This blog was abandoned over three weeks ago because I was in British Columbia for part of that time and have been experiencing trip-lag during the rest of it. Now the weather has turned and I am inside, without excuses, although I may have to come up with some if I can't increase my blogging output.
B.C. is a marvelous and scenic place and many interesting things happened there while I was in it, but not to me. Unless I include items relating to my children and grandchildren about whom you are not interested. Therefore, I will simply present past material about British Columbia, which is very interesting, but which you will likely not have read. In the academic world, where I was a minor citizen, presenting links to past work is known as "self-citation", and I am guilty of it here, but only for the legitimate reasons hinted at in this definition: "Self-citation occurs in an article when an author references another of their own publications. This can be a legitimate way to reference earlier findings; but self-citations can sometimes be unduly made in an attempt to inflate an individual's citation count."
The good news for an increasingly small number of us is that British Columbia is still called "British Columbia." I had suggested that it was likely (and likely still is) to be given a new shiny name or a duller, pre-colonial one. See: "British Columbia or Sasquatchia? There is more good news (for a few) in that, although the elementary school which the grandchildren attend was retrofitted to withstand the coming earthquake, the name was not changed and remains as, "David Livingstone Elementary School." The Vancouver School Board "Archives & Heritage Blog," indicates that it was named for that David Livingstone, but apparently no one has read it or thought much about the name of the school. If they do, there will be a call for a change since it is now known that Livingstone should never have been on the African continent and Stanley should never have bothered looking for him. As an aside, it should be noted that the folks in London are perhaps more progressive than those in Vancouver. The father of the children who go to David Livingston, attended "Ryerson Public School" in London, which has now the very imaginative moniker, "Old North Public School."
My post about B.C. last year was titled, "The Left Coast", not for political reasons, but because residents there once drove on the left-hand side of the road as a result of the retrograde attitudes of the British colonialists. Another, "Notes From the Coast", describes the "atmospheric rivers', which were flowing again this year.
The crows which darken the often dark sky over Vancouver were still able to fly against the flow of the atmospheric rivers. See, a "Murder of Crows."
Although we did not go to the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens and the Yosef Wosk Library located there, you can learn more about the philanthropist, Mr.,Dr.,Dr.,Rabbi Wosk by reading "Unexpected Libraries" or the section about him in, "Olde Posts Addenda."
We also did not make it up to UBC, but I am sure it is still the "University of Beautiful Cars," since we saw many on the streets close by. I did not notice any
Cullinans, but I did see a few Rivians. Other evidence of opulence abounds even though one sees many people apparently without homes. Back in the early years of the last century one could get a piece of property in B.C. by subscribing to a magazine, see: "Property in British Columbia."
We did see the sculptures of Parviz Tanavoli at the Vancouver Art Gallery, but, being white, were made to feel somewhat guilty by another exhibition, "Conceptions of White" which was designed to help "viewers grapple with contemporary configurations of White identity." Those who created the rather crude collage probably aren't aware of "A Black Sculpture" found in a back yard elsewhere in the city. It was based on an event that happened many years ago on the Eastern Shore of Maryland where I grew up and which I would have more reason to feel guilty about if I thought guilt was heritable and that I was accountable for the historical acts of others.
This has been a useful exercise for me, if not an enjoyable reading experience for you. I often don't properly "tag" posts in MM and had difficulty finding some of these that relate to B.C. There may be more. For example, you will learn about the "British Columbia Food History Network" in my post about "Food History." and about the "Angling Books" found in the "Harry Hawthorn Foundation Collection" at UBC.
The Bonus:
If you want more old news from British Columbia, be sure to visit "BC Historical Newspapers" where you will find hundreds of digitized newspapers dating from the mid-1850s. Unfortunately there will be fewer of them in the future. Both the Alaska Highway News and the Dawson Creek Mirror recently stopped publishing. See:"As B.C. Communities Lose TheIr Last Newspapers, Hope Emerges For Locally Owned Publications," Kate Partridge, CBC News, Oct. 18, 2023.
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