Bellingcat – Ramsay Inc.

Did you forget to remember that today is Remembrance Day?

It’s easy to do, especially in Canada where our military is starved into invisibility and seems to have missed the gender revolution completely.

Sure, we may remember those who fought and died for us on the 11th hour of this 11th day of this 11th month, but that memory will fade almost instantly for most of us. Even though two dangerous wars are now burning uncontrollably.

We shouldn’t forget so quickly or easily. Because millions of us have some direct family connection to our armed forces and hence, to war. My father fought in the Second World War, and my brother, in Korea. Yet I never think of myself as coming from a military family.

Read on…

November 11, 2023 November 10, 2023

Familiarity breeds content.

Question: do we enjoy things because they’re new or because they’re old?

Answer: Yes.

This is true in every endeavour, culture, life, and even secret life. An especially instructive example reminded me last week.

On Wednesday I went to the opening of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s 101st season. Yes, the TSO is 101 years old . But oh my, is it ever new again.

The first piece was Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F, which no one knows, and far less famous than his other piano concerto Rhapsody in Blue, which everyone knows. I liked it, but I didn’t love it, maybe because it wasn’t etched into my brain the way Rhapsody in Blue is. So I couldn’t hum along, which is a big deal for me. Or maybe I was just a victim of ‘branding’. What if Gershwin had flipped their names and called one Rhapsody in F and the other Concerto in Blue?

Meanwhile…

September 30, 2023 October 27, 2023

That little $100 million.

In 2015, billionaire John Paulson donated $400 million to Harvard, the largest donation in its history. This prompted Malcolm Gladwell to enquire what possible marginal good that could create for Harvard whose endowment today stands at $53.2 billion.

Why not give it to a smaller university, where it could do much more? This is what Hank Rowan did 30 years earlier when he gave $100 million to Glassboro State University, a tiny, almost bankrupt school in South Jersey. Gladwell did an enlightening podcast on that gift and where philanthropy works hardest.

Meanwhile…

September 2, 2023 September 15, 2023

La Serenissima

It’s the nickname for Venice and how, despite repeated ravages to its empire, it always appeared serene and in charge. The same can be said for Serena Williams, who took her final bow at the US Open last weekend after 25 years at the very peak of the world of tennis. She was eliminated in the third round, but no one cared, because she is the Greatest of All Time and, even better, she thanked her mom and dad.

Now, for this week’s Omnium Gatherum…

September 9, 2022 September 19, 2022

5th Wave, 4th Vaccine?

Here I was, so proud of my three jabs, and going out to a concert, and dining with friends, and getting on a plane and not feeling it was a flight into danger, and looking forward to Christmas. Very looking forward to that part.

Maybe they were right when they said the virus will always be with us, ever-mutating, one step ahead of science, faith and hope.

Oh well, at least we can still read at home on weekends.

December 4, 2021 January 7, 2022

Tags: Bellingcat

Did you forget to remember that today is Remembrance Day?

Familiarity breeds content.

That little $100 million.

La Serenissima

5th Wave, 4th Vaccine?

Streaming or Screaming?

Time to stretch the parts of you that other days don’t.

The Plague-Ground – Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

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