I can't say that I am particularly struck by the loss of Christopher Hitchens but its in the same way that I was not moved by the death of Steve Jobs. Like Jobs, Hitchens was something of a presentation of himself - not a bad thing in itself but it does distract from whether the output was as valuable as claimed. That being said, David Frum has an excellent memorial to the man in the National Post that captures bits of his appeal:

As the event broke up, a crowd of questioners formed around him. I created a diversion thinking it would help him escape for some needed rest. But Christopher declined the offer. He stood with them, as tired as I was, but ready to adjourn to a nearby bar and converse with total strangers till the bars closed. Hitchens was not one of those romantics who fetishized “dialogue.” Far from suffering fools gladly, he delighted in making fools suffer. When he heard that another friend, a professor, had a habit of seducing female students in his writing seminars, he shook his head pityingly. “It’s not worth it. Afterward, you have to read their short stories.”

Frum called him "a man of moral clarity." I would have thought "amoral" or perhaps ethical was more the proper word. The man he most reminded me of was Mencken. Both had that sort of rhetorical skill that aligned well with their failure to actually meaningfully participate in anything that added to the public good. Both were keen observers and skilled reporters. The sort of person who can tell you what a poor job someone, anyone, yourself even has done but would not actually engage with the doing themselves. Both were famous drinkers.

I am sure that we benefit somewhat from these columnists, folk who can sharply report on the human condition. But they never really get to anything of value as to the why of it all. They have their own belief system which is immune to denting and judge all from that place on the orb with skill, charisma and something of an ultimate pointlessness. Humans already know life is hard and confused, that our leaders make many bad calls. Directing us to that obvious state of affairs, however insightfully or entertainingly, is not the stuff of heroes.

Efficient. Kind. Relaxed. Excellent. It was a good day at the hospital helping the lad get through what turned out to be a far less onerous than feared experience of an eyeball straightening. More nip than tuck, I have spent longer stretches at the dentist. Shades of my two days long medical stays of my youth disappeared. Validated Kate's observations, too. Realized that I have sat in small city hospital waiting rooms in Canada, the US and Poland and each time thought pretty good people go into this work. Today, a small "hooray" went up among the post-op nurses at one point. I gave the "what was that face" to one of them and was told "the babies are through." Hooray for the babies, indeed.

♦ Good to see the students of Syracuse can tell pedophilia from hate crime.
♦ I really hope many of these citizenship investigations are linked to the PEI passport selling scandal. Good to know, by comparison, that some Spuds have some sense.
♦ Boys need this last line of defends. It's like Cold War MAD - mutually assured destruction. I recall when the bag tag war of 1982 broke out at undergrad. We needed, after only two days, a formal truce.
♦ Seventeen century science is absolutely neato: this and this, too

There. Weekend is here. Tomorrow? A Montreal Gazette weekend edition and maybe an obscure mammal in form of sausage.

Where were we? Ah, yes. The great explosion of 1840:

Another huge fire erupted on 18 April 1840, this time on Counter’s wharf and, aided by the explosion of gunpowder stored in one of the warehouses, spread across much of the waterfront area. Strong winds helped it extend to the whole of the north block of the Market Square, and to most of the next block up to Store Street (now Princess Street)

Never heard of it until a month or so ago. You would think that the destruction of much of the town would be a folk tale, collective memory. Never understood why Ontario is not interested in its own past like other parts of Canada, the English speaking world.

♦ Saturday night update: The Flea, mon cher, teaches how to KooDon't.
♦ Best thing ever on the internet: what is brown and sticky?
♦ I had no idea that, besides interest on debt, Italy was actually in the black. Canadian Conservatives everywhere must be hailing it as solvency as they do with Mulroney's terms.
♦ Really? Do you think? Do you think a cabinet member gets attention from "foreign lady reporters" from nations run by totalitarian regimes because they find Tories hot?
♦ I had no idea that Harper has expanded the Federal public service by 13%. No wonder they think that Mulroney got us to solvency.
♦ What is it with all these odd Tory stories? I mean if they are going to be doing all the social engineering I really hope they know how to plug in the toaster first.
♦ Finally - a break from Ottawa's amateur hour. A great story from Humblebub.

That's enough of that. Check out the great series at NCPR on the state of the nations on the two sides of the Great Lakes.

Yulesight. You can see the holidays coming but you are not quite connected emotionally yet. It was an interesting week. I was slagged in the British media. Beer magazine columnist with a chip on his tiny shoulders. Wrote a complaint to the publisher whose response was that they did not feel, that I in fact had been called a Nazi sympathizer. They did remove the article from the web but you can see it in Google cache all the same. Other than that, it snowed for the first time this winter.

♦ Love the Starbucks coffee cup. We may not be the 1% but we do like 1% partly skimmed milk foam.
♦ The caribou were right where they were told they would be.
♦ EU officials apparently had declared that you could not claim water helped with dehydration: "The euro is burning, the EU is falling apart and yet here they are: highly-paid, highly-pensioned officials worrying about the obvious qualities of water..."
♦ Sadly, more than enough bad to go around.
♦ Hey - there's another bit of Canada's national administration being dumped by the Feds - immigration policy: “While other provinces have fully embraced their provincial constitutional responsibility of selecting immigrants … Ontario has effectively abdicated its ability to engage in the immigration dossier in a serious way.”

There. Weekend. Scooby-Doo on the TV. Bailey's in the coffee.

... I have no idea what the fuss about "Black Friday" signs showing up in Canada is about.

Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving in the United States and marks the unofficial start to the holiday shopping season there. Stores offer enticing deals in hopes of attracting Americans who - after a relaxing day of turkey and football - realize they only have about a month left to shop before Christmas. Canadian retailers, in recent years, have become increasingly aware that Canadians have been taking notice of the Black Friday hoopla. Many of them cross the border to take advantage of deals offered in the U.S.

I have noticed something about the US border, here living in a town where you can see the next country from our rooftops. It can be crossed both ways. "Black Friday" boo hoos? Why the heck are we not selling Canada to our neighbours at the very moment when they are wanting to spend some significant hard earned chunks of cash?

I'll cross this weekend - not to buy a TV but to buy un-surcharged aged cheddar. Maybe socks. Definitely beer. Those not in the NWT or Newfoundland might consider the flip over, too. While you are there, mention that they might want to come to our towns, too.

This bug goes on. Sputter and wheeze was this week's treat. Got X-rays shot through my chest. Never speak of X-ray. X-rays. They are many. I am now off speaking. Hard to do with five kids in the house. Lots of arm motions required. But an 8 month old is not strong on responding to arm motions. Oddly neither is the 13 year old. I had a 50 year old maple killed this week. Suspicious crack on the side facing the house. I now have an excellent set of skittle logs. A friend has a cord of hardwood to age. Ordered "Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn" from Amazon. The front lawn shall be filled with Blue Hubbard come September 2012.

♦ Not sure how Lieutenant David Jones qualifies the the hero, but what a strange sad story from our Loyalist past.
♦ Would this not have been one of the easiest ways to undermine the tyrant? By turning off his government's websites? Way to be on the ball, Feds.
♦ How can blue beer not be wrong?
♦ Sad, pathetic, weird story. I had no idea either the Angles or the Saxons did that with an oboe.
♦ How do you issue mass warnings in an age of peer to peer fragmented media?
♦ Even if Dad wasn't from Greenock, I would find the fact that Jame's Watt's study has been perfectly preserved for 0ver 190 years amazing.

You know how people perpetuate that myth about blogs being written by men in pajamas in their basements?

Funny how these things turn around so quickly:

She said they talked about the Keystone pipeline a little, but only in terms of Canada's energy strategy to build international markets. She said they "didn't disagree on anything" and instead talked about how Alberta could help Ontario develop its interest in renewable power. "I think as (McGuinty) moves forward with his plans around renewables that there's opportunity for technical partnerships, academic exchanges and for private sector partnerships," she told reporters. "And that was one of the things that I left him with at the end of the meeting-- let's see if we can pursue some of those possibilities." Redford said her mission is not to "sell" the oilsands, but unlike her predecessors she is prepared to engage in a rational conversation with critics to work out their concerns.

Sounds like a good idea to me. I mean what is the point of having four borders and the blessing of being gifted a massively valuable resource if you can't move it past your borders and make something of it. Takes good relations and those take good neighbourliness. Lack of that placed Newfoundland behind the 8 ball for decades... until it found its own second windfall.

Just a residual cold now. Nine hours of over the counter cold medication induced sleep. Scooby-Doo is on for the four year old. The big kid is off playing sports. A Saturday where there is a reasonable prospect of maintaining consciousness and actually doing something lays before me. I will be in the sun by 10: 23 am. Pneumonia sucks. Not sure I ever said I loved it. But just to be clear, it sucks.

⇒ Spitfire guns a blazin'!!!
⇒ Sign them up. I like the way the US gives citizenships out for military service. Way better than Canada's own den of corruption PEI giving them out for envelopes stuffed with cash.
⇒ If there were still Front Page Challenge and I ran it, Steve Maher would be on it in the role of Betty Kennedy.
⇒ I thought the entire internet existed to sell you crap... and big boxes and downtowns and...

That's enough of that. Just one last thing. Don't give any money to those door to door pro-pneumonia lobbyists. Don't listen to them.