today, as chief executive officer of the Canary Wharf Group, he sees a need for "a place where the nurses and the teachers and the policemen and the firefighters can live very close to the city.".."if they all have to travel two or three hours to get to work, how productive are they and how tired are they by the time they get home?"

Work began five years ago and the new subway is due to begin operating in 2018.

Just one example of the fine-tuning of the 1,000 tonne boring machine: At one point it had to claw its way through the clay within 80 centimetres of an existing subway line and just 35 centimetres from an adjacent escalator.

This is an incredible bit of engineering.

Meanwhile Toronto talks.

Anonymous said...

18:25- York region is no better. The rapid transit plan is sad.