Tags: climate change

Am I a whiner to mourn the death of my diner?

The news that Flo’s Diner in Toronto had closed hit me hard. But why? It was just a diner.

True, I’ve eaten there since it opened on Bellair in 1991, and long after it moved to 70 Yorkville. I was a regular and wore my old-guy-corner-booth-bacon-and-eggs persona like a medal. Not for me The Four Seasons or Park Hyatt, where a piddly bowl of porridge and coffee will now set you back $40.

I’ve always been a diner guy. Years ago, Brothers on Yonge just below Charles was my eatery of choice. It was run by two brothers who kept baseball bats behind the counter to go after anyone who forgot to pay. No one forgot to pay. But Brothers closed long ago, and the idea of opening a diner today seems as viable as the idea of buying a stick-shift car or a Hungarian restaurant on Bloor St.

Flo’s co-owner Pierre Hamel said it was a dispute with their landlord that led to its closing and laying off 15 staff. Hamel said: “We came out of COVID really, really strong, and we would like to stay as long as we can.”

Read on…

The Prime Minister’s Next Career

He will likely retire when the Liberals are defeated in the next federal election, an outcome most every poll points to, which should be in  October 2025. Or he’ll leave before that if the Liberals coalition with the NDP falls apart. Or, on the vanishingly small chance he leads the Liberals to victory in 2025, he could stay on until 2029. He took office in 2015 so he would then be the second-longest serving Prime Minister in Canadian history, four years longer than his father Pierre.

Whether he leaves this year at age 52, or in 2029 at 57, Justin will still have time for One More Big Job before he retires to the world of board membership, consulting, teaching and honorary degrees.

Read on…

When the train runs you over, it’s not the caboose that kills you.

The caboose here is the submersible Titan which imploded with all five souls aboard on its way to visit the RMS Titanic, resting 12,500 feet below the sea.

We’ve since learned that the CEO of OceanGate Inc. which owned the Titan, viewed safety not as a costly, time-consuming necessity, but as a trivial pursuit, the enemy of innovation, a complete waste of time.

In this way, Stockton Rush is much like the anti-vaxxers who not only don’t believe the laws of physics, but dismiss them because they interfere with their political and financial agendas.

Two Canadians have led the way in calling out Rush for what he was: an aging tech-bro driven by fame and fortune, with all the moral ballast of Elizabeth Holmes.

Meanwhile…

The company you keep keeps you

It’s hard being a company these days. But harder being a corporate cause or reporting on it. Two letters this week showed why:

The first was about fair-weather friends. It seems lots of big supporters of Pride and the LGBTQ movement are turning tail because some of their stakeholders view this as “wokism gone mad.” So Phil Haid, the CEO of social marketing agency Public Inc. wrote to his clients and friends: “The discomfort that many brands and businesses are experiencing right now is because for a time Pride felt like a party that everyone wanted to be a part of. But please remember that Pride is a protest and has always been. It stands as a constant reminder of the work society needs to continue to do to become equal, equitable, and just.”

The second example was about money. The Logic reports in-depth on Canada’s innovation economy. It does this independently and very well. Each June, the gigantic Collision Conference comes to Toronto (helped along by millions in public subsidies), and this year its date follows a conference The Logic is organizing. When The Logic applied for media credentials to cover Collision, it was denied: Why? “Running other events that piggyback on our own is not something we support.” Now Collision is a Goliath; The Logic is a David, as is its editor-in-chief David Skok. So David wrote about it. After his column appeared, Collision caved and let The Logic in.

Meanwhile…

Fast-Checking. Fact-Checking.

All of us need to open a new folder on our desktops called “AI”.

Or “Eh-eye?” if we’re still not sure that artificial intelligence will overwhelm our 2,500-year-old ideas of reading and writing and creativity.

Into this folder, we should drop any article or video that catches our interest about the future of AI. We should fill it up once a week at least, no matter how despairing the prediction about AI is. Ever since ChatGTP made us aware that climate change is not our only existential crisis, I’ve been avoiding those who say we will soon be enslaved by our technology, and avidly reading those who say AI will be our salvation.

But at what other time in history have humans (at least those of us who can read and write) been able to not only be bystanders at the revolution, but players in it. Indeed, our participation is compulsory. We’ve all been drafted. So best that we at least learn what the rules will be, and how they’ll change because they’ll change faster than any other revolution in history. And for those of us who crave a ring-side seat to history, here’s your chance.

Meanwhile…

“Most successful people are just a walking anxiety disorder harnessed for productivity.”

Andrew Wilkinson’s idea won’t leave my head as I scratch it to come up with any successful person it doesn’t describe. Which got me to thinking about that other earwig, Donald Trump. He doesn’t seem anxious, except maybe this week he finally will, as New York Attorney General

Letitia James filed a 222-page lawsuit claiming he and his kids have engaged in massive fraud over many years. The document makes astringent reading. And speaking of reports, Wachtell Lipton’s on the racist and misogynist actions of Robert Sarver, the owner of the NBA Phoenix Suns, exemplifies how law firms are now policing workplace misconduct. But the most shocking of this week’s reports comes from the US Congress which revealed just how much energy companies have misled Americans on the industry’s role in climate change. 

Meanwhile…

Thin on the Ground

In the pandemic’s early days, when 80% of Ontario’s COVID deaths were from people in long-term care homes, the province called the military for help. They replied by sending members of the army into seven long-term care homes.

RamsayWrites

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