Author: Alan

Ugly Jerseys

I do not often endorse a business here but, as I have written before, one I love is Premiershirts which as I understand is a hobby turned business from a nice friendly guy in Oldham, England. I noticed he got a mention in an article in this month’s When Saturday Comes – which should cause a good bit of free buzz -and that he has updated his Hall of Shame of the worst jerseys of all time including Coventry’s 1970’s brown get up shown right.

Vanunu Released

Before there was the interweb, there was Atlantic News on the corner of Queen and…what?…in Halifax. On Tuesday morning you could get the Sunday papers from the UK for about five bucks a pop – as well as about 300 other papers and a thousand magazines – and catch up on the snippets of news you caught in the buzzy, fading arcs of shortwave propagation from the BBC World Service. You would have one of the three beers from outside Canada available at the Nova Scotia Liquor Commission, sit on the deck and have a real international news experience. I recall reading the Observer article on Vanunu in1986 on Wally’s porch at the LaMarchant Street house, thinking holy moly. Now he’s “released” and I think holy moly. 18 years ago I thought – great, another source for my nuclear doom. Now I think – who cares, everybody’s got them.

St. Paul’s Anglican

I’ve been focusing on the pubs lately but we have some great churches in Kingston. St. Paul’s at 137 Queen Street was built from 1845 to 1846 and when I have more time on a sunny lunch I’ll add some detail shots. There may be burials in the churchyard from as early as 1791. Molly Brant was buried there in 1796. You wouldn’t know it if you walked through this view, given the four lanes of Queen Street, but take away the asphalt, cars and wires and everything in this view was there in 1890 and much was there in 1850.

Obligations

Jim Elve has a very interesting post on the process of getting citizenship in Canada which includes the following passages from a booklet, A Look at Canada, which is the study guide for the citizenship test. Jim states: “I think that the Citizenship responsibilities defined and the ways of Getting involved in Canada suggested can serve as a partial guide to a set of shared Canadian values.” The responsibilities set out are these:

Citizenship responsibilities

All Canadian citizens have the responsibility to:

  • vote in elections;
  • help others in the community;
  • care for and protect our heritage and environment;
  • obey Canada’s laws;
  • express opinions freely while respecting the rights and freedoms of others; and
  • eliminate discrimination and injustice.

Being a Canadian citizen is more than voting and obeying laws. Being a citizen also means getting involved in your community and your country. Everyone has something to give to make Canada a better place. Here are some ways to participate:

  • join a community group such as an environmental group;
  • volunteer to work on an election campaign for a candidate of your choice;
  • help your neighbours;
  • work with others to solve problems in your community; and
  • become a candidate in an election.

I suppose the oddest thing about this list is how utterly untrue it is – so while I respect the rights and freedoms of employed by Jim in making his quite honourable statment, I would myself express a different opinion freely.

Our democractic process has very little to do with joining the Boy Scouts, whose tenents this list bears some resemblance. I much prefer the list of Charter rights and freedoms as a description of our values. Amongst all the great and good freedoms and rights we enjoy both from and distanced from the state, it also confirms we have the right to be left alone, to argue, to make things uncomfortable for those who would require us to channel discontent into the political structure, to paint your house purple and lay around on the front law with your shirt off as passers-by tisk and the weeds deepen around you. We have ill-defined autonomy and are, honestly, more likely to enjoy beer and hockey on the TV than the company of many of our neighbours. Are not these our values?

Ontario Bank

The facade of the Ontario Bank on the corner of King and Clarence has been released from its scaffolding and is showing off a snazzy strip of copper. I have to get a better detail of the sign over the door as it is full of leaves and vines and fairly jazzy skewed lettering.