Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Happy New Year 2009
Auld Lang Syne
by Robert Burns
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll take a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne
Doesn't make sense, does it. But the old song is part of our lives. Many of us will be singing it again tonight, standing in circles with linked hands. Here's a bit of family history.
When our daughter was born, only one name was ever considered: Nadina. When she was very small, she referred to Nadina Mountain as "My Mountain", as she was named for the mountain, the lake, the waterfall, the river, in north-central B.C., all beautiful. When she grew up, she seemed to have no difficulty in choosing her husband, whose name is Fraser. Nadina & Fraser, just like the two rivers -- Nadina River and Fraser River ... which also meet. There is even an intersection in the town of Fraser Lake where Nadina Street meets Fraser Avenue.
This has absolutely nothing to do with the topic of BC Rail, I guess ... or does it?
Maybe we're wrong to overlook the fact that many British Columbians carry a depth of feeling about this province. Maybe these personal things have everything to do with BC Rail and how we feel about losing that part of our heritage and having the doors slammed on us when we try to find out why our railway slid into private pockets. Auld lang syne.
And my name is ... smiling ... BC Mary.
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
by Robert Burns
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll take a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne
Doesn't make sense, does it. But the old song is part of our lives. Many of us will be singing it again tonight, standing in circles with linked hands. Here's a bit of family history.
When our daughter was born, only one name was ever considered: Nadina. When she was very small, she referred to Nadina Mountain as "My Mountain", as she was named for the mountain, the lake, the waterfall, the river, in north-central B.C., all beautiful. When she grew up, she seemed to have no difficulty in choosing her husband, whose name is Fraser. Nadina & Fraser, just like the two rivers -- Nadina River and Fraser River ... which also meet. There is even an intersection in the town of Fraser Lake where Nadina Street meets Fraser Avenue.
This has absolutely nothing to do with the topic of BC Rail, I guess ... or does it?
Maybe we're wrong to overlook the fact that many British Columbians carry a depth of feeling about this province. Maybe these personal things have everything to do with BC Rail and how we feel about losing that part of our heritage and having the doors slammed on us when we try to find out why our railway slid into private pockets. Auld lang syne.
And my name is ... smiling ...
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
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Yes. Nice story and conclusion. How could we not carry a depth of feeling about our beautiful province? How could our politicians not share such feelings? Here's to a Happier Year ahead, and thanks again for all you do Mary. You mustn't have even imagined when you began this blog how much of your life would be taken up by it.
# posted by 
: January 1, 2009 at 1:02 a.m.
: January 1, 2009 at 1:02 a.m.
Happy new year to you and yours Mary.
I couldn't help but smile when you said "This has absolutely nothing to do with BC Rail, I guess...or does it"
Just putting the BCMary name to anything you say reminds everyone about BC Rail. Keep up the good work and many thanks for your help on some of my work. I don't think the general public realizes how much other work you do outside this blog.
As an after thought here. My latest childs name is Mackenzie Born in 2008. The bride had always liked the name when she visited there a few years ago. Just that name is a reminder for me of what is going on in the forest industry today.
I couldn't help but smile when you said "This has absolutely nothing to do with BC Rail, I guess...or does it"
Just putting the BCMary name to anything you say reminds everyone about BC Rail. Keep up the good work and many thanks for your help on some of my work. I don't think the general public realizes how much other work you do outside this blog.
As an after thought here. My latest childs name is Mackenzie Born in 2008. The bride had always liked the name when she visited there a few years ago. Just that name is a reminder for me of what is going on in the forest industry today.
Webster Award for you eh, BC Mary.
As I sat here trying to remember the last major scandal that hit the news, and found it at "History of Metro Vancouver" 1955 .......
"........The courtroom was, of course, jammed, and some of the most prominent names in Vancouver journalism covered all or part of the proceedings: Jack Wasserman, Paddy Sherman, Jack Brooks, Dan Ekman, Simma Holt, Jean Howarth . . . and that hard-nosed Glaswegian, Jack Webster, who was now with radio station CJOR—he had left the Sun under less than amiable circumstances—and who was frustrated by Tupper's ruling that no sound recording of the proceedings would be permitted.
Webster fell back on a skill he'd honed years earlier: rapid shorthand. “I was still a whiz at Pitman,” he says in his autobiography, “fast and accurate . . . Every day for two months I attended the hearings. The probe started in the old courtroom downtown and then it moved to City Hall where the council chambers doubled as a make-shift courtroom. I'd work on my notes during the breaks in a nearby alderman's office and go on the air at one o'clock with a twenty-minute summation of the morning's evidence by simply reading my notes. The nightly broadcast I did from CJOR's studios on Howe Street. I began each evening with the same introduction: 'This is the full story that was not in the Vancouver Sun today and won't be in the Vancouver Sun tomorrow.'”
That was 1955, and ever since you took up the challenge BC Mary (Mr. T. too) you by the same action, via your blogs, that which Jack Webster said so plainly and needs repeating:
This is the full story that was not in the Vancouver Sun today and won't be in the Vancouver Sun tomorrow.
As I sat here trying to remember the last major scandal that hit the news, and found it at "History of Metro Vancouver" 1955 .......
"........The courtroom was, of course, jammed, and some of the most prominent names in Vancouver journalism covered all or part of the proceedings: Jack Wasserman, Paddy Sherman, Jack Brooks, Dan Ekman, Simma Holt, Jean Howarth . . . and that hard-nosed Glaswegian, Jack Webster, who was now with radio station CJOR—he had left the Sun under less than amiable circumstances—and who was frustrated by Tupper's ruling that no sound recording of the proceedings would be permitted.
Webster fell back on a skill he'd honed years earlier: rapid shorthand. “I was still a whiz at Pitman,” he says in his autobiography, “fast and accurate . . . Every day for two months I attended the hearings. The probe started in the old courtroom downtown and then it moved to City Hall where the council chambers doubled as a make-shift courtroom. I'd work on my notes during the breaks in a nearby alderman's office and go on the air at one o'clock with a twenty-minute summation of the morning's evidence by simply reading my notes. The nightly broadcast I did from CJOR's studios on Howe Street. I began each evening with the same introduction: 'This is the full story that was not in the Vancouver Sun today and won't be in the Vancouver Sun tomorrow.'”
That was 1955, and ever since you took up the challenge BC Mary (Mr. T. too) you by the same action, via your blogs, that which Jack Webster said so plainly and needs repeating:
This is the full story that was not in the Vancouver Sun today and won't be in the Vancouver Sun tomorrow.
.
To Anonymous 1:02,
Thank you VERY much ...
I must admit that the segment following " ... or does it?" seemed to pop up of its own accord and I've been thinking about it ever since.
Like, I mean: isn't it cruelly wrong to overlook the deep feeling many of us have for this chunk of geography on the West Coast? Don't these deep bonds matter? Aren't they normally called "roots"? Does that count for nothing when it comes to BC Rail, or BC Hydro (and Run-of-the-Rivers giveaways)?
And isn't being blind to the B.C. bond equally as bad as lawyers seeming to be blind to "the public interest" in Supreme Court??
Gary E,
Many warm thanks to you, too. I absolutely agree with your wife about that name, Mackenzie.
It's been a real pleasure having you at work as a new blogger because while I'm Googling "Everywhichway" I often find interesting stuff that I can't use. But now I can share it with you. And that's a good thing.
Special good wishes to the lucky little lady who will go through life with that beautiful name.
Names are important. I was particularly interested when somebody pointed out that RAIL spelled backwards is LIAR.
As in BCLiar. As in a premier who said he'd sell BC Rail and got roundly defeated; then next election he said he would not sell BC Rail and (with a little help from Dosanjh and CanWest) got elected in a landslide.
It was in that heady atmosphere (77 BC Liberal MLAs, 2 Opposition MLAs)where there wasn't much to stop the BCRail deal being hatched, negotiated, signed, sealed ... but more about that later.
.
To Anonymous 1:02,
Thank you VERY much ...
I must admit that the segment following " ... or does it?" seemed to pop up of its own accord and I've been thinking about it ever since.
Like, I mean: isn't it cruelly wrong to overlook the deep feeling many of us have for this chunk of geography on the West Coast? Don't these deep bonds matter? Aren't they normally called "roots"? Does that count for nothing when it comes to BC Rail, or BC Hydro (and Run-of-the-Rivers giveaways)?
And isn't being blind to the B.C. bond equally as bad as lawyers seeming to be blind to "the public interest" in Supreme Court??
Gary E,
Many warm thanks to you, too. I absolutely agree with your wife about that name, Mackenzie.
It's been a real pleasure having you at work as a new blogger because while I'm Googling "Everywhichway" I often find interesting stuff that I can't use. But now I can share it with you. And that's a good thing.
Special good wishes to the lucky little lady who will go through life with that beautiful name.
Names are important. I was particularly interested when somebody pointed out that RAIL spelled backwards is LIAR.
As in BCLiar. As in a premier who said he'd sell BC Rail and got roundly defeated; then next election he said he would not sell BC Rail and (with a little help from Dosanjh and CanWest) got elected in a landslide.
It was in that heady atmosphere (77 BC Liberal MLAs, 2 Opposition MLAs)where there wasn't much to stop the BCRail deal being hatched, negotiated, signed, sealed ... but more about that later.
.
.
NVG,
Great story!! Ironic, isn't it, that the Webster Awards aren't given out on that same set of principles, eh?
But I'll accept your jovial nomination with great pleasure. Thanks for that!
Happy New Year! It should be interesting.
.
NVG,
Great story!! Ironic, isn't it, that the Webster Awards aren't given out on that same set of principles, eh?
But I'll accept your jovial nomination with great pleasure. Thanks for that!
Happy New Year! It should be interesting.
.
.
P.S. for a journalism treat, be sure to click onto NVG's link.
In a column headed POLICE SCANDAL, the rise and fall of Vancouver Police Chief Walter Mulligan) is colourfully described, and written without being politically offensive.
There are lessons to be learned here about how newsrooms and Attorneys-General function.
.
P.S. for a journalism treat, be sure to click onto NVG's link.
In a column headed POLICE SCANDAL, the rise and fall of Vancouver Police Chief Walter Mulligan) is colourfully described, and written without being politically offensive.
There are lessons to be learned here about how newsrooms and Attorneys-General function.
.
Under Gordon Campbell British Columbia is for sale to the so called "free market". Our 'assets' are going at firesale prices and there is no doubt about it. Rivers, forests, mountains (for minerals), fish, health services and infrastructure are all on the block. With Campbell's selective de-regulation he is rewarding his 'friends' with public dollars and letting private operators increase rents and charges to obscene levels. What a difference in political outlook and will between Campbell and Danny Williams.
# posted by : January 1, 2009 at 2:03 p.m.
: January 1, 2009 at 2:03 p.m.
Mary--
Thanks so much for opening the window into your non-blog world for us today....Any little Thompson's or Skeena's in Nadina and Fraser's lives by chance?
_____
NVG--
Thanks!!!
(again)
______
Mary--
Felt I had to comment on the fact that Mr. Holman's Webster, which he garnered for all the digging he did on the Doug Walls/CareNet affair really was, in my opinion, based on the same set of principles....
.
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Thanks so much for opening the window into your non-blog world for us today....Any little Thompson's or Skeena's in Nadina and Fraser's lives by chance?
_____
NVG--
Thanks!!!
(again)
______
Mary--
Felt I had to comment on the fact that Mr. Holman's Webster, which he garnered for all the digging he did on the Doug Walls/CareNet affair really was, in my opinion, based on the same set of principles....
.
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