19 Sep 2010
Wyndance Golf Club in Uxbridge, Ontario
Three golfing buddies and I headed over to Wyndance Golf Club in Uxbridge, Ontario this afternoon (Sunday, Sept 19, 2010). Wyndance was designed by Greg Norman for Clublink, Canada’s largest golf course operator, and opened in 2007. Wyndance is built on the site of an old quarry and uses the contours of the quarry to
18 Sep 2010
Canada as a Metis nation
Over the last few days I’ve been reading the book called “A Fair Nation” by John Ralston Saul. The main argument put forward by Saul is that Canada’s development for at least 250 years after “contact” – the early 1500s when Europeans first started coming to what is now Canada – the territory that eventually
09 Sep 2010
Sharon Temple a Unique Historical Site
On our way back from our annual September getaway to Muskoka we got off Hwy 400 just before coming to the Holland Marsh and took a detour along Canal Road. We eventually ended up in the small town of Sharon just outside of Newmarket. Sharon is the site of what is now known as Sharon
04 Sep 2010
Tarandowah Golfers Club – Avon, Ontario
Tarandowah Golfers Club is located just outside of Avon, Ontario, a little more than 5 minutes off the 401 highway between London and Woodstock. It is your classic “out in the middle of nowhere” course, seemingly built in a farmer’s field. But this is not just any golf course. It is an example of what
01 Sep 2010
The Conestogo Iron Bridge
The “Iron Bridge” is a single lane bridge spanning the Conestogo River about a half kilometer up stream from where the Conestogo meets the Grand River. I’m sure there is a history of this bridge somewhere, but I wasn’t able to find it. The Township of Woolwich has been pretty non-committal about keeping it in
22 Aug 2010
The Final Battle of the U.S. Indian Wars
One of the most celebrated encounters in the late 1800s between the U.S. Cavalry and a band of Indians was also the last. So typical of the “Indian Wars” of the late 1800s, this one was between the army of the U.S. authorities charged with managing the settlement of the west, and a band of
15 Aug 2010
The Complex Truth Behind the H1N1 Scare
Governments around the world spent millions if not billions of dollars fighting the great H1N1 (swine flu) “pandemic” of 2009 – a pandemic that never really materialized. As of April 2010, when the virus had essentially run its course, the total number of Canadians who had died from the H1N1 “pandemic” was 428. Compare that
07 Jun 2010
Harvest Moon – Neil Young
E/0 E/0 E/9 E/9 B/10 B/12 B/10 B/12 G/11 G/11 G/11 G/11 D/0 D/0 D/0 D/0 X/x X/x X/x X/x X/x X/x X/x X/x You probably wont be able to get the strummin right unless you listen to the cd. The arpeggio is simple. E/-12——/ B/—12—-/ G/—–12–/ D/——-12/ A/———/ E/———/ Here are the chords and
18 Feb 2010
Why the “Olympic Spirit” Thing is a Hoax
Dedicated to being the best at what they do I just read a glowing tribute to the “Olympic spirit” displayed by all the happy young Olympic athletes. The focus of the tribute was on how we can apply some of the dedication shown by Olympians to our personal, business and professional lives. Now I don’t
08 Feb 2010
More Books from the Bargain Table – The Kindle2
I was investigating the Kindle the other day. In case you don’t know, the Kindle is a digital tablet designed for reading books in digital form and is sold (exclusively I think) by Amazon.com This technology has been in development for quite a few years, and the Kindle is already in its 2nd version (Kindle2),
19 Jan 2010
The Primitive Indian Myth
One of the enduring myths about life in the Americas before it was “discovered” by Europeans is that the entire “new world” was sparsely populated by nomadic tribes of simple-minded hunters and gatherers. This myth holds that these people had no permanent attachment to any specific piece of land, they did not live in permanent
05 Jan 2010
Books from the Bargain Table
In case you haven’t noticed, I like buying (and reading) books. Usually history or “ideas” books like Blink by Malcolm Gladwell or Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt, or 1491 by Charles C. Mann (a really awesome book if you are interested in the history of the Americas). Often I buy books when I’m travelling somewhere. Some
05 Jan 2010
Squashed Plato
Here’s a novel idea I found while using Stumbleupon. (In case you don’t know, SU walks you through a series of websites according to topics of interest you have previously chosen. It also learns what you like as you go along. You find websites that you probably wouldn’t have otherwise found in a hundred years.)
24 Dec 2009
Why the History of Canadian Natives Matters
My primary objective in the first few posts in this series is to explore how Canadian natives changed from being autonomous self-governing people to becoming subjects of the British crown? This change in status is extremely important. By the time of Confederation (1867) natives – at least in Eastern Canada – were no longer free
22 Dec 2009
From Allies to Subjects – Part 2
As I suggested in a previous post, the Indian Residential School issue in Canada is a fairly good focus for a discussion of what went wrong with the dominant white culture’s relationsihp with Canadian natives. While the Residential School issue really belongs to the previous two or three generations of Canadians, the problems that school
20 Dec 2009
Natives in Canada – From Allies to Subjects
In this series of posts I consider some of the historical, political, anthropological and philosophical background to Canadian “native” issues. Along the way I touch on some interesting things I have recently (and not so recently) discovered about the native Indian presence in Canada. (Note: I use the term “native” to cover those people normally
15 Nov 2009
What We Can Know for Sure
My golfing buddy and I have been playing golf together for more than ten years now. At least once a week during golf season, and often two or three times a week we drive together to one of the courses we play at. The outing usually involves at least a half hour drive. So we have lots
28 Oct 2009
Merge Strategies and World Views
One of the books I have been reading most recently is called “Traffic” by Tom Vanderbilt. The subtitle is “Why We Drive The Way We Do (and what it says about us)”. This is not the kind of book you would normally think of as an entertaining read. But like most people who drive a
21 Oct 2009
Talk about stereotypes! There’s this cl…
Talk about stereotypes! There’s this classic image of a guy and a girl sitting across from each other at a cafe. It’s been lampooned in any number of commercials and sitcoms. The girl is yapping non-stop about who knows what and the guy sits there nodding, “Uh huh, Uh huh, Uh huh,” while the bubble