Messages

46

Activism / Re: Census Canada/Lockheed Martin

« on: May 10, 2011, 09:46:23 PM »

I disagree --

But... but... but... I'm always right! You told me so yourself!

Well, if sparqui says you're right, then you're right. I guess.

Unfortunately or otherwise, I have contributed to creating a bit of a movement on Twitter. I have people writing to tell me that they're using green crayons or writing upside-down or ... whatever. Someone in Australia, and not even one of my regulars, just wrote to tell me how great he thinks the idea is.

I want you to know that the story about Ollie bringing up the hairball on the form is absolutely true -- that happened just before I saw Holly Stick's link and before I saw countmeout's fun options, which do include cat options. But Ollie's hairball is entirely original to Ollie!

Holly Stick! You started this! And then you bugged out on me. (Now she's gonna say something like "An RT does not imply an endorsement." Right? Am I right?)

47

Activism / Re: Census Canada/Lockheed Martin

« on: May 10, 2011, 06:06:31 PM »

But that's a different matter than punishing Lockheed Martin or punishing the government for choosing Lockheed Martin.

I disagree -- I think the three are very much connected. I don't think I'd say that I expect this particular move to punish Lockheed Martin, although in a just world they'd certainly be punished for quite a lot of other things. I just don't think we should be sending our tax dollars to merchants of death is all.

48

Activism / Re: Census Canada/Lockheed Martin

« on: May 10, 2011, 05:26:17 PM »

I still don't understand most of what Herr M is saying (the Romans used serifs, btw), and some of what pogge is saying. Eg:

This would be much more efficient and accurate than normal optical character recognition (OCR) -- the forms, the scanners and the software are designed specifically to do this job.

That wld mean something to me only if I knew what "normal optical character recognition" was, which I don't. Do you mean reading?

Yes, I do believe it wld be preferable to create jobs at StatsCan by passing the forms through a certain level of skilled worker there, just as it's better to have our votes read the way they are than to vote by machine, although I recognize that there's no job creation connected to the greater safety offered by pencil, paper, and human reader. I always believe these things, partly from experience and partly from political conviction. I'm surprised anyone is surprised, and I'm certainly not moving on to the position where we acquiesce in moving the Overton window just b/c the Cons are moving it for the moment. Call me stubborn.

49

Activism / Re: Census Canada/Lockheed Martin

« on: May 10, 2011, 03:31:35 PM »

Well, instead of Herr M's rhetorical question below, if either of you knows how the forms are processed, can you explain it to the peasants?

Certainly, in my fairly lengthy experience, human proofreaders are much more reliable than is anyone doing data entry, so if data entry is involved ...

50

Activism / Re: Census Canada/Lockheed Martin

« on: May 10, 2011, 03:08:46 PM »

It was my understanding that we were still giving the gov't correct information, just forcing it to be processed manually. Is that not the point?

What am I missing? No one is advising submission of incorrect information. You do your address correctly -- in Roman numerals.

51

Activism / Re: Census Canada/Lockheed Martin

« on: May 10, 2011, 01:20:53 PM »

The countmeout site is sooooo funny. Go to "fun options" to see what you can do to force manual reading of your form rather than Lockheed Martin processing.

52

Chef's Corner / Re: Fiddleheads: Who knew?

« on: May 10, 2011, 11:43:24 AM »

Most ferns (all?) look sort of like fiddleheads when they first come up, but only fiddleheads are fiddleheads. I wonder whether ppl know what they're picking? They do have a v strong flavour though - can understand that some people might be sensitive to something in them.

I'm hoping the sexy butchers will have some and/or some local asparagus today or tomorrow. They have a very small produce section but most of it is local (not the lemons and limes, obviously). I wouldn't have thought that would make a difference to something as common as your basic yellow/white onion, but it sure does.

53

Chef's Corner / Re: Spring deserves a new foodie thread

« on: May 10, 2011, 11:37:41 AM »

I guess you could get some interesting ground cinnamon by passing it through your machine. :)

54

Write On! / Re: Recent blogposts

« on: May 09, 2011, 09:56:43 PM »

We are drifting, but gosh, all those old warhorses. I would enjoy listening to them.

55

Chef's Corner / Re: Spring deserves a new foodie thread

« on: May 09, 2011, 09:52:40 PM »

(Couldn't you grind the cinnamon in a coffee grinder? And don't tell me that YOU don't have a coffee grinder.)

I do and I could, but that would require washing the coffee grinder both before and after. How often do I do that? (This is a trick question.)

56

Write On! / Re: Recent blogposts

« on: May 09, 2011, 08:49:08 PM »

It's funny he should end up at Credit Suisse b/c in many ways he's the very personification of semi-rural Ontario. He's one of the few Cons I could never quite bring myself to detest -- there's something just so ... ordinary ... about him. I can still hear his voice, y'know?

57

Write On! / Re: Recent blogposts

« on: May 09, 2011, 08:39:35 PM »

Ernie Eaves -- gosh, there's a name from the past.

58

Chef's Corner / Re: Spring deserves a new foodie thread

« on: May 09, 2011, 08:36:32 PM »

I made this. Very easy, very tasty, although I'd say mine were overcooked.

When it came to mixing up the spices, discovered I had NO ground cinnamon. I do not know how that is possible, but there is no ground cinnamon. I do have some cinnamon sticks, though, so I put half of one in the middle of the pan under the chicken, and ended up with maybe more cinnamon perfume/flavour than intended. Really nice mix, though.

59

Weather / Re: What is so gay as a day in May

« on: May 09, 2011, 12:52:19 PM »

The good news: I have cherry blossoms! Which will lead to ... cherries! Yay.

The not-so-good news: The dents-de-lion are coming along swell. *rrrr*

60

Europe / Re: British Politics

« on: May 09, 2011, 08:24:48 AM »

Well, the Lib Dems aren't exactly the old Liberal party, which had really ceased to matter in UK politics by the 1980s, although some members held on by tradition. What took on new life was what began as a split from Labour -- the Soc Dems -- who were soft Labour, didn't like Old Labour, and who carried on on their own for a few years, and then they and the Libs joined up. But it was the Soc Dems who had the wind in their sails and the leading figures, some of whom had been prominent Labourites.