blog post TCNH: Water Cooler Wednesday, January 27, 2010

The third link about Haiti isn't working properly Craig. 

I assume the article is about what the link describes, people receiving little help outside of the capital.  But isn't Canada focusing on a couple of the other cities, not Port Au Prince?

It should also be noted that today is the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8483017.stm

...seriously?

My father-in-law is a retired OPP and used to do a lot of special duty work. One of the jobs was security for Fonyo when he was doing his run. And he to this day talks about what a jerk he was. Way back then.

And he had a fair comparison having also done security for Rick Hansen, whom he said was one of the nicest guys you could meet.

So when I heard about Fonyo, I wasn't the least bit surprised.

we're looking forward to this record and possible summer tour??

Of course aliens would chose Newfoundland as a place to make contact

I suppose it's at least a good thing the building isn't being converted into (yet) another drug/hooker hotel...  besides, who wouldn't love getting up each morning to feed the pigeons in the park across the street?!  you could use all the money you save on a "proper" loft/apt to buy pigeon seed.  sounds like Zen living to me. ;)

and Sharing a Recipe.

Take a serving of lasagna, smother it in french fries, then pour Worchestershire sauce over the whole thing.  Delicious!

This dish has not been named yet, feel free to come up with something.

That is a good point. The Saint Pierre and Miquelon tourism bureau should take advantage of it. 

Blech, the whole PETA pie thing is just tacky. They are like the Westboro Church of the animal rights movement.

(and I am all of animal rights, but lordy there are better ways of getting your point across)

PETA is just Tacky in general

Yes, for some reason it's no longer working...I may just take it off because I can't find a story with the same editorial vibe to it. Essentially, they're saying because the US has taken control of the airport, their only concern is security and not expediting delivery of aid.

A family friend contacted us from Haiti and sort of corroborates that, too.

...often undermine the desired goal. They tend to "preach to the choir" and alienate the average Canadian, whom I assume is their target demographic, no?

It's sad, I use to like the States a lot -- I started growing in the 50s, what was not to like about the U.S. before the Kennedy assassination, before Vietnam got real ugly? (I had no notion of McCathyism at the time.)

Jump 40 years to now, and unfortunately, Beck -- shit, wasn't the whole of Fox News enough already, there's gotta be someone to push diatribes to the tragicomic clown level? -- unfortunately Beck shows that the United States contains, in addition to quite a lot of moderates, and nice or generally intelligent and resourceful people who never make the news, a distinct plurality that is a) stupid, b) uneducated and c) emotional.

Anger is the WORST counsellor, and Beck's public is swallowing his emotional agit-prop like mother's milk, and boiling with anger and reacting crazy. All this for no sane reason, 'cause thinking things through just isn't there. Emotions are all.

Sad and depressing. However...

I'm hoping Obama will get out of the current morass. Not that it'll change anything with the rightwing nuts (the right wingnuts?), but three or four years from now, if things did turn out acceptably in the U.S. (or even if Obama became a one-term president) maybe the current, um, current of folly will subside like a wave on the sand.

(A hidden problem is that Beck and his ilk make it all too easy to dismiss "those people" as utter flakes. You then forget that they're people and that they're entitled to their feelings. Sure doesn't help to find common ground.)

P.s. I'd appreciate comments from Americans in particular.

Poutlasagne?

Perfectly accurate.

--

1) I am wearing suspenders (belt freedom is wonderful).

2) Inner Tube Water polo tonight with hgummo and rocknrollloser! 

3) I have a coffee.

4) A co-worker gave me banana bread this morning.

5) I am wearing suspenders.

6) It is water cooler Wednesday.

7) I made a list.

very well put, and I agree!

I see Dan Mangan's playing-I'm "surfing deaf" today. The first line he singe in that song reminds me of " tie a yellow ribbon"- Remember that song?

Indeed, the two first syllables mean whore.

Where, exactly? (Sounds awful, but then...)

Wow...that's opening up a can of worms.  Also open themselves for possible discrimination suits.

there's an Italian pasta dash called puttanesca

 I think it's literally " little fleshy one"

I found this article to bring up some really interesting points we aren't hearing too much about in the media. Mind you, it's from a leftist bias, but hey - someone's gotta take another angle on this!

http://canadiandimension.com/articles/2736/

I add to the where is gravy-pizza? I'm going to stay at a friends in March who lives on Elgin so I might have to at least mention it. Although I dislike gravy.

(Dear + hotpants makes for an interesting combination, indecently incidentally!)

Haven't read the article yet (I will), but it does make sense: obesity big problem, Whole Foods probably has an employee health program (does it?), and trimmer employees don't cost as much that way. Not sick as often, etc.

On another level, the difficulty is often motivating people; and losing weight in particular is hard to do.

Finally, it might offset, in the mind of the employee, some of the greater cost of better food ('cause the cheap-cheapest is often crap).

Mind you, I don't know that it's fair -- for instance I am naturally thin, some people are naturally plump -- nor that the program will be seen favourably by enough people to last.

This might be my favourite wikipedia tidbit of info ever. Complete with reference.

"According to chef Jeff Smith of the Frugal Gourmet, it was a quick, cheap meal that prostitutes could prepare between customers."

1. The take-out pizza place that serves gravy on pizza is I believe called "House of Georgie", and it is on Gilmour, just a few store fronts west of Elgin (a drycleaner, a hair place, Aunt Olive's, and then it). In fact on the sign, I think it even says "home of gravy pizza".

2. Puttanesca, according the Joy of Cooking, means streetwalker.  Apparently the prostitutes liked the truly delish kalamata olive, anchovie, caper and tomato combo.

I could google all of this, but really, how else is mis-information going to be spread?  And I know Benoit will google it for me if he finds it interesting enough...!!!  xo

Dawn H., if you have time when in Ottawa in March, and there's a good music show on, perhaps we can do some R3-style meeting up...

... know what I mean, man?

And also, I haven't heard this song on R3 before. It's awesome so far! Eleazar vs John eh...?

If you don't like gravy, House of Georgie has amazing pizza regardless. I work on Elgin and order from there frequently :)

The article says you can't smoke either. And that's for bronze level discounts alllll the way up to platinum!

is it just me, or is there more and more variety in the playlist these days??? so nice to hear old great songs that are no longer R3-30 material, but are fantastic nonetheless (e.g. Sarah Harmer, Took it All).  nice work, playlist makers!

I'd love that. BUT I am there to visit a friend with another friend and I'm not sure how into the indie music scene they are, although they're fun-loving so would probably be willing to try a show. We'll talk closer to the date maybe?

Prostitute is actually puttana; puttanesca, rendered in the Wiki as "like a prostitute", I think is a weak rendering of the concept "prostitute-style" -- the same as "spaghetti à la mode bolognaise", shortened to "spaghetti à la bolognaise", then to "spaghetti bolognaise". So, spaghetti puttanesca.

did anyone see this yesterday?  it made me think of MikeV (now even more appropriate with the moose call talk today...)

That is fantastic! I hope they tour. 

We'll do an R3 potluck, I'll bring my Poutlasagne...who wants to bring Prostitute Style Spaghetti?

I always wondered why it was popular among the prostitues... makes sense.  It is a really fast, but delicious and classy (n my opinion), meal. Especially if you're a salt junkie.  Incidentally, I was cooking Pasta Putanesca for my parents in August 2003 just as the power came back on after the power outage of 2003, and in doing so, I cut off a piece of my thumb.  My dad and I imagined to reattach it. 

(and this is the signal: get to work, girl). thanks for tolerating my ramblings, all. 

daa1982, I'll bring the Streetwalker Sauce!!

They are tweaking the system. Makes sense.

It's just nice to have some contact and to feel people at R3 are responsive. That is rare.

I just got to reading the blog now. I think that labeling pie-ing as a terrorist action is completely ridiculous! It is an action against one or two people and not an entire nation or it's entire government. One MP, who can clearly handle it. So charge them with assault but not terrrorism.

But really what a tastey way to be assaulted.

I was pied once, it was chocolate. It was awesome.

Thank you for the type out of the lyrics BioSpice. I missed whatever happened to cause you to write them out. But that was one of my most favouritest songs as a child. Only (as I'm sure many small children do) I would sing "in their underwears" instead of "when they're unawares"

I love memory lane!

Link to life expectancy.

22 Min perspective on looting in Haiti

Agreed.

The assertion that a pie in the face is terrorism mocks and diminishes the pain of victims of real terrorism.

you're welcome!  cool that it makes you all nostalgic too.  Craig said the last line of the intro, in trying to tell people what Water Cooler Wednesday is... he got sidetracked, or some such. 

Oh, you want to hear the whole intro??  Excellent:

"If you go down to the woods today, you're in for a big surprise. If you go down to the woods today, you better go in disguise.  For every bear that ever there was, is gathered there for certain because, today's the day the teddy bears have their picccc-niccc".

I'm really going away now.

let's set this up

oui, je sais

 that's why I said "in Italian..." and not, "Benoit, you're wrong."

 In English, it would  more than likely be "spaghetti with meat sauce" :)

or rather in England, "it is colloquially abbreviated to spag bol." Have a look, the article is really interesting in that it shows how difficult things are to pin down, to be definitive about...

I think the "becauses" are this, in no order: a) U.S. politics are so cloven (cleaved?) -- you know, oppositional and warlike --, ever more than before; b) in the U.S., winning is everything; c) clear reasoning is often dismissed as Poindexter stuff, as many Americans constantly confuse emoting and thinking.

Exacerbating the above is that an aspect of American "morals" is very bloody: never have I heard in Canada the phrase "he needs killing"; I've read that from a few U.S. correspondents.

Coudn't. Fucking. Believe it.

That showed me that, more than anyone I know here, some Americans think they've got a right to impose themselves and their views on others just because they're scared and angry, or because they're just plain 'superior' -- and judgmental.

One reservation to all that precedes, however: maybe the Web and other facile participatory media bring out a disproportionately high number of them people, as opposed to the more normal ones.

An interesting conversation came up in the dressing room after hockey yesterday afternoon with my friend who is my age (late 30's). We were talking about Leno, Conan and Letterman. He mused to me about how Leno's show was going to do. And then said "Who even watches Leno?"

Into the conversation walks a 50+ guy, who says "Who Leno? I love his show!" And he was serious. He went on to tell us how he hates that skinny snarky red-haired guy. 'Conin' he called him. Watches Leno every night.

And with respect to that, and Glenn Back, it's easy for us young-uns to forget there still is a pretty formidable boomer demographic out there, that are consuming pop culture just like our generation, but have enough numbers to skew the polls.

It's what we're inundated with Safety Tub commercials. 

1. Diets don't work.  For those who don't have time to read the link: almost any diet will lead to short-term weight loss.  No diet ever studied has led to long-term weight loss for most of the study participants.  And people who sign up for diet studies tend to be much more "motivated" than average dieters.  So since there is no way for most fat people to become and stay thin, it's pretty shitty to punish people for being fat.  (This book is good if you want more details).

2. If Whole Foods believes that their products lead to better health, and they want to improve their employee's health to reduce health costs, shouldn't they offer higher discounts to less healthy employees?

I bet he also loves those safety tubs. 

I accidentally hit ENTER instead of TAB to continue composing my previous message...

anyway...

NOOO CRAIG!!!

You can't be DONE talking!

Please talk.

Don't cry.

I think we all know the true top TV personality is Charlie from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia.

Like I'll ever stop talking.

I agree.  Except...maybe the McPoyles as a whole.

That's a really fair assessment. Sometimes it's hard to think how much life has changes since the boomer's youth and our own. IN FACT, there is a whole new breed of 'young-uns' who have never lived without facebook, youtubes and cell phones. At the rate of technology increase and overall change in the world, we might be the crusty ones in a matter of 10 years.

@Musicsoop (114)

Yeah I was a little surprised Charlie wasn't on the list.

Whoa!  I just looked up TMTT's location and wow that's really really far east!  I never realized it was that far out there.  I always figured Halifax would be as far as I could go on the continent from LA but now I know St. John's NL is even further away.  Think it might be closer to Belfast than California.

I tried to write a post not to long back trying to look on the bright side of all the insanity that comes from the right in the US (I'm a political junkie and spend too much time engrossed in US inanities) by noting that their numbers and power are skewed by the media and their volume.

The next day I went against everything I had just pointed out when I was freaked out by story from one of Andrew Sullivan's readers as they ventured into 'Real' America..

I really hope that our American friends Representatives in the House will Pass.The.Damn.Bill.Already...there are good things therein that will help 30 million + people AND be of benefit from a research and efficiency standpoint to Canadians down the road

Diets don't work: I know what you mean, and generally, that is true.

However, most people treat diets as something to do and lose pounds, and then they go back to eating as before!

One of my sisters, who had been thin most of her life but had put on amazing poundage later in life, two years ago took a long hard look at herself and started eating less and exercising. She's proably shed 45 pounds minimum, and is maintaining the loss.

Mind you, in that case, it's not merely "a diet", but a permanent change of diet, plus exercise. In other words, a correction of the balance of one's life.

Big day coming! Good luck!

according to http://www.timeanddate.com Newfoundland to Belfast(~3100km) is about 1500km less than NFLD to LA (5600km)

a very important distinction. A healthy weight isn't dependent on "a diet" but it is affected by "your diet"

No, for most people, lifestyle changes don't work either.

Of course, there are exceptions; and if your sister had been skinny most of her life, she might be more flexible in her weight than most people.

But good diet studies follow people for five years because a fair number of people regain weight after two ore three years.

On the side of good news, being fat isn't as nearly bad for your health as many people claim.

So you CAN eyeball it on Google Maps, haha.  Good to know!  But I realize it may not be amazing to everyone else on here.  Sorry, Ima bit of a Cartographile.  Which is, I think, better than some other "philes" I could be.

St. John's to Vancouver is 5024km - we're closer to another continent than we are to the other side of our country.  It's also cheaper to fly to Heathrow than BC.  Weird place we're in...

Actually, an interrobang is ‽.  It's not that common, because ?! or !? is way easier to type and read.

Allowed?

We're sticking with just the single line because if everybody did different melodies, it'd come out as a huge jumble and I'm hoping to be able to use every file that's submitted - I'd hate to start having to pick and choose which melodies made it on the album.  8)

oh, good to know... i'd just assumed that harmony would be fine.  so no harmony, just the melody contained in the line in the snippit.  gotcha.

ooh!! for real?! (love that interrobang!)

i have a USB mic and a brand spanking new MacBook with Garage Band which I was going to try to use... but a studio might yield better results (just maybe)!  let's get in touch to discuss further? 

useeverypart at hotmail dot com

thanks!!!

Before we take it to the mix engineer, we're going to do a mix of the chorus vocals here in town and make that a single file.  So, really, even if it is a lot of seperate files (say 50 or so), it'll still end-up as one file before it goes to mix.  That'll save a lot of time in the end.

40 000 eh?  I'd be lucky to get 40...  or 4.  (I'm kidding - I already have some great files).

great show