Cooking, baking, etc. - ongoing

24 May 2011 - A sort of raisin granola bar pie concoction.


23 May 2011 - Vegetarian tamale pie: thin version with bottom cornmeal crust only, and cheese topping


23 May 2011 - Vegetarian tamale pie: thick version with top and bottom cornmeal crust, and cheese topping


16 May 2011 - Cornbread with cheese baked into it.


15 May 2011 - A tomato-heavy daal, and cabbage lightly braised with chilis.


8 May 2011 - Dutch apple pie redux, with cloves added for extra yumminess.


2 May 2011 - Raisin cream pie: my grandfather's favourite, and a pie I had not tasted in a long time. Taste bud long-term memory kicked in a most pleasing way.


28 Apr. 2011 - Shepherd's pie


February 2011 - An apple pie I made using my mom's recipe. A family favourite.

J. W. Dafoe, "Laurier: A Study in Politics" (1922, rep. 1963)

Dafoe is one of Canada's great Liberal authors, and likely the most renowned journalist/editor the country has produced.

The text of this book, originally written for the Manitoba Free Press as a series of four essays, is available for free online at Project Gutenberg. Essentially, Dafoe was responding to what he saw as the interesting, but deeply flawed two volume biography of Laurier written by O. D. Skelton. As an acquaintance and admirer of Laurier, Dafoe took it upon himself to correct the record.

Queen's Park, Toronto - March 2011

Queen's Park during the melt and rain of March 2011. Really not much to say here, other than that I was surprised I didn't see Dalton McGuinty being brought into work in a canoe. That being said, perhaps I'll go back and post "before" and "after" shots for comparison's sake.









June 2010:

This is more or less the same area as the first winter shot above.


This is more or less the same area as the second winter shot above.


This is the basically the same shot as the last winter shot above.

Bob Woodward, "The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008" (2008)

Woodward narrates a disturbing evolution (or lack thereof) in the White House approach to conducting war in Iraq. He explores, through information gained in interviews with high-ranking officials and members of the military, the pressures various actors felt to defend the existing approach (focusing on battles won, kills made, etc., akin to the approach used in Vietnam), pressure to deliver good news stories when required by the political process, etc.

David King, "The Commissar Vanishes: The Falsification of Photographs and Art in Stalin's Russia (1997)

Entry to follow.

A very interesting survey of images from the book, with brief summaries of who was excised and why, is provided by Fr. Richard Wolfs, S.J., at Loyola Marymount University, USA.

Here is a sampling to whet your appetite.