Bonuses

BrianDate 42.00546:

1. What a great time I had at Lucky on Tuesday! The Batnix played really well, and even played a new cover tune, the old "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight" by the Rezillos! The burlesque was OK too, I stayed just for the first few acts.

I cadged a free drink from the bar itself, and play_to_zero very graciously bought me one too! Aaron gave me two Cheapass games, something I totally did not expect but am very grateful for (incidentally, I can't access gothvic.com from work any more, as it's now "red-screened" as a Naughty Place, so I can't find out his e-mail address - can anyone help me?) I took the last bus home so full of ego-strokes I thought I was gonna 'splode.

Thank you all, my friends, for wishing me happy birthday!

2. Yesterday I was Googling myself, as I sometimes do, and found that an article I had written about the Bonus Army of 1932 had been republished without my knowledge: The Bonus Army and the Torching of Hooverville. The magazine in question is Press for Conversion, a Canadian publication that started as a protest sheet against an annual arms show in Ottawa, and the issue (#53, March 2004) theme was "facing the corporate roots of American fascism".

However, in reproducing the text of my article, they did not reproduce the admonitory paragraph I placed at the bottom of the page from which they took it: "NOTE TO PLAGIARISTS: If you are going to just copy this text, add your name and submit it as a term paper, be aware that I have placed a small but significant error in this paper. If your teacher is any less lazy than you are, it will be found and you will be caught. However, if your motives are honest and you have read more than one document on the Bonus Army or the Hoover Government, then you will be able to catch the error and correct it."

And of course, though the editor did not substitute his name for mine, he also did not catch it, or contact me to correct the error. Har har, hardee har har.

All-Volunteer Military means just that!

Following on from the other day's post.

I thought it was understood by most people that joining the military could potentially involve some element of personal risk.

Newest Forces recruits may be forced to fight

Mike Blanchfield
CanWest News Service; Ottawa Citizen

Thursday, October 26, 2006

OTTAWA - As the military announced modest annual pay raises Wednesday, new recruits learned that for the next two years they will have to be prepared to fight in the trenches of Afghanistan before they are allowed to move into more high-tech trades in the Air Force or Navy.

( Read more... )

Art and Craft?

Yeah, posting a lot today...

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2006/10/26/bronfman-award.html

Question: What distinguishes "art" from "craft"?
Who would judge, and how, whether a created object would be eligible for one or the other series of awards?
Is it utility vs. inutility?
Gary, would you care to comment?

Plain Brown Envelope

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2006/10/26/bc-postal.html

Anti-homosexuality brochure held up at Canada Post

Last Updated: Thursday, October 26, 2006 | 12:23 PM PT
CBC News

Canada Post says a controversial religious brochure that condemns homosexuality will be delivered to hundreds of homes in East Vancouver, despite the objections of letter carriers.

( Read more... )

Interesting... the crime here seems to be that the text of the pamphlet was visible, so that any sorting-plant worker or letter carrier could read it and so be offended.

If the Biblethumps had just taken the time to stick the pamphlets in envelopes, no one would have noticed, at least until someone at home opened one such (presumably unsolicited) admail and possibly complained to Canada Post. But that's different, that's a consumer complaint.

I wonder - would a militant animal-rights letter carrier one day refuse to carry brochures for M+M Meat Market, because advertising meat for eating is aiding and abetting speciesism and murder? A rad-fem who won't deliver girlie magazines (or at a stretch, Chatelaine or Vogue, since they also objectify)? What about a fundie-nutty postie who won't even touch copies of, say, Herizons because it contradicts what the Bible/Koran/Talmud says about the station of women in proper society?

Further reinforces my belief that Canada Post is just not that interested in people using the mails as a means of personal communication - the real money is in pizza flyers and barking-mad junkmailers. I'm sure they are awaiting the day when the mail no longer needs to be addressed at all, so they can hire chimps to stuff the boxes.