blog

What we all do.

Very clever. Many thanks to our own Wrye.

spring memory

Ten years ago this week - April 9, 1996, to be exact - I went, as I almost always did in those days, to Opening Day at Yankee Stadium.

I went with Allan and our buddy Matt. I used to be Matt's nanny, and had taken him to his first Yankees game many years earlier. Now he was in high school, and he scored us tickets to Opening Day.

I know the three of us will never forget sitting in the upper deck, watching Andy Pettitte pitch -- in the snow. We sat shivering as snow covered the field and melted the numbers on Allan's scorecard. The Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals 7-3.

In the late innings, it was announced that fans who were still in the Stadium could get free tickets to another game. You just had to go to a ticket window and choose from one of three dates. Matt and I did that, picking one of the three dates at random.

When Allan and I got home, I looked at my calendar and saw that we had tickets to something the same day as our free game. Knowing I wouldn't see Matt before then, I put the tickets in an envelope and mailed them to him.

Matt went to that game with two other friends.

It was May 14, 1996, the day Dwight Gooden pitched a no-hitter.

We had tickets to a no-hitter and didn't go.

It's impossible to explain to a non-fan what that means. For people like Allan and me, the no-hitter is in the back of our minds at every game. If the game goes more than a few innings without a hit, we're starting to think, never saying the words out loud (in keeping with tradition), but noting the zeros lining up, not daring to hope... It's something neither of us have ever seen in person, and can only hope one day we do.

We didn't even go the event we had tickets to. We just missed the no-hitter for nothing.

It was Joe Torre's first year as manager. Improbable as it may seem, the Yankees were underdogs then, and they went on to a gutsy season of improbabilities, topped off by dropping the first two games of the World Series at home, then winning three in a row in Atlanta, before coming home to win their first championship in 18 years in the Bronx.

opening day, part two

Today there's an advantage to being home sick: I can watch the Fenway home opener. I was so annoyed to have to miss it - grumble, grumble, 9-5 work - and now I don't have to. By coincidence, the Sox are playing the local nine.

Allan is unhappy about having to miss three weeks of baseball while we're on vacation. We usually don't travel during baseball season (unless it's a baseball trip), but sometimes it's unavoidable. Going to Peru during the rainy season doesn't make much sense.

The last time we were away in April, we visited our dear friends Alan With One L and Frederick in London. A chunk of concrete fell off Yankee Stadium, the Yankees had to play at Shea, and everyone was half-joking that George Steinbrenner did it on purpose to get a new stadium. We missed that excitement, but the Yankees went on to an historic season, what would become the most memorable season of my Yankee-fan life.

So you see, being away in April is a good thing.

If you're a more recent reader and all this Yankee-Red Sox stuff is confusing you: I switched sides. After nearly thirty years of diehard fandom, I did a 180 on the longest-running, most heated rivalry in US sports. I had no control over it. It just happened.

global

I'm still sick, with what I'm thinking must be a flu or strep or something. My doc has walk-in hours tonight, so maybe I'll go over there, for whatever that's worth.

So I have lots of time to blog, but no clear brain to do it with. I'll take the lazy route and point out three international news stories that caught my eye, each for a different reason.

First: the French students won. French President Jacques Chirac announced that the new anti-youth employment law will be scrapped. So not only does French culture sustain such huge protests, the government actually listens to the will of the people. You'll understand why this amazes and thrills me, given my background.

Next: the election in Peru is too close to call, but it appears that the leftist nationalist Ollanta Humala may have won. If so, Peru seems poised to join its neighbours - Venezuela under Hugo Chavez, Bolivia under Evo Morales and Chile under Michelle Bachelet - in embracing a more socialist economy.

According to the conflicting stories I've read, Humala may be a less clearly democratic choice than the others. He's been accused of being the notorious "Captain Carlos," who committed mass murders and atrocities in Peru's prolonged civil war with Shining Path. From this distance, it's impossible to say if the allegations are true or a smear campaign.

It's no coincidence that these leftist governments can take root while the US is so heavily focused on the Middle East.

And lastly, I trust you all know that Seymour Hersh has reported that the US is now poised to attack Iran. We've been expecting this for how long now? More than two years, for sure.

If you don't know him, Seymour Hersh is the man who exposed the horrors of Abu Ghraib - and My Lai 30 years earlier - and things like Gulf War Syndrome in between. As a writer, I stand in awe of Hersh, who has spent his life shining light into dark places and demanding accountability. The Iran story is pretty scary; you can read it here.

And so the endless war continues.

announcement

This weekend I'm sending the invitation to our June 17 party. It's a little early, but it can't wait until we're back from Peru.

If you're a regular reader of wmtc and don't get an invite, that means I don't have your email address. I did have a glitch while transferring some contacts and files during The Move. ALPF, you still there? I used to have your work email address, but no more. Kyle_From_Ottawa and RobfromAlberta - my first two readers! - I don't have emails for you guys, either.

So if you're a "friend of wmtc" and you can be in the GTA on June 17 - or you can't, but you want that warm, wanted feeling an invitation can bring - please email me. Send me some way to verify your identity - a link back to your blog that has your email address, or some old joke we've shared, or whatever clever way you can think of to let me know you are really you.

If you're a friend of wmtc but live nowhere near Toronto, and I have your email address, I'm sending you an invite anyway. Just because.

And lastly, if you prefer to remain anonymous, simply do not email me. I will not be offended!

* * * *

Late addition: For questions about the party, please email me, rather than leaving comments. I'm trusting you all to not share information (like our address!) with the world at large. But on the other hand, I'd love to meet as many of you as possible, and everyone is welcome to bring a partner or friend.

can't decide?

Help is only a phone call away.

o canada, air canada

This morning I was supposed to meet my brother and sister-in-law at Pearson. They were flying to Vancouver, with a layover in Toronto. Their flight was coincidentally, but perfectly, timed for me to meet them for coffee and have the car back by the time Allan needed it for work.

But no. They had to cancel their vacation, because Marcie's dad is having major heart surgery on Monday. Marcie, who posts here as "mkk", emailed me this morning.

When I called Air Canada to cancel our reservations, the woman first responded that it would be no problem and that, in view of the situation, she would waive the cancellation fee. She then expressed concern for my father and wished him well, and, of course, I thanked her.

I found myself amazed that she did not ask for a letter from my father's surgeon, notarized in triplicate, with a copy of the operative report and of my birth certificate (proving that he is, in fact, my father).

It was as though it never occurred to her that I may not be telling the truth. Life happens. People have loved ones who need surgery, and travel plans change. Air Canada apparently understands that, and they will continue to get my business. Good public relations breeds loyal customers. It's as simple as that.

Marcie thought there was a certain wmtc-esque quality to this email, and I agree.

I know all our best wishes go out to Marcie's mom and dad, and the whole mkk clan.

the black box

Do you remember Kenneth Blackwell? He's the Secretary of State from Ohio who tried his damnedest to throw the presidential election in his key swing state, and largely succeeded. Among other tricks, Blackwell tried to have thousands of new voter registrations disqualified because they were printed on the wrong paper stock according to an obscure, unenforced Ohio law. That was just a particularly egregious move that got a lot of publicity. Tip of the iceberg.

Well, guess what? It's been revealed that Blackwell owns stock in Diebold. The amazing team of Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman, who have been chronicling the recent fraudulent US elections, and sounding the alarm about the next one, have been writing about it:

Ohio is reeling with a mixture of outrage and hilarity as Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell has revealed that he has owned stock in the Diebold voting machine company, to which Blackwell tried to award unbid contracts worth millions while allowing its operators to steal Ohio elections. A top Republican election official also says a Diebold operative told him he made a $50,000 donation to Blackwell's "political interests."

A veritable army of attorneys on all sides of Ohio's political spectrum will soon report whether Blackwell has violated the law. But in any event, the revelations could have a huge impact on the state whose dubiously counted electoral votes gave George W. Bush a second term. Diebold's GEMS election software was used in about half of Ohio counties in the 2004 election. Because of Blackwell's effort, 41 counties used Diebold machines in Ohio's highly dubious 2005 election, and now 47 counties will use Diebold touchscreen voting machines in the May 2006 primary, and in the fall election that will decide who will be the state's new governor.

Blackwell is the frontrunner for Ohio's Republican nomination for governor. The first African-American to hold statewide office, the former mayor of Cincinnati made millions in deals involving extreme right-wing "religious" radio stations.

. . . .

Prior to the 2004 election, Blackwell tried to award a $100 million unbid contract to Diebold for electronic voting machines. A storm of public outrage and a series of lawsuits forced him to cancel the deal. But a substantial percentage of Ohio's 2004 votes were counted by Diebold software and Diebold Opti-scan machines which frequently malfunctioned in the Democratic stronghold of Toledo. Many believe they played a key role in allowing Blackwell to steal Ohio's 20 electoral votes---and thus the presidential election---for Bush. Walden O'Dell, then the Diebold CEO, had pledged to "deliver" Ohio's electoral votes to Bush.

Blackwell has since continued to bring in Diebold machines under other multi-million-dollar contracts. In 2005, while he owned Diebold stock, Blackwell converted nearly half Ohio's counties to Diebold equipment.

Those machines have been plagued by a wide range of problems, casting further doubt on the integrity of the Ohio vote count. A number of county boards of elections are trying to reject Diebold equipment. Two statewide referendum issues on electoral reform were defeated in 2005 in a vote tally that was a virtual statistical impossibility. The deciding votes were cast and counted on Diebold equipment.

. . .

But Ohio Democrats never seriously questioned Blackwell's rigged 2004 vote count that put Bush back in the White House. They've mounted no serious campaign challenging Blackwell's handling of the tally in 2005. They've presented no plan for guaranteeing the integrity of upcoming 2006 November election, which will again be run by Blackwell, even though he may be the GOP nominee.

Attorney-General Petro has become Blackwell's sworn enemy. A rugged campaigner with extensive statewide connections, it's not likely Petro would quietly accept an election being stolen from him. That might explain Blackwell's vehement attacks on his fellow Republican.

But having accused his cohort of widespread corruption, and with a long history of scornful contempt for all those who challenge him, Blackwell's own Diebold revelations have opened a Pandora's Box. What comes flying out could affect state and national politics for years to come.

There's so much more.

Apparently the word in Ohio is that Ken Blackwell will never lose an election in which he is in charge of the vote count.

Once again, the question I am forever asking. If there aren't fair elections, what makes it a democracy?

demos

I've been watching the ongoing protests in France with wonder and admiration and not a little envy. Imagine living in a society where people take to the streets in huge numbers, not just for one planned day, but repeatedly, and not just in major cities, but throughout the country, where unions go on sympathy strikes, where people wield their collective power to shut down roads and airports, to force the government and the world to take notice. What a beautiful thing.

I'm no economist, and I admit I'm not very interested in the capitalist economists' take on the sorry state of the French economy and the scourge of socialism. It's always easiest to balance your budget on the backs of workers. I have no doubt that if I were French, I wouldn't want to be the first Kleenex generation, either.

I was also hugely impressed with the demonstration in Los Angeles in support of immigrants, and against the punitive anti-immigration bill that just failed in Congress. Pictures like this made me so proud!


There are many things wrong with US immigration policy, but inhumane policies - like criminalizing giving medical treatment to an illegal immigrant - won't fix them.

One of my favourite writers, Barbara Ehrenreich, wrote a great piece on the anti-worker legislation in France. From her column in The Progressive:

Was it only three years ago that some of our puffed up patriots were denouncing the French as "cheese-eating surrender monkeys," too fattened on Camembert to stub out their Gaulois and get down with the war on Iraq? Well, take another look at the folks who invented the word liberté. Throughout the month of March and beyond, they were demonstrating, rioting, and burning up cars to preserve a right Americans can only dream of: the right not to be fired at an employer's whim.

The French government's rationale for its new labor law was impeccable from an economist’s standpoint: Make it easier for employers to fire people and they will be more willing to hire people. So why was Paris burning?

What corporations call "flexibility" — the right to dispose of workers at will — is what workers experience as disposability, not to mention insecurity and poverty. The French students who were tossing Molotov cocktails didn't want to become what they call "a Kleenex generation" — used and tossed away when the employer decides he needs a fresh one.

You may recognize in the French government's reasoning the same arguments Americans hear whenever we raise a timid plea for a higher minimum wage or a halt to the steady erosion of pensions and health benefits: "What?" scream the economists who flack for the employing class. "If you do anything, anything at all, to offend or discomfit the employers, they will respond by churlishly failing to employ you! Unemployment will rise, and you — lacking, of course, the health care and other benefits provided by the French welfare state — will quickly spiral down into starvation."

French youth weren't buying this, probably because they know where the "Anglo-Saxon model," as they call it, leads. If you have to give up job security to get a job, what next? Will the pampered employers be inspired to demand a suspension of health and safety regulations? Will they start requiring their workers to polish their shoes while hand-feeding them hot-buttered croissants? Non to all that, the French kids said.

Of course, the French weren't entirely fair in calling their nemesis the "Anglo-Saxon model." It’s the specifically American model they have to fear. While France was in turmoil, I was in England, ancestral home of the Anglo-Saxon race, giving a talk when a fellow in the audience asked me how people could be fired without "due process." In the U.K., a person who feels she has been wrongfully dismissed can turn to an employment appeals tribunal and, beyond that, to the courts. I had to explain that in the United States, you can be fired for just about anything: having a "bad attitude," which can mean having a funny look on your face, or just turning out to be "not a good fit."

Years ago, there was a theory on the American left that someone — maybe it was me — termed Worsism: the worse things get, the more likely people will be to rise up and demand their rights. But in America, at least, the worse things get, the harder it becomes to even imagine any kind of resistance.

Read more here.

the girls team

Among baseball fans, there's an old game of making up fictitious teams around a theme, based on players' last names. The All Food Team is a common example, featuring Jim Rice, Darryl Strawberry, Bob Lemon and newcomer Coco Crisp, among others. There's also the All Animal Team, which you can add to the Food Team if you're not a vegetarian: Tim Salmon, Mike Lamb, Steve Trout, Rob Deer.

I have my own theme team, which I call The Girls Team. The team so far:
Babe Ruth, Captain
Pete Rose, Manager
Ted Lilly
Alex Cora (brother Joey is on the Animal Team because I call him The Weasel)
Mark Loretta
Mark Grace
Andy Dominique
Nellie Fox (you're never too old for this team, just ask the Babe)
Minnie Minoso
Jim Tracy
Honourary team reporter: Shirley Povich.

I call them girls, mind you, not women, which lets me say things like, "Not bad, for a girl," when one of them hits a home run, or "What do you expect from a girl," when he strikes out. When I heard the Red Sox had acquired Mark Loretta, I said, "Just what we need, another girl on the team." See, it's a joke.

paralympics yet again

From the Department of Better Late Than Never, I found this excellent column on the 2006 Torino Paralympics in an old issue of NOW, the free Toronto weekly.

The writer, Joseph Wilson, uses a technology angle to highlight the joy and wonder of the Paralympic Games. Disability sports is indeed a hi-tech wonderland. I love talking to engineers whose life work is all about enabling people to use whatever capabilities they have to accomplish whatever they want.

Wilson says, "Twenty-four medals [in the Olympics] is an impressive accomplishment, but I'd much prefer to live in a country that flubs the Olympic Games and kicks ass at the Paralympics, where the athletes exhibit truly exemplary drive and commitment."

Thanks to Wilson for helping to raise awareness.

what i'm watching: good night and good luck

I'm home with a cold today, so I'll have lots of time to catch up on blogging. The Sox were off last night, so we watched a movie. Later in the season, when there's a night off, I make sure we get out of the house. But with only three games played, I'm not going stir-crazy yet.

We saw "Good Night, And Good Luck.", George Clooney's movie about McCarthyism, and how CBS Newsmen Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly stood up to the little scummy demagogue who was terrorizing the US. It's filmed in a velvety black-and-white that gives it a very authentic feel, and allows the actual footage of the McCarthy hearings to blend in. (Because wasn't the world black-and-white in those days?)

Two people who were part of the Murrow news team, Joe Wershba and Shirley Wershba, played by Robert Downey, Jr. and Patricia Clarkson, were consultants on the film.

The cast is excellent. If you're a John Sayles fan, as I am, you're very familiar with the great acting of David Strathairn. This is a real tour de force for him. (I used to know Strathairn from theatre days. If you're wondering, his usually-mispronounced last name is said "stra-THA-rin", the "a" in THA sounding like "that".) Clooney is terrific, as is Patricia Clarkson.

The McCarthy era is a very shameful time in US history. Often compared to a witch hunt (at least once in literature), it ruined careers, wrecked families, and ended lives. The parallels to our present time are inescapable; you just substitute "terrorism" for "Communism". But even without the parallel, it's a story that needs to be told.

A factoid I picked up from last night's movie is that the oft-quoted line from McCarthy's downfall, surely one of history's great political rejoinders, is usually quoted incorrectly. What Army attorney Joseph Welch actually said was: "Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"

This line has enjoyed new fame from its appearance in "Angels In America," which, if you haven't seen, you must.

Famous speeches are often edited ever-so-slightly to sound better in retelling. Lou Gehrig's famous farewell speech was not quite as perfect as the version people know from "Pride of the Yankees", although the movie script's editing is barely perceptible. Martin Luther King, Jr. improved on Theodore Parker's famous quotation when he said, "Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice." (I love that line. If only I believed in a moral universe...)

"Good Night, and Good Luck." is part of the Participate.Net website, as was the last movie I blogged about, "North Country". I was also very happy to see "Murderball" on the site! Participate.net links movies with activism. What a fantastic idea.

observation

Most pedestrians in the GTA wait at a corner for the light to change, and don't cross, even if there are no cars in sight. I find this very odd.

I continue to cross intersections when no cars are coming, with or against the traffic light, as I always have done. Usually a crowd is standing at the corner while I do so.

what i'm reading: ian mcewan and mordechai richler

I recently read Saturday by Ian McEwan. It follows the inner life of one man, a neurosurgeon in London, on one day. It happens to be February 15, 2003, the day of the global peace demonstration. September 11th is already part of our mental landscape, and now the US is about to invade Iraq. The surgeon contemplates life, and the mind, and the brain, and how everything can change in an instant. It's very good, and brief. If you find it a little dull, stay with it.

Right now I'm reading Solomon Gursky Was Here, the first book I've ever read by Canadian (and Jewish) author Mordechai Richler. It was recommended to me by a friend of wmtc who used to post as B.W. Ventril on It's Time. It's very funny, full of wry commentary about Canadians, Jews and Jewish Canadians. I'm sure I'm not getting all the satire, but that's ok. Gotta start somewhere.

I'm not sure what book I should take to Peru. I don't read a lot on vacation - I usually use travel time to read a newspaper and to write. (More on that later.) But still, I have to take a book with me. Any Peru-related suggestions?

I haven't read Mario Vargas Llosa, and don't know where to start. I think he's (sadly) the only Peruvian writer I've heard of. But let's not limit suggestions to Peruvians.

koufax

Lest you think I am a sore loser, the winners of the 2005 Koufax Awards have been announced.

On my to-do list: check out the winner of the Blog Most Deserving of Wider Recognition: Echidne of the Snakes, whose name I cannot yet pronounce. It looks great.

And in case it wasn't clear, I was referring to the Koufax people in this post. I found the constant pleas for funds annoying - and wrong. I just can't see these awards as vital to, well, anything. I know many of you disagree. That's cool.

paralympics again

Most of the email I get through this blog is very friendly and supportive. Recently I heard from one of the assistant coaches of Canada's sled hockey team. He thanked me - and everyone who left comments - for our support, and also wrote:

As assistant coach of Team Canada in Torino, I can say it was an amazing experience and I know for a fact every single player/staff and family/friends who were in Torino supporting the team and communicating back with those in Canada were extremely disappointed with the lack of media coverage.

Even the CBC crew following us around in Torino noted that CBC had 'many' calls and emails of complaint that the games were not televised live.

We have now heard though they will be covering gold medal game on April 15th on CBC Sports Saturday (I believe at 3PM) and apparently there is a Paralympic highlight show this weekend [which would have been last weekend] as well on same show? Not 100% sure on that one yet. . . . .

Thanks for your comments and support for Paralympics and athletes. There are tons of great inspirational athletes there that deserve as much or more attention than any Olympian.

Mark Gallant
Assistant Coach – Hockey Canada Paralympic Sledge Team

How could it feel to represent your country in a huge international sports competition, win a gold medal, yet know that the national media didn't see fit to broadcast your accomplishments? I felt cheated that I couldn't watch the Paralympics. How do the Paralympic athletes feel?

offer

Well, it's done: I got a real job.

The law firm where I'm temping offered me exactly what I was hoping for. After I get back from vacation, at the end of May, I'll start my new schedule: Friday, Sunday and Monday, 12 hour days. Very good pay (for this field in this city), generous vacation time and good benefits. The hours give me a rest of the weekday office environment, and most importantly, time to write.

Yay!

wiley no more

The coyote that was found in Central Park has died. The cause of his death is not known.

Look at this great picture of him. Poor guy.

friendly fire

I hadn't gotten any nasty email in a while, but someone calling himself Jack Johnson recently obliged. Quoting my oft-read post "Why Canada", Jack says:

You wrote:

>National health insurance, legal gay marriage, no death penalty, full abortion rights, less crime, less poverty.<

couldn't stand the poor folk anymore, eh? stinking bastards mug you too. not that you wanna see them executed for it, of course -- better to move where they can't (afford to) join you. there's one kind of heterogeneity a person can do without! but hey, who could blame you? it feels exactly right.//

you've helped destroy the american left and i suspect you don't even begin to understand how. may Canada survive the influx of your like.

I replied:

Couldn't stand living in a country that didn't care about the poor folk anymore. That should be obvious.

We each make our own decisions and live our lives as best as we can. I was tired of feeling so alienated, tired of fighting every moment of my life. Most people have been gracious enough to wish me luck. Instead you choose to spit. But I can't live your life and you can't live mine. You don't need my approval to stay and I didn't ask for yours to go.

As far as ruining "the American left", I doubt you live your entire life for it either. You probably do what's best for you 99% of the time. As we all do. If I didn't need a microscope to find "the American left" I might have felt more comfortable in the US.

As far as Canada "surviving" me - !!! What can I say? Do you think they'll survive an engaged, taxpaying, caring, community-oriented citizen? Gee, sounds scary.

I hope you're not so nasty and judgmental to the people you know and love. They may also make decisions that don't meet your specifications.

Personally, I can't imagine emailing a stranger to voice disapproval of her life choices.

Well, I hope you're all surviving "the influx" of my "like". Glad you're nicer than that guy.

back

I had a fantastic weekend, filled with the love of good friends and family, good food and a brief New York City fix.

And to top it off, I love coming home. I often feel lonely for friends and family, and although some people insist I see them "often," everything is relative, and it doesn't feel often to me. But when Allan picks me up at the Buffalo airport and we drive to the Peace Bridge, and I see that big Maple Leaf, I feel so happy. Sweet Cody Brown greets me at the door, and we take a walk on the Lake, and I have no trouble remembering why I'm here.

Poor Allan had a tough weekend, working his very long (13- or 14-hour) days, waking up for morning Cody walk (which I would normally do), plus the extra wallop of the time-change. This while I was drinking champagne in a limo with my sister. (Celebrating her 50th birthday in style!) What can I say. Life isn't fair.

But yesterday was one of the Official Holidays of KaminkerWoodLand: Opening Day.* Schilling looked dandy, Coco Crisp and Alex Gonzalez made us happy, the Big Man hit a dinger, the Red Sox won and all was right with the world.

Tonight we get our final vaccinations for Peru. I'm counting days to the end of my full-time temp work, and to Peru. Lots to do before then, but it feels manageable.

I'm hoping for some more interesting blogging later this week, but we'll see if time and energy permits.