Feminism, for and against

March 14, 2014 Wayne K. Spear 1 Comment

IF YOU HAVEN’T yet heard of Sheryl Sandberg’s Ban Bossy campaign, here is a video, and below is a brief overview of the Facebook COO’s effort, in which she is joined by Condoleeza Rice, Beyoncé, Jennifer Garner, Diane von Furstenberg and Jane Lynch:

When a little boy asserts himself, he’s called a “leader.” Yet when a little girl does the same, she risks being branded “bossy.” Words like bossy send a message: don’t raise your hand or speak up. By middle school, girls are less interested in leading than boys—a trend that continues into adulthood. Together we can encourage girls to lead.

Pledge to Ban Bossy.

Politics, Toronto

Rob Ford and the Criminals, continued

March 13, 2014 Wayne K. Spear 16 Comments

Rob Ford

HERE’S A USEFUL piece of reporting for your consideration. It was written by Renata D’Aliesio and published in the March 13, 2014 edition of the Globe and Mail, under the headline “Ford knew of football coach’s criminal past, court documents show”:

Rob Ford penned a character reference for his assistant football coach’s sentencing for dangerous driving and assaulting a police officer, court documents reveal, marking at least the third time he has written a letter of support for a convict while in public office. The letter, composed on behalf of Payman Aboodowleh in 2009, confirms Mr. Ford knew of the volunteer coach’s violent history when he invited him to work with high-school athletes. As with his other letters, Mr. Ford’s acclamation of Mr. Aboodowleh was written on official City of Toronto stationery, sparking concern from a veteran Ontario Court judge who questioned whether the then-councillor may have misused his position of authority.

Wayne's Picks, Writers and Writing

Above All Else, Keep Failing

March 12, 2014 Wayne K. Spear Leave a comment

skateboard

WHEN I LOOK over my life, I see failures. You’ve heard the sayings: “success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm” (Winston Churchill), “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work” (Thomas Edison), “we are all failures – at least the best of us are” (J.M. Barrie). The only alternative to failure is to not try, and once you’ve made that decision you’ve placed your chances of success in the realm of absolute certainty, at zero percent.

Politics

Is Pierre Karl Péladeau the PQ’s Winning Asset?

March 11, 2014 Wayne K. Spear Leave a comment

pierre-karl-peladeau

THE QUEBEC ELECTION campaign became a bit more interesting this week with the entry of Pierre Karl Péladeau, of Quebecor Inc., Quebecor Media Inc. and Sun Media Corporation. Mr. Péladeau is well-known as the owner of a global telecommunications empire that includes many assets, both within and without Quebec. Now he wishes to be known, goodness knows why, as an aspiring Parti Québécois politician. He’s considered an aggressive and iron-fisted businessman, and no one doubts the nature of his new ambition, to become the President of the Nation of Quebec, as well as the king of Quebec media.

Politics

Ignore the Optimists: the World Isn’t About to End

March 10, 2014 Wayne K. Spear Leave a comment

end-of-the-world

SOME DAY the world’s going to end. No one knows the someday, nor the somehows. That hasn’t prevented speculation. For as long as there’ve been human brains able to theorize, there have been theories.

Podcasts

The Roundtable Podcast 63

March 10, 2014 Wayne K. Spear Leave a comment

• Week of 09.03.2014

online-dating

Ukraine says progress made on Crimea mediation plan | New warrant issued in Mayor Rob Ford police investigation | Islamic Leaders Issue Fatwa Prohibiting One-Way Trips to Mars | Lev Tahor members stopped in Trinidad return to Canada Sunday night | New Music: Little Simz, “Mandarin Oranges Part 2” | Is Mississauga ready for a new mayor after 36 years of Hazel McCallion? | Parti Québécois election platform highlights values charter and French language | Nebraska shocked to learn it has Parti Quebecois-style religion law | Mandy Gives Online Dating Tips

Download entire podcast (320 kbps mp3) | Visit The Roundtable on Facebook.

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Writers and Writing

If you were a store, what kind of a store would you be?

March 8, 2014 Wayne K. Spear Leave a comment

WHAT’S TRENDY and current and cool? What’s everyone watching and doing and talking and thinking and listening to right now. Do you know, and do you care?

Film

Who Exactly is Joining the Dallas Buyers Club?

March 6, 2014 Wayne K. Spear Leave a comment

Dallas Buyers Club

MONTREAL DIRECTOR Jean-Marc Vallée first got my attention with the excellent French-language film C.R.A.Z.Y.. Now he’s taken his notoriety to a new level, with Dallas Buyers Club, written by Craig Borten and starring Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner and Jared Leto.

Wayne's Picks, Writers and Writing

Your Writing is Not Like a Barry Manilow Song

March 3, 2014 Wayne K. Spear Leave a comment

barry-manilow

AT DINNER, my good friend Adrian M. Kelly (author of Down Sterling Road, which can he purchased here. Only one copy left!) observed that it’s difficult to make a living from serious writing.

Writers and Writing

Conversation and the Writer’s Voice

March 2, 2014 Wayne K. Spear Leave a comment

pub

A TOPIC CAN BE both vast and yet reducible to the most simple of terms. Here’s an example: a writer is a person who does things with words. Whether her goal is to inform, deceive, terrify, entertain, charm, persuade or seduce, a writer will have to do it with words. A reader, also, has nothing but words from which to cultivate the pictures, emotions and experiences which are ‘in’ the text. A writer’s voice is a big topic, but the topic does indeed rest upon these objects called words. And words alone.

Humor

Happy Birthday, Compact Disc! (I’m glad you’re dead)

March 1, 2014 Wayne K. Spear Leave a comment

THERE ARE SEVERAL dates you could propose as the birthday of the compact disc. Among them is March 1, 1983, the day the CD was launched in Japan and North America as a successor music storage format to the cassette tape and the long-playing vinyl record, whatever those are.

Here are some remarkable CD facts.

First Nations

Onkwehonwe First Nations Education Straight Talk

February 28, 2014 Wayne K. Spear Leave a comment

warmspringswomen-header

THE BLUE DOT MEME alludes to the February 7 Kainai High School ceremony which marked the education agreement-in-principle between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Shawn Atleo. As people came through a door, they were given a sticker to wear – either blue (not invited guest) or yellow (invited). The not-invited were seated in a separate room, where they watched the ceremony on a monitor.

Politics

How is Arizona’s Bill 1062 Not Discrimination Against Gays?

February 26, 2014 Wayne K. Spear Leave a comment

Roccos

REPUBLICANS HAVE AN extraordinary talent at crafting eye-grabbing viral legislation, and in recent years they’ve been upping the bar in the field of contentious law and law-making. My standing pick for sheer legislative chutzpah is North Carolina’s Motorcyle Abortion Bill, but it won’t be long before this triumph is surpassed. The GOP is playing a game of Neknominate, only using the country’s institutions and laws. Neklegislate, I guess you’d call it.

World

Uganda’s Giant Step Backward

February 25, 2014 Wayne K. Spear Leave a comment

Ugandan-President-Yoweri-Museveni

THE DELUSION fueling Uganda’s homophobes is nicely summarized by Douglas Foster, in a Los Angeles Times editorial headlined “Black, gay and indisputably African.”

Humor

The Phallus on Display

February 24, 2014 Wayne K. Spear Leave a comment

Penis Tray

ICELAND IS GREEN and Greenland is ice, and although I’ve no proof that this weird fact derives from the combination of Eric the Red (who I gather named at least one of these countries) and mead (which, you know, he’d been drinking at the time), I’m submitting the explanation to Wikipedia and the Michelin guide and factsaboutgreenlandandiceland.com. If that’s a website.