Athot for the Day: To Affect an Effect

Once one accepts that life is a lost cause, one cannot gain even a modicum of happiness.

Or, as the great modern-day philosopher Allan Konigsberg once said: "Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable."

Sunday Fun: Morning Fun at Paupers Pub, Toronto

The Hand of Orlach

It's becoming a bi-monthly ritual, the third Sunday morning visit since early March. I'm hardly a big beer drinker, but for some strange reason I don't mind having the odd Sunday morning beer.

The breaky was awesome! After nibbling for a couple of minutes I figured I should pop out the Canon and snap a Facebook-style picture.

A visit to Paupers Pub, here in Toronto, I would highly recommend to visitors and denizens alike.

May I suggest?

Picturing: A Shirt for Canada Day (and Year-round)

The T-shirt is ready to go for Canada Day!

Athot for the Day: An Inconvenient Reality

No, it's not "life is what you make it"; it's "you are what life made you".

The Conservative Know-It-All of Today

After some serious research online as to what makes up a real Conservative, I've come to the conclusion that they possess great knowledge on any number of subjects. Just read the comments below any Twitter (X) posting or newspaper article that invites, begs, an angry right-winger to set the record straight, or to reaffirm what was stated in the 'above', and you'll be impressed.

They are experts on, but not limited to, the following....

History
Geography
The Sciences (don't exist)
Botany
Engineering
Technology
Metallurgy
Oceanography
Sociology

Medicine
Economics

Tectonics
Anthropology

Philology

Liberal Arts (as we all know, only Liberals take "Liberal Arts")
Cognition (?!)


Note: I left out Philosophy, as that may invite Semantics... and Pragmatism.

Athot for the Day: The CPC Must Face Its Reality

The Conservative Party of Canada is so desperate right now... they're too far gone. Constant attacks against everything Canada, certainly, will not improve their standing. Their problems are systemic. And problematic: Pierre Poilievre.

Father's Day 2026: H.W. St. Laurent, RCAF / CAF

RAF Bomber Command / Royal Canadian Air Force / Canadian Armed Forces.

Quote: Stanley Kubrick on the Education Trap

"I think the big mistake in schools is trying to teach children anything, and by using fear as the basic motivation. Fear of getting failing grades, fear of not staying with your class, etc. Interest can produce learning on a scale compared to fear as a nuclear explosion to a firecracker."

I first read that quote when I was in elementary school, and I got it.

Quote: W.C. Fields Knew Cooking

"I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food."

Right, guys?!

Quote: Woody Allen on Identity

"My one regret in life is that I am not someone else."

Wow. So it's not just me.

Quote: Will Rogers on Prescience

"I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat."

How did he know?

Flatscreen Last Night: Radio Days

Happy, pleasant, and warm, "Woody Allen". I love those tunes!

Radio Days was released in early 1987, just when I was in my final couple of months of film school. Yeah, I missed it. My viewing was on tape-delay: about ten years later I watched the flick on VHS tape and enjoyed it. While I was born into the mass-television age, I do appreciate "radio", and I don't mean DJ stuff... not that I dislike DJs and their company.

During my recent DVD/BD archiving I realized that I had a certain DVD in the archive.

Last night while undergoing that forty-five minute "what should I watch?", and rolling into the expected "I can't make up my mind" after sifting through Prime Video and Tubi listings, and getting nowhere with anything resembling a commitment, I remembered that disc. (The excellent Kanopy streaming service got forgotten, for some reason.)

"It's still in the bleedin' shrink wrap!"

As I'm prone to say at times like that: "My lordy!"

The good news is I have Radio Days on file, ready for a rewatch. Next time a friend is over visiting, I'll broadcast a certain movie title.

Sunday Fun: Doctor Who on Blu-ray — I'm a Whovian

Is there a doctor in the house? Are there Doctors in the house? For all my claims that I left the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who in my youth, the above photo may prove otherwise. After recently consolidating my DVD and Blu-ray collection I was taken aback somewhat by how many DW season-sets I had amassed... yes, "amassed".

As I've stated a few times on this website over the years, I more or less left the good Doctor behind in my early '20s after catching just a few Peter Davison Doctor stories on Buffalo, New York, PBS affiliate WNED. That part is true for I didn't catch the series on regular basis after OECA/TVO broadcast Who in the mid-late 1970s. Doctors Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy got no visits from me as I was going to film school during a chunk of their tenures. While attending that college I had an interesting Who experience, what would be a Who story of my own: While sitting in the film studio one morning, waiting for the class to begin, my classmates and I ran our usual early morning chat, and reading of newspapers. "Hey, Simon." I turned to my right and a classmate handed me a Toronto Star paper revealing an article. "Doctor Who to Be Cancelled." (The hiatus was short-lived, with Who to return featuring a new Doctor for the 1987-88 television season.)

After my course of study finished, and I had entered the working world, I managed to pop-on the telly now and again, and saw a few minutes of a McCoy episode. "Oh, that's Ace."

Some trivia to wrap up this piece, and to drive yet another nail into my earlier claim, I admit I've actually watched some episodes on my Doctor Who collection. After a few of these watches of everything Who I missed after my early '20s, I proclaimed the "McCoy-era" to be my favourite.

While embedding the above photo I count 11 (eleven!) Doctor Who Blu-ray series sets. Any rough estimate of how much money those sets cost collectively is something I dare not do. Given that each one probably averaged 40 to 50 dollars each... My word! Is there a doctor in the house?

Gene Shalit's Long and Fulfilling Film Life

Minutes ago I learned that journalist and famed film critic Gene Shalit has died. He lived to 100 years of age. No doubt he enjoyed life to its fullest.

The video embedded here I recorded from NBC Today on Monday, March 27th, 1989. It was an interview the congenial critic did with legendary film scorer John Williams, who himself is newsworthy right now as he composed the music for director Stephen Spielberg's latest flick Disclosure Day. Somehow Mr Shalit was able to pull off an interview without coming across as fawning... which, at times, certainly to viewers like me, can be annoying and off-putting.

I pulled the 4-minute video clip from a posting I uploaded on February 8th of this year.

Quote: W. Somerset Maugham on Those Essentials

"Any nation that thinks more of its ease and comfort than its freedom will soon lose its freedom; and the ironical thing about it is that it will lose its ease and comfort too."

The 'experiment' continues....

Book Snip: The War of the Worlds and the War Within

For the first time since elementary school I'm reading H.G. Wells' classic 1898 science fiction novel The War of the Worlds. On page 32 of the Signet Classics edition, I stopped in my tracks after processing a certain thought by the book's unnamed narrator. While he speaks of his feelings after witnessing the shock and horror of the first Martian war machine's initial flaming attacks, it could mean something more to the reader if he or she were to think in personal existential terms.

I stopped my read momentarily, just long enough to transcribe the passage....

"Perhaps I am a man of exceptional moods. At times I suffer from the strangest sense of  detachment from myself and the world about me; I seem to watch it all from the outside, from somewhere inconceivably remote, out of time, out of space, out of the tragedy and stress of it all. This feeling was very strong upon me that night. Here was another side to my dream."

What have I witnessed? And what could it all mean? I'm going back....

Picturing: A Bottle of Cool Blue Gatorade

A lovely client of mine brought me two bottles of Gatorade. I thanked her and said: "I've never had Gatorade before, but I remember when I first heard of it." (A friend of mine years ago admitted that he consumed the drink by the gallon.)

One Fruit Punch, the other, as seen above, Cool Blue. The Punch I consumed almost immediately. The Blue will accompany me today during reading time.

Some people are so considerate and generous. I'm guessing that Gatorade is available just about everywhere... I don't think I've ever seen it stocked anywhere, probably because I'm not much into packaged drinks. Well, that might change; I'll let you know.

But first, I want to know: Does it make a good mix with Theragen?

It's Canadian Armed Forces Day! Celebrating the Love!

Minutes ago I remembered that it's "Armed Forces Day". My delay in readying a post to celebrate this special day is an embarrassing and unconscionable oversight by this proud "Brat".

Once a brat, always a military brat.

My father was career RCAF/CAF. My appreciation of our men and women who serve, and who have served, this great country knows no bounds. The RCAF roundel above is a shoulder patch from my RCAF 100th Anniversary Hoodie, which I ordered from the wonderful Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum's gift shop.

Picturing: An Expired Banana — It Was Good!

This past Tuesday I posted a story about a particular association I have with banana peels. Don't ask!... Just read, here. No doubt the reader has his or her own such associations.

Unfortunately I didn't have my Kodak Instamatic 133 film camera with me during the event described, a loss of authenticity and confirmation I've long lamented, so for the sake of the story I had to do a photographic recreation using one of my Canon digital cameras.

Enjoy!... What's left of it.

* * *

Postscript: While wrapping up the above piece I remembered advice my pappy gave me when I was a kid: "Always have your Kodak Instamatic One Thirty-Three with you; you never know when you'll need it." As one gets older, one realizes our parents had valuable life experience to impart.

Quote: Voltaire's "Candide" on Proper Priorities

"Il faut cultiver notre jardin." ("We must cultivate our garden.")

And if one does not have a garden, one can start with a flower pot.