On winning awards or the World Press Photo fiasco

Little Isla demonstrates how Santa tells a little mouse to keep quiet on Christmas eve.

Find a dark topic, illustrate it with dramatic photos and you may have an award winning piece of work. Tackle a more upbeat story and the chance of having a winner drop off dramatically.

Placing a puzzle piece correctly, Isla reacts.

This morning I learned World Press Photo disallowed photographer Giovanni Troilo’s first-prize for the Contemporary Issues story titled ‘La Ville Noir - The Dark Heart of Europe.’ The photo story examined life in the Belgian city of Charleroi. Some pictures were set-up, others were stage-directed and the one that resulted in the disqualification was not even shot in Charleroi.

In the photographer's defence, he was pretty up front about all his transgressions. World Press Photo ignored many of the criticisms of their choice of Troilo but I believe found itself in an increasingly impossible situation. When it came out that one photo was not shot in the town itself, World Press saw an out and took the exit.

I have been documenting my granddaughters early years and I am learning little children are remarkably capable. I believe that my images plus some excellent in-depth reporting with interviews with university researchers looking into the talents of babies, toddlers and little kids should be an award winner. It should be but I doubt that it would be: Too upbeat, too positive, with images too bright and all lacking the prerequisite dark mood and dramatic lighting.

Walking the line challenges the little toddler's sense of balance.

I believe we seriously underestimate children. I don't believe for a minute that my three granddaughters are geniuses and yet all three seem to be at the head of their class. That is if there was a class. The story here is how well little children do when given love and affection on a constant basis from caring grandparents. Isla is not yet twenty months and yet she understands a massive number of words and concepts.

Tonight I asked Isla to place some Play-Doh on a can. She did. Then I asked her to move the Play-Doh to beside the can. As my wife watched, the little girl followed each order to the letter. Isla understands not only frequently used nouns and verbs. She understands prepositions.

Isla was clipping together colourful foam numbers when she was maybe a year and a half. Her other grandfather watched her taking the tops off bottles and then screwing them back on at 12 months. He decided then and there that his little granddaughter might well be an engineer in the making.

The grandchildren are flourishing under the care of their grandparents and the old folk seem to be responding well to the demands of late life parenting. It seems to be a win-win situation that to an imaginative writer could yield a number of great personal interest stories.

Years ago I chaired a news photographer seminar held annually at the local university. To paraphrase one prize winning shooter, the winning entries in monthly clip contests are the disaster of the month images. Shoot tears, shoot grief, shoot people on a bad drug trip and shoot a winning photo essay.

The photographer admitted he too shot this stuff to win awards but he still shook his head: There's more to life. I believe he would agree that choosing Charleroi to depict the dark heart of Europe was an easy call. In recent years the city has gained notoriety for being the home of paedophile serial killer, Marc Dutroux. Another notorious resident was Muriel Degauque who gained eternal infamy as a female suicide bomber. In 2005, she blew herself up in Baghdad. An opinion poll in nearby Holland voted Charleroi the "ugliest city in the world."

I have discovered that there are boosters of the once successful city. Charleroi reminds me of Detroit, Michigan. Kicking a city when it is clearly struggling and taking no note of its successes should not be award-winning photojournalism. Balance, so important here, is all too often clearly lacking in these murky pictures accompanied with dark prose.

Note: This is not to say there are no happy, upbeat images being published. Of course, there are. But all too often the images and stories are dark, manipulated dark, and are more reflective of an award winning mindset than any attempt to depict life in all its complexity.

Foolproof Spaghetti Carbonara

Pasta carbonara with carmelized Brussel Sprouts, chopped green onions and grated Parmesan.

According to America's Test Kitchen:

Most carbonara pastas are so rich that it’s hard to eat a whole bowlful. [The cooks at America's Home Kitchen] lightened the usual recipe by dismissing additions like cream and butter, cutting any oil, and including only a tablespoon of the rendered bacon fat. Having done so, [they] had to find other ways to make [their] sauce smooth and prevent the eggs from setting into curds and the cheese from melting into lumps.

As this recipe is from the ATK magazine, Cook's Illustrated, I will say only a little more. I will give you a link and trust that it will work for some time. No guarantees.

Being that both my wife and I are watching our weight, a pasta carbonara dish containing no cream, no butter, no oil, sounded like something we should be trying. And tonight we did. I took the picture at dinner.

I already know that there are two more changes I must make to the usual recipe. One, I'll use Egg Creations rather than eggs out of the shell and, two, I'll use pancetta instead of bacon. I don't want maple flavouring or hickory smoke in my carbonara. This is an Italian dish and should taste like it.

The first time I had pasta carbonara was in Chicago at a small, neighbourhood diner. The pasta was al dente, the bits of pork were pancetta and it was served with a poached egg gracing the top. It look great and tasted even better. But my heart friendly diet does not allow egg yolks: None. And so the decorative, and oh-so-tasty, egg is out.

Mesclun greens and fruit make a great salad

Between my wife going to Weight Watchers and my granddaughters spending an inordinate amount of time at our home, our fridge had filled with oodles of fruit and other healthy stuff. My heart and stroke doctor would approve no matter what the cause. I'm sure he'd tell me to just get imaginative and eat the stuff -- and I did.

Tonight I made dinner in a bowl. With almost a whole bag of mesclun salad mix as the base I added fruit and other stuff to create a satisfying, heart-healthy meal.

Ingredients

• Dole mesclun mix - lots
• 1/4 of a small, red onion diced into large pieces
• 1/3 of a fennel bulb diced into large pieces
• a splash of Newman's Own oil and vinegar dressing
• 2 1/2 navel oranges, sectored and diced
• a large handful of chopped strawberries
• a couple of tablespoons of both dried cranberries and dried cherries
• 2 ounces of chicken breast, chopped and quickly browned in a fry pan
• 1 ounce of fry-pan-browned pecan bits

The salad was easy to make and quite delicious. And no wonder it was good. It was inspired by a wonderful salad I had recently at Waldo's in Byron. Although, I have to admit that Waldo's was better. I gave myself an eight. The onion bits were too big and too strong. The next time I may eliminate the onion and add apple chunks. I'd choose either Fujis or Galas as they are both known for their sweetness.

Farro and Porcini Risotto on a Budget

Being retired means watching the budget. Then again, for most of us watching the budget is a wise thing to do even when not retired.

As I have mentioned before, years ago The London Free Press did a series on the difficulties encountered when trying to live on a tight budget. In 2013 the Middlesex -London Health Unit conducted a survey calculating it took $6.47 a day for each of us to eat enough to keep body and soul together. This was calculated using a family of four.

With inflation, I'm sure it costs more today. Let's up this amount to $7.50 a day, keeping in mind that food has increased in price faster than the overall inflation rate.

Today, my wife and I spent the entire $7.50 plus maybe another buck and a half. On the plus side, we got a lot for our money. I started the day with oatmeal porridge bought on sale for less than twenty cents a serving. I used 1% milk rather than water to make the porridge and added one banana well mushed for sweetness.

For lunch both my wife and I had Heinz tomato soup from the Dollar Store. It cost less than 70-cents a can. Finding the Heinz soup was a good deal as I like the Heinz product better than the more expensive Campbell's sold in the grocery store. Sometimes we add crackers bought in bulk from Costco.

If we want a snack in the afternoon, we have fresh fruit. We watch the weekly flyers and try to buy our fruit on sale. We have seven different grocery stores just minutes by car from our suburban home. With such a wide selection, there is almost always fruit and other stuff we need available on sale. We buy lots when stuff is available and this keeps our pantry well stocked. We are still working through the pasta bought for 49-cents a package some time ago. The threat of getting snowed-in doesn't frighten us.

Dinner tonight was a treat. My wife and I worked together to crank out farro and porcini risotto served with asparagus topped with a sprinkling of Parmesan. The Italian farro and porcini normally sells in the $22 range. We paid half that. We found a large bottle, enough for six meals, at Winners. I highly advise checking out the specialty foods at Winners. That place is a godsend when it comes to punching up a day's menu while staying within a tight budget. And for Parmesan, check out Costco. A big block of the hard Italian cheese is expensive at about $25 but wrap it tightly in foil and it keeps a long time.

We made this rice-less risotto using Campbell's chicken stock purchased at No Frills for under a buck. We kicked the risotto up a notch by adding a few small pieces of quickly browned boneless, skinless chicken breast. We have a large tray of this meat with each breast individually wrapped to make defrosting easy.

With my heart condition, I'm only allowed a couple of ounces of chicken or fish and then only every other day. Red meats are out except for one day each month. To simplify our food preparation, my wife also follows my food restrictions.

Dinners made from leftovers nudge food budgets back in line.

We don't drink any beer to speak of. The cost of beer is way too high when one considers how much of the cost is tax. I already pay enough tax.

When we have company I buy some Steam Whistle and hope our guests leave me lots. What we do like is a glass of wine with our dinners. Canadian box wines are actually good as one's personal house wine. We especially like the Jackson-Triggs Shiraz. It often goes on sale and each time $3 is chopped off the price we buy a box or two.

For dessert we each had fruit yogurt which was also bought on sale.

The farro and porcini was a special treat. My wife's a good cook and her risotto with chicken and asparagus was like something I'd get at a fine dining restaurant. We may have overspent for the day but all will pull into line by month's end.

As I have said before, there is no reason to eat pet food in retirement despite what The Free Press warned in an editorial some months ago.

Is this art? Well, it sure isn't happenstance.

I admit, it doesn't look like much. Yet, there's stuff to appreciate in this simple work of art. And what are these, you might well ask. The answer, I would say, is consistency of style and choice and purity of colour wrapped up in a drive to create. A simple, drive. A still developing drive. But a strong drive, nevertheless.

Little Isla, not yet two, has really taken to painting. The other day she will took my hand and ordered, "Come on." She lead me through my home to the basement stairs. "Paint," she said. It was a statement of fact, of what was she had planned.

We went downstairs. Isla climbed onto her chair. There was a pad of blank paper sitting on the table with paint brushes off to the side. When I get down the paints, she squealed with excitement. The moment the paints were within reach, Isla was chanting, "Orange. Orange. Orange"

She unscrewed the lid on a small jar of orange paint, picked a paint brush and set to work pushing the brush, now wet with paint, into the paper. It left big, colourful blobs of orange paint. Isla worked quickly and consistently. She repeated her violent attack on the paper. I have never seen her paint with such ferocity. Within moments she was done with the orange. She handed me the jar and turned her attention to the other paints.

She chose a yellow jar, removed the lid and looked in at the bright yellow paint. "No," she declared after a moment's consideration. She handed me the open jar along with the lid.

Isla poked at the remaining jars: purple, blue, red and green, clearly considering her colour choices. She settled on green. With a satisfied look, she dipped a big brush deep into the small pot of paint and then rammed the brush into the paper just as she had done with the orange. There were few swirls or tepid touches of the brush to paper this day.

As soon as the two colours touched, she stopped. "Done," she announced, got up and headed for the bathroom to clean-up.

Addendum:

A few days after posting this, Isla got a look at the posting and her featured painting. She immediately recognized her work. I asked her if what we were looking at was a painting of a horse. "No," she said emphatically. I then asked if it was a drawing of a bird. The answer again was a firm "No." But, when I asked her if this was a painting by Isla, a small smile appeared and she said softly, "Yes."

This painting was, and is, important to her. I'm amazed.

A dinner a child could make -- and almost did

My granddaughters visit often and, for this reason, I find myself playing kid's games. I hate kid's games. Why mess with Play-Doh when you can mess with cookie batter? Why make pretend cookies when the real thing is so easy. Both activities take the same effort but doing something real carries a bigger payback.

When not cooking, Fiona like to draw.

With this in mind, I let my five-year-old granddaughter, Fiona, help with dinner the other night. Amazingly, she was a lot of help and she had great fun being adult for twenty-five minutes or so. Working around a hot stove, one doesn't play at being adult; one has to be adult. Fiona was.

So, what recipe did my granddaughter and I tackle? A skillet dinner featuring penne with broccoli and chicken. I got the recipe from Cook's Illustrated, a magazine produced by America's Test Kitchen. With everything cooked in one, large skillet, it was easy to keep an eye on Fiona. That said, the kid rallied to the moment and stayed amazingly focused as she stirred the penne to keep it from sticking.

I like both the America's Test Kitchen television show, it could be alternately titled "Cooking with Sheldon" as they approach cooking using the scientific method. It is high school science class meets home economics.

There were four ingredients eliminated from our take on the recipe: onion, garlic, red pepper flakes and white wine. And Fiona and Isla also skipped the grilled tomato served on the side. All five ingredients are on the grandchildren's don't eat list.

Using a kitchen scale, Fiona weighed out the eight ounces of penne while I quick fried the chicken strips. Fiona measured out the chicken broth. We used two cups. And she also measured out the water. I added both to the skillet. She sprinkled a quarter teaspoon of dried oregano over the pasta while it simmered and she took a break from stirring to snap the broccoli flowers apart. No knife was involved. Minutes before the penne was done, Fiona added the broccoli to the almost cooked pasta. Then, just before serving, Fiona added Parmesan cheese grated earlier.

Amazingly, the pasta turned out al dente and the broccoli was a rich green with just a hint of crispness. In other words, nothing was overdone. And the chicken broth added extra flavour to the pasta which both Fiona and Isla appreciated. My wife, Judy, also appreciated the dinner. She declared it winner and said it appeared to be Weight Watchers Friendly to boot.

I posted this in mid February, 2015. The Cook's Illustrated magazine with the recipe may be off the shelves by the time you find this post. You can try finding the recipe on America's Test Kitchen online site but you may find it difficult. These folk are not into simply giving their knowledge away. You may be asked to sign up for a free two week trial. I can't fault them. Giving info away has not been a profitable tack for newspapers and others in the information business.

And lastly, I may have cooked up a monster along with a dinner. Fiona, all of five remember, told Judy, my wife, not to worry about dinner in the future. She (Fiona) and I would be making all meals from now on. I've got to find a way to let this kid down gently. It is that or finding more recipes she can tackle.

What Brian Williams brouhaha and UFFI have in common: Torquing.

Years after the damage was done, Harris Mitchell told the rest of the UFFI story.

It seems the media are appalled that NBC news anchor Brian Williams embellished a story. Yes the story involved Williams himself and this puts a little extra wobble in the usual spin but pumping up stories is all-too-common in the media. It even has a name: torquing.

As everyone now knows, Brian Williams claimed that while he was covering the war in Iraq the chopper in which he was riding was hit by enemy fire and forced to land. It's a great war story for a journalist, unfortunately his harrowing first-person account isn't true. Williams was in a following aircraft. His aircraft drew no fire. As Mark Twain said: "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story."

A fellow with whom I worked at The London Free Press in London, Ontario, left the paper rather than torque a story. Sent to cover what the editorial department heads believed would be a sensational trial, he returned with a relatively dull tale. The courtroom drama failed to gel. With lots of space set aside for a front page story, a non-story wasn't acceptable. The reporter was ordered to torque his piece, to inflate it and fill the space. He refused. Rather than knuckle under he cleaned out his desk and bid the paper adieu. Another reporter, a more malleable one, was assigned the task of torquing the story.

I can't tell you how many times I watched reporters twist stories. One occasion that still roils me up involved a small child lost over-night in a cornfield. The little girl wandered into the tall, mature corn at sunset. Police were called and the field searched. When the police left sometime after midnight, the child had not yet been found.

At daybreak a helicopter arrived and flew over the corn field still cold and damp with early morning dew. Inside the chopper a passenger aimed an infrared thermographic camera at the field. Soon the high tech tool, normally used to detect heat loss in buildings, had pinpointed the location of the child. Despite mild hypothermia, the sleeping little girl's cool body was still much warmer than the surrounding soil.

Although it made a great story in the morning edition — high tech saves child — the high tech angle wouldn't save the story in the afternoon edition. And so the reader-pleasing slant to the story was born. According to a later edition, the child could have been found earlier if only the insights of an area psychic had been followed. While television and radio were still hawking the high tech angle, the paper ran with paranormal angle.

Of course, the psychic story wasn't true. Both the reporter and I were at the farmhouse all night. There was a reason the reporter hadn't given the psychic much weight in the first story and I hadn't spent time in the darkroom printing pictures. The psychic had been of no help whatsoever.

But, as the day wore on, and interest in the high tech angle wore thin, the psychic saviour looked better and better. The paranormal story got torqued.

Which brings us to one of the best known torqued stories in the history of journalism: the UFFI scare story. Admittedly, more was at work here than simply pumping up the dramatic value of a story. There is an unhealthy amount of Steven Colbert's "Truthiness" at work here, as well.

Urea formaldehyde foam insulation — UFFI — was forced off the market in Canada decades ago. Yet, even today folks selling homes in Ontario are asked if their homes contains UFFI. Banned in Canada in 1980, UFFI is occasionally still used in Europe. And after briefly being banned in the States it is back in limited use there as well.

Fear of Foam: Harris Mitchell

Why is a product deemed unsafe in Canada legal everywhere else? The E.U. is well known for being quick to hit the "ban button." Think of genetically modified foods, pesticides for increased food production, bovine growth hormone, chlorinated chicken, food dye and more. UFFI is not quite ho-hum in Europe but neither is it a scare-you-out-of-your-pants story either.

The reason for the continuing Canadian UFFI scare story is simple. The media loves a good story and one about killer insulation is a beaut. It is not true but it is still a beaut. Sadly, the story has hurt a great many Canadians — both home owners whose homes lost value because of the story and small, private business owners who lost everything when their insulation businesses closed after the foam, installed using expensive specialized equipment, was made illegal.

I'm not surprised the UFFI story is now known by many to be false. I was certain the story was torqued when it originally broke in Canada. CBC Marketplace still brags on its Internet site that it "did several groundbreaking reports on it [UFFI] 20 years ago."

Why was I certain? Because I had insulated a fifty year old home with the foam. After reading everything I could, I settled on UFFI. In use in Europe for years, it was a proven product.

From the brochure for Insulspray by Borden that I was given.

I had the Borden Chemical Company product, Insulspray, injected into the hollow walls of my home. The installer told us that the UFFI would not damage our wall by expanding and forcing the aging plaster off the laths nor would it cause any other pressure related damage. He assured us that the foam would shrink as it dried. This would reduce the insulation value a little but insure a damage-free installation.

After tens of thousands of Canadian homes were insulated with UFFI, many with government assistance, insulation horror stories began circulating. I recall being incredibly angry about the attacks made by Marketplace. For instance, Marketplace made a big deal out of the shrinkage. It was great television but poor science and poor news reporting. They acted as if the shrinkage was unexpected and a problem. Neither was true.

Three metal fasteners in UFFI for years and no corrosion.

Newspaper editors saw the Marketplace story and felt scooped. Newsrooms across Canada scrambled to retell the Marketplace story but with a local angle. The scare spread and politicians caved to media pressure. UFFI was banned. More than a quarter of a million Canadian homes required the removal of the foam from hard to reach exterior wall cavities where it had been injected, often with government assistance.

I recall one story on which I worked. Since being insulated, a local home had had a string of residents taken by ambulance to the hospital and the indoor air had a hazy quality.

When I visited the home I learned that the home was being used as a defacto old age home. All those taken to the hospital were seniors. The health emergencies should have come as no surprise.

And why was there hazy air? Hazy air that the paper made such a big deal about. The answer is simple: The home, draft free since installation of the foam, had all windows sealed with tightly taped plastic. As most of the residents were smokers, the home was filled with a haze of tobacco smoke.  

The energy saving measures had cut air infiltration to almost zero. The smoke was no longer being diluted by outside air. The haze was no mystery.
  
Most news stories are good stories but not all are true. The Brian Williams Iraq War fable is not out of place in the world of journalism. Torquing a story has a long, well respected history.
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For more on the present thinking on UFFI, read: Urea Formaldehyde Foam Insulation (UFFI)

It is hard to go wrong with good ingredients

It snowed yesterday and the city failed to plow our street. We were stuck. I had planned on going to the nearby grocery store but with the deep snow I decided not to walk nor to drive. Too cold to walk and too difficult to drive. I decided to make do with the ingredients in the house.

I had a cauliflower I got on sale at Metro and some cherry tomatoes from Costco. First, I fried the tomatoes in a little olive oil in a large wok. After a couple of minutes I added some minced garlic. When the tomatoes began to split, I put them in a small, colourful roasting pan. I put a dab of tomato pesto on each, spread some sun-dried tomatoes and grated Parmesan cheese on top and put the pan in the oven to bake at 350-degrees.

While frying the tomatoes, I lightly cooked the cauliflower in the microwave. After moving the tomatoes into the oven, I added the cauliflower to the remaining olive oil in the wok. I also added a little more minced garlic. I fried the cauliflower until it started to brown while taking care not to burn the garlic.

While frying the cauliflower, I partially cooked some butternut squash in the microwave. Before the cauliflower had browned, I added the squash to the wok. Then, I added about 18 coarsely chopped cashews. When the cauliflower browned, I mixed the cauliflower, squash and nuts thoroughly together before spooning all into a small rectangular Emile Henry roasting pan. I sprinkled some chopped broad leaf parsley and grated Parmesan cheese on top and placed this dish, too, in the oven to bake.

With two pans roasting in the oven, I baked the remaining butternut squash in the microwave with a little butter. Actually, I used Becal margarine as my doctor has ordered me to forgo butter. The squash may seem redundant but actually it adds a much needed focal point to what had to be a meatless dinner -- more directions from my heart doctor.

A big slice of butternut squash looked great on each plate. The cauliflower and squash mixture also looked nice. And the tomatoes not only looked great but they tasted absolutely wonderful. Hot, full of flavour, with a taste nicely accented by both pesto and dried tomatoes.

Leaving meat out of the dinner made it healthy for me and point-friendly for my Weight-Watchers-attending wife. Buying the ingredients on sale and at Costco kept the price low. As I've said before, there is no reason to spend a lot on food in retirement unless you want something expensive and special. (And often even those ingredients can be bought on sale. Here I'm thinking of lobster.)

When reporters warn seniors about the possibility of eating pet food in retirement, I shake my head in disbelief.

Mixed use development coming to London

Near the end of a discussion about a rapid transit development plan for London, the city’s planning chief John Fleming asked: “Why not us? Why can’t we have what other cities have?"

The London Free Press reporter, Randy Richmond, continued on the same tack, asking in his recent story, "Why can’t we be one of the cool cities?" Richmond openly wondered why we can have what Kitchener-Waterloo, Hamilton and Ottawa have and London doesn't.

Why stop with the usual short list of similarly sized Ontario cities? Why not find inspiration not just from cities within the province but from cities outside the province, even outside the country? If we are going to dream, let's dream big.

Think of City Crossing in Luohu, Shenzhen, China with its dramatic mix of uses: retail, commercial and residential. City Crossing - RTKL. Done right, a mixed use development like this would give the London downtown some competition as a destination spot and this might be good. A richer, more vibrant city benefits everyone.

In Calgary, the site of the historical Dominion Bridge steel foundry is slated to be transformed into possibly one of the most vibrant mixed-use developments in the region. The site promises to be a dense, mixed-use district incorporating smart growth with sustainable strategies to create a walkable neighborhood. Dominion Bridge at Ramsay Exchange - RTKL

Makes one wonder what could be done with the former Galleria Mall in downtown London. Built for more than a 100 million it last traded hands for a fraction of its original value. If ugly, former industrial sites can be transformed what could be done with the former Galleria Mall?

Actually, it is half way to conversion today after changes including the name. Both former anchors, one an Eatons and the other a Hudson Bay, have been repurposed with the city's Central Library in the one.

Add an apartment tower, possibly condominiums, drop a grocery store into the mix and could the old luxury mall become a successful mixed use destination? 

If Calgary can do it with an old foundry, why can't London do it with an old mall?

Attention The London Free Press: Bring back the editors

When it comes to writing about urban planning, there’s a lot of stuff Randy Richmond gets wrong. Richmond is clearly a good writer but he sorely needs a good editor.

Richmond gets more than names wrong in his story on urban transit.

For instance, Richmond quotes Yonak Freemark. The name is Yonah. Oops! A good editor checks things like the spelling of names.

And despite the column inches Richmond devotes to transportation analyst David Hartgen, the reporter fails to mention it is no surprise that Hartgen is critical of the Charlotte, N.C., LYNX system. A good editor would find a way to tell the reader that the analyst is not a supporter of expensive, expanding public transit in general.

Hartgen believes a community can build its way out of a transportation mess, a traffic congestion nightmare. How? By adding road capacity. For Hartgen, the car is the answer.

Popping the ideas of David Hartgen into a story without telling readers that Hartgen is not just a simple transit critic but he is a promoter of one particular transit approach is not telling the whole story. As I said at the beginning, The London Free Press needs to hire more editors. Good editors keep good writers good.

Some things last too long

"Valet" AutoStrop Safety Razor

One of my nephews, along with his wife and young daughter, stopped by for a visit recently. I'm posting this ad for the Valet AutoStrop safety razor for him. He'll be interested in this as he is very concerned with waste. I can understand his concern as I've been against waste all my life.

When I was in high school I used a Valet AutoStrop razor. I sharpened the blade on a strip of leather which had belonged to my dad. He had used it once to sharpen a straight razor; my mother used it to spank her son: me.

I still have the razor along with a box or two of blades. The blades are single sided with the name Valet completely punched out. The metal missing from the blade leaves letters which overlay raised bits of metal in the razor head itself. This interlocking system holds the blade firmly in place.

The company that made the Valet razor stopped producing the razors in the late '40s, I believe. But the blades were available in stores until the mid '60s. When I worked at a drugstore in the early '60s, I can recall selling the red packages of blades to diehard Valet AutoStrop users. They swore by these blades. Some claimed to get two months of shaves from one blade. It was important, though, to keep the blades sharp by correctly using the unique leather strop which by the '60s was no longer available. A box of five blades, which cost less than a dollar, would last the better part of a year, according to these users.

When Wilkinson-Sword came out with the stainless steel double-sided safety razor blade, the market for the Valet product began to dry up. The stainless steel blades seemed to last indefinitely compared to the common Gillette blue blades which were prone to rust between uses. Often, one got one shave, and one shave only, from these carbon steel blades. The rule for Gillette users was "If it's a new morning, it's a new blade."

Some men tried to prevent the rust by submerging used blue blades in a small glass filled with rubbing alcohol. It was a lot of trouble and there was the constant risk of the tumbler being knocked to the floor and broken. Squeezing more shaves out of Wilkinson blade was a little easier. Some users stropped the shiny blades by rubbing them back and forth on the inside of large glass.

The Wilkinson blades didn't last as long as the Valet blades but they gave a closer shave when new. Sales of the the old blades softened and the blades once famous for their longevity disappeared from stores.

But the longevity record does not go to the Valet blades with their AutoStrop technology. No, this award may go to the Personna 74 tungsten steel blade released in the early '70s. These blades lasted so long that there was no money to be made in making them. With a microscopic layer of titanium protecting the edge, Personna took the concept of reusable too far. The carbon steel blades simply lasted and lasted and lasted. The Personna 74 was removed from the market.

I understand that the razor industry is worth $30 billion worldwide. Whether it is an AutoStrop system or superior blade technology, lasting too long isn't the goal today of manufacturers: It's sales. The inventor of the Valet system would be appalled by today's disposable razors sold in huge packages containing a dozen or more big, plastic razors. What a waste!

Food for fun and entertainment

Thanks to a poor heart, a lot of travel is out of our reach. No insurance; No out-of-country travel allowed for me and my wife. It is just that simple.

One advantage to this is that one big retirement expense has dropped from our budget. We are flush with unspent cash that was once budgeted for travel: plane fares, hotel rooms, expensive restaurants. Well, restaurants are actually still in our budget. London, Ontario, has some nice places to drop a dime. We especially liked our recent visit to the Spring Restaurant in an old church on Springbank Drive.

Still, my heart doctors have me on a Mediterranean diet and a lot of restaurant meals do not answer my dietary needs. Dining at home is a fine alternative. It is fun. Challenging might be a better word when I am in the kitchen.

The other day I saw some dark green rice ramen in Winners. Ramen is that noodle stuff many of us ate when single and in a hurry. It came in a noodle-filled box with some flavorful powder. It was flavorful if you count lots of salt as flavor. Peel back the foil covering the bowl shaped container, pour in some boiling water and within minutes one had a meal. I haven't had ramen in years.

When I saw the dark green ramen, it brought back memories and thoughts of I-can-do-better. I bought the package. I boiled it and a little too long, I might add. Then set it aside.

I fried some chopped red and yellow sweet peppers in a little olive oil in a large wok. I added some green onions to the mix and when the onions started to show signs of cooking, I added some chopped broccoli, diced cashews to the mix and four ounces of chopped cooked chicken we had leftover from a previous meal. I had some Indian sauce in the fridge, so added that with a little finely chopped garlic. With all nicely mixed, I added the still warm ramen noodles.

The dinner was tasty and healthy. It had lots of vegetables and very little meat. I overcooked the noodles slightly but I'll know better next time. All in all, a very good dinner with interesting ingredients. It was fun to make and a pleasure to eat. It went very nicely with our the five ounces of red wine we have each evening at dinner.

And it was inexpensive. Our budget is still awash with cash.

Why Ontario greenhouse operations are expanding into Ohio.

This is the time to form partnerships with grocery stores, restaurants, and food service industries, in order to persuade key players to support American agriculture products. In our communities, we need to exercise the power of the dollar. Make a conscious decision to buy American grown products.”
-- Aaron Preston - Future Farmers of America

Saturday I read an article on the reason greenhouse operations in Essex County are leaving the Leamington/Kingsville/Lakeshore area. It is because of electricity problems; it costs too much and the grid is inadequate. The article laid the blame on the governing Ontario Liberals.

"No Juice For Veggies" the headline read in a big, bold font. "Power problems push growers elsewhere" the reader on the Web was told and the writer should know. He's from the Leamington area and has relatives working in the greenhouse industry. Yet, like so many other Free Press articles, I was left with more questions than answers.

Leaving Essex County for Ohio simply to reap the benefits of being on  the American electrical grid seems a reach. As the International Business Times reports: "The United States endures more blackouts than any other developed nation. . . . " The American grid suffers from an increasing number of blackouts because of an aging infrastructure, a lack of investment and no clear plans guiding modernization. The Ontario Liberals are not alone at mismanaging the power grid and, make no mistake, they have mismanaged the grid. There is no argument there.

It's true that the little Southern Ontario town of Leamington and the surrounding area has lost jobs to the United States. At a city Economic Development Committee meeting a year ago, Chair Louis Saad raised the issue of incentives to encourage businesses to remain in town. It seems a local business owner was considering moving his company south of the border to benefit from the lower cost of living, the more favourable tax rate and the generally less expensive business environment in the United States.

Chair Saad was told it was illegal for the Municipality to give incentives to businesses. This was not news to Saad. He has complained in the past that "(The U.S.) has a lot of tax incentives that aren’t legal in Ontario." Saad argued Southern Ontario communities must be able to offer incentives in order to attract the companies that otherwise would take the jobs to Michigan and Ohio.

Mark Balkwill, president of the Essex County Federation of Agriculture, agreed. Balkwill has been quoted as saying that a major player in the greenhouse industry was opening an operation in Ohio after the state offered to match dollar for dollar any investment in production facilities. In addition, the state promised no property taxes during the first five years of operation.

Balkwill may have been referring to Nature Fresh Farms which stated in a press release that their move into Ohio was "contingent upon acceptable levels of incentives from the State of Ohio and other government authorities as well as utility rates agreeable to Nature Fresh." The Leamington grower may have received the incentives as there are no signs that the expansion is not going through.

And there is one other reason Canadian greenhouse operations are expanding into the States: Money. The United States is where the money is. And it is not just Canadians looking to expand into the States. Greenhouse growers in the Netherlands are actively looking for opportunities in the States.

A report released by Dutch greenhouse sector points out: "It is remarkable that the total area of greenhouse production in the US only amounts to 9.100 hectares, while in the Netherlands greenhouse production takes place under 10.400 hectares, (even though) the US is 244 times larger than the Netherlands and has almost 20 times the number of consumers. . . . the US greenhouse sector has some room to grow."

Historically the U.S. has imported most of their greenhouse grown food but in the past few years the domestic production has increased significantly. Why? A small part of the reason is a growing trend to buy foods grown locally whenever possible. This puts foods from both Mexico and Canada at a disadvantage and even Florida and California when one is considering the Midwestern and Northeastern markets.

The Meijer grocery store chain likes to brag that it has purchased from local growers since opening some 80 years ago in Greenville, Michigan. Today the chain brags it sells Michigan-grown tomatoes and sweet peppers supplied by Mastronardi of Coldwater, Michigan. Mastronardi was originally a Canadian greenhouse operator.

The "Buy America" movement touches the entire American market for consumer goods and is backed by politicians on both the right and left. In 2008, Barack Obama promised rural Ohio voters he would "enforce Buy American requirements to protect specialty crops." Fruits and vegetables are counted among specialty crops.

The Obama campaign literature claimed demand for locally grown foods was growing quickly. For this reason Obama supported the immediate implementation of the Country of Origin Labeling law. COOL would enable American consumers to distinguish imported foods from those grown within the States. Obama argued consumers "deserve the right to know where their food comes from."

EMD workers locked out without a hope of being called back.

When London, Ontario, lost Electro Motive Diesel a London Free Press columnist tweeted, "Electro- motive workers should give their assent to a team of shuttle diplomats."

Maybe, I thought, but I put far more faith in the words of John Hamilton, CEO of Electro-Motive Diesel. He told a House subcommittee: "In accordance with Buy American, we announced last week a search for a facility in which to perform final assembly."

To sell locomotives in the States, in any quantity, EMD was going to have to build those engines in the States. The closing of the London assembly plant should have come as a no surprise to anyone.

The other reasons given for closing the EMD plant were real but they were not the whole story. For instance, the problems with the electrical grid in Ontario are very real and electricity in the province is among the most expensive on the continent. But, when it comes to losing the expanding greenhouse industry to the States, our electrical problems are not the whole story. For instance, I've been told that the natural gas supply cannot be relied upon in the Leamington-Kingsville area of Essex County.

Some growers reportedly are installing biomass systems to work around the natural gas supply shortage problem. But this solution leads to other problems, such as what to supply the biomass system. One grower is looking at planting miscanthus, a fast growing exotic perennial grass species.

Reportedly, up to 25 percent of the power generating capacity in the state of Ohio is reaching the end of its lifespan. Replacing those power plants will be expensive and will take years. Cold weather pushes the present grid in Ohio to its limits.

When I did a search of electrical blackouts in Ohio, I discovered one outage about two and a half years ago left 450,000 folk across the state without power. A little more than two years ago 240,000 Cleveland residents lost power in a severe autumn storm. Some four years ago, 80,000 residents living near Lake Erie were without power because of an equipment failure caused by too many people overwhelming the grid by turning on their space heaters. Space heaters overtaxed the Ohio grid!

80,000 people left without power in Ohio by the use of too many space heaters

A similar search of Southwestern Ontario turned up one recent blackout affecting a mere 2,440 people. This is not to say The Free Press is wrong when it reports the Southern Ontario grid needs upgrading; It does. The power problems in Essex County have been big news this year. But if Canadian companies are moving to Ohio simply for the electricity, they may be making a mistake -- and they better think twice before turning on a space heater or anything else to heat a greenhouse.

Compared to Ohio, it appears Essex County offers far more reliable power.

Mucci Farms, greenhouse grower near Leamington, has facilities in Mexico, Holland, Spain, Guatemala. Why? Not just to avoid costly power.

— Rockinon (@RockinonLDN) January 22, 2015

Read story on greenhouse growing in Spain in EcoWatch.

Note the inclusion of Spain. Spain has an immense vegetable growing area under plastic, it is an entire peninsula converted to greenhouse status on the Mediterranean coast.

Already I have found sweet peppers for sale in London coming from Spain which were produced by an Essex County grower operating there.

Yes. A complex problem indeed.
________________________________________________

After writing this I happened upon this information released by the USDA more than two years ago. "Imports from Canada's hothouse tomato industry peaked in 2005, but have weakened with rising competition from Mexico." I'm sure the rising price of electricity in Essex County played a role in this but it is clear that much more is going on here. It is interesting to note that some of the Mexican competition is from companies owned by Leamington growers. Today I went to the neighbourhood Metro grocery store and two long sides of an island in the produce department were lined with Mexican tomatoes carrying the names of Leamington/Kingsville based growers.

The USDA article goes on to report, "Mexico now accounts for 71 percent of the U.S. import market for greenhouse tomatoes, while Canada's share has been reduced by half to 27 percent." By half!

And here is the kicker, "Greenhouse tomatoes, in fact, have taken a greater share of the U.S. fresh-market tomato industry. About three-fourths of U.S. fresh tomato exports are shipped to Canada . . . (furthermore) . . . During the early 1990s, the United States became a net exporter of processed tomato products and has remained so."

Is your child caring? Can you take credit?

Isla likes to share. It seems a natural way of approaching the world for my little granddaughter. I've never thought of taking any credit for her generous nature. But research done recently at Stanford University in the States, argues caregivers can take a few bows.

The most recent study conflicts with an earlier one done in 2006. At that time, a study found 18-month-old toddlers were willing to provide a helping hand without being prompted. Today researchers are no longer so certain altruistic behaviour is innate.

Now, Stanford psychologists believe altruistic behavior may be governed more by relationships than instincts. According to R.C. Barragan, a psychology graduate student at Stanford, "Kids are always on the lookout for social cues."

I am always amazed at what results from a dozen and a half years of education or more. Play with a child and they will be more likely to pick up an item that you dropped than if you made them play on their own while you ignored them while playing nearby.

I'm not at all surprised that if you play a simple game of catch with a child that kid will warm up to you. If you keep to yourself, mess about nearby on your own, don't be surprised when the kid acts distant. It think it should come as no surprise and you can thank your standoffish attitude for the coldness.

I feel uncomfortable taking too much credit for my granddaughter's sweet, oh-so-pleasant disposition. Maybe we, her parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, have not so much inspired her as given her opportunity. As Barragan also pointed out, "If children trust the people in their world, they may have an easier time learning the culture of that world – effectively making it easier for them to achieve new levels of personal and interpersonal success."

Or, play ball with me and I'll share my grilled cheese with you.

The London Free Press: Vous n'êtes pas Charlie.

The local paper, The London Free Press, ran an article today with details surrounding the first issue of the French weekly Charlie Hebdo after the slaughter of many of the paper's senior editorial staff. The Free Press headline read: "Tearful Mohmamed on cover." The art accompanying the story showed the memorial to the victims which is growing larger by the day on the street near the magazine offices. The Free Press did not print a photo of the actual cover of the magazine. A description was all the paper dared print.

According to the paper, the weekly publication features "the most anticipated magazine cover in the world." As many as 3 million copies of Charlie Hebdo could be distributed with demand soaring. The usual print run is only 60,000. This week global sales alone could surpass 300,000, dwarfing the usual international sales number of about 4,000 copies.

But the most anticipated magazine cover or not, The Free Press is not providing its readers with a look at the controversial cover. The local paper is not alone. Canadian media in general, at least the dominant media in English-speaking Canada, have decided not to republish any of the satirical cartoons which made worldwide news after many of those connected to the publications were gunned down in their Paris office.

The Globe and Mail defended their decision not to publish the Charlie Hebdo cartoons. David Walmsley, The Globe and Mail’s editor-in-chief, explained: "One doesn’t need to show a cartoon to show the story. The story is the killings, not any cartoon."

The story is not the cartoons? What balderdash. Those cartoons are at the core of story. No cartoons; no slaughter; no story. To read the full explanation, click the following link. If you do, please also take a moment to read some of the comments of Globe readers.:

• Public editor: Why The Globe didn’t publish the Charlie Hebdo cartoons
• Comments

The journalist at Charlie Hebdo were killed because of the cartoons they published. To say that these cartoons are not an important part of this story is ridiculous. Without them there is no specific context for the crime. Walmsley's explanation is pure rationalization.

The journalist at Charlie Hebdo were killed because of the cartoons they published. To say that these cartoons are not an important part of this story is ridiculous. Without them there is no specific context for the crime. Walmsley's explanation is pure rationalization.

The journalist at Charlie Hebdo were killed because of the cartoons they published. To say that these cartoons are not an important part of this story is ridiculous. Without them there is no specific context for the crime. Walmsley's explanation is pure rationalization.

The journalist at Charlie Hebdo were killed because of the cartoons they published. To say that these cartoons are not an important part of this story is ridiculous. Without them there is no specific context for the crime. Walmsley's explanation is pure rationalization.

The journalist at Charlie Hebdo were killed because of the cartoons they published. To say that these cartoons are not an important part of this story is ridiculous. Without them there is no specific context for the crime. Walmsley's explanation is pure rationalization.

The journalist at Charlie Hebdo were killed because of the cartoons they published. To say that these cartoons are not an important part of this story is ridiculous. Without them there is no specific context for the crime. Walmsley's explanation is pure rationalization.

The journalist at Charlie Hebdo were killed because of the cartoons they published. To say that these cartoons are not an important part of this story is ridiculous. Without them there is no specific context for the crime. Walmsley's explanation is pure rationalization.

The journalist at Charlie Hebdo were killed because of the cartoons they published. To say that these cartoons are not an important part of this story is ridiculous. Without them there is no specific context for the crime. Walmsley's explanation is pure rationalization.

The journalist at Charlie Hebdo were killed because of the cartoons they published. To say that these cartoons are not an important part of this story is ridiculous. Without them there is no specific context for the crime. Walmsley's explanation is pure rationalization.

From my quick reading of the comments, it seems most readers of The Globe were not swayed. And so a few days later, The Globe ran another piece addressing its decision not to publish any of the cartoons. This article carried the headline We honour Charlie Hebdo, but we don’t want to be it. This attempt at placating readers angered by the decision also failed. Find the comments here: Comments.

Have I seen any of the cartoons? Yes. I subscribe to a daily feed from the Harvard Gazette. Following a links, I viewed a smattering of the cartoons. And I read articles defending Charlie Hebdo. Ayaan Hirsi Ali,  a Fellow with The Future of Diplomacy Project at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center, wrote:

We do need to wake up to the fact that there is a movement — a very lethal movement, very cruel — that has a political vision about how the world should be organized and how society should live. And in order for them to realize their vision, they are willing to use any means. They are willing to use violence. They are willing to use terror.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali continued, saying:

The ball is now in the court of the media. If the press responds to this by not reprinting the cartoons, by not defending the principle that Charlie Hebdo was defending, then we have given in. Then they have won [this round].

I added this round. Why? Because if you think that this dispute is just about cartoons, you are mistaken. The cartoons are simply one round in a far larger fight. The cartoons are the focus this time. But, take away the cartoons and you still have a fight on your hands. Terrorist murderers do not disappear because a cartoon is not published. They simply turn their attention elsewhere.

This cartoon by Cabu depicts and quotes the racist demagogue
politician Jean-Marie Le Pen of the Front National party (with
the eye patch). The caption reads: "We want to be able to go
out in the evening without being afraid." The armed thugs in the
background are racist skinheads and their ilk. The cartoon
leaves little doubt as to who is afraid.

I heard a self-described left-of-centre NDP supporter expressing his anger at the publication of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons. He had strong opinions on this matter even though, I don't believe, he had actually seen any of them. And no wonder. His sources for news are not publishing any of the Jean Cabut cartoons. I believe that's really too bad.

Althought the man compared the Cabu cartoons to the Nazi propaganda released during the Hitler era, don't make the mistake of thinking that he was a supporter of religion. He wasn't. He made it very clear that he despised religion. All religion. He saw religion at the root of much that is wrong with the world.

When I read the supportive phrase, "Je suis Charlie", I think of another meaning. Charlie Hebdo stirs up angry, murderous emotions in certain extreme, and I believe misguided, Muslims. But it is not just Charlie Hebdo stirring this emotional pot. I believe the oh-so-acceptable secular approach to religious faith, an approach that treats faith as foolishness, as something to be mocked and ridiculed, is also fueling the terrorist fires now burning in the West.

Those who openly distrust of religion, are intolerant of religious thought, and who might be characterized by believers as haters of religion, these people are also part of the problem. I've seen it claimed that this background noise in our secular world, this background noise that mocks religious belief is one of the  forces driving some Muslims into the marginalized camp. Maybe these people, full of distrust for all religion, can also lay claim to the phrase "Je suis Charlie." Although, used here it has another meaning: "If Charlie was wrong, if Charlie stirred up anger, then to the extent that I also have stirred up anger means that to that extent I am also Charlie."

To understand my point, read The New York Times piece, From Teenage Angst to Jihad, The Anger of Europe’s Young Marginalized Muslims.

Author Abdelkader Benali tells readers of The Times that at 13 years old he was a healthy, young Dutch boy with a Moroccan background until something happened that made him realize he was different from his non-Muslim classmates. Benali writes:

One day in history class, the fatwa against Salman Rushdie became the subject. Our teacher talked about freedom of expression; I talked about insulting the Prophet.

It took Benali years to work through the moral dilemma in which he found himself that day. And he found it is much harder to find a satisfactory answer while living in a secular society that had stopped struggling with big religious questions.

Benali tells readers, "In the end, I didn’t find the answers in holy texts. I found them in literature." He found his answer in Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, in Albert Camus' The Plague and in the book that originally triggered his emotional turmoil, Salmon Rushdie's The Satanic Verses: a book about "a young man struggling with his faith in a faithless world."

Maybe, just maybe, the cartoons published by Charlie Hebdo will do for others what The Satanic Verses did for Benali. Check out this link to the latest Charlie Hebdo cover showing the Prophet Muhammad holding a "Je Suis Charlie" sign with the caption, "All is forgiven."

There are a lot of criticisms that can be aimed at the French weekly, insensitive comes readily to mind, but spreading hatred of Muslims is not among them.

Huffington Post: I Am Charlie.

Kids are simply natives; drop the modifier "digital"

There are those who claim children today are "digital natives." I'm not one of them.

Isla can make the dog in her book tilt its head. She simply pulls the large tab with the blue pointer. The tab is connected to a hinged head. But Isla can't change the image on the back of my camera. She insists on pushing the image off the screen as if my camera were an iPhone. It isn't. Isla is frustrated.

Isla is bright and someday she will work a computer much as I "work" a car. But just as I am not a mechanic, despite being raised with automobiles, Isla may never be a digital native despite being raised with computers.

When Isla's older sister, Fiona, brushed her hand casually over the keyboard of my laptop, the wireless Internet stopped working. The so-called digital natives in my world couldn't get my portable back online. I'm closing in on 70 but I found the answer. The antenna icon, looks a bit like the letter A with energy radiating from the tip, controls the wireless connection. Touch the icon and it turns off, touch it again and it turns on. It is a toggle that lights when in the on position and goes dark when the in the off position. Fiona toggled it off.

Every time I read in the paper how young people are so comfortable with computers while seniors are inept, I want to scream. I've been playing with computers for some three decades. I'm not a whiz but I am not frightened by computers either. When I had a sailboat in the '80s, I wrote a program to assist in charting my boat's position on the lake. I had a little, portable Radio Shack computer that performed the task very admirably.

If you, too, believe the computer skills of the young are highly overrated, please read: Kids can't use computers... and this is why it should worry you.

This is not to belittle children in anyway. Little kids are amazing. At about 14 months Isla could remove a screw top from a bottle. According to her other grandfather, today Isla can remove the childproof lids from his medicine bottles. She is definitely bottle-top native. With computers, which are bit more complex, she doesn't show anywhere near the aptitude.

A colourful twist on an old recipe

Cauliflower soup with carrot added for colour.

 Awhile ago I did a post on a homemade cauliflower soup. Here's the link:  Homemade soup easy to make and nutritious. With a bought-on-sale cauliflower growing old in the fridge, my wife encouraged me to make my cauliflower soup. My wife even went so far as to chop the cauliflower into small pieces.

So, today I knocked off a big pot of a very elegant soup which in a fine restaurant would be an oh-so-suitable first course. Because all the cauliflower had to be used, I used all 22 ounces. For colour, I added one large chopped carrot. For flavour, I tossed in two celery stocks and three small onions, both diced.

After stir frying the vegetables in a little olive oil for about ten minutes, I added a 900ml box of vegetable broth, twelve ounces of 1% milk, a couple of bay leaves and a sprig of thyme. I simmered this for about twenty minutes until the cauliflower was done.

Before pouring the soup into a food processor, I removed the bay leaves and thyme sprig and added a couple of ounces of potato flakes as a thickener. After blending the chunky mixture to a smooth, thick consistency, I returned the soup to the cook pot and reheated it until it reached serving temperature.

Unlike the original soup, this one has a light orange colour and a hint of sweetness, all thanks to the addition of a carrot.

There is no reason for people to eat poorly. A large bowl of this filling and very healthy soup was about 60-cents. Both the head of cauliflower and the box of vegetable broth were under a dollar. Both were picked up on sale. If one works one's diet around ingredients that are available on sale, one can keep the price of meals surprisingly low.