Killing ourselves with an unhealthy lifestyle

Miss Baby will enjoy good homemade food.

First, I'm not going to spend much time on this as Miss Baby is stopping by; I have a small child with whom to discuss art. She may be only five-months-old but she communicates better than some adults. Marcel Marceau has nothing on her.

Plus, she has a pretty positive outlook. I've always thought nothing improves a woman's looks more than a smile. Miss Baby knows how to look beautiful. I think it's in Miss Baby's genes as her grandmother knows a thing or two about dressing up the face with a smile.

Killing ourselves with an unhealthy lifestyle

Paul Berton, editor-in-chief of The London Free Press, wrote about our unhealthy lifestyle in the Saturday paper pointofview column. (And yes it is spelled pointofview in the paper. Cute, eh?)

My wife making her own pasta.

Paul writes, "we're killing ourselves with an unhealthy lifestyle." He's right but he quickly goes way off track. The tone seems to be --- It's us. Foolish us. --- "We'd rather use a food processor than a knife," Paul writes.

Stay out of my kitchen, Paul, because you'd confuse apples and oranges. Food processors are not knives. My wife uses both a food processor and a large stand mixer. They help her to quickly make good food from good ingredients.

The other night she made pasta using durum semolina flour bought at Arva Flour Mills. The pasta was quick to make and (she'll hate me for revealing this) her arthritic hands did not ache afterwards, thanks to the pasta maker attachment driven by her stand mixer.

The soup for salt addicts.

Ross Feldman, a researcher at the Robarts Research Institute, was right on target when he told you, Paul, governments can do more to regulate the amount of sodium in our foods.

This "Hearty Favourites" has 700 mg of sodium (salt) in 125 ml of the condensed soup or 1590 mg of sodium for the entire can. The U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommend an upper limit of no more than 1,500 milligrams for the middle-aged and older. That's the upper limit!

Paul tells us, "We need to do something about this ourselves. . . We can't afford . . . to ignore it any longer."

It is interesting to note that Paul is just being gracious when he says "we." Paul must be in his fifties, but he is a young fifty something. He is tall and not obviously overweight. In the past, he rode a bike to work and not a fancy and efficient multi-speed lighweight; Paul rode a good, sturdy somewhat heavy old-fashioned two-wheeler.

Admittedly there is a lot to be done in improving our North American lifestyle which is quickly becoming a global lifestyle. But all is not lost, trust me, Paul. All the attempts to make us aware of our shortcomings have not "clearly been a failure." Just check the mirror. You're living proof.

Now, back to that Campbell's soup. Why 125 ml of condensed soup should have such an incredible amount of salt is simply beyond me. It is time to vote for better food, less salt and no transfats --- in fact, less fat of all kinds --- by voting with our pocketbooks and not buying the obviously questionable products and by voting with our feet by walking to the store, if possible, and by making our own soup with using our food processors.

I'm lucky; I live in a suburban home surrounded by grocery stores and all within walking distance and come spring there will be asparagus and strawberries and other good, fresh stuff available from a stand just a short walk away.
______________________________________________________
This post corrects the spelling of Robarts Research Institute. The institute was named in honour of John Robarts, a former premier of Ontario.

More Boomer Bunkum

According to Quebecor Media Inc. (QMI), ". . . boomers, frustrated with Detroit's poor quality, fell in love with Toyotas because they rarely broke down . . . Now that trust is in danger."

Don't you read stuff like this and think, "How do they know?"

According to CNW Marketing Research, a darling of the American car industry after their release of the report entitled "Dust to Dust" in which they trashed the green image of the Prius while praising the Hummer H2, the average age of new-vehicle buyers at the end of 2007 was the fine boomer age of 48. These folk, born in '59, were boomers by anyone's definition.

CNW claims the average age of shoppers choosing a domestic vehicle was 49.4 years old in 2007 — older than the average 42.5-year-old buyer of Asian cars but younger than the 50.6-year-olds choosing European nameplates. (It is interesting to note that all the ages given are boomer ages. But the Asian buyers are just barely boomers as they were born mid-way through 1964, the last year of the baby boom according to BabyBoomers.)

The oldest average shoppers were looking at the Ford brands, at 54.3 years. GM shoppers averaged 48-years-old, while Chrysler shoppers came in at 44.

The average age of Toyota shoppers was 46.6-years-old. Toyota buyers were younger than GM's and a lot younger than the shoppers for Ford brands.

It is thought that when times are tough, and they've been tough for the young and the middle class for a good decade in the States, and when the choice is between making a mortgage payment or a car payment, the house wins out. Many of the young are simply not in the market for a new car.

There does not seem to be any reason to claim that boomers were enamoured with Toyota, anymore than they were attracted to GM or Ford.

Now, I admit that these numbers are suspect as the source, CNW, is suspect but where does QMI get the figures to support its claims?
_____________________________________________
I just must do a post on this whole boomer foolishness. It is all so downright silly. Boomer talk reveals an erroneous way of looking at the world, divided and categorized and mythologized.

Rides stationary train according to Sun Media

This is one of those quotes without comment posts.

When I read the news report from QMI, Quebecor Media Inc., I was startled at first and then I smiled. It concerned a fellow who had hopped a train which, instead of slowing down, sped up as it left town. The fellow was forced to cling to the cold steel grab rails at the end of the freight car and pray he wouldn't freeze in the cold Prairie night. He wasn't dressed for the train ride. QMI reported:

" . . . he noticed a stationary train and decided to jump on, believing it would slow down . . . "

Huh? A train can't go much slower than stopped. Man, you must be really drunk to hop a stationary train and hope to get anywhere. Then  again, maybe the world was already spinning fast enough for our novice train hopper as he spontaneously decided to ride the rails. (In the end he used his cell phone to call for help; The train was stopped and he was taken from the train to the hospital suffering from hypothermia.)

CBC reported:

"I was going to back where we started originally, and I seen the train slowly going by and I thought I could save myself five blocks … "

A check of other news reports all had the fellow hopping a slowly moving train with the intention of hopping off after a few blocks. As I said, the train sped up and derailed his plans.

So, what was our QMI writer drinking? (Maybe QMI could use an editor. There are lots available in Canada. And with years of experience, too.)
______________________________________
More laughs --- this time at my expense.

I, too, could use an editor. The morning after posting this I noticed that I had, in my haste, spelled stationary wrong in my title. Stationery refers to writing paper or writing materials; Stationary, with the 'a', means stopped. I also hang my head over pray. To pray is to make devout supplication; Prey, with the 'e', refers to hunted animals.

If this blog proves anything, it is that many of us need editors. (. . . and that my mind doesn't work perfectly at the best of times, let alone at one in the morning.)

Cheers,
Rockinon

Tommy Smothers more impressive

Recently I reminisced about the yo-yo man who would stop twice a year at my public school in Canada. This was decades ago and I must admit that I thought the yo-yo was essentially dead.

Nope! It has gone hi-tech, or sure looks it from this video from England. This chap may be trying to set a world record but Tommy Smothers has it all over this dude. See my original post.



Cheers,
Rockinon

Taking the blog on the road

On blogging: When I started blogging I said I wasn't going to do any belly button gazing but it's been a little more than a year since I took the buyout from The London Free Press and a lot has happened.

First, I got to blog about a lot of stuff that is important to me and I've met a lot of people who have opened my eyes to a world I had only an inkling existed. It's been a year of growth.

When I check my e-mail in the morning I may find a message like this: "Have a wonderful day,
greetings from Paris." It is a very pleasant way to start the day and I like it.

On photography: I have taken pictures all my life; It was how I earned my living. Now I take pictures for fun and I do it with just a simple point and shoot camera. No zoom lenses. No motor drive. But I get pictures. I am now moving my favourite shots over to Artwork Portfolio where keen amateur shooters make helpful comments on my work.

I have had as much fun taking pictures for my blog as I had shooting for the paper. Check out my portfolio, think about the camera I use (a simple point and shoot), and get out and shoot some art. You can do it. If you have any problems, drop me a line. I'll try and help.

On my sister: A number of you have asked about my sister: She's coming along quite nicely, thank you. It has been three weeks since she took a tumble in her kitchen, breaking her hip. The operation was a success with the surgeon finding good solid bone. The break is knitting well and she is up and walking about with assistance. Today she's leaving the rehab centre and heading home.

Her family rallied beautifully to the crisis with her five children taking turns returning home to assist their dad and spend time each day visiting their mom. A broken hip is always a disaster for older women but somehow the loving reaction of my sister's family muted the pain. I'd even go so far as to say their actions washed a heart-warming patina over it all.

On newspapers: When I worked at the paper, I was always upset at what I perceived as decisions that weaken the franchise. Stuff like the ad on the right.

This is the Nov. 21 2001 ad introducing zero interest purchase financing. The claim is made that you will pay no interest. The interest will be 'Null', 'Nada', 'Zero', 'Zilch', 'Nothing' -- "0%."

I tried to buy a Pontiac with a 0 percent loan. The dealer would not do it; McMaster Pontiac Buick on Wonderland Road refused to sell me the car for the advertised price unless I paid cash. The advertised price was the cash purchase price. If I wanted the car at 0% financing, I had to pay $1500 more.

Not only would the editors at the paper not run a story on this scam, they ran articles on how the loss of interest income was damaging the automobile industry. Huh?

Later ads carried small print giving the equivalent interest rate. This was calculated by looking at how much more it cost car buyers to buy a car with a "zero interest loan" over what they would have paid for the same car if they had paid cash. (In some cases it was cheaper to pay the cash purchase price and take out a bank loan, rather than taking the 0% interest deal from the car company. My wife bought her car that way and saved a bundle.)

The paper continued to run stories on zero interest loans for years as if all these offers were on the up and up. (I slid in the word all as there were a few offers that actually delivered as promised.)

Forgive me, but when editors-in-chief like Paul Berton run what amounts to lies in their paper simply because they are paid it brings to mind a famous remark often attributed to George Bernard Shaw.

Shaw, according to the story, asked a woman at a dinner party if she would go to bed with him for a very large sum of money. She gave it some thought and said yes, for that kind of money she would. Shaw then asked if she would go to bed with him for what amounted to spare change. Shocked, she sputtered that she was not a common prostitute. Shaw replied, "Madame, we have already established what you are. Now we're just haggling over the price."

The newspapers don't even haggle over price.

Since leaving the paper I've finally been able to tell the other side of the story. And it feels good. It feels the way it should feel when one is working for a newspaper. Ah, for the days of Gord Sanderson, backed as I recall by Sue Greer. This team was responsible for The London Free Press Sound Off column for many years.

Today the paper runs the ads for Miracle Heaters rather than running the Sanderson/Greer-type consumer warnings. The paper leaves it to bloggers to warn the public.

It has been a busy year. But this one will be just as busy if not busier.

Come late May, this blog is hitting the road. I'm taking my little camera, a notebook computer and my 40-year-old Morgan and heading off for California with my wife. I just have to run Highway 1, the Pacific coast highway south of San Francisco. If I wait, it will be too late, they are closing a small part of the famous highway to automobiles in 2011. If you want to run the whole route, you've got to do it now.

Judy and I will be seeing small town U.S.A. as we are taking scenic, two lane roads most of the way. We'll hit some tourist attractions like Yellowstone Park and Mount Rushmore but we'll also do some small stuff like seeing the twistiest street in the United States as we did five years ago.

Just so you know, the twistiest street is not in San Francisco, California, but in Burlington, Iowa. That is Snake Alley on the left. And that's the Morgan enjoying the run.

Sorry about the belly button gazing; We'll try and keep it to a minimum.

Correction:

I have problems with "it" and "they." A company is an "it." If a company does something, "it" does it. The pronoun "they" must refer back to people. I must watch my antecedents.

I received an e-mail correcting me. The e-mail read: Back a few items ago, on your attempt to buy a Pontiac, you said: "Not only would the paper not run a story on this scam, they ran articles on how the loss of interest income was damaging the automobile industry." The "they" is incorrect. The proper pronoun is "it," referring to the newspaper. Had you referred to the editors, "they" would have been correct. Is this clear?

Visit Menton

Years ago my wife and I spent a day in Menton in Provence. In fact, one of the table cloths that we use daily came from Menton.

It is one of the warmest places in all of France, nestled into a little nook in the coastal mountains just a short distance from Italy. Menton is famous for its lemons and once a year actually celebrates them with a Fete du Citron. (Now where did I place those French accents?)

I'm off to visit my sister in the hospital where she is recovering after breaking her hip - thank God for the Canadian medical system. You should visit the Menton Daily Photo site and if you're still curious about Menton you should check out the official Web site.

If you're ever in Provence, and trust me you should make it a goal, be sure to spend a little time in Menton relaxing with a nice bottle of Rose and whatever cool food you can find. (I was introduced to pissaladière one night in Provence, and what a night that was . . . ah, the memories, the food, the good people, someday I'll blog on that night.)

Must go,
Cheers,
Rockinon

. . . and les villages perches: Roquebrune, Gorvio, Sainte-Agnes . . . If you've got the time, Google these. I had one of the best omelets of my life in a little restaurant hanging over a mountain village. Go in the off season and meet the folk who actually live in the little towns and I guarantee and great time. These people know more about "placemaking" than all the pompous city planners hired by London, Ontario, where I live.

If you're interested in English...

I have one visitor to my blog who teaches English and I have a few others who are newspaper editors. Oh, they're retired editors but once an editor always an editor. I have learned from one and fixed some embarrassing errors thanks to a couple of others. (When talking about a company I have learned do not say 'they' when referring to the company; You must say 'it'.)

I found a copy of CP Copy Talk while cleaning my basement this afternoon. It's an old copy but an entertaining read nevertheless. Finding it got me to wondering, is CP Copy Talk still in production? And the answer, amazingly enough, is yes!

CP, Canadian Press, is in trouble. The all-important member papers are leaving. CanWest left over a year ago, I believe. You know the CanWest newspaper chain. It made news itself recently when it came out of the closet to reveal that it was bankrupt, and this time it's money they're lacking and not ideas.

Quebecor, CanWest's competitor, is taking all the SunMedia and Osprey papers out of CP sometime this year. That explains the QMI credits running in these papers. QMI stands for Quebecor Media Inc.

It's a shame to see the once strong Canadian news service rendered almost impotent. But that is a post for another day. But all cannot be lost if CP Copy Talk is still going. Something is right with the world.

There was a time when newsrooms were filled with folk discussing word usage. I can recall going for a beer after work and sitting quietly listening and drinking (and drinking, and drinking) as a couple of editors and a reporter engaged in a heated exchange over the use of a word or phrase in the day's paper.

The people who work at papers still care but their bosses don 't.
_____________________________________________________

From the Dec. 2009 Copy Talk

Eagle-eyed reader Michael Boulet caught a mistake in a Canadian Press story that used the word barter to describe negotiations by travellers who had to pay their own hotel bills when their travel company went bust. Barter "does not mean negotiate, it means to trade goods or services for other goods or services. Therefore, unless the Canadian tourists abandoned by Conquest Vacations in Mexico were attempting to pay for their stay at the Golden Parnassus with goats or back rubs, they were not in fact 'trying to barter down the charges.' "

I didn't believe it, nor did my wife, but I checked and the Canadian Oxford Dictionary agrees that this is correct and this fact is not open to barter.
_____________________________________________________

Would you believe that it is not accurate to refer to the Yukon Territory? Joanna Lilley, senior communications adviser for the Yukon government, pointed out that the territory's official name has been, simply, Yukon since 2003.
_____________________________________________________

From the February 1997 Copy Talk I found in my basement.

A CP editor Ross Hopkins spotted the word parametres in a story. It is parameter, derived from the Latin; not to be confused with metre, derived from French. Hence the spelling difference.
_____________________________________________________

And then I came across this in the October 2008 Copy Talk: Canadian spelling takes a blow. It seems that Oxford University Press announced it was laying off the entire staff of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary. Future editions will be published with the assistance of freelancers and the lexicography department in Oxford, England.

Our one truly Canadian dictionary is done. It is back to reprints of U.K. or American books, with a few changes added for a Canadian audience.

If you've gotten this far, please go on. You can explore the Copy Talk PDFs without me. I'm going to go and crack open a Brick beer in memory of retired editors, bought out reporters and laid off Canadian lexicographers.

Cheers,
Rockinon