Monday, December 31, 2007
That Notable Books thing
The notable books list is coming together fast. I may not wait until January 6 to post a first shot at it. Thanks for suggestions, and they are still welcome.
Inside the Crystal
Went down to the Royal Ontario Museum to see some of the first exhibits now beginning to populate the Crystal, the extraordinary architectural explosion on the north side of the staid old brick building.
Doubts about the Crystal grew as it did. All that weight of iron scaffolding, all those odd shapes, the cold heaviness of something sold to us as light as air.
And that was just the outside. Inside, yes, it is indeed full of odd angles, waste space, awkward sightlines. Those are some great dinosaurs but it's not a natural place to display them, nothing like the simpler box of the Tyrell in Drumheller, Alberta.
Doubts about the Crystal grew as it did. All that weight of iron scaffolding, all those odd shapes, the cold heaviness of something sold to us as light as air.
And that was just the outside. Inside, yes, it is indeed full of odd angles, waste space, awkward sightlines. Those are some great dinosaurs but it's not a natural place to display them, nothing like the simpler box of the Tyrell in Drumheller, Alberta.
Friday, December 28, 2007
How much do you know about Sandusky, Ohio?
Yeah, that was me, too, until they drew my attention to this well-run local history website.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Dark Years under your Christmas tree
NFB's "Dark Years" animated history doc on the depression years runs right after Christmas. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, December 26, 27, at 8 pm on History Television. And since they sent me a picture, here it is:
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Sense of Priorities
Blogging here is going to slow down a lot for the next week or so. Blog reading too. (Oddly welcome pleasure in life: the moment the screen actually goes dark after all the shut-down rigamarole.)
The Notable Books 2007 list continues to grow quietly, nicely. I'm not posting comments as they come in, but will have the full list come Jan 6. Suggestions for the list still very much welcome via comment or email.
(as we say in my culture:) Merry Christmas!
The Notable Books 2007 list continues to grow quietly, nicely. I'm not posting comments as they come in, but will have the full list come Jan 6. Suggestions for the list still very much welcome via comment or email.
(as we say in my culture:) Merry Christmas!
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Obit for Robert Stacey historian and curator...
is in today's Globe & Mail, by Noreen Shanahan, here.
A Beaver mag profile of Stacey that I wrote years ago is at www.christophermoore.ca/thebeaver.htm -- or will be momentito.
A Beaver mag profile of Stacey that I wrote years ago is at www.christophermoore.ca/thebeaver.htm -- or will be momentito.
Monday, December 17, 2007
News of The Beaver
The Beaver where I've happily published since almost the fur-trade days, is doing nifty stuff these days, as the lively blog at Canadian Magazines is noticing.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Makin' A List: See the Sidebar
Between now and the winding down of the holiday season, I'm soliciting suggestions for your notable book in Canadian history from 2007.
One of the big biographies: John English on Trudeau, Richard Gwyn on Sir John A? One of the prize-nominees: Charles Taylor, G-G, BC Book Prize, etc.? A gem of local or regional history the rest of the world neglected?
I've put the instructions on the sidebar -- look right. Just comment on this (or any) post, or send an email via my website http://www.christophermoore.ca/ I'll read em all, maybe add some of my own or some solicited comments, and wrap up the whole thing January 6, 2008.
One of the big biographies: John English on Trudeau, Richard Gwyn on Sir John A? One of the prize-nominees: Charles Taylor, G-G, BC Book Prize, etc.? A gem of local or regional history the rest of the world neglected?
I've put the instructions on the sidebar -- look right. Just comment on this (or any) post, or send an email via my website http://www.christophermoore.ca/ I'll read em all, maybe add some of my own or some solicited comments, and wrap up the whole thing January 6, 2008.
Historian of the Week: Stevie
Stevie Cameron's stock as one of the most important historians of the Mulroney era went up sharply yesterday. Could anyone now write about his prime ministership without taking up the themes she was developing years ago?
What was she writing ten or fifteen years ago? Only that there was evidence suggesting that Mulroney was taking cash under the table from a shady influence-peddler, covering it up, and denying it all. Despite all the abuse and vilification sent her way (and Mr Mulroney continued it yesterday), it seems her only offence was reporting too soon.
What was she writing ten or fifteen years ago? Only that there was evidence suggesting that Mulroney was taking cash under the table from a shady influence-peddler, covering it up, and denying it all. Despite all the abuse and vilification sent her way (and Mr Mulroney continued it yesterday), it seems her only offence was reporting too soon.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Lucy's Day
"It is the year's midnight, and it is the day's." John Donne's poem on grief and loss is set on St Lucy's Day, today, December 13.
But the year's midnight is December 21, the shortest day of the year, I thought in high school when we did the poem.
Years later, working for Parks Canada on 18th century Louisbourg, I had it sorted out for me. The French in Canada at that time used the modern Georgian calendar, but the British in North America still used the obsolete Julian calendar in preference to one associated with Gregory, who sponsored the calendar reforms as a Catholic Pope. So British dating was nearly two weeks out of whack with most of the world. Every time New England traders visited the port of Louisbourg, everyone had to do a little chrono-conversion (a bit like Americans venturing into the metricated rest of the world today). The Brits and their colonies, including fledgling Nova Scotia, made an abrupt and unsettling transition to the modern calendar in 1752, jumping forward thirteen days overnight.
When he wrote the poem about 1627, John Donne's December 13 would have been close to December 21 in the rest of the world's calendar. So it was his shortest day.
Yesterday, coming home in grim twilight in mid-afternoon, I knew what Donne was on about. In these latitudes, even with the right calendar, we're close enough to the shortest day already. Swedes and other Scandinavians have a festival of lights on this day. Lucy's one of those semi-legendary saints whose rite incarnates pagan customs; her name actually derives from "lux," light.
But the year's midnight is December 21, the shortest day of the year, I thought in high school when we did the poem.
Years later, working for Parks Canada on 18th century Louisbourg, I had it sorted out for me. The French in Canada at that time used the modern Georgian calendar, but the British in North America still used the obsolete Julian calendar in preference to one associated with Gregory, who sponsored the calendar reforms as a Catholic Pope. So British dating was nearly two weeks out of whack with most of the world. Every time New England traders visited the port of Louisbourg, everyone had to do a little chrono-conversion (a bit like Americans venturing into the metricated rest of the world today). The Brits and their colonies, including fledgling Nova Scotia, made an abrupt and unsettling transition to the modern calendar in 1752, jumping forward thirteen days overnight.
When he wrote the poem about 1627, John Donne's December 13 would have been close to December 21 in the rest of the world's calendar. So it was his shortest day.
Yesterday, coming home in grim twilight in mid-afternoon, I knew what Donne was on about. In these latitudes, even with the right calendar, we're close enough to the shortest day already. Swedes and other Scandinavians have a festival of lights on this day. Lucy's one of those semi-legendary saints whose rite incarnates pagan customs; her name actually derives from "lux," light.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Something fresh on Conrad B
Just as the sentencing in Chicago monopolizes the news, The Literary Review of Canada offers an "online original," a thoughtful reappraisal of the historical writings of Conrad Black by writer George Galt.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Ethics in reviewing and judging
Bookninja notes an American survey on ethics in book reviewing. About 70% of respondents say you should not review a book if you are in its acknowledgments pages. Ninja thinks such precepts need to be widely circulated.
I heard the other day a little, ah, murmur about how one of the people warmly thanked in the effusive acknowledgments pages of Karolyn Smardz Frost's I've Got a Home in Glory Land is also one of the jurors who awarded her the G-G in non-fiction last month. Now that I'm reading the book, I'm quite happy with it being the winner. But knowing that the Canada Council recently removed writer Sarah Ellis from a GG Children's Literature jury because she reviews children's lit professionally (including some nominated titles), I do see the problem.
I heard the other day a little, ah, murmur about how one of the people warmly thanked in the effusive acknowledgments pages of Karolyn Smardz Frost's I've Got a Home in Glory Land is also one of the jurors who awarded her the G-G in non-fiction last month. Now that I'm reading the book, I'm quite happy with it being the winner. But knowing that the Canada Council recently removed writer Sarah Ellis from a GG Children's Literature jury because she reviews children's lit professionally (including some nominated titles), I do see the problem.
Friday, December 07, 2007
The House Committee on Mulroney/Schreiber
The press has abundant criticism of the work of the House Committee that is questioning Karlheintz Schreiber. With justification. But the hearings have, as they say, the great merit of existing.
We Canadians are so accustomed -- and the MPs themselves are so accustomed -- to parliamentarians being useless excrescences cluttering up the Parliament Buildings, so irrelevant and devoid of influence or opinion that they could just as well sit all year on a beach in Florida and fax in their "Yes" or "No" when their bosses told them to.
The sight of MPs in parliamentary committee actually wielding authority, actually speaking their minds, actually struggling as representatives of the people to investigate a scandal that has touched the reputation of the place where the people are represented -- that's inspiring. They may not do it very well, after all these years of supine inactivity, but now at least they are asserting their authority. A parliament full of parliamentarians; it's a great idea. Too bad we lost sight of it.
MPs with influence could be an appetite that grows with eating. I hope these MPs are discovering an ambition to do things more effectively so they can do things more often. Instead of carping that they are exercising the authority vested in them clumsily, we should say it's good they actually are doing it at all, and they should work out how to do it right.
We Canadians are so accustomed -- and the MPs themselves are so accustomed -- to parliamentarians being useless excrescences cluttering up the Parliament Buildings, so irrelevant and devoid of influence or opinion that they could just as well sit all year on a beach in Florida and fax in their "Yes" or "No" when their bosses told them to.
The sight of MPs in parliamentary committee actually wielding authority, actually speaking their minds, actually struggling as representatives of the people to investigate a scandal that has touched the reputation of the place where the people are represented -- that's inspiring. They may not do it very well, after all these years of supine inactivity, but now at least they are asserting their authority. A parliament full of parliamentarians; it's a great idea. Too bad we lost sight of it.
MPs with influence could be an appetite that grows with eating. I hope these MPs are discovering an ambition to do things more effectively so they can do things more often. Instead of carping that they are exercising the authority vested in them clumsily, we should say it's good they actually are doing it at all, and they should work out how to do it right.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Anniversaries
J.D.M Stewart, history teacher in Toronto, has a nice essay in today's Globe & Mail, exploring all the ways 1917 was Canada's worst year. It's only online for subscribers: if that's you, go to the Globe and search "1917." The piece is published for the anniversary of the Halifax explosion, one of the bad things of that year.
This is also the 18th anniversary of the Ecole Polytechnique murders in Montreal. I was giving a university exam the morning after, and the visceral moan or growl or something that arose from the class when I raised the subject remains with me. Then I had a 3 month old daughter. This week she sits in a university building doing exams herself.
This is also the 18th anniversary of the Ecole Polytechnique murders in Montreal. I was giving a university exam the morning after, and the visceral moan or growl or something that arose from the class when I raised the subject remains with me. Then I had a 3 month old daughter. This week she sits in a university building doing exams herself.
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Today in History: Upper Canadian Rebellion
We're not that young a country, and we have some continuities. There's an organization called the Law Society of Upper Canada -- founded in 1797. Its governors, called "benchers," have been meeting in Toronto ever since, in what they call "Convocation" (actually pretty much always in the same room since 1832.) The minutes of their proceedings form an archival sequence from July 1797 to last month.
I'm fond of the minutes for December 4, 1837 (just 170 years ago), which record the lawyers transacting a lot of absolutely routine business. And then the minutes break off with the laconic statement, "Mackenzie's rebellion broke out this night and in consequence of which the Convocation assembled no more this term."
Nothing like a little armed revolutionary violence to screw up your Daytimer.
I'm fond of the minutes for December 4, 1837 (just 170 years ago), which record the lawyers transacting a lot of absolutely routine business. And then the minutes break off with the laconic statement, "Mackenzie's rebellion broke out this night and in consequence of which the Convocation assembled no more this term."
Nothing like a little armed revolutionary violence to screw up your Daytimer.
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