These are a few of my favourite things. They’ve been spotted, cut and pasted in my “Maybe a blog?” folder. But with the arrival of snow, I’m cleaning out that cupboard to store thicker, furrier ideas for the Winter.
- Snow place like home for the holidays. Snowball fights are eternal and universal. Check out this one from 1897 in Lyon.
- Best Bach of all. Ottawa pianist Angela Hewitt is the best interpreter of Bach alive today. She even has her own festival in Trasimeno, Italy. Yet only after the City of Leipzig awarded its annual Bach Medal to 16 men in its 16 years has Hewitt won the award this year.Then again, it took the Vienna Philharmonic 155 years before it accepted its first woman player in 1997. And what instrument did Anna Lelkes play? The harp, of course, which is played exclusively by women. Have you ever seen a male harpist? You have not.
- Bright news on the power-and-money front. Last week, Goldman Sachs announced 60 new partners. This biennial ritual at the world’s most powerful money manager is a sign that…..well, this year, that times are changing in the richest corridor of power there is.Of the 60 partners, only 32 were white men. The other 28 are either ethnic minorities or women, or both. 17 per cent of the new partners were Asian, 7 per cent were Black and 5 per cent Hispanic or Latino.
- Yes, e-mail does cause climate change. Not according to The National Enquirer, but to The Financial Times. British officials now blame the millions of unnecessary e-mails we send every day, including those that just say “thanks”, for pumping thousands of tons of carbon into the atmosphere because of the power they consume. Said the FT last week: “If each person in the UK sent one fewer email a day it could cut carbon output by more than…the equivalent of 80,000 people flying from London to Madrid.” Thanks for sharing.
- Pocket in your hands. If you want to save an article to read later, you don’t need to use the publication’s “Save” site. You can create your own, for all articles (and videos) from everywhere. Pocket lets me save stuff I don’t have time to delve into right now, but will on the weekend. It works on Chrome and Firefox and is a godsend.
- Are you into the world of online investigations? Log on to Bellingcat who use CCTV cameras, AI, hacking and shoe-leather to find the real story behind everything from US police violence against protesters, to the tendency of Russia’s security agency to poison Europeans they don’t like.
- The new normal will be two normals. Andrew Ross Sorkin said it best after hosting The New York Times’ first ever online Deal Book event this week. “I really hope we can get together in person soon. But the scale of the audience we reached leads me to believe that events may forever consider a hybrid approach, with some people attending in person and others beamed in from around the world.”
- It’s beginning to look a lot like… Burberrys. I viewed the storied English clothing brand as both fuddy-duddy and white-bread. For what it really is, spend the next 2 minutes here and I promise you too will be singin’ in the ..snow.
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If you would like to hear Roger Martin, author of When More Is Not Better, explain why too much of a good thing is not a good thing, especially efficiency, join us on November 20th at our next RamsayTalks Online. Click here for more details.
16 thoughts on “The Plague-Ground – Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens”
Loved the exuberance of the Burberrys ad – the opposite of fuddy-duddy. Award for the most creative use of falling ice.
Shooting ice !
What a glorious feeling, i’m happy again!
What a wonderful thing to wake up to.
Thanks for the Pocket tip. There will be time on our hands for the next ? months. Good to have something to reach (into) for. And weekend? Every day is a weekend now.
Just LOVE Pocket – works on Safari too – and that Burberry ad ..best ever ..and you of course!
Please remind me. What is a weekend?
[Opens Pocket] – “You have 2,348 unread articles”
Uh Bob, I’m gonna need more than a weekend for this.
Uh, Bob, he’s called Harpo Marx for a reason!
Loving the Burberry spot!
Bob, check out Sasha Boldachev and Emmanuel Ceysson online – fantastic young male harpists. In the non pandemic future, if we can bring either or both of these amazing musicians to TO, I will take you and Jean to the concert!
Janice – I knew my ignorance would raise some shackles — including yours and Costa’s as well, though he was considerably less polite.
I trust you are high and dry these days. Cheers and love, Bob
A whole different world from what they wear at Balmoral !
Very funny, Linda!
I know, Pocket is simply another avoidance mechanism. But my big new love is Bellingcat!
Right….uh…I think it’s an archaic term to describe days of ancient history.
The Burberry ad is incredible, eh?!
We’re singing in the rain up here and are happy to be able to get out for long walks…