unfollowerstats.com

"As to going home, shame opposed the best motions that offered to my thoughts; and it immediately occurr'd to me how I should be laugh'd at among the neighbours, and should be asham'd to see, not my father and mother only, but even every body else; from whence I have since often observed, how incongruous and irrational the common temper of mankind is, especially of youth, to that reason which ought to guide them in such cases, viz. that they are not asham'd to sin, and yet are asham'd to repent; not asham'd of the action for which they ought justly to be esteemed fools, but are asham'd of the returning, which only can make them be esteem'd wise men"--Robinson Crusoe

I found a useful Twitter-related app at unfollowerstats.com .  It allows you to look at a list of all the Tweeters you've followed who haven't followed you back, along with stats like how many Tweeters are following them.  I've been going through that list and removing everyone with over 15,000 followers--they aren't likely to follow me back, or care if I unfollow them.  Most of them I've moved into my Twitter lists so I'll still have a chance of reading their Tweets.  I now have a dozen lists: Causes, Authors, Politicians, Artists, TV News, Newspapers, Magazines, Leftists, Locals, Literati, Characters, and My Inner Circle.  Between them is a total of about 1200 Tweeters.  With this many removed, I'll have an easy time getting to 3000 followers while still following within the limit of 5000!

Today I had lunch with Maria and Sergei at the Taiwanese restaurant Coco, so I could return the mitt she lost in our back yard.  Then I went to the North York Central library and picked up a couple of children's books about the Korean inventor Jang Yongshil. (Last summer I spent a while translating another such book but only got halfway through, and that book's disappeared since.)

I've finally finished the Crusades history and started reading Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (for the third time) for my Book Club.  25 pages into it and he still hasn't reached the island--there's a preliminary adventure where he's enslaved in Morocco and escapes to Brazil.

We finished the Civil War documentary and started watching The Last Czar, a Netflix series about Nicholas II. Rasputin is speaking in working-class British, which actually works pretty well.  I've also been watching the Amazon Prime series American Playboy:  The Hugh Hefner Story, which is perversely fascinating. (He was a true visionary, but the vision he catered to and even embodied was a rather pitiful one, for guys who want to have the trappings of sophisticated manhood while behaving like little boys at play!)

On Youtube I found a channel with someone playing piano arrangements of pieces like "Jingle Bells" and "Maple Leaf Rag" in jazzy meters like 5/4 and 7/8! (Someone should arrange Dave Brubeck's "Take Five" and "Unsquare Dance" in regular meters...)

The kitchen's turn

Today John started renovating the kitchen.  The kitchen's between Father's room and the rest of the house, so when it gets hard to navigate I'm going to trade rooms with him for a while! (If I can bring my computer, no problemo.) But that won't be for several more days.  We're going to do our cooking on a hotplate in the dining room for the next while--Moira made omelet today and it came out fine.  When the kitchen's finished we'll be ready to buy a new stove and fridge.

This first day he was bringing down the ceiling, and Moira and I were helping him tote the detritus out back:  wood (full of long nails), drywall and plaster.  We were wearing these dust masks, and the only problem is that when you're outdoors and have it over your nose it can make your glasses fog up!

Sunday afternoon I saw 63 Up at the Bloor.  That series is getting even more powerful as the people grow older. (The librarian is dead and the physicist has cancer.) Some of them don't think much of Brexit!

On Twitter I'm close to 2800 followers!  I've been going through the Tweeters I follow and moving hundreds of non-followers onto the lists I keep so I won't have to follow them directly and can leave room for more who will follow.  I was looking at my "characters" list last week and saw a Tweet by Jan Wong, a reporter I admire, recalling when she was starting out and had to enter a gentleman's club through the back door. I wrote a comment comparing her experience to an episode of Mad Man I'd seen involving a club where, one character said, a woman could only enter inside a cake--and Jan Wong liked my comment!  That meant a lot to me.

Last week when Maria was visiting she lost one of our mittens, and now it's turned up in our back yard!

I finished the first season of Dragon Ball and switched to watching the  original "harem" anime Tenchi Muyou! on Youtube.  Yeah, it's a guilty pleasure for me.

ZULU

"He [his father] bid me observe it, and I should always find, that the calamities of life were shared among the upper and lower part of mankind; but that the middle station had the fewest disasters, and was not expos'd to so many vicissitudes as the higher or lower part of mankind; nay, they were not subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses either of body or mind, as those were who, by vicious living, luxury and extravagancies on one hand, or by hard labour, want of necessaries, and mean or insufficient diet on the other hand, bring distempers upon themselves by the natural consequences of their way of living; that the middle station of life was calculated for all kind of vertues [sic] and all kind of enjoyments; that peace and plenty were the hand-maids of a middle fortune; that temperance, moderation, quietness, health, society, all agreeable diversions, and all desirable pleasures, were the blessings attending the middle station of life; that this way men went silently and smoothly thro' the world, and comfortably out of it, not embarrass'd with the labours of the hands or of the head, not sold to the life of slavery for daily bread, or harrast with perplex'd circumstances, which rob the soul of peace, and the body of rest; not enrag'd with the passion of envy, or secret burning lust of ambition for great things; but in easy circumstances sliding gently thro' the world, and sensibly tasting the sweets of living, without the bitter feeling that they are happy, and learning by every day's experience to know it more sensibly"--Robinson Crusoe

After his first battle: "How do you feel?" "Sick." "If you feel sick, you're alive"--Zulu

Sergei and Maria met me for lunch Monday.  Later I went to The Bay and bought new pajamas, long johns, socks and underwear.  I like the feel of fresh cotton!  Tuesday I got my flu shot at Shoppers Drug Mart, and it took longer than it should have:  I didn't hear them when they called my name.

Last night I watched Zulu (for the second time) with the History Meetup. It's a rousing, somewhat old-fashioned "stiff upper lip" war movie.

I've started binge-watching the anime Dragon Ball again, this time dubbed. (So sue me.) And Moira and I are finally watching Ken Burns' The Civil War, this time through Kanopy streaming.

I've been thinking about what Jeremy Corbyn should have done differently.  If it had been me, back in 2016 I would have offered to support the bill for negotiating Brexit if the government agreed to have a confirmation referendum for the specific deal they came up with.  And I would have said something like, "The British people have voted to leave the EU, but that doesn't mean they have to accept whatever deal they're offered.  They have the right to say, 'This deal isn't good enough.  Come back with something better.'" If the Conservatives agreed to it Labour would have put its stamp on the process.  If they didn't (more likely), Labour would have been in a better position to oppose Brexit.

More recently, I would have suggested a coalition with Green leader Caroline Lucas as Prime Minister, since neither Labour nor the Liberal Democrats would agree to making the other party's leader PM. (The saddest words are, "It might have been...") I must say that the Remain campaign managed to do things ineptly both in 2016 and 2019.

John's going to start renovating the kitchen soon.  We've moved everything into the dining room, except for the stove and the sink.  Today I cooked fettucine alfredo, and it was a headache finding everything!

Jackhammer days

"It's better to be holding the gun than to be the one running from the gunman!"--Ozark

A couple of days ago we rented a big dumpster on wheels to collect waste from our home renovations.  We put in a big pile of dirt from the back yard where we'd been dumping it from the basement.  Some of it was frozen--the first dirt got covered with a layer of snow, which got covered by new dirt--so John had to use his jackhammer on it!

When I first saw the dumpster, I thought, "We'll never fill that!"  But we did fill it in two days!  Besides that dirt pile, we put in some mortar and brick fragments from the former chimney. Then yesterday, we toted some more mud from the basement straight to the dumpster.  As we progressed, the mud got wetter and wetter, and Moira and I had to put our filthy coats in the washing machine afterward!  Oh well, it's the least we can do considering how hard John's been working at it.

Yes, I am depressed about the British election.  But I can't help feeling that even if Labour had come out squarely for leaving the EU or squarely for remaining, or had been led by a more "electable" leader than Jeremy Corbyn, they'd still have lost.  I felt the same way after the 1992 election.  The bottom fell out of John Major's government with the currency crisis four months later (if only it had happened four months earlier!), but the next election only happened after Tony Blair had taken over.  

New Labour embodied an avoidable sellout:  if they'd been led by Stalin they'd still have won in 1997.  (Beware the "post hoc ergo propter hoc" fallacy.) I worry that history will repeat itself.  But before you swallow the electability myth, consider the popular vote figures.  Corbyn in 2017 got a share just three points lower than Blair in 1997, and not much different from Blair in 2001.  Corbyn in 2019 got just three points less than Blair in 2005, and a somewhat higher share than Brown in 2010 and Mandelson in 2015.  But the earlier elections had higher Liberal Democrat and lower Conservative shares.

I'm also reminded of the 1972 election when the working class chose Nixon over McGovern, leading the Democrats to embrace the electability myth and introduce super delegates.  Again I doubt that any other Democrat could have won.  At the risk of seeming elitist, I'd have to blame the voters themselves!  And once again I'm blaming the knee-jerk blue-collar Brexiteers, who've made the wrong choice for the wrong reasons, and are likely to regret their choice pretty soon (as with 1972!). And don't forget the pro-EU Conservatives who held their nose and put party loyalty first.

As for the mainstream press' anti-Corbyn bias, some people have said, "But the press has always been against Labour." True, and over the last century that's made the difference more often than not.  And one last point:  things would have been different if the Liberal Democrats had agreed to install a caretaker government under Corbyn a few months ago, but for Jo Swinson keeping Corbyn out of power was a higher priority than preventing Brexit. (As it was for all too many voters.)

Finished the second season of Ozark last night. (My favourite character's Ruth.) One thing that bugs me about Netflix is that they'll move you to the next episode only 15 seconds after the previous episode's closing credits start, so I didn't have time to read them until the very last episode.  I noticed that the redneck patriarch and the cartel lawyer were played by Peter Mullan and Janet McTeer, both British actors!

More DON QUIXOTE quotes

I've finished Don Quixote, so I decided to post some more quotes from it!

"The housekeeper can certainly stop reciting S. Apollonia's prayer, for I know it is the clear decision of the heavenly spheres that Senor Don Quixote should once again put into effect his original and noble thoughts, and it would weigh heavily on my conscience if I did not convey to this knight and persuade him that the strength of his valiant arm and the virtue of his valorous spirit should tarry and be constrained no more, for delay thwarts the righting of wrongs, the defense of orphans, the honoring of damsels, the favoring of widows, the protections of married women, and other things of this nature that touch on, relate to, depend on, and are attached to the order of errant chivalry."

"Let nobody say of me, dear master, that when all the bread's eaten he leaves; no, for I don't come from ungrateful stock; everybody knows, especially in my village, what kind of people the Panzas were, and I come from them, and besides, because of your many good actions and even more good words, I know and understand your grace's desire to show me favor; if I tried to work out exactly how much my salary would be, it was to please my wife; when she puts her had to convincing you of something, no mallet can press down the hoops of a barrel the way she can press you to do what she wants, but the truth is, a man must be a man, and a woman a woman, and since I'm a man everywhere, which I cannot deny, I also want to be a man in my own house, no matter who's inside; and so, there's nothing more to do except for your grace to prepare your will and its codicil so it can't be re-soaked, and for us to be on our way soon so that the soul of Senor Sanson doesn't suffer anymore, because he says his conscience demands that he persuade your grace to go out into the world for a third time; and I offer to serve your grace again, faithfully and loyally and as well as and better than all the squires who have ever served knights errant in past or present times."

"Don Quixote and his squire were now alone, and as soon as Sanson rode away Rocinante began to neigh and the donkey to snort, and both knight and squire considered this a good sign and a fortunate omen; although, if truth be told, the donkey snorted and brayed more than the horse neighed, and from this Sancho concluded that his good fortune would exceed and go beyond that of his master, and I do not know if he based this on the astrology he may have known, since the history says nothing about that, although he had been heard to say whenever he stumbled or fell that he would have been happy if he had never left his house, because the only thing one got from stumbling or falling was a torn shoe or broken ribs, and though he was a fool, in this he was not far off the mark."

"The emperor wished to see the famous Temple of the Rotunda, which in antiquity was called the Temple of All the Gods, and today is known by the holier name of All Saints, and is the most complete surviving building of all those erected by the gentiles in Rome, and the one that best preserves the fame of its founders for grandeur and magnificence; it has the shape of half an orange and is extremely large, and it is well-lit, though the only light is from a window, or rather, a round skylight at the top, and it was there that the emperor looked down at the building, and at his side was a Roman gentleman who pointed out the beauties and subtleties of the great structure and its memorable architecture; and when they had come down, he said to the emperor: 'A thousand times, Most Sacred Majesty, I have felt the desire to embrace Your Majesty and then throw myself down from that skylight so my fame in the world will be eternal.' The emperor responded: 'I thank you for not having put so wicked a thought into effect, and from now on I shall not give you occasion to test your loyalty; I command you never to speak to me again or to be anywhere I am.' And with these words he performed a great service for him."

"Remember everything and do not miss a detail of how she receives you:  if her color changes as you give her my message; if she becomes agitated or troubled when she hears my name; if she moves about on her pillows, if you happen to find her in the richly furnished antechamber of her rank; if she is standing, look at her to see if she shifts from one foot to another; if she repeats her answer two or three times; if she changes from gentle to severe, from harsh to loving; if she raises her hand to her hair to smooth it, although it is not disarranged, finally, my friend, observe all her actions and movements, because if you related them to me just as they occurred, I shall interpret what she keeps hidden in the secret places of her heart in response to the fact of my love; for you must know, Sancho, if you do not know it already, that with lovers, the external actions and movements, revealed when the topic of their love arises, are reliable messengers bringing the news of what transpires deep in their souls."

"And so this is what Sancho did, and he gave Rocinante, the same freedom he had given the donkey, for their friendship was so unusual and so firm that it has been claimed, in a tradition handed down from fathers to sons, that the author of this true history devoted particular chapters to it, but for the sake of maintaining the decency and decorum so heroic a history deserves, he did not include them, although at times he is remiss in his purpose and writes that as soon as the two animals were together they would begin to scratch each other, and then, when they were tired and satisfied, Rocinante would lay his neck across the donkey's--it would extend almost half a meter on the other side--and, staring intently at the ground, the two of them could stand this way for three days, or, at least, for as long as they were permitted to do so or were not compelled by hunger to look for food."

"'I do disavow them,' responded Sancho, 'and in that sense and for that reason your grace could dump a whole whorehouse on me and my children and my wife, because everything they do and say deserves the best compliments, and I want to see them again so much that I pray God to deliver me from mortal sin, which would be the same as delivering me from this dangerous squirely work that I've fallen into for the second time, tempted and lured by a purse with a hundred ducados that I found one day in the heart of the Sierra Morena; and the devil places before my eyes, here, there, not here but over there, a sack filled with doblones, and at every step I take I seem to touch it with my hand, and put my arms around it, and take it to my house, and hold mortgages, and collect rents, and live like a prince, and when I'm thinking about that, all the trials I suffer with this simpleton of a master seem easy to bear, even though I know he's more of a madman than a knight.'"

"And so, the history tells us that when Bachelor Sanson Carrasco advised Don Quixote to return to the chivalric undertakings he had abandoned, it was because he first had spoken privately with the priest and the barber regarding the steps that could be taken to prevail upon Don Quixote to remain quietly and peacefully at home and not be disturbed by ill-fated adventures; and the decision of this meeting was, by unanimous vote and the particular support of Carrasco, that they would allow Don Quixote to leave, since it seemed impossible to stop him, and that Sanson, as a knight errant, would meet him on the road and engage in combat with him, for there was no lack of reasons to fight, and he would vanquish him, on the assumption that this would be an easy thing to do, and it would be agreed and accepted that the vanquished would be at the mercy of the victor, and when Don Quixote had been vanquished, the bachelor-knight would order him to return to his village and his house and not leave again for two years, or until he had commanded otherwise; it was clear that the vanquished Don Quixote would undoubtedly obey in order not to contravene or disrespect the laws of chivalry, and it might be that in the time of his seclusion he would forget his illusions, or a worthwhile remedy would be found to cure his madness."

A Morisco expelled from Spain: "And so I arranged, as a prudent man, I think, and as one who knows that by a certain date the house where he lives will be taken away and he'll need to have another one to move into, I arranged, as I said, to leave the village alone, without my family, and find a place where I could take them in comfort and without the haste with which others were leaving; because I saw clearly, as did all our elders, that those proclamations were not mere threats, as some were saying, but real laws that would be put into effect at the appointed time; I was forced to believe this truth because I knew the hateful and foolish intentions of our people, and they were such that it seems to me it was divine inspiration that moved His Majesty to put into effect so noble a resolution, not because all of us were guilty, for some were firm and true Christians, though these were so few they could not oppose those who were not, but because it is not a good idea to nurture a snake in your bosom or shelter enemies in your house."

"Know then, Senor, that my name is Bachelor Sanson Carrasco; I am from the same village as Don Quixote of La Mancha, whose madness and foolishness move all of us who know him to pity; I have been one of those who pitied him most, and believing that his health depends on his remaining peacefully in his own village and in his own house, I devised a way to oblige him to do that, and so some three months ago I took to the road as a knight errant, calling myself the Knight of the Mirrors, and intending to do combat with him and defeat him without doing him harm, and setting as a condition of our combat that the vanquished would have to obey the victor; what I planned to ask of him, because I already considered him defeated, was that he return to his village and not leave it again for a year, for in that time he could be cured; but fate ordained otherwise, because he defeated me and toppled me from my horse, and so my idea did not succeed; he continued on his way, and I returned home, defeated, chagrined, and bruised from my fall, which was a dangerous one, yet not even this could diminish my desire to find him again and defeat him, as you have witnessed today."

"'Don Quixote, at that very moment, without regard for the time or the hour, withdrew with the bachelor and the priest, and when they were alone he told them briefly about his defeat and the obligation he was under not to leave his village for a year, which he intended to obey to the letter and not violate in the slightest, as befitted a knight errant bound by the order and demands of knight errantry, and that he had thought of becoming a shepherd for the year and spending his time in the solitude of the countryside, where he could freely express his amorous thoughts and devoted himself to the virtuous pastoral occupation; and he implored them, if they did not have too much to do and were not prevented by more important matters, to be his companions, and he would buy enough sheep and livestock to give them the name of shepherds; and he told them that the most important part of the business had already been taken care of, because he had given them names that would fit them like a glove.  The priest asked him to say what they were.  Don Quixote responded that he would be called Shepherd Quixotiz, and the bachelor would be Shepherd Carrascon, and the priest, Shepherd Curambro, and Sancho Panza, Shepherd Pancino."

"For me alone was Don Quixote born, and I for him; he knew how to act, and I to write; the two of us alone are one, despite and regardless of the false Tordesillan writer who dared, or will dare, to write with a coarse and badly designed ostrich feather about the exploits of my valorous knight, for it is not a burden for his shoulders or a subject for his cold creativity; and you will warn him, if you ever happen to meet him, to let the weary and crumbling bones of Don Quixote rest in the grave, and not attempt, contrary to all the statutes of death, to carry them off to Castilla la Vieja, removing him from the tomb where he really and truly lies, incapable of undertaking a third journey or a new sally; for to mock the many undertaken by so many knights errant, the two he made were enough, and they have brought delight and pleasure to everyone who knows of them, in these kingdoms as well as those abroad."

OZARK

"I have more arms than letters, and my inclination is toward arms, for I was born under the influence of the planet Mars, and so I am almost compelled to follow his path, and follow it I must despite the rest of the world; it will be useless to try to persuade me that I do not wish what heaven wishes, fortune ordains, reason demands, and, above all, what my will desires; for, knowing as I do the countless travails that accompany knight errantry, I also know the infinite benefits that can be attained through it; I know that the path of virtue is very narrow, and the road of wickedness is broad and spacious; I know that their endings and conclusions are different, because the expansive, spacious road of wickedness ends in death, and the road of virtue, so narrow and difficult, ends in life, not the life that ends, but life everlasting; and I know, as our great Castilian poet [Garcilaso de la Vega] says, that 

Along this harsh, rock-strewn terrain we climb 

to the peak, high seat of immortality, 

never reached if these rigors are declined"

--Don Quixote

With The Crown finished, we started watching the second season of Ozark, the one about the big-city family forced to launder drug cartel money in redneck country.  It's still pretty smart!

Wednesday night was the History Meetup.  We discussed South Africa.

Saturday was another Crowdread Meetup.  We were doing a crossword puzzle as a team effort--but guess who pulled ahead of the others and finished it first? (I also read them the bit from Orwell's school memoir where he describes being beaten for bed-wetting.) Krystyna shared a rainbow cake with us!

Sunday afternoon my singing group had a session singing Christmas songs.  We were going to sing at an old folk's home but the gig fell through, so we just sang at our usual place.

Afterward was the Classic Book Club, where we discussed the second half of Don Quixote. (I did finish the book in time, on the way there!) We decided to move the time to Thursday nights.

Snow

"Look, my friends, there are four kinds of lineage and, listen carefully, all the lineages in the world can be reduced to these:  some had humble beginnings, and extended and expanded until they reached the heights of greatness; others had noble beginnings, and preserved them, and still preserve and maintain them just as they were; still others may have had noble beginnings but, like pyramids, they tapered to a point, having diminished and annihilated their origins until they ended in nothingness, as the tip of the pyramid is nothing compared to its base or bottom; finally, there are others, and these are the majority, that did not have a good beginning or a reasonable middle, and therefore in the end they have no name, like the lineages of ordinary plebeians"--Don Quixote

"No shock lasts longer than 48 hours.  There's too much appetite for the next shock"--The Crown

The snow arrived yesterday.  My singing group's rehearsal was cancelled, but my memoir group had been cancelled beforehand so it wasn't affected.

Well, we may not have a bedbug problem after all.  But we gave one room a steam-cleaning Saturday to be on the safe side.

I've finished the South Africa history.  Now I have to finish Don Quixote before the book club meets on Sunday, but I like a challenge!

Finished the third season of The Crown.  It must be painful viewing for the real-life Royals! (I have a feeling that they took considerable dramatic licence...)

Lately I've been watching the Cinematic Excrement channel on Youtube.  As the name suggests, Sean "Smeghead" Moore is discussing movies he doesn't like.  But it's better than he sounds:  he goes into detail about each film, even mentioning parts that he does like!

I've started taking dinner up to my room because I don't like having to listen to the TV while I'm eating.

THE IRISHMAN

"I, then, since it is my fortune to be counted in the number of knights errant, cannot help but attack all things that seem to me to fall within the jurisdiction of my endeavours; and so, it was my rightful place to attack the lions which I now attacked, although I knew it was exceedingly reckless, because I know very well what valour means; it is a virtue that occupies a place between two wicked extremes, which are cowardice and temerity, but it is better for the valiant man to touch on and climb to the heights of temerity than to touch on and fall to the depths of cowardice; and just as it is easier for the prodigal to be generous than the miser, it is easier for the reckless man to become truly brave than for the coward; and in the matter of undertaking adventures, your grace may believe me, Senor Don Diego, it is better to lose with too many cards than too few, because 'This knight is reckless and daring' sounds better to the ear of those who hear it than 'This knight is timid and cowardly'"--Don Quixote

"When someone says 'I'm a little concerned,' that means he's very concerned.  When he says 'I'm more than a little concerned,' that means he's desperate"--The Irishman

Monday night I saw Martin Scorsese's The Irishman at the Kingsway.  It was overlong but pretty effective.

The Crown in its third season is still pretty effective too, but it's getting a bit bleak.  I'm not sure I'll be able to bear a fourth season set in the Thatcher era! (I must say that Tony Blair makes me appreciate Harold Wilson, who was at least trying to change things.)

I'm now reading Gail Natrass' history of South Africa for my History Meetup.  I think Jimmy Carter doesn't get enough credit for introducing human rights as a foreign policy concern for the American government in places like South Africa.  It was a watershed, and Reagan couldn't turn the clock back, though to his great discredit he tried to.

Moira borrowed the PBS documentary series The Civil War from the library, which we love.  But we only had ten days to see it, and it soon emerged that we wouldn't have time, for reasons I'd rather not go into.

In the game Elvenar I'm now at the stage of building dwarven granite mines!  

The other night I was so angry I couldn't sleep.

Adventures in dating

Well, it's been a while since I posted on this blog.

I've been in touch with several women on Silver Singles and OKCupid.  And getting close to meeting them!

I was hoping to meet Robin the poet on Thursday, but we couldn't get together to finalize details. It's just as well, because on Thursday I woke up with a huge headache!  It must have been the flu or something.

Just the night before I'd seen the latest episode of Pooch Cafe, one of the comic strips I follow at Go Comics. (I used to read it in The Globe and Mail.) There was a joke involving a cat regurgitating a hairball, and I couldn't resist posting in the comments section this classic cheer:

Regurgitate, regurgitate!

Bring up everything you ate!

V! O! M-I-T!

Vomit, vomit, vomit, blyaagghh!

I must have tempted karma, because on the following evening I went through severe nausea. We'd bought this new butter chicken and it seemed to disagree with me.  Or maybe it was just the flu.  On the bright side, my headache went away!

Today I met Kim from OK Cupid and we went for a walk on Harbourfront. (I got her consent to write about her here.) It was surprisingly nice weather for a walk--there'd been a cold wind just earlier, but it was gone.  Kim treated me to a Tim Horton's doughnut!  It's an auspicious start.

Tonight we saw the first episode of the third season of The Crown. (We resubscribed to Netflix just for that.) It involved Churchill's death and Anthony Blunt.  They recast the lead roles, but it's eerie how similar their performances are!

THE GODFATHER PART II

On knight errantry: "It is a science, replied Don Quixote, "that contains all or most of the sciences in the world, because the man who professes it must be a jurist and know the laws of distributive and commutative justice so that he may give to each person what is his and what he ought to have; he must be a theologian so that he may know how to explain the Christian law he professes, clearly and distinctly, no matter where he is asked to do so; he must be a physician, and principally an herbalist, so that he may know, in the midst of wastelands and deserts, the herbs that have the virtue to heal wounds, for the knight errant cannot always go looking for someone to heal him; he must be an astrologer, so that he can tell by the stars how many hours of the night have passed, and in what part and climate of the world he finds himself; he must know mathematics, because at every step he will have need of them; and leaving aside the fact that he must be adorned with all the theological and cardinal virtues, and descending to the small details, I say that he must know how to swim as well as the say the fishman Nicolas, or Nicolao, could swim; he must know how to shoe a horse and repair a saddle and bridle; and returning to what was said before, he must keep his faith in God and in his lady; he must be chaste in his thoughts, honest in his words, liberal in his actions, valiant in his deeds, long-suffering in his afflictions, charitable with those in need, and finally, an upholder of the truth, even if it costs him his life to defend it."

"Connie, listen to me!  If you don't listen to me and marry this man... I'll be disappointed"--The Godfather Part II

It snowed yesterday.  I went to the memoir group but only two people showed up, so we cancelled.

Today I saw Francis Coppola's The Godfather Part II again at the Yonge & Dundas.  I remembered it was great, but I'd forgotten how great it was!  Three and a half hours long, and worth every minute of your time.  It's about the USA and immigrants and crime and politics and family and business and power and corruption...

This sequel cleverly reworks some of the famous details of the original.  Like, the first movie ends with Michael's wife watching his office door being closed on her.  There's a similar shot late in this movie, but this time it's done from his perspective! (The subtext is that Michael's cutting himself off from those who are close to him.) Michael Corleone is still Al Pacino's greatest role.  

Among other things, this film's a superb visual achievement--the restorers did a great job. (How did Gordon Willis lose the Best Cinematography Oscar to The Towering Inferno?)  Johnny Ola was played by Dominic Chianese, who was later Uncle Junior on The Sopranos.  I want some of that Cuba cake they were sharing! 

Some DON QUIXOTE quotes

I've started the second half of Don Quixote.  In the first chapters the characters talk about the first half's reception. (How Meta!) And there are some interesting cultural discussions.

As you can see, I like all the novel's ultralong sentences!

"The niece and housekeeper were present at this conversation, and they never tired of giving thanks to God at seeing their lord and master with all his wits; the priest, however, changing his earlier intention, which was not to touch on chivalric matters, wanted a more thorough test of whether or not Don Quixote's recovery was false or true, and so he gradually began to recount new of the court, and among other things, he said it was thought certain that the Turk would come down with a powerful fleet, but no one new his plans or where the huge cloud would burst; this fear, which has on the alert almost every year, had now affected all of Christendom, and His Majesty had fortified the coasts of Naples and Sicily and the island of Malta."

"The chaplain agreed, visited the madman, spoke to him for more than an hour, and in all that time the madman never made a confused or foolish statement; rather, he spoke so judiciously that the chaplain was obliged to believe that the madman was sane; one of the things the madman told him was that the superintendent bore him ill will because he did not want to lose the gifts his relatives gave him for saying he was still mad, though with periods of lucidity; the greatest obstacle for him in his misfortune was his wealth, because in order to enjoy it, his enemies were deceptive and denied the mercy Our Lord had shown by turning him from a beast back into a man."

"No longer does anyone ride out of this forest and into those mountains, and from there tread upon a bare and desolate beach, the sea most often stormy and tempestuous, and find along the shore a small boat without oars, sail, mast, or any kind of rigging, and with intrepid heart climb in and give himself over to the implacable waves of the deepest ocean, which first raise him up to heaven and then toss him into the abyss; and, with his breast turned to the insurmountable strom, when he least expects it he finds himself more than three leaps out of the boat onto a distant unknown land, and there things occur that are worthy of being written not on parchment, but bronze."

"There is another error," responded Don Quixote, "into which many have fallen:  they do not believe that such knights ever existed in the world, and with a variety of people and on different occasions, I have often attempted to bring this common misconception into the light of truth; sometimes I have not succeeded in my intention, and at other times I have, supporting it on the shoulders of truth, and this truth is so certain I can almost say I have seen Amadis of Gaul with my own eyes:  tall, with a pale face and nicely trimmed black beard and a gaze both gentle and severe, he was a man of few words, slow to anger and quick to put aside wrath; and just as I have depicted Amadis, I could, I believe, portray and describe all the knights errant who wander through all the histories in the world, because it is my understanding that they were just as their histories recount, and by means of the deeds they performed and the circumstances in which they lived, and by using sound philosophy, one can deduce their features, their natures, and their stature."

"So far it's been nothing but child's play, but if your grace wants to know all the slander they're saying about you, I'll bring somebody here who will tell you everything and not leave out a crumb; last night Bartolome Carrasco's son, who's been studying at Salamanca, came home with his bachelor's degree, and I went to welcome him home and he told me that the history of your grace is already in books, and it's called The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha; and he says that in it they mention me, Sancho Panza, by name, and my lady Dulcinea of Toboso, and other things that happened when we were alone, so that I crossed myself in feat at how the historian who wrote them could have known about them."

"All this is true, Senor Don Quixote," said Carrasco, "but I should like those censurers to be more merciful and less severe and not pay so much attention to the motes in the bright sun of the work they criticize, for if aliquando bonus dormitat Homerus [even blind Homer nods], they should consider how often he was awake to give a brilliant light to his work with the least amount of shadow possible; and it well may be that what seem defects to them are birthmarks that often increase the beauty of the face where they appear; and so I say that whoever prints a book exposes himself to great danger, since it is utterly impossible to write in a way that will satisfy and please everyone who reads it."

"As for what Senor Sanson said about people wanting to know who stole my donkey, and how, and when, I can answer by saying that on the same night we were running from the Holy Brotherhood, and entered the Sierra Morena after the misadventurous adventure of the galley slaves, and of the dead man being carried to Segovia, my master and I rode into a stand of trees where my master rested on his lance, and I on my donkey, and battered and tired from our recent skirmishes, we began to sleep as if we were lying on four featherbeds; I was so sound asleep that whoever the thief was could come up to me, and put me on four stakes that he propped under the four sides of my packsaddle, and leave me mounted on them, and take my donkey our from under me without my even knowing it."

"I spent them for myself, and my wife, and my children, and they are the reason my wife patiently puts up with my traveling highways and byways in the service of my master, Don Quixote; if after so much time I came back home without a blanca and without my donkey, a black future would be waiting for me; if there's any more to know about me, here I am, and I'll answer the king himself in person, and nobody has any reason to worry about whether I kept them or didn't keep them, spent them or didn't spend them; if the beatings I got on these journeys were paid for in money, even if they didn't cost more than four maravedis a piece, another hundred escudos wouldn't pay for half of them; so let each man put his hand over his own heart and not start judging white as black and black as white; each of us is as God made him, and often much worse."

"No sooner had Sancho said these words than the sound of Rocinante neighing reached their ears; Don Quixote took this as a very good omen and resolved that in three or four days he would undertake another sally, and after declaring his intention to the bachelor, he asked his advice as to the direction he should take on his journey; the bachelor responded that in his opinion, he ought to go to the kingdom of Aragon and the city of Zaragosa, where in a few days they would be holding solemn jousts for the Festival of San Jorge, and there he could win fame vanquishing all the knights in the world.

"I, Senor Sanson, don't plan to win fame as a valiant man but as the best and most loyal squire who ever served a knight errant; and if my master, Don Quixote, as a reward for my many good services, wants to give me one of the many insulas that his grace says are to be found out there, I'll be very happy to accept it; and if he doesn't give it to me, I'm a human being, and a man shouldn't live depending on anybody but God; besides, bread will taste as good, and maybe even better, whether I'm a governor or not; for all I know, in those governorships the devil could have set a snare for me that will make me stumble and fall and knock out all my teeth."

"The bachelor responded that although he was not one of the famous poets of Spain, who as people said, did not number more than three and a half, he would be sure to write the lines, although he found a great difficulty in their composition because the number of letters in her name was seventeen, and if he made four Castilian stanzas of four octosyllabic lines each, there would be one letter too many, and if he made the stanzas of five octosyllabic lines each, the ones called decimas or redondillas, there would be three letters too few; despite this, however he would attempt to somehow shrink one letter so that the name Dulcinea of Toboso would fit into four Castilian stanzas."

"Look, Teresa," responded Sancho, "I'm happy because I've decided to serve my master, Don Quixote, again, for he wants to leave a third time to seek adventures; and I'll leave with him again, because of my need and the hope, which makes me happy, of thinking that I may find another hundred escudos like the ones that have already been spent, thought it makes me sad to have to leave you and my children; and if it was God's will to give me food with my feet dry and in my own house, not leading me through wastelands and crossroads, He could do it at very little cost and just by wanting it, then of course my happiness would be firmer and truer, for what I feel now is mixed with the sorrow of leaving you; and so, I was right to say that I would be delighted, if it was God's will, not to be happy."

"Look, my friend," responded Don Quixote, "not all knights can be courtiers, and not all courtiers can or should be knights errant; there has to be some of each in the world, and although we are all knights, there is a vast difference between us; courtiers, without leaving their chambers or passing beyond the threshold of the court, travel the entire world by looking at a map, not spending a blanca or suffering heat or cold, hunger or thirst; but we the true knights errant, measure the earth with our own feet, exposed to the sun, the cold, the wind, and the inclemencies of heaven, both night and day, on foot and on horseback; and we know our enemies not only in portraits but in their actual persons, and no matter the danger and regardless of the occasion we do battle with them, not worrying about trifles or the laws governing duels:  whether one combatant has or does not have a shorter lance or sword, or has on his person a relic, or some hidden deception, or if the sun is to be apportioned or slashed to bits, and other ceremonies of this nature that are used in private duels between individuals, which you do not know about, but I do.  And you should also know something else:  the good knight errant may see ten giants whose heads not only touch the clouds but go above them, each with legs that are two immense towers and whose arms resemble the masts of large and powerful ships, each eye like a huge mill wheel burning hotter than a glass furnace, yet he must not be afraid in the slightest, but with a gallant air and an intrepid heart he must charge and attack them and, if possible, defeat and rout them in an instant, even if they are armed with the shells of a certain fish that are, they say, harder than diamonds, and instead of swords they carry sharp knives of Damascene steel, or clubs studded with steel spikes, which I have seem more than a few times."

SMOKE and DICK

"We have a school report on turquoise jewellery in two days and we can't find any books on it, and the government is following us.  We're under a lot of pressure--leave us alone!"--Dick

Thursday I was going to stream Dick but I couldn't remember my Apple password and they sent me an email with a link for changing it just when my email app was acting up and wouldn't take it!  Instead I went on Youtube and watched the Wonderful World of Disney film Smoke.

Smoke is a 1969 production with Ron Howard as Chris, a boy of 15 who saw his father die in a fiery car crash and now lives on a sheep ranch where he has a testy relationship with his new stepfather, who won't let him get a dog because he's afraid a dog will bother the sheep.  But then Chris finds a wounded feral dog in the woods--the opening scene with the fight where he got his wound has an Ernest Thompson Seton feel.  He treats the wound and starts feeding the dog, but keeps him secret from the parents. In the end they do learn of the dog, whom Chris names Smoke, and let him bring the dog home but insist on publishing a newspaper ad to see if Smoke's old master claims him.  Eventually the old master does turn up, so Chris runs away with Smoke...  It's a remarkably good story:  I'd forgotten how good some of those Disney films were!

The following day the password problem got solved and I did get to see Dick.  Directed by Andrew Fleming, it's a hilarious goofy comedy about two ditzy teenage girls who get involved in the Watergate scandal!  It has a nice period feel and some offbeat casting. (Dave Foley as H.R. Haldeman?)

OKCupid

I've found a new dating website called OKCupid.  For this one you can answer a whole lot of questions and decide if the other person's answer to each question is important to you. (Questions like "If you could only choose one, would you save a beloved pet from a house fire or a human?") Answering these questions is fun--I've answered over a thousand, and largely deemed them unimportant. About the only important question for me is whether she smokes.  It's as fun as actually meeting the women!

I decided I had to quit the Toronto City Opera production of Tales of Hoffmann.  I just don't have the energy for it this year!  Better to disappoint them now than later.

Sunday my Classic Book Club discussed Don Quixote.  I feared another minimal turnout, but there were actually five people including me.

Yesterday at the memoir group they had a subject I couldn't think of anything to say about: "Emotions." Funny how I can get pretty emotional on some subjects, but when it comes to talking about emotions in general I draw a blank.  Bev wondered if it has something to do with me being an Aspie...

I've had some trouble lately with Ontario Disability Support Payments. (I got a letter from them back in July about being audited, which I carelessly misplaced!) But everything's settled now, and I'm getting the payments again.  Father and Moira were more worried about it than I was--money just isn't that real to me.

The last few days the others have been eating dinner in front of the TV, watching Stephen Colbert's show.  I prefer to eat in the dining room, not because I dislike the show but because I'd rather focus on my food. (I can hear the show anyway.) I'm glad they don't see me as antisocial!

On Youtube lately I've been watching clips from Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert's PBS movie-review show Sneak Previews from between 1978 and 1982.  Some of their Dogs of the Week were "Hollywood North" productions from Canada.

Canada's 2019 election under my system

As promised, I shall explain how the election would have turned out under the specific proportional- representation system that I favour. (I'll assume that the popular vote is the same.)

First, I'll explain my system again.  Most seats will be in the A category, elected in the same "first past the post" system as before.  At least 1/4 of each province's seats will be in the B category, and distributed so that the total of A and B seats in each province will be as close to the popular vote as possible.  And at least 1/25 of each province's seats will be in the C category. Normally, the C seats will go the party that leads the popular vote in the province, but if a party wins more A seats alone than its proportional share of A and B seats together (think landslide) they'll go to the other parties to bring them closer to their proportional share. (Ontario will have 5 C seats, Quebec 3, BC and Alberta 2, all other provinces 1.) The territorial seats will be unchanged. 

This system is close to what they have in Germany, which has proved very stable.

Here's the actual results (courtesy of Wikipedia):

*** Lib PC NDP BQ Gr PP Ind

NL    6            1

PEI   4

NS   10    1

NB    6     3                   1

PQ   35   10    1     32

ON  79   36     6

MN   4     7     3

SK          14

AB          33   1

BC   11   17  11              2         1

Terrs  2           1

________

*** 157  121  24    32    3         1

Here's what would have happened under my system.  I'll use a "/" to divide each party's result into A seats, and B and C seats together.

***  Lib PC NDP Gr PP BQ Ind

NL   3/1     0/2  1/0

PEI  2/0     0/1          0/1

NS   6/0     1/1  0/2   0/1

NB   3/1     2/1   0/1  1/1

PQ  25/1    7/5   1/7   0/3 0/1 22/3

ON 57/0  26/12 4/15 0/6 0/1

MN  3/0    4/3   2/1   0/1

SK   0/2    9/1    0/3

AB   0/5  23/1   1/3   0/1 0/1

BC   8/2  12/4   7/3   2/3      1/0

Terrs  2               1

_______

A seats:  119  84   17    3  0  22  1

B+C:      12    31   36  17  3    3

Total:     131 115   53  20  3  25  1

True, the Liberals still have more seats despite the Conservative plurality in the popular vote, but the margin is significantly closer. The Liberals take the biggest lost, and the Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois are slightly worse off. Predictably, it's the NDP and the Greens who gain.  The People's Party manages three seats, as if that makes much difference. (Their presence in Parliament is a price I'm willing to pay!)

Election day

"All these difficulties, and many others I will not mention, would cease if there were at court an intelligent and judicious person who would examine each play before it was performed, not only those produced in the capital, but also those put on anywhere in Spain, and without his approval, stamp, and signature, no magistrate anywhere would permit a play to be performed; in this fashion, the players would be careful to send their plays to court, and then they could perform them in safety, and those who write them would consider what they were doing with more thought and care, knowing that their works would have to undergo a rigorous examination by one who understands the art; in this way good plays would be written and their purposes achieved; the entertainment of the common people, the good opinion of creative minds in Spain, the legitimate interests and safety of the actors, and the avoidance of the need to punish them"--Don Quixote

I voted Monday morning.  I mostly skipped the campaign's post-election bash (at a pub confusingly named The Gym!) because the noise gets to me.  I went home and streamed Peter Yates' movie The Deep, just for Robert Shaw.  It was kinda fun in an obvious way--the white characters were good guys and the black characters were bad guys, sort of like white and black cowboy hats in a western. Anything but deep.

Sure, I'm disappointed about the election.  In my next post I'll talk about what the results would have been under the proportional representation system I favour. (Stay tuned!)

Tuesday night I went to a dessert event for the Meetup for people over 50, at Demetres Danforth. Only a few people showed up, but I had a nice crepe dish with strawberry ice cream inside!

Wednesday John was digging more dirt from around the water pipe in the basement, and Moira and I were toting it out to the back yard.  There was a lot of dirt left over and I was hoping I'd get to move some of it, but by the time I was ready Moira had moved all of it! (Don't know how she does it without tiring...)

Tonight I saw the DVD of Richard Harris in Cromwell (for the second time) with the History Meetup.  Parts of it sounded like a stage play!

I've finished the first half of Don Quixote, and now I can focus on the book about Balkan history.

Shreddies

"He recounted the examination he had made of them [Don Quixote's books], those he had condemned to the flames and those he had saved, and at this the canon laughed more than a little and said that despite all the bad things he had said about those books, he found one good thing in them, which was the opportunity for display that they offered a good mind, providing a broad and spacious field where one's pen could write unhindered, describing shipwrecks, storms, skirmishes, and battles; depicting a valiant captain with all the traits needed to be one, showing him to be a wise predictor of his enemy's clever moves, an eloquent orator in persuading or dissuading his soldiers, mature in counsel, unhesitating in resolve, as valiant in waiting as in the attack; portraying a tragic lamentable incident or a joyful, unexpected event, a most beautiful lady who is virtuous, discreet, and modest or a Christian knight who is courageous, valiant, and astute; and representing the goodness and loyalty of vassals and the greatness and generosity of lords"--Don Quixote

It's been over a week since my last post in this blog! (Not much was happening on Thanksgiving weekend.) 

I have been doing a lot of stuff at the Alok Mukherjee campaign office, especially shredding paper.  Shredding is fun, it's so destructive!  I've shredded enough paper to fill several garbage bags. (Does anyone have an upcoming ticker tape parade?)

Last weekend I went to another Crowdreads Meetup.  We were discussing censorship, and I read the first part of No Kiss For Mother, the Tomi Ungerer children's book that prompted a backlash from 1972 grownups.  I also read part of Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes, about when he was working for a magazine distributor and the government banned a page about birth control from one magazine, so the distributor went around and tore out the page, but McCourt secreted a lot of copies and sold them on the black market!  And I read the part of Huckleberry Finn where he prayed for a fishing line but didn't get hooks.

Yesterday my opera group was rehearsing Tales of Hoffmann at dinner time, and I thought Father and Moira knew I wouldn't be home for dinner, but they didn't!  At the singing group today we sang "The Belle of Belfast City."

On Youtube I found a channel that's posted a lot of clips from Sneak Previews, the PBS movie review show with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert from the late 1970s and early '80s.

Online dating

"There is no need to continue,' responded Dorotea, "except to say in conclusion that my good fortune has been so great in finding Don Quixote that I already consider and think of myself as queen and mistress of my entire kingdom, for he, in his courtesy and nobility, has promised me the boon of going with me wherever I may lead, and this is nowhere else but to Pandafilando of the Gloomy Glance so that he may kill him and restore to me what the giant has so unjustly usurped; all this will happen exactly as I have said, because this is what Tinacrio the Mage, my good father, prophesied; he also said, and left it written in Chaldean or Greek, neither of which I can read, that if the knight of his prophecy, after cutting off the head of the giant, wished to marry me, I should immediately and without argument, give myself to him to be his legitimate wife and grant him possession of both my kingdom and my person"--Don Quixote

I've been getting into online dating just lately.  I joined a site called Soulgeek, for people who are into comics and anime and such.  There was a questionnaire asking "What comics character would you most like to be?" and I answered Batman.  Then it asked "What comics character are you most like in real life?" and I answered Alfred the Butler!

The other day I was on the Zoosk website and got a chat message from a woman who was impressed by my Ph.D. (It impresses other people more than it does me...) I've forgotten her name but I remember that she was a law clerk.  If you're reading this, message me again!

At the Mukherjee campaign office, I was pressing Mukherjee pins.  They have a machine with two round holes that you fit metal discs into:  the one without the safety pin on the left, the one with it on the right so that the squiggly wire is facing up and the part with the point is facing down.  Then you take these pieces of paper with Mukherjee's name and cut out circular shapes from them. (That's the biggest challenge, but I've got pretty good at it.) Then you put it over the left disc and put a plastic circle over it.  Then you rotate clockwise so the left disc is away from you and the right disc is closer, and you press.  Then you rotate counter-clockwise so that the right disc is away from you and press again, and you have a pin ready to go!  I've produced dozens.

I've been colouring two more zone maps of the riding, one showing the results of the last federal election in 2015, the other last year's provincial election where we elected Jill Andrew.  I was surprised just how well we did last year:  there were about twenty zones where Jill got over 50% of the vote!

At Sunday's singing group, we did the calypso song "Yellow Bird" and the country song "Last Thing on My Mind," as well as "Side by Side."

The other day I watched a Youtube video that played Stravinsky's Rite of Spring while showing each page of the score as it was being played.  Anyone who can conduct that score has my respect!

Headache!

"It would not be surprising if that were the case, because it is evident to me that in my imagination the power of my afflictions is so intense and contributes so much to my ruination that I am powerless to prevent it and I become like a stone, bereft of all sense and awareness; I become conscious of this truth only when people tell me and show me the evidence of the things I have done while that terrible  attack has control over me, and all I can do is lament my fate in vain, and curse it to no avail, and offer as an excuse for my mad acts the recounting of their cause to all who wish to hear it, for if rational men see the cause, they will not be surprised by the effects, and if they cannot help me, at least they will not blame me, and anger at my outbursts will be transformed into pity for my misfortunes"--Don Quixote

It's got cool the last couple of days, and I got another big headache.  At tonight's opera rehearsal, where we were doing the part with Olympia the dancing robot, I had to leave halfway through.

Sunday was the first fall rehearsal for my singing group.  We sang "Come By the Hills" and the Irving Berlin song "Blue Skies." It was our accompanist's birthday, and someone brought a cake!

I've been doing a lot of different stuff at Alok Mukherjee's campaign office.  Tuesday  I took a wall map of the riding and colored the 200-odd poll zones according to our party strength:  weakest blue, weaker yellow, medium green, orange stronger, red strongest. (If it were up to me, I'd make yellow medium and green weaker, but that's just me...) We have four red zones but none blue.  As I expected, the NDP is strongest in the southwest and weakest in the middle with the Forest Hill millionaires: millionaire socialists are a cliche!  But we've been gaining strength in the area east of Yonge Street.

Wednesday the History Meetup discussed Korea. (I finished reading the background book on the way there!) Now I've started reading Mark Mazower's The Balkans:  A Short History for next month.  It turns out that the Balkan Peninsula only got its name in the 19th century!

Our house used to have a fireplace that's long been walled up.  John's been removing the now-exposed chimney one brick at a time, to make more room, and Moira and I have been toting them to a pile outdoors.