ON Nomenclature

   As you will know, whenever one of the titles in MM contains the prefix "ON", you realize you are in for a tough slog about a serious topic (see, for example, "ON Worms" and "ON Barfing.) You will also know that I have been consistently critical of the "Naming Warriors" who want to change most of the names we know, if the name belongs to someone they don't like. Bird names are now at the top of their lists.
   Such simple virtue signalling is really rather complex and the good news is that those involved are likely to be engaged in this endeavour for a very long time. Unfortunately that will keep them from doing anything really important, but at least they won't be meddling with other unimportant symbolic gestures which accomplish very little and create a lot of unnecessary hostility.
   There are thousands of names to be changed and the sorting out of 'bad' names is complicated. For example, what if a bad person was only bad part of the time and then turned good, or vice versa. Aung San Suu Kyi won a Nobel Prize, but now some want it revoked. She has a bug named after her (Cretopiesma suukyiae), what is one to do?

  On the other hand, bugs aren't particularly flattering so perhaps it fits. The Australian Death Adder is named for the Prime Minister of Australia, Robert Hawke, (Acanthophis hawkei). Is that because he was a slimy snake of a person or because he was a conservationist? (the latter.) As you will see, in the list below, Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, have beetles named after them. Is that because they were bad guys or good? (surprisingly, the latter.) Could detestable critters we don't like, be given the name of people we dislike? I could go on.

   Instead, I will provide a brief list compiled from very long lists of things with names. All kinds of things are named for all kinds of people. There are musicians, politicians, artists, athletes and authors and men and women who have their names on many types of organisms. The sorting out of all these names will not be easy. Here are just a few samples of people who may be good or bad, or both, for you to scrutinize. 

Earl Scruggs
Acanthobunocephalus scruggsi 
Catfish
Named after Earl Scruggs, a prominent American banjo player known for popularizing a three-finger banjo picking style, also known as "Scruggs style", which is characteristic of bluegrass music. The name of the species also makes an allusion to the common name given to aspredinid species in general (banjo catfishes), and the remarkable resemblance of the new species with this musical instrument.
[If you are wondering if any other player of blue grass music had something named after him, the answer is "YES". Doc Watson has a Beetle named after him: Anillinus docwatsoni.]

Mick Jagger (note - Canadian content)
Aegrotocatellus jaggeri
Trilobite
Aegrotocatellus is a genus of trilobite in the order Phacopida, which existed in what is now Nunavut, Canada. It was named by Adrain and Edgecombe in 1995, and the type species is Aegrotocatellus jaggeri, a species named after British musician Mick Jagger.
[There is also a sea snail named after him - Anomphalus jaggerius - and Keith Richards has his own trilobite as well: Perirehaedulus richardsi.]

George W. Bush
Agathidium bushi 
Beetle
This beetle was named by Quentin D. Wheeler, and President Bush was pleased with the gesture, even calling Wheeler to thank him for the honor. Because of the problematic public image of Bush and his cabinet, and the fact that this is a slime-mold beetle which feeds on decaying fungi, some interpreted the naming to be intended as an insult; however, Wheeler clarified that this species, as well as A. cheneyi and A. rumsfeldi, were meant as homages: "We admire these leaders as fellow citizens who have the courage of their convictions and are willing to do the very difficult and unpopular work of living up to principles of freedom and democracy rather than accepting the expedient or popular". Co-author Kelly Miller said "We intended the names to be honorific... We were two conservatives in academia working together (which is not common). It was early in the Iraq war period, and we were both in favor of intervention there... And finally, we love our beetles! We wouldn't name a new species after someone we didn't like.
[ Cheney - Agathidium cheneyi. Rumsfeld - Agathidium rumsfeldi ]

John Updike
Agrilus updikei 
Beetle
A species of jewel beetle that mimics flies, "named in honor of the late writer John Updike. Although Updike published sparingly on Neotropical beetles (1963), his use of metaphors, widely admired by critics, recommends this honor because, in a sense, a species which mimics another is a kind of metaphor for the mimicked species and benefits by being confused for its model by uncritical predators."

Lionel Messi

Acanthogonatus messii
Spider

"In honor of Lionel Andrés Messi, an Argentine professional footballer and one of the greatest players of all times, unique winner of seven (now eight) Ballons d’or."

                                            Some Women

Carole King

Anacroneuria carole
Stonefly

The species name [...] honors singer, songwriter, environmental advocate, Carole King in recognition of the music career, a pearl by any standard." (This species belongs to the family Perlidae)

Joni Mitchell (note - Canadian content)
Cortinarius jonimitchelliae

Mushroom

"The epithet is in honor of the Canadian singersongwriter Joni Mitchell. She has written many songs for the protection of nature. Her most famous album "Blue" suits well for the color of this species"

Dolly Parton
Dollyphyton 
Fossil

A fossil genus from the Ordovician of Tennessee, USA. "The generic name is in honor of Dolly Parton, whose Dollywood resort is near Douglas Dam" (where the fossils were found)

Joan Didion
‘Ganaspidium didionae 
Wasp
The wasp's range includes deserts of the American Southwest, setting of several of Didion's works.

[There is also a wasp named for Shakira - Aleiodes shakirae]

Sources: 
   I stumbled upon a source which provided all of this information and was the stimulus for this post. See if you can find it. I will say, that none of the material in the list of people was created by me and there is a source for it. 

Biking About (No.3)

 

   On May 1, 2023 in a post labelled, "Biking About" there is a picture of the odometer on my bike and the number displayed is 4575.  In it, i indicated I would provide a tally in the fall and it is pictured above. I stopped riding around Nov.15, so during that six month period I rode about 1435K or around 890 miles. Serious cyclists will make fun of that total, but, as is the case with most things, I am not too serious about cycling. In my defence I will note that I rode mainly on nice, sunny, warm days of which there are not many in southern Ontario. There will be even fewer in the next six months and I will not be joining those riding on fat tires through the falling snow in the darkness. 

The Bonus:
   While looking for my earlier post, I found that I had done another one with the title, "Biking About," which illustrates my lack of creativity. But in it I did offer some observations about how cycling may affect sexual activity. 

Post Script:
   You have learned little from this post, but at least I have provided for myself some record of one of my activities. If I had wanted to impress you I could have offered my drinking statistics, but fortunately I didn't keep track of them. For persevering I will now provide a picture of "Octo Man" who is associated with MM. It is the only known photo of him taken during this century and it was done by accident. In attempting to take a picture of the Thames River along which the cyclist often rode, he didn't realize the phone was pointing in the wrong direction. Here is that first and last 'selfie', which, one hopes, only a few loyal readers of MM will notice. 

Beyond the Paywall (3)

 

["Beyond the Palewall" is the title of this series because "Beyond the Paywall" is taken. Information for which you are not willing to pay, along with information you may not wish to know, is presented in abbreviated form without charge. What has caught my eye may sometimes feel like a poke in yours and, in that sense, be beyond the pale for you. Items will appear weekly, or perhaps monthly, or maybe semi-annually, if I can get started and the weather is bleak.]

                                        News From the Art World

Intolerance Outside the MUSEUM OF TOLERANCE
   There is some irony left in L.A. where the Museum of Tolerance is located and where fights occurred outside the Museum recently because of what was going on inside. You will find a few articles about it in early November. For example:
"Inside the Museum of Tolerance's Screening of Hamas Attack Footage," Josh Rottenberg, L.A. Times, Nov. 8, 2023.
"Demonstrators Brawl Outside LA's Museum of Tolerance After Screening of Hamas Attack Video," Associated Press, Nov.9, 2023.
The website of the Museum of Tolerance is here.
Now, on to a museum that is really tolerant.

Serrano's Piss Christ

The Upcoming Brawl in Barcelona - THE MUSEUM OF PROHIBITED ART
   The Museum of Prohibited Art is a brand new one in Barcelona and, while I welcome it, it is highly likely that others will not. During a time when everyone is highly sensitive and just about anything displayed is offensive to someone, you have to admire the chutzpah of Tatxo Benet, a wealthy Catalan, who is opening a museum dedicated to nothing but showing offensive artworks which have already been censored and previously prohibited. Skirmishes outside this museum are predicted. Apart from controversial sexual and political items there are also religious ones, although it is also predicted that one religion will be treated lightly and there probably aren't any of those cartoons on display. Some titillating headlines:
"Is This the Most Offensive Museum in the World," James Badcock, The Telegraph, Oct.24, 2023. The question:
"Who would dare to open a museum of censored art in these puritanical times, when barely a day passes without news of a work being withdrawn after offending sensibilities or due to the creator's "problematic" persuasions?"
The answer:
"Tatxo Benet, a Catalan art collector, has no such qualms as he prepares to open the doors of his Museu de l'Art Prohibit in Barcelona tomorrow."

"A New Museum of Prohibited Art Shows How Censorship Evolved: When One Person's Art is Another Person's Insult," The Economist, Nov.3, 2023.

"Christ crucified on a fighter jet. Ronald McDonald on the cross. The Madonna in traditional guise, reaching under her robe between her legs. At the new Museum of Prohibited Art in Barcelona, it is not hard to detect a common theme."

Many objects in the museum focus on religion, but not all. Mockery of macho politicians has a way of bringing out the censors, too. Here is Andy Warhol’s Mao Zedong, there a painting of Emiliano Zapata naked on horseback, wearing a pink sombrero and high heels. (The revolutionary Mexican leader’s descendants threatened, preposterously, to sue the artist, Fabián Cháirez, for defamation.) The museum’s main criterion is that works were banned or censored in some way. Tatxo Benet, a journalist-turned-businessman, founded the museum and collected the art."

The website of the Museu de l'Art Prohibit is here, if you dare to look.

Post Script: 

   Although I suppose one can always find in art a bit of politics, today the latter subject is harder to avoid. I mentioned recently that I visited the Vancouver Art Gallery and among the exhibits is "Conceptions of White" which you can view until Feb. 2, 2024. Curious about the reaction to it, I learned that on social media there were some (probably white) who were not happy with it. Among the regular media I have not found much, but will include the references here to help you decide if you want to go to Vancouver. 

   The VAG description of "Conceptions of White" is found here. 

It includes a YouTube presentation by the curators, found here. (13:50)

An article by Lindsay Shepherd is here. "SHEPHERD: An Inside Look at the Vancouver Gallery's Anti-White Exhibit, True North, Nov. 8, 2023. 

(You may remember her for getting in trouble for showing a bit from a TVO program including Jordan Peterson at WLU.)   

There is another in Georgia Strait: "VAG'S Conceptions of White Takes an Uncompromising Swing at a World That Seriously Needs to Change," Mike Usinger, Sept. 7, 2023.

Signs of the Times

     

   I remember years ago, when our conversations were richer, that someone realized we were talking about real estate. Horror of horrors! That was many years ago, before Trump, so I have no idea what we went on to discuss. It could have been about some medical malady, since our conversations may not have been as rich as I remember.

  Whether we are richer now than we were then involves philosophical and economic issues which I am not prepared to deal with, so we will stick with real estate. That subject came up again recently and it never really disappeared from the salons of which I am a member. In this instance, it appears that a short piece about a local property had been overlooked (or perhaps avoided) by the participants, all of whom were homeowners.

What Goes Up

   I will provide here some information which indicates simply, that in this case the property value went down. That is a scenario difficult to imagine, particularly for property owners, who think they perhaps should have taken the opportunity to invest in the more stable option, crypto-currency. 

   Among aspiring homeowners, schadenfreude did not achieve full force since the house that had fallen in value, was still far too expensive for them. As I said, whether we are richer now than we once were is a matter for debate, but perhaps we would all be better off if a house was considered as a place in which to live, rather than in which to invest.

Source:
   "This London House Dropped $300,000K in Less Than 2 Months: Sharp Rise in Interest Rates Punishing Owners Who Bought in Early 2022," Andrew Lupton, CBC News, Nov. 9, 2023.

Address Label Apocalypse

    I am not especially generous, but at the end of the year a few donations are made. The organizations that receive the modest amounts appear to be grateful since they are in constant contact and, about this time of year, some of them send me cards and sheets of address labels. They also apparently alert other charitable associations and let them know of my generosity and they in turn send me packets of cards and, yes, sheets of address labels. I have many address labels and I am sure you do as well.

   I am also sure that, like me, you probably don't write many letters that go in envelopes, for which, admittedly, it is nice to have ready-made address labels. I suspect, however, that there is an inverse ratio here and that there are far more address labels being produced than letters written. Far more. 

  I do admit to using some of them, the few without bunnies or angels, without contributing to the charitable organization that provided them. I feel only mildly guilty about this and even less so if they are from a charity to which I haven't given any money. This means those charities that send out address labels to those who haven't donated to them, may be losing money, unless people feel more guilty than I. 
   The question is, "Is it still a good idea for charities to pay for address labels and send them to us to raise money?" I suppose it is or they wouldn't be doing it. On the other hand, the fact that so many of them use the same tactic makes one think that they are not overly creative in coming up with new fund raising ideas. Or, they all may be paying for advice from the same consulting firms which also can't come up with anything new and think that snail mail is still the preferred form of communication. 

   There is an additional problem with address labels, unlike some of the other items we are sent to make us feel guilty and goad us into giving, and that is there is no other use for them since very few other people have our name and live at our address, so many of them surely end up in the garbage.

The Meaning of Magellan

What's Next: The Ceremonial Lynching of Linnaeus?

   The new old name on the long list of those to be erased is 'Magellan.'  Back in early October, his name showed up in many of those anniversary, "What happened on this date in history," articles with a text like this:

"1520: Ferdinand Magellan, Portuguese navigator, and his expedition team are blown by storms into a strait that separates South America from Tierra del Fuego and other islands south of the continent and that also connects the southern Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The strait now bears his name."
This month he is under attack and there are those who think that both the strait and the clouds in the sky which are also named after him, should be re-labelled. I am not sure what they think about all the other things named "Magellan" and if they are going to have to pull their investments from the Fidelity Magellan Fund.

   Once again, I will tack differently on this issue and continue the battle against the bowdlerizers, who everywhere seem to be in the ascendancy. I will add quickly, however, that Magellan was not a nice fellow, a fact that has been known for a few hundred years. Over those years, somehow most people were able to admire the man for his nautical achievements, be critical of his bad behaviour and not be traumatized by seeing his name on a globe. What name is next, or for that matter what word? Suppose one of the new linguistic puritans learns from the OED that their favourite and very useful word was coined by a colonizer, do we all have to lose it?

   Readers of MM will know my general position on the re-naming issues which I will attempt to briefly offer below, but I will say simply here that I don't think we should throw caution to the wind when it comes to the radical alteration of our vocabularies. 

 

The Throw Magellan Overboard Camp

   I will not attempt to interpret the arguments offered by those who want to see the word 'Magellan' disappear, but instead point you toward their arguments and the sources in which they are found. 

   Suprising to me is the fact the "Magellan Issue"  has been brought forward by those on the STEM side of campus. Perhaps they fear the citizens on the other side of the quad. Here you will find an entire essay on the subject: "The Magellanic Clouds Must Be Renamed, Astronomers Say: A Coalition of Over 50 Astronomers Is Calling to Rename the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds," Monisha Ravisetti, Space.com, Nov.3, 2023. Two major points seem to be that: 1) the author indicates that she is a "Filipino-American, and Magellan is an infamous figure in Filipino history, so this has always been at the back of my mind." , and 2) "The primary issue is that the clouds aren't his discovery." The Indigenous observers saw them first. 

   There will surely be more reactions, but here are a couple available now: "Violent Colonialist' Magellan is Unfit to Keep His Place in the Night Sky, Say Astronomers: Indigenous Peoples Already Had Their Own Names for the Galaxies Named After the 16th- Century Portuguese Explorer," The Guardian, Nov.12, 2023 and "Astronomers Request Retitling of Galaxies Named After 'Violent Colonialist' Explorer Magellan: Large and Small Magellanic Clouds Claimed to Have Been Discovered by Portuguese and His Crew in the 16th Century," Genevieve Holl-Allen, The Telegraph, Nov. 12. 2023. 

The Heretical Minority View (Mine)
   I will simply point you to two of my posts relating to this issue (there are more) and then offer my last defence. See, "Names on the Land", but avoid it if you are going to be injured by names like, "Squaw Tit" or "Whorehouse Meadow." The best writing in it is not mine and is taken from a book you should read before you make up your own mind on the matter - Names on the Land. In it, George R. Stewart writes that,

 The land has been named, and the names are rooted deep. Lake Mead may fill with silt, and Lake Michigan again spill south to the Gulf -- but the names may still remain. Let the conqueror come, or the revolution rage; many of our names have survived both already, and may again. Though the books should be burned and the people themselves be cut off, still from the names -- as from arrowheads and potsherds -- the patient scholar may piece together some record of what we were. 

  Another pertinent post is (spoiler alert), "No More Name Changing" and in it you will learn about "Awful Anna" the hummingbird that the American Ornithological Society is going to kill. If you think all those old bird names need to go, you have an ally in Margaret Renkl, who wrote this article yesterday: "North American Birds Will No Longer Be Named For Racists - or Anybody Else," New York Times, Nov. 13, 2023. That this hummingbird was named for someone's wife does not keep me awake at night and it is likely that the new one will not sound much better.

  If it is decided that one solution for improving names is applying ones that are more descriptive, it will work very well for most birds, unless they are homely, in which case, care must be taken. Sacrificing colourful or contentious names on the landscape or in the heavens will result in areas that are linguistically blighted and devoid of historical references.

  Enough energy has been expended on this issue, if not much thought given. My side in this debate is expressed in the first lines in the poem, "American Names" by Stephen Vincent Benét who expresses sentiments similar to those of George R. Stewart quoted and bolded above. Given the current zeitgeist, this debate is likely to continue, but I think I will no longer be a participant. 

                                              American Names

I have fallen in love with American names,

The sharp names that never get fat,

The snakeskin-titles of mining-claims,

The plumed war-bonnet of Medicine Hat,

Tucson and Deadwood and Lost Mule Flat.

......

I shall not rest quiet in Montparnasse.

I shall not lie easy at Winchelsea.

You may bury my body in Sussex grass,

You may bury my tongue at Champmédy.

I shall not be there. I shall rise and pass.

Bury my heart at Wounded Knee.

    I included the last lines as well and you will recognize among them, the final one which has been bolded. The questions now being considered by those of you concerned about such things are: Should the writings of Stephen Vincent Benét be delisted from curricula because of his reactionary liking of established names? Should the non-Indigenous Dee Brown be cancelled because of his appropriation of such a subject for his book with that title? And should Buffy Sainte-Marie be further vilified for borrowing the phrase from either Brown or Benét, a dead old white male American poet? I suggest that the excessive focus on identity is about as useful for the geographers as it is for the political theorists. Genug Shoyn. 

GOOD BOOK AWARDS

 The Scotiabank Giller Prize and The Cundill History Prize

   There is a great deal written about the JUNOS, EMMYS and OSCARS, but not so much about awards given to the writers of books. As a Canadian you may have heard about "The Gillers", perhaps because the winner this year will be announced by Rick Mercer tomorrow night at 9 on the CBC. It is awarded for a work of fiction, whereas, the little-known, "The Cundill", is for a non-fictional historical work.

   You will be relieved that I will not write much more, mainly because the official websites of each provide all the information you need, so you can stop here if you wish: "The Scotiabank Giller Prize." "The Cundill History Prize."

   The longlist for the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize consisted of 145 titles and the 5 finalists were announced on September 6 and they are:

"Sarah Bernstein for her novel Study For Obedience, published by Knopf Canada

Eleanor Catton for her novel Birnam Wood, published by McClelland & Stewart

Kevin Chong for his novel The Double Life of Benson Yu, published by Simon & Schuster

Dionne Irving for her short story collection, The Islands: Stories, published by Catapult

CS Richardson for his novel All The Colour in the World, published by Knopf Canada."

   The one bit of information I will call to your attention is that the author of the work bolded above, Eleanor Catton, was born in London, Ontario. That fact was reported by the Associated Press and published by CTV News ten years ago when she won "The Man Booker Prize" for The Luminaries " ("London, Ont.-born Writer Eleanor Catton Wins Man Booker Prize," CTV NEWS, Oct. 15, 2023.)

  Why was she born in London? The answer to such a question is the reason why you are reading MM. Her father, Philip, was a part-time instructor at UWO, got his Ph.D and later taught there as you will see from his Curriculum Vitae. His dissertation, if you must know: Science and the Systematicity of Nature : A Critique of Nancy Cartwright's Doctrine of Nature and Natural Science. If you are now curious about Nancy Cartwright, you are on your own. Apparently he has since moved on from philosophy to civil engineering! Kudos to both of them.

   Information about "The Cundill History Prize" is hosted by McGill and if you look at the link provided, do also view, "The Cundill History Hub." Back in 2017 I discussed this prize, which at that time was the richest one in the world for a work of non-fiction (and probably still is - $75,000) See, "Christmas Shopping for Historians."

   The winner does not have to be Canadian, by the way, and this year she is: Tania Branigan for, Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting China's Cultural Revolution." It may even be readable, given that:

"The prize reminds academic historians that there is a general reading public that wants to read serious history. So much scholarship nowadays is written for purely professional purposes: articles and books written for other specialists who then proceed to cite it in their own works. The more citations and downloads you have, the more “impact” you have, even if no schoolteacher of history (let alone a bank manager, engineer, or dentist) is ever going to read a word you have written. To some extent, this is right and proper: academics do need to satisfy their peers. But history as a discipline shouldn’t, in my view, take refuge in academe. The Cundill History Prize encourages historians who write for a general audience. Long may it continue!"

BIRD ILLUSTRATORS

LOUIS AGASSIZ FUERTES

   I used to work in the Western Libraries back when there were more of them and the collections they held were impressive. As I have indicated in several posts, the area devoted to books and other resources has shrunk, while space for the students has grown. Many books are in storage, where they cannot be browsed and I think that is unfortunate. 

   It is the case, however, that the argument for keeping books and other scholarly resources has been lost. And, admittedly, the losing of that argument is not as unfortunate as one might think - unless you prefer printed books and journals.

   The material in storage is easily retrieved for you, if you know it is there. As well, much of it can be accessed electronically and from afar and at anytime. About the only rationale one can offer for keeping all those old books and journals around is an aesthetic one which does not hold much appeal for many. 

    That gets me to Fuertes, who produced books about birds and provided the illustrations for many others. Seeing such books and works like, The Double Elephant Folio: The Story of Audubon's Birds of America, is more appealing to me than viewing them electronically (that book is in storage.)

   A couple of years ago, I did a post about "Bird Art" and in it wrote about the works of John Gould and provided a list of his beautifully illustrated books that were held by the Western Libraries, but were in storage. There also are books by Fuertes in storage and I will provide just a couple of examples. If you want to see some of his images from afar you can visit the L.A. Fuertes Image Database at Cornell in Ithaca, where Fuertes was born. You will find 2500 and they are searchable by type (e.g. drawings, water colour, gouaches). You might argue that providing space for such things is no longer necessary, but I still disagree.

 

 Here are a few Fuerte's works in storage at the Western Libraries. He has been described as "the nation's most notable ornithological painter since Audubon."

A Natural History of American Birds of Eastern and Central America;

Birds of Massachusetts and Other New England States;

The Bird Life of Texas;

To a Young Bird Artist: Selected Letters From Louis Agassiz Fuertes to George Miksch Sutton.

The Bonus:

   I am pleased that, at least for now, there are other bird-related items to be found in storage. If you want to listen to them for example, here are a few recordings:

Voices of African Birds; Songs and Calls of 42 Species Found in Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Tanganyika, Rhodesia, South Africa, the Congo, and Nigeria;

Mexican Bird Songs; The Voices of 74 of the Most Representative Birds of Mexico

   One can also hear the sounds made by other species:

The Songs of Insects; Calls of the Common Crickets, Grasshoppers, and Cicadas of the eastern United States;

Voices of the Night; The Calls of 34 Frogs and Toads of the United States and Canada.

   Apart from sound recordings there  are even some games to be found in storage. For example, Professor Noggin's Birds of North America Card Game is located there.

   It is likely that many of these items will ultimately end up in storage facility near Toronto for a variety of reasons, some of which are noted above. If items can be retrieved from storage, it doesn't matter much where the facility is located. 

   There is now another reason for withdrawing the books relating to birds, in that those books contain bird names which are no longer acceptable and were written by authors such as Audubon who have been 'cancelled'. This is yet another argument with which I do not agree and I would hope the dwindling collections in the Western Libraries are not further 'weeded' because they contain ideas and names now deemed unacceptable.

Post Script:

   Most of the books related to ornithology were held in the "sciences" library, which is now known as the "Allyn & Betty Taylor Library" (there also was once a separate "Engineering Library." and another one for Medicine.) There continues to be a reason for collecting ornithological research in that the campus now contains the Advanced Facility for Avian Research (see my post, "For The Birds." )

    Professor Noggin's card game would have been collected for aspiring teachers and housed in the Education Library, which also no longer exists and is now the "Wampum Learning Lodge." There is a sizeable collection of children's books in storage, many of them collected for fledgling librarians and held in the library of the Graduate School of Library Science, which also no longer exists (see my earlier posts, "Landmark Books" and "100 Years of Newbery Medals.")

   Perhaps at some point in the future someone writing a history of UWO and Western might be interested in knowing about the richness of the collections held in libraries that have since disappeared. 

    As for the "NAMES" problem, I touched upon it in a post, the title of which hints at my position on the subject - "No More Name Changing". The American Ornithological  Society does not agree. See the "English Bird Names Project" where you will learn that, among other things, "The AOS commits to changing all English-language names of birds within its geographic jurisdiction that are named directly after people (eponyms), along with other names deemed offensive and exclusionary, focusing first on those species that occur primarily within the U.S. or Canada."

   If you are just interested in birds, go back to Cornell and enjoy "All About Birds."

   If you are interested in eagles, such as the one above painted by Fuertes, see:

"Eagle Attacks Child", and "Eagle Update" or read about the Canadian "Eagle Man", Charles Broley. As well, the eagle and some insects are discussed more recently in, "Birds and Bugs." 

The Bonus:

  Someone, who perhaps knew my position regarding the re-naming of everything, sent me this 'bird-day card', which, I admit, weakens it a bit.

Periodical Ramblings (14)

 

Liberty Magazine - The Canadian One

   You will gather from the title that I have often written about periodicals and the rationale for doing so is stated in, "Periodical Ramblings (The Series)" which is found back in the summer of 2017. In the last few, I dealt with Look and Saturday Evening Post which, like Liberty, were popular magazines.

   I did not grow up in Canada, but if you did in the 1950s and '60s you probably read it or saw it displayed in the newsstands which used to exist. If you have any copies, you should hang onto them since they often fetch a fair price.

   

  Images of the magazine are easy to locate, but the periodical is not. One reason for that is that "liberty" is a word attached to many things, including many different kinds of periodicals There was a very popular Liberty in the United States about which much is found, but that is not true for the Canadian version, although I will add that my searches for it have not been exhaustive. 

  

   

  Apart from having a popular name, the title varied and you will find a Canadian New Liberty Magazine and one with a subtitle: Liberty: Canada's Young Family Magazine.

  It was published in Montreal and likely existed over the years from 1932 to 1964 and was edited during the latter years by Frank Rasky who was a popular Canadian author. A paperback edition of the one pictured above is available on Amazon for around $200. 

   I don't think any copies of Liberty exist in libraries in London. For anyone studying Canadian popular history, it would be an interesting resource. Gale has digitized for researchers the entire collection of the Liberty Magazine published in the United States, ("Liberty Magazine Historical Archive, 1924-1950.") 

BEYOND THE PALEWALL (2)

 

["Beyond the Palewall" is the title of this series because "Beyond the Paywall" is taken. Information for which you are not willing to pay, along with information you may not wish to know, is presented in abbreviated form without charge. What has caught my eye may sometimes feel like a poke in yours and, in that sense, be beyond the pale for you. Items will appear weekly, or perhaps monthly, or maybe semi-annually, if I can get started and the weather is bleak.]

Blow That Whistle! - On Whistle Blowing
  Occasionally we witness examples of malfeasance in government at the federal level, and perhaps more often at the provincial one, and on rare occasions a whistle is blown. Such behaviour needs encouragement and it is provided in this article relating to government fraud in the United States.  Ms. Feinberg is featured in it and she is $42 MILLION richer and, no doubt, whistling all the way to the bank.
   "How a Whistleblower Says Booz Allen Hamilton Defrauded the Government: Sarah Feinberg's Complaint About the Billing Practices Led to a $377 Million Settlement With the Justice Department," David Nakamura, Washington Post, Aug. 26, 2023.
"Only a few months into a new finance job, Sarah Feinberg was stunned when a senior manager with a Northern Virginia-based defense contractor called federal auditors “too stupid” to notice overcharging, according to a federal complaint she filed....
During the ensuing nine months, she repeatedly raised concerns with senior executives, including internal compliance officials and the chief financial officer, according to the 37-page civil complaint she filed against Booz Allen in 2016 under the federal False Claims Act....
In July, the Justice Department, which investigated her complaint, announced that Booz Allen had agreed to pay $377 million — $209 million in restitution to the federal government and the rest in penalties — to settle the matter, one of the largest awards in a government procurement case in history....
Feinberg, who said she felt vindicated and was to receive nearly $70 million for making the case known to authorities, nevertheless could not help having doubts about whether justice had been served....Feinberg had filed a “qui tam” lawsuit in which whistleblowers are awarded a portion of any financial judgment or settlement as incentive to come forward with evidence of fraud against the U.S. government.... 
According to federal data, 652 people filed qui tam complaints last year, and the Justice Department recovered $2.2 billion in false claims by companies from 351 of those cases, the second-highest number of cases ever. The largest awards have come in health care, procurement and mortgage lending, federal officials said....
For Feinberg, the personal award is life-changing. After paying her lawyers, she cleared a pretax amount of $42 million — up to $12 million of which she intends to put into a charitable trust. Some funds will go to supporting her church, she said, and she is interested in investing in underserved communities.

    I have learned that there is in Canada the, Whistleblowing Canada Research Society.    

Unfit For Service
    I did not include the fact that the fine Ms. Feinberg mentioned above had also been in the Marine Corps Reserve. Although she broke her pelvis during officer candidate school, she got her commission and volunteered for a tour in Iraq. This leads me to the next story which indicates that the Marines are not having any difficulty filling the ranks, but the other services certainly are. It appears that sitting on the couch playing "Call For Duty" does not mean you will be able to answer it.
   "U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force Struggle For Recruits: The Marines Have Plenty: As the Other Large Military Branches Fall Short of Their Goals Despite Offering Bonuses and Other Incentives, the Marine Corps Easily Fills Its Ranks On Swagger Alone," Dave Philipps, New York Times, Oct. 17, 2023.
"These are dark days for military recruiting.
The Army, Navy and Air Force have tried almost everything in their power to bring in new people. They’ve relaxed enlistment standards, set up remedial schools for recruits who can’t pass entry tests, and offered signing bonuses worth up to $75,000. Still, this year the three services together fell short by more than 25,000 recruits.
Military leaders say there are so few Americans who are willing and able to serve, and so many civilian employers competing for them, that getting enough people into uniform is nearly impossible.Tell that to the Marines.
The Marine Corps ended the recruiting year on Sept. 30 having met 100 percent of its goal, with hundreds of contracts already signed for the next year.
The corps did it while keeping enlistment standards tight and offering next to no perks. When asked earlier this year about whether the Marines would offer extra money to attract recruits, the commandant of the Marine Corps replied: “Your bonus is that you get to call yourself a Marine. That’s your bonus.”
Apparently the slogan, "The Few. The Proud. The Marines", works. 

   Although standards have been lowered,  "about 77 percent of young people are ineligible to enlist because they are overweight, or have disqualifying mental or physical conditions or issues with drug use, according to a Defense Department report.

The Hacking of Libraries

 

Even Libraries Are Not Safe From Cyber Saboteurs

  If you live in Ontario you will know that five southwestern Ontario hospitals have been hit by a cyberattack. 

  You may not know that the Toronto Public Library has also been brought down by such an attack. I only know because I attempted to see if the TPL had a particular book and was greeted with a message that said: "We are actively addressing a cyber security incident that came to our attention on Saturday, October 28." As of today, the website is still down.

   The only reason I an focusing on a current event is that I read this morning that the British Library website is also down and, so far, no one has noticed that two major libraries in two major cities are inaccessible. The news presented here constitutes a "scoop," of sorts. I suppose I should have included the words, "Breaking News" since they are now often found in any reports or broadcasts (no matter how dated) produced by the legacy media.

Something Else to Worry About

   I recalled that MM has dealt with this issue before. Back in the spring of 2018, I mentioned that even islands weren't safe from such sabotage since the PEI website was breached, (see: "Cybercrime and Cyberwarfare.) More recently it was reported in MM  that a "Ransomware Attack Leads to Shutdown of Major U.S. Pipeline System." In that post you will find a link to a long report with the title: "Combatting Ransomware: A Comprehensive Framework for Action: Key Recommendations From the Ransomware Task Force." The post is: "Pipelines."

Sources:

  There has not been much about the TPL incident, but the CBC did notice when it happened: "Toronto Public Library Dealing WIth Cybersecurity 'Incident' Impacting Some Services," CBC News, Oct. 29. 2023.

  For the British Public Library see: "An Apparent Cyberattack Hushes the British Library," Alex Marshall, New York Times, Nov.3, 2023. And this from Artlyst, Nov.5, 

"British Library Knocked Offline Due to Major Cyberattack."

"Amidst Digital Chaos, the British Library is currently in the clutches of a major cyberattack. The assault, which has crippled the library’s online services and impacted its physical sites in London and Yorkshire, has left scholars, researchers, and the general public grappling with unanticipated disruptions. When Artlyst checked the website this morning it was still down with the exception of the shop, which seemed to be up and running."

Is Nothing Sacred?

SCHOTT'S and FRIENDS

   The title relates to the series of books by Ben Schott, and the TV series Friends which you probably watched in the last years of the last century and have, most certainly, been reading about more recently. The Schott's volumes are small hardbacks, about the size of paperbacks, which are packed full of information, both bizarre and mundane. Three are pictured below and I have mentioned them before, in the post about the word "scissors" which can be spelled in hundreds of ways, (see: "Scissors and Spelling.")

There is a fourth volume, Schott's Quintessential Miscellany, which I also have and in which you will find on page 11, "The One With All The Friends Episodes" which I will paste below. It is highly likely that it is the one bit of information about Friends that you have not read. 

  "Chandler" is mentioned in many of the episodes listed, (e.g. "When Chandler Crosses the Line") and he was Matthew Perry. Even if you were not a fan of Friends, you will know about Perry who passed away on Oct. 28, 2023. About him much has been written and he wrote recently, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, so I need not offer more.

Post Script: "Several Degrees of Separation."
   In the summer of 1968 I was in Montreal and, in the evenings, took a course in "International Relations" at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia.) It was taught by John Langford who had just returned from Oxford. He went on to have a successful career as a Professor of Public Administration at the University of Victoria. Over that summer I got to know John outside of the classroom and many years later visited him in Victoria.
   This post script might seem like one long non sequitur, so I will mention here that John's sister, Suzanne is the mother of Matthew Perry. I won't pretend to remember conversations from over 50 years ago, but I do know that she was discussed, probably because even then she had attracted a lot of attention. She later became a press aide to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. She is now the wife of Keith Morrison.

Sources:
  I usually provide some, but cannot do so about my Montreal experiences and also do not usually write much about personal experiences, especially if they involve other people. I was curious, however, about Suzanne Langford back in the last century and found this interesting article from which the pictures and quotes are taken: "PM's Press Aide Isn't Just Another Pretty Face," Michael Prentice, The Citizen, Ottawa, March 8, 1980. It begins this way:
"From teen age beauty queen and New York Model to press aide to the prime minister of Canada, Suzanne Langford Perry has turned head wherever she goes..."
"Suzanne Langford was born into the "Rockcliffe Set." Her parents Warren and Lucille live on Ashbury Road, and her father is director-general of arts and culture in the Secretary of State department...."
"She has worked for some for some fairly demanding taskmasters, and they were more than satisfied....She is No.2 in the press office to Patrick Gossage, 40,  and Gossage says: "Some of the toughest, most hard-headed political people in Canada - like (Jim) Coutts and (Keith) Davey - trust her implicitly, and that's important."

BEYOND THE PALEWALL (1)

["Beyond the Palewall" is the title of this series because "Beyond the Paywall" is taken. Information for which you are not willing to pay, along with information you may not wish to know, is presented in abbreviated form without charge. What has caught my eye may sometimes feel like a poke in yours and, in that sense, be beyond the pale for you. Items will appear weekly, or perhaps monthly, or maybe semi-annually, if I can get started and the weather is bleak.]

SACRÉ BLEU - Wine Destruction

   You may have missed this bad news among the other bad news, but this is truly terrible. There is too much wine in Europe and the French government is spending over 200 million euros to get rid of it. Perhaps they could just ship it to the LCBO.

   "France Has Too Much Wine. It's Paying Millions to Destroy the Leftovers," Caroline Anders, Washington Post, Aug. 26, 2023.

"Ruining so much wine may sound ludicrous, but there’s a straightforward economic reason this is happening: Making wine is getting more expensive due in part to recent world events, and people are drinking less of it. That has left some producers with a surplus that they cannot price high enough to make a profit. Now, some of France’s most famous wine-producing regions, like Bordeaux, are struggling....

In June, the European Union initially gave France about $172 million to destroy nearly 80 million gallons of wine, and the French government announced additional funds this week. Producers will use the funds to distill their wine into pure alcohol to be used for other products, such as cleaning supplies or perfume.

Wine consumption in France has been plummeting since its peak in 1926, when the average French citizen drank about 136 liters per year. Today, that number is closer to 40 liters, The Washington Post previously reported. Consumers are also inundated with beverage choices now, and they’re choosing wine less and less.

As consumption has taken a nosedive, production costs have increased and inflation has tightened budgets around the world. That’s especially true since the coronavirus pandemic, which shuttered bars, restaurants and wineries, driving up prices. The war in Ukraine also influenced the industry by disrupting shipments of products essential to winemaking, such as fertilizer and bottles. And on top of the pandemic and war, climate change is forcing growers to adapt to new harvest schedules and reckon with more extreme weather."

Rivers of Wine! 

  Not long after that article was published, this one was. I am not suggesting they are related.

   "Nearly 600,000 Gallons of Wine Wash Down the Street in Portuguese Town,"  María Luisa Paúl, Washington Post, Sept. 12, 2023. 

"Residents in a Portuguese village woke up to an almost biblical scene on Sunday morning. The streets were impassable, replaced by a raging river of close to 600,000 gallons of red wine.

After two wine tanks belonging to a local distillery burst, enough booze flowed down the roads of São Lourenço do Bairro to fill an Olympic-size pool — and to spark fears from local leaders about possible environmental damage…

Sunday’s wine wave began at Destilaria Levira, a company that specializes in transforming wine into a slew of products, including gin, cleaning supplies and food oils. Though authorities are still investigating what caused the tanks to burst, the company said the wine they carried was essentially going to be destroyed — or distilled into raw alcohol — as part of the Portuguese government’s attempts to address a brewing wine crisis.

The nation with the world’s highest wine consumption per capita is among the European countries grappling with a massive surplus of wine this year. The combination of rising production costs and an ever-increasing range of alcoholic drink options has resulted in plummeting demand for wine in countries such as France, Spain and Italy....

The episode in Portugal isn’t the first time large amounts of wine have spilled. In 2020, the Russian River in California’s Sonoma County was tainted red after a 97,000-gallon winery tank burst open. That same year, a 13,000-gallon tank broke at a Spanish winery, leaving a flood of red wine gushing down like a breached dam."

  This story was also reported in the New York Times: "A River of Wine Flooded the Streets of a Town in Portugal," Sept. 12, 2023.

"The tanks that collapsed were part of an effort to address a broader problem: There’s too much wine in Europe. Portugal, like other major European wine producers such as France and Italy, is suffering from an oversupply of wine, largely because of a decline in both consumption and exports. The tanks that collapsed were being used to store surplus wine, according to the distillery."

I will try to find some better news.