B.C. Tidbits or Titbits: Take Your Pick

 

 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.

CULLINAN

Cullinan is the name of a town in South Africa and it is also the name of a very large diamond which was found there. Now it is also the name of an automobile manufactured by Rolls-Royce and an inordinate number of them can be found in Vancouver. That city was chosen for the launch recently of this tough and expensive SUV. Six were sold on the first day. Each costs about $400,000.
Sometimes the assumptions we make turn out to be true. When visiting Vancouver one quickly gets the impression that the city has more than its fair share of fine vehicles, many of them driven by Asians who look to be adolescents. The fact that they are indeed young is verified somewhat when there is a large N affixed to the rear of the $250,000 car (indicating that a 'Novice" is behind the wheel). According to a Roll's dealer, over 70% of his customers are Asian, One of them has 14 Rolls- Royces. Many clients are female and many of those under 30 buy either the Wraith coupe or the Dawn convertible.
  To park such thoroughbreds a new car condo is being constructed. They will be secure in the gated building which supposedly provides good views and air conditioning. According the the Chinese-English website, 80% of the units are booked.

UBC - The University of Beautiful Cars

     When they are not driving around the city, some may be studying at UBC where such large numbers of exotic cars have been spotted that the initials of that university have been altered.  The one above is a McLaren and I can assure you that it is more expensive than any vehicle made by Mitsubishi.

Sources:

     "Rich Moms and Millennials Make Canada Hot for Rolls-Royce," Natalie Obiko Pearson, Bloomberg News, June 6,2018.

     "With the New Cullinan, Rolls-Royce Reveals a Diamond in the Rough," Brendan McAleer, The Globe and Mail, May 28, 2018.

     There are a couple of websites about the University of Beautiful Cars. See for example:

http://universityofbeautifulcars.tumblr.com/u

Post Script

     Such expensive vehicles are causing problems for the provincial insurer. Minor fender-benders cause major expenditures.

     I suppose the marketing people at Rolls were not overly worried about the postcolonial implications of choosing a name which is derived from the diamond magnate - Thomas Cullinan.

    I would imagine that Western would be lower in the car ranking category than UBC.  I remember , however, conversations here in London about the luxury vehicles noted on the campus parking lots, particularly at one of the affiliated colleges.  My impression is that Western is quite strong on this scale and that impression was buttressed when I came out of Weldon Library on a Sunday this spring and a car like this one was parked next to mine. I had to go home and look it up to identify it.