HISTORY'S PEOPLE

I finished reading Bill Bryson's One Summer last week, and started reading Margaret MacMillan's History's People:  Personalities and the Past, based on the Massey Lectures she gave last year.  It's about leaders and such.  I noticed that when she talked about Mackenzie King she dated Canada's conscription referendum at 1940, when it was actually 1942! (You'd think an editor would have caught that goof.)

Wednesday night the History Discussion Group screened the video of the MGM movie The Good Earth, which I saw for the third time. (I'd borrowed it from the library.) Debi the host and I were the only people who saw it, because I was careless and forgot to post the event till a few days before!  But we had a good time anyhow.

I've started watching The Adventure of English on Youtube.  It's a British documentary series about the history of the English language, hosted by The South Bank Show host Melvyn Bragg. (The puppet satire Spitting Image made fun of Bragg's post-nasal drip, always showing him with nasal spray!)

I just figured out that I can do a zoom-in on the window of my Safari browser by pressing the plus sign with the command key. (I discovered it by accident, pressing the minus sign with the command key and getting a zoom-out!) So I reduced the browser's minimum font size from 24 to 18, and when I read the movie box-office figures at http://boxofficemojo.com --I'm a geek about things like box-office figures, though I pay them less attention than I used to--now I can see the movie title and its budget at the same time without shifting the scroll bar.

I finally finished reading Why Read Moby-Dick? a book John Snow gave me by Nathaniel Philbrick (In the Heart of the Sea). Moby-Dick, I imagine, is one of those books whose meaning deepens with each successive reading.  He might have talked more about Elijah, the old sailor they meet in Nantucket who warns them that Ahab is nuts and the Pequod is doomed.

brilliant.com

I've been getting lazy in this July heat!  Even doing one thing takes an effort just now.

Today was Reading Out Loud.  There were nine people, more than usual.  I read some of the character descriptions at the start of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Orwell's essay "Decline of the English Murder." Jane read Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit and a couple of Hamlet's soliloquies. (I borrowed her book and read Polonius' speech to his son!) Some other girls read Coleridge's "Kublai Khan" and Tennyson's "The Lady of Shallot."

I have a Facebook app for the website brilliant.com , which sends me a challenging puzzle every day.  There was one involving Fibonacci series, where the first two entries are 1 and the later ones the sum of the previous two:  1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987, 1597... This puzzle asked what the sum would be for 1+1/2+2/4+3/8+5/16+8/32+... I figured out that it must be 4. That's because this sum equals 1+1/2+(1+1)/4+(2+1)/8+(3+2)/16+... which equals 1+(1/2+1/4)+(1/4+1/8)+(2/8+2/16)+... which equals 1+ (3/4)*(1+1/2+2/4+3/8+...) (I never look up the answer:  either I know it or I don't.)

Just the other night there was another question where we know that a+b=a*b=3, so what does a^3+b^3 equal?  You can figure out the answer through simple algebra: a^3+b^3=(a+b)^3-3*a*b^2-3*b*a^2=(a+b)^3- 3*(a*b)*(a+b)=27-27=0.  

But I like to do things the hard way, so I imagined the complex numbers that a and be could be.  I figured out that a would be 3/2 +i*[3^(1/2)/2] while b would be 3/2 - i*[3^(1/2)/2] (or vice versa!). Alternatively, you could say that a= 3^(1/2)*e^[i*pi/6] and b=3^(1/2)*e^[i*-pi/6].  And I noticed some other interesting things:  a^2+b^2=3, a^4+b^4=-9, a^6+b^6=-54, a^8+b^8=-81, a^10+b^10=243, a^12+b^12=1458!

That's the sort of puzzle that keeps me awake late at night!  Imagine the puzzle where a+b=a*b=1...

Salsa weekend

This weekend was the Salsa on St. Clair festival, so my neighbourhood was pretty noisy again.

Wednesday night I saw The Free State of Jones at the Yonge & Dundas with the History Discussion Group.  It was pretty good despite being overlong.  Matthew McConaughey is getting meatier roles these days.

I was going to see another Hitchcock movie, North by Northwest, on Thursday night but it was on early and John and his family were coming over for dinner, so I had to cancel.  Today I planned to go to The Man Who Knew Too Much ('50s version), but again dinner was late so I cancelled again.

Yesterday the History Discussion Group met at Black Creek Pioneer Village to discussion Pierre Berton's Canada.  Getting there was an adventure: I took the express bus to the York University campus, then walked west.  I'd never noticed that the two places were so close together!

This afternoon the Classic Book Club discussed The Good Earth.  Which reminds me that I'll have to get Moira to order the library copy of the movie because I've misplaced my card!

Malware

Friday the internet connection went out on the downstairs computer.  Sunday it went out on mine!  Nothing like internet interruption to make you appreciate how important the web is.  I needed to set the location for tomorrow night's History Discussion Group screening so I went to the library.  I couldn't find my library card but Moira brought hers and I got online through her assistance!

Monday night my techie brother Donald came over and solved the trouble quickly.  It turned out that the downstairs computer had some malware that got downloaded a couple of years ago and only became active now.  And Father was fiddling with the connection Saturday night and lost mine too!

I'm now re-reading Bill Bryson's One Summer:  America 1927 for the History Discussion Group.  It's still a really entertaining read!  Lindbergh sounds like an Asperger's Syndrome case like me.

Thursday night I saw Hitchcock's Psycho again.  Only just now did I notice that when Anthony Perkins starts smiling at the end of his last scene--just before the last shot of the car being towed out of the swamp--for a few frames Hitch superimposes his mother's skull on his face!  Why didn't I notice that before?

I've started rereading my Menomonee Falls Gazette collection.  That's the paper from the early '70s that reprinted story strips like Secret Agent Corrigan and Modesty Blaise and Rip Kirby.  I've started compiling an index of it, listing the strips and their main characters and the stories covered in the MFG reprints.  It's one of those projects of mine that's easier to start than to finish!

More on my Ph.D. research

Some of my Ph.D. research material was missionary writing.  I did some research at the United Church archives near the U. of T. campus. (The Methodists, later the United Church, took over a mission from David Livingstone's London Mission Society shortly before the revolution of 1912.) 

The Protestant missions in Sichuan came together to form an organization for joint efforts.  I don't remember the exact name, but they had a great motto: "In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity." (The NDP should adopt that motto!) One of the things they did was put out a monthly journal, but after the Japanese started a full-scale war in 1937 there was such a paper shortage that they had to print it on tissue-like paper that could only be printed on one side!

One book I read was Test Tubes and Dragon Scales, written by someone who'd been a medical missionary in Chongqing in the 1930s.  He mentioned a colourful if shady foreign businessman, but not by name.  But I guessed that he was probably G.D. Lichfield because he had a motor-car in the city before anyone else did!

After finishing my thesis I actually went on a tour of China, which included Chongqing.  The city was smaller than I'd imagined it, of course. (Just like when you meet celebrities they're never as tall as you expect, except for basketball players and models.) One interesting thing in today's Chongqing is that they have a network of sidewalks that go over the street!  We should get something like that in Toronto too.

I just read that the Chinese are making a movie about the Japanese bombing of Chongqing, the Nationalist Chinese capital, between 1938 and 1943. (It was comparable to the Blitz of London, including death tolls.) It'll star Bruce Willis.

If this subject interests you, my thesis has been posted online.  It's at http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp03/NQ56244.pdf

LAPHAM'S QUARTERLY

The other night I finally finished the fashion issue of Lapham's Quarterly.  Now I've started reading the spying issue from last winter. (After that come the disaster issue and the gambling issue.)

I also finished Pierre Berton's Canada.  Next I'll be rereading Bill Bryson's One Summer (about America in the summer of 1927) for the History Discussion Group.

Saturday afternoon I went on a march in Bloordale, from Jane to High Park stations.  It was a march to show support for Moslem refugees, in response to one by the anti-immigrant group PEGIDA the week before.

Sunday afternoon I saw King Vidor's Show People at the Revue, a Marion Davies silent comedy (for the second time).  What with her reputation as William Randolph Hearst mistress, it's easy to forget that she did have talent!  But in the sound era he ended up putting her in overproduced musicals.

I've recently started rereading my Menomonee Falls Gazette collection.  It's a weekly magazine from the early 1970s that reprinted the finest daily dramatic comic strips from the time.  (Stuff like Modesty Blaise and Rip Kirby and Secret Agent Corrigan and Tarzan...) I accumulated the collection by buying it on Ebay about a decade ago, and have all except a few issues at the end of its run of over four years.  There are still a few parts of it that I haven't read!  My new ambition is to compile an index showing all the strips the magazine carried, along with the writers and artists and capsules of all the reprinted stories for each strip.  The story strip was past its 1930s peak by then, but the art and writing were still way better than today!

Researching my Ph.D. thesis

Since John Snow is curious, I decided to do a blog post describing the research I did on my Ph.D. thesis twenty years ago.  It was on the treaty port of Chongqing in Sichuan, which was only opened in 1891.  And it was among the only treaty ports that hadn't been overrun by the Japanese when the system of extraterritoriality was ended in 1943.

The first thing I looked at was reports issued by the Imperial Maritime Customs, a department created by the Qing dynasty to handle the empire's foreign trade, including trade between treaty ports, which was mostly staffed by foreigners. (After the 1912 revolution it was just the Maritime Customs, and gradually got taken over by Chinese officials.) They issued five ten-year reports between 1891 and 1931, but also a long series of annual reports.

For me the summer of 1994 was the Summer of The North China Herald.  I spent the whole summer reading reports by that Shanghai-based English newspaper's Chongqing correspondents, on microfilm at the Robarts Library.  By the time I was finished, I had opera music going around in my head! (Wagner in particular, like "Elsa's Dream" and the Prize Song.)

Between May of 1995 and January of 1996 I was in London, staying at Goodenough College. (Lucky for me that my sister had stayed their the year before and put in a good word for me!) Most of my research was consular reports at the British government archives in Kew, which was quite a commute.  I also found some stuff at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies.

I often found interesting details in "throwaway" comments.  Like when they showed figures for passengers on the foreign ships sailing between treaty ports, they mentioned that some of the Chinese passengers were actually Japanese who passed themselves off as natives for the cheaper fare!

Some of the individual "characters" were interesting too.  Chongqing got "opened" as a treaty port, then opened to steamship trade, through the efforts of a merchant called Archibald Little, who wasn't so successful but did play the pioneer role.  His wife Alicia  was a travel writer, and one of the leaders of China's first anti-footbinding movement!

SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT

"What a strong little sugar plum you are!"--Smiles of a Summer Night

Wednesday was another History Discussion Group screening at Debi's place.  I was going to borrow a DVD of Tony Richardson's 1968 version of Charge of the Light Brigade from Malcolm, but we couldn't get together, so at the last minute I changed it to Ingmar Bergman's 1950s sex comedy Smiles of a Summer Night (which I saw for the second time).

It went over pretty well.  I was thinking that the '50s was the last time when they made subtly sexy movies. (After that came the '60s, and sex got obvious, especially in the movies.) This was about the time of the summer solstice, which was appropriate enough.

So the British have taken the plunge and voted to leave the EU!  It seems a boneheaded move:  the EU will still dominate the British economy, but now Britain will have no input!  Yet if I'd been a British voter, I would have been tempted to vote Yes just to "shock the system," as they said in the 1960s. (Sort of like heaving a rock at a beehive...)

Last night I had an unusually vivid dream in which I visited Chongqing (the Chinese treaty port I wrote my Ph.D. thesis about) just before World War II, and told a Chinese girl some of the things that were about to happen!

Tonight the choir did a concert at an old folks' home near Keele and Sheppard.  When we sang "Que Sera, Sera" I did the second verse solo! (That's the one that starts, "When I grew up and fell in love...") Oksana drove me and Clotilde up there and back.  Paolo always pulls a surprise or two, and this time we sang "You Are My Sunshine," which I didn't know except for the chorus.  Gary from my memoir group has now joined!

While I was there I also arranged to take singing lessons from Alexei, another choir member.  He lives up in Richmond Hill and could come to my house on Monday afternoon, but that's the time of the memoir group, so I'll have to come to him, on another day.  He charges $30 a lesson, which is very reasonable! (Even Giuseppe charged $50!)

BILLIONS & MANHATTAN

"What's the point of having 'Fuck you' money if you never say 'Fuck you'?"--Billions

Daughter: "It's Kafkaesque!" Mother: "At least she's reading"--Manhattan

We've started watching some new shows on Crave TV.  One is Billions, a really sharp show about Manhattan prosecutor Paul Giamatti about to take on Wall Street billionaire Damian Lewis.  The kinky opening scene seemed a bit gratuitous.

The other one is Manhattan, about the World War II scientists developing the first A-bombs, and their families living in top secrecy at Los Alamos.  This subject interests Father since he's been a nuclear physicist.

Tuesday we watched Listen to Marlon, a documentary built around the voluminous voice recordings Marlon Brando made over his lifetime. (I read Peter Manso's Brando biography some years back, but I couldn't quite finish it because it got too sad!)

Wednesday night I went to John Snow's lecture on Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt at the Gladstone library.  I ought to do his Main Street in my book club someday.  He asked me to become assistant organizer of his two book clubs, for what it's worth. (I take a much more casual approach than he does, and maybe we need to combine both approaches!) I've just been shipped half a dozen books to read for his upcoming American book club.

Six days since my last post and I can't think of anything more to write about!  It's one of those weeks...

A chip off the old tooth

Barbra Streisand: "Don't you know who I am?" Officer Bar Brady: "Well, if you aren't Fiona Apple I don't give a rat's ass!"--South Park

Wednesday night I chipped a back tooth.  It happened when I was flossing. (Maybe it happened because I was using waxed dental floss for the first time in quite a while.) Yesterday morning I went to my dentist and Dr. Hrabalova gave me a filling to replace it.

Wednesday night I went to the Politics Meetup at the Fox and Firkin near Eglinton Station.  It was interesting enough, but the place was so noisy that it was hard to follow conversations!  Thursday night I went on the Art Walk, back on Queen Street for the first time in months.  Friday night I went to the Scottish Meetup, which was at the Piper's, just a short distance from my house!

I've been binge-watching South Park on Crave TV.  It's no big revelation that the show is highly uneven.  Funny about suspension of disbelief:  I can accept that Stan's goldfish keeps sneaking out of his bowl and going around killing people, but I can't accept it when he brings the bodies back to Stan's room!

Since we still have Netflix till the end of the month, I started watching Aquarius, a series with David Duchovny as a square 1967 LAPD detective whose investigations involve Charles Manson.  It's pretty scary, of course:  I don't know how many more episodes I'll see.

I'm really appalled about the DNC's systematic vote suppression in the Democratic primaries! (Just because The New York Times doesn't report something doesn't mean it isn't happening.) They're asking Bernie Sanders to run as an independent.  If I were American, I'd vote for him!  The Clintonites are acting like "sore winners."

Crave TV

(to Brigham Young) "Did those golden tablets teach you to lie like that, or were you born a sonuvabitch?"--Hell on Wheels

Saturday I planted the rest of the potatoes and the peas, sunflowers, beans, carrots and onions. (I did all this just before a big downpour that night.) All that's left is some head crops like cabbage and broccoli.

After Monday night's choir rehearsal I saw a big rainbow in a full arc from left to right, with a dim second arc!

We've finished Bloodline and Hell on Wheels so I ended our Netflix subscription.  But we'll continue to receive it until July 6.  If we'd cancelled it a day earlier we'd have saved an extra month's payment, but them's the breaks!

We're going to subscribe to Crave TV for a while.  They have a lot of interesting shows, including the Clair Danes series My So-Called Life from the early '90s.  They even have Twin Peaks!  I've already started watching South Park again. (It's a guilty pleasure, a subject I was just writing about in my memoir group.)

Tonight the choir and the Columbus Centre band did a concert together, including the big "La Grande Guerra" medley. (Those are pretty good songs:  I'd like to learn more about them!)

I'm depressed about Hillary Clinton winning the California primary.  Be afraid of November, Democrats, be very afraid.  If Bernie Sanders decides to run as an independent he'll get no objection from me.  At the very least, he'll quickly overtake Mrs. C in the polls, then she'll be the spoiler! (Will the "pragmatists" practice what they preach and get behind Sanders to defeat the Republicans?  Or will it be "Hillary or bust"?)

Pax Mongolica

Tuesday night the choir did a rehearsal with the Columbus Centre band for the first time, before next week's concert.  They seemed impressed by us.

Sunday I got a message from the Schnitzel Hub that they wanted a $300 prepayment before Wednesday's History Discussion Group event, so I provided the payment through my credit card.  Maybe it was the wrong decision, but I didn't know what to do so close to the event, and didn't want to screw things up.

When we met on Wednesday night, there was a big kerfuffle, and in the end they refunded most of my payment and we moved to the Jester nearby.  The event, titled "Pax Mongolica" was a discussion about the Mongolian empire and its legacy, starting from Jack Weatherford's book Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World.  It was a very interesting discussion that went on for almost three hours.  There was a new Chinese guy with the name Mega. (His parents saw a Megabucks sign in Las Vegas and decided that would be a good name--would I lie to you?) We'll have future events at Scallywag's, where I've gone for the Political Meetup.

Netflix has some new episodes of Hell on Wheels, with the hero overseeing the building of the railroad from California east to the prairies, and dealing with Chinese workers. (I guessed that the Chinese boy was actually a girl because the lead cast included a Chinese female!)

I started planting the garden today, and did half the potatoes. (I would have started yesterday, but I was feeling unwell for some reason.) Moira's going to plant some herbs as well!

THE GOOD EARTH

"Everyone has some tension with his family.  But not everyone turns into Danny!"--Bloodline

I've finished the book about the Mongols and started rereading Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth for the Classic Book Club.  What a great book it is!  I'm already a third of the way through it.

Blanche Klein let me write a guest post on her blog How Do We Spend Our Free Time at http://klein169.blogspot.ca .  I described what I did Thursday when I bought the seeds for our garden.

Friday we started watching the second season of Bloodline, which has been released on Netflix.  I'm glad Chloe Savigny turned up again!  But I'm so busy in the evenings that I'll have to watch most of it in the day by myself.

Saturday afternoon I went on an Art Walk in the Junction. (We visited a studio that teaches realistic painting.) In the evening the choir performed at Carassauga so Ronaldo drove me and several others out to the Mississauga place.  We sang in a converted hockey arena with lots of echoes and a steadily murmuring audience.  It made me appreciate our other venues!

Today I went to John Snow's book club and we discussed Gunter Grass' The Tin Drum.  I didn't have time to read it in its new translation, but I did read the Ralph Mannheim translation sixteen years ago.  We're now convening in a "heritage room" at the big United Church at the corner of Queen and Church streets.

The choir was going to sing the national anthem at Carassauga this evening, but at the last minute things got changed.  I was late learning this because I didn't read my emails in the morning. (I'll get dozens overnight and not always feel like going through them.) I ate in a hurry at Burger King just beforehand.  But at least I was wearing my choir outfit--suit and black turtleneck--to the book club, and looked pretty fancy!

DOCTOR ZHIVAGO

(on having burned the wrong village) "A village betrayed us, a village was burnt.  Point made!" "Your point, their village"--Doctor Zhivago

Saturday afternoon I went on another Art Walk.  Betty-Anne and her husband brought a load of vegan cupcakes!

I'm kicking myself!  I thought I'd scheduled the Classic Book Club event, discussing the I, Claudius sequel for Sunday at 2:00 as usual.  But it turned out I'd somehow put the time as 7:00, so two of us came in the afternoon and the other three in the evening! (But Malcolm and I did get to discuss about videos I might borrow from him to screen for the History Discussion Group.)

Saturday I bought a garden spade at Canadian Tire.  I'm now finished preparing the garden for planting!  So of course it's gonna rain tomorrow...

Tonight the History Discussion Group screened David Lean's Doctor Zhivago at Debi's place near the Distillery District, with a DVD I'd borrowed from 2Q Video, which also has the Keira Knightley miniseries! (I brought some Timbits.) It was at least the fifth time I'd seen it.  The book was a lot more complex, but of course that's inevitable.  Afterward Leon from Moldova gave me a ride home.

For some reason I can't think of much to write about just now.

A new Facebook group

Margaret Dumont: "Your Excellency!" Groucho Marx: "You're not so bad yourself!"--Duck Soup

I've started a new Facebook group!  It's called Toronto Bookshelf and it's for lovers of reading in the Toronto area and elsewhere.  One thing I intend to do is show upcoming events for all the public book clubs in the Toronto area, starting with my own.  I've started doing a Book Club of the Day feature.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/553940368099770/

Puitak came over Tuesday morning and she, Moira and I spent a couple of hours colouring my DoodleArt poster.  It was really fun!  Then we went to the Dragon Pearl Chinese buffet out near York Mills & Leslie and had lunch with Gordon.  Afterward we got a peek at a Korean supermarket next door. (Those were some big apples!)

Tuesday night the choir performed a few numbers for a private function given by our patron Tony Fusco.

Wednesday night I went to John Snow's lecture about The Pilgrim's Progress.  It was out at the Coxwell library, so getting there was an adventure.  Maybe we should read it in my book club!

Thursday night I saw Leo McCarey's Duck Soup at the Revue.  Today many people consider it the Marx Brothers' masterpiece but at the time it flopped and ended their contract with Paramount.   It's definitely "all over the place." (Afterward they went to MGM, minus Zeppo, and had a big comeback with the more conventional A Night at the Opera.) Funny how the Marx Brothers were all different while their vaudeville contemporaries the Ritz Brothers were all the same!

I'm starting to get excited about visiting New York at the end of July!  I want to see the musicals Fiddler on the Roof and An American in Paris, and our travel agent is arranging some block bookings. (Hope I have time to visit Cloisters...)

Sore throat.

Interpretations

"Maidens aspiring to godheads..." "And vice versa..."--Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

(seeing a man in a red jacket) "Who's the fire hydrant?"--Fargo

Friday night we started watching the TV version of Fargo on DVD.  It's a brilliant faux true crime comedy-drama, even better than the original movie!  It's a pretty loose reworking of the TV show, but the style and sensibility are much the same!  There's a policewoman and a weaselly salesman and a thug and a pregnant woman and a businessman to rip off, but they're each different from their movie counterparts in various ways.  Billy Bob Thornton is in great form as the thug!

Friday I finally bought new shoes at Mark's near St. Clair & Keele. I also bought a spring jacket but it was too small:  the next day I got a better-fitting one at the Walmart in Dufferin Mall.  I wanted to get a new pair of pyjamas too, but the only ones Walmart had were extra large!

Sander I went to the Play Reading Meetup, where we read Tom Stoppard's absurdist comedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.  Very unusual--I couldn't really get into it.

Sunday afternoon was Reading Out Loud.  The topic was translations from foreign languages, so the event's title was "Interpretations."  I read several pieces I'd translated myself, including the famous Greek passage in Xenophon's Anabasis where they come within sight of the sea; chapters 12 through 14 of Julius Caesar's account of the Gallic Wars, where he attacked the Helvetians as they were crossing the Saone River, then had unsuccessful negotiations with a Helvetian chief; and the Italian fairy tale "The Love of Three Pomegranates." And I also read the passage from Doctor Zhivago about the doomed demonstration.  

Other people were reading a Rumi poem, parts of a book by Eduardo Galeano, selections from The Divine Comedy and some Chinese and Japanese poems.  The group included five Brazilians who came to improve their English.  They had a good laugh when I told them I knew the Portuguese expression "Ola bonitinha!" which means "Hi, cutie!" I hope they come again.

Out to lunch

Paranoid rock star: "Look at him!  He's taking notes with his eyes!"--Almost Famous

Sunday afternoon the choir did a Mother's Day concert.  We sang several Italian folk songs, along with "Que Sera Sera." Rehearsal was changed from Monday night, so I went to see Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous (for the second time) at the Royal.  It was one of CHUM-FM's free screenings so there was a huge queue.  The movie's pretty funny, but a bit too predictable.  Philip Seymour Hoffman has a great cameo as legendary rock critic Lester Bangs.

Tuesday night I went to the new Learn Something New Meetup at a Starbuck's on Mt. Pleasant Road.  There was a lot of discussion of genetics. (One guy got his DNA tested!)

I've finished Claudius the God and can now concentrate on the Genghis Khan book.  He was a real revolutionary, turning Mongolia's tribal society into a nation-state all at once. (The closest parallel I can think of is Mohammed.)

Yesterday John Snow treated me to lunch at the Schnitzel Hub.  Thanks, John, the food was great!  We discussed how to arrange our book clubs to avoid conflict. (He has a new one to focus on American writing!) I've figured out a scheme in which in every month with a fifth Sunday I'll take the fifth month, and also the first Sunday of the next month but one. (That'll mean alternating between five-week books and eight-week books!) John can take the leftover first Sundays for his American book club.

Last night I went to another Coloring Meetup, this time at Spadina Road library.  Debi showed up and we shared my Doodle Art poster. (She did most of the dragon and Mother Goose!) Afterward several of us went to the Country Style Hungarian restaurant, where I had a good custard square.

Gardening season

It's warm enough for gardening now.  It's been a couple of years since we cut down the old cherry tree in our back yard, but two saplings grew from its roots in the garden, so the other day I transplanted them to the side yard.  If they live on, that means the old tree lives on!

I've started spading the garden, which now has a bigger area than last year, and today I moved a continuous line along its edge.  As well as potatoes, this year I plan to plant carrots and cabbage and such.

My nephew Alec came to Toronto for his SAT exam.  I remember going to Montreal to do my SAT when I was seventeen!  I took a train with my brother John and we stayed at a hostel.  We met a porter who supported Canada's Communist Party (not the Marxist-Leninist sect).  On the way there and back I think I was reading I, Claudius and Brave New World.

Now that my finances have been cleared up, I've submitted an online application for OSDP support over my Asperger's condition. Don't know how long before I'll get an interview.

The other day I joined a group I met through Meetup that's going to take a weekend tour of New York City at the end of July!  The base cost (before extra stuff) is $600 and some, which isn't too heavy.  I'll see if I can get a ticket to the Broadway production of An American in Paris.

Thursday night I dined at the Pickle Barrel with the Colouring Meetup, and did some colouring too.  They were pretty impressed by my Doodleart fairy tale poster. (So far I've mostly been colouring in flesh, using red, yellow, pink and orange.)

History Discussion Group

Sunday I visited my old singing teacher Giuseppe out in Scarborough. (I hadn't seen him for a while.)

Tonight was the History Discussion Group. (I had to miss the dress rehearsal for Sunday's choir concert, but I couldn't very well miss this event because I'm the organizer!) The subject was the English language, and we discussed Bill Bryson's The Mother Tongue, which I'd finished reading a day or two before.  It looks like Debi will be able to arrange the room for our first screening about three weeks from now.  

Over twenty people said they were coming, so I raised the reservation from twelve to fifteen at the last moment, but that was a mistake:  only nine people showed up! (There were a whole lot of last-minute cancellations.)

The other day I completed my online application for ODSP support.  Don't know how long before I'll get my interview.

Today was warm enough for spring cleaning.  I helped Moira clean one window by standing on a workbench and reaching the top part! (Not a huge contribution, I admit, but it's better than nothing.)

I'm in a good mood because Bernie Sanders won the Indiana primary the other day and still has a shot at winning the nomination.  The  Clintonites are in a state of denial that there's any possibility their champion could fail!  I couldn't help thinking of the Catherine Keener character on Show Me a Hero as a potential Sanders voter.

In that Facebook game I've been playing called Klondike, I decided to let the rabbits breed and breed till they overwhelm the place! (The weak link is the supply of flax for the cables to bind the stacks of hay that feed them.) I don't know how much longer I'll continue with it.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST

"Why did you have to kill them?  I just told you to scare them!" "People scare easier when they're dyin'"--Once Upon a Time in the West

Sunday afternoon I went to John Snow's book club where we discussed Doctor Zhivago.  John asked me to lead the discussion, which was simple for me since I take a casual approach to these things.  He was grateful enough to give me a present:  the book Why Read Moby-Dick? (Afterward we went to Booster Juice and I tried acai juice.)

Sunday night I saw The Devil's Horn at the Bloor, a documentary of the history of the saxophone.  To think that I tried to play it at one point in my youth!

Yesterday I went to a colouring session I'd found through Meetup, at the Leaside library. (Just getting to these unfamiliar places is an adventure.) I started colouring in that DoodleArt fairy tale poster.

Today I saw Sergio Leone's spaghetti western Once Upon a Time in the West at the Carlton (the last in their Wednesday western series), for at least the fifth time.  It's a western about westerns, and really fun.  Henry Fonda's cleverly cast against type as a ruthless assassin, and Claudia Cardinale does a great pout!  One of Ennio Morricone's finest musical scores.

Sometimes I come up with original thoughts when I'm dreaming.  The other night I was dreaming of that scene in Life of Brian where he tells the crowd "You're all individuals," they drone "WE ARE ALL INDIVIDUALS..." and one guy says "I'm not!" In my dream I thought of commenting, "The first schism!"

I heard that there may be a library strike next week.  I should borrow that book about the Mongol empire this week!