Victory Gardens

 Bill 5 (again)
   At the beginning of this month you will find this post in MM which is linked here: "Line 5 (again) and Bill 5."  Line 5 has to do with the potential for the loss of a great deal of fresh water from the Great Lakes and Bill 5, many believe, will lead to the loss of farmland here in Ontario. That post has some useful links and I will add more below.

  After the recent U.S. presidential election and the tariff announcement(sss) there was a brief moment of Canadian camaraderie, as well as come concern that perhaps we got too much stuff, including food, from sources that might no longer be available. Some began thinking that we should be more careful with the land down here since it is better than land above here where it is also colder.
  At least a few people continue to worry about the loss of farms and you may have received an email from some of them containing this sentence: "Every day we lose 319 acres of farmland in Ontario – that’s the equivalent of nine family farms." If you did not receive such a message that may mean that you are not concerned and, as well, believe it might be just more "fake news." Some additional sources related to these issues are provided, but you only have to circumnavigate London (not an easy thing to do) to see the good land receding like water at low tide.

What About the Victory Gardens?

  Such gardens were typically planted during the war and you don't have to be a "prepper" worried about an apocalypse to think about growing your own food or to at least start thinking about where it comes from and how to get some. 

Sources:
  Read Bill 5 and decide for yourself. It supposedly will "Protect Ontario By Unleashing Our Economy."
  For agricultural land loss in Ontario:
319 Acres: What Does It Mean?
A Waterloo example: "70% of Wilmot Farmland Secured for Future Industrial Site, Region Says," CBC News, May 14, 2025
  For a grow-your-own Victory Garden:
  The Wikipedia entry is a good place to start and then see, "Victory Gardens" in The Canadian Encyclopedia. 
There are many more including: "How Can Your Start Your Own 'Victory Garden," CBC News, April 11, 2023 and from the good Old Farmer's Almanac, "Planning a Victory Garden", Robin Sweetser, May 15, 2025.

Olde Posts Addenda (5)

  Since all of the news is "breaking" these days, here are some more stories which have broken and are related to older news items in MM.

War Is Also Bad For Animals
  Back in the spring of 2019 in MM I called to your attention the "Factlet" that in the fall of 1939 the pet-loving Brits chose to "put down" around 400,000 of them. The grim details are found in: Factlet (2) - The Brits and Their Pets.  Such an astonishing figure will need verification and it is found in a book mentioned in that post: The Great Cat and Dog Massacre: The Real Story of World War Two’s Unknown Tragedy by Hilda Kean.

   To the library of books about awful things that have happened to animals, another can be added: Humans and Other Animals in the Deadliest Conflict of the Modern Age, John M. Kinder. It is published by the University of Chicago Press where this description is found:
   A new and heartbreaking history of World War II as told through the shocking experiences of zoos across the globe. As Europe lurched into war in 1939, zookeepers started killing their animals. On September 1, as German forces invaded Poland, Warsaw began with its reptiles. Two days later, workers at the London Zoo launched a similar spree, dispatching six alligators, seven iguanas, sixteen southern anacondas, six Indian fruit bats, a fishing cat, a binturong, a Siberian tiger, five magpies, an Alexandrine parakeet, two bullfrogs, three lion cubs, a cheetah, four wolves, and a manatee over the next few months. Zoos worldwide did the same. The reasons were many, but the pattern was clear: The war that was about to kill so many people started by killing so many animals. Why? And how did zoos, nevertheless, not just survive the war but play a key role in how people did, too?"
The author of the book was asked five questions which are also available and answered in the related U of C blog.
  For a review of the book see: "With World War II on the horizon, animal keepers in cities around the world had to face one question: What would happen to their charges?" By Sophy Roberts, Wall Street Journal, April 18, 2025.

War Is Certainly Bad For Humans

   Although the Vietnam war ended fifty years ago, even those of you born in this century will certainly have seen at least one of the two photos provided in: "Napalm Girl" and "Napalm Girl" (Again). "Napalm Girl" is still alive and is living in Ontario. The photos mentioned can be seen in the posts above and will not be shown again here. In the second post, it is noted that questions have been raised about the "authorship" of the "Napalm Girl" photo. Since it was written, the questions have been addressed and the 97 page report is linked in this article:
"The Associated Press Won’t Change ‘Napalm Girl’ Photo Credit: A documentary called “The Stringer” called into question whether Nick Ut actually took the famous photograph in Vietnam. The AP’s year-long probe couldn’t prove otherwise," Scott Nover & Jada Yuan, The Washington Post, May 6, 2025.

The End of the Crickets

Like Buddy Holly They Are No More

   De Bono, one of the last of the local reporters, has been dutiful in his reporting on the demise of Aspire, the London cricket factory. I also have been devoted to this subject and a future historian will find in this post all they need to know about the failed aspirations of this London enterprise. I will offer first, the latest and surely the last cricket story which is provided by Mr. De Bono. Then follow the MM posts which are largely based on his reporting. I did contribute a bit about Kricket Krap, a by-product the Aspire folks may have overlooked. And, if you are still not interested I should mention that the company was seen to be part of a conspiracy. 
   Mr. De Bono is a professional and his titles are clearer and first sentences better than mIne:
"Cricket Producer in Receivership: City Plant Still Going as Aspire, Reportedly $41.5M in Debt, Seeks Buyer or Financing," Norman De Bono, The London Free Press, May 14, 2025.
"By Jiminy, London's cricket dreams have run into a financial roadblock as menacing as, well, a massive can of Raid."
  Now, here is one of my titles and you will likely spot the difference:

"ENTOMOPHAGY"
  I will skip my first sentence and go to the second paragraph by the professional:
 "Norman De Bono (the reporter) revealed that, London will become home to the world’s largest indoor cricket farm with Aspire Food Group opening a 100,000-square-foot plant here that will act as a launch pad to bring bugs, as food, to the North American market....At the plant, crickets will be hatched and grown on-site and will become a tasteless, odourless protein powder that will be sold as a food additive, and will also be used to make protein bars.
That post is the one that mentions Kricket Krap which is sold by a company in Georgia so you shouldn't buy any right now.
  Here is the post which reveals that this cricket business is just part of a scheme by Davos-types who want to force us to eat insects in communist Canada.  Crickets and Conspiracies.

Trashy News
  That is a more attractive title than "News About Trash", about which I have provided many posts since there is plenty of trash. The new title about trash is all you need and I will spare you the details which are hardly needed: "On a Remote Australian Island, the Birds Are So Full of Plastic They Crunch: Seabirds Have Been Fishing Plastic From the Ocean and Feeding it to Their Chicks, Researchers Say. One Bird Was Found to Have Ingested 800 Pieces," Victoria Craw, The Washington Post, May 16, 2025.
For more proof that the plastic is piling up and that there is now something called "sea snot", see below:
Flotsam and Jetsam
More Flotsam
More Trash
Marine Mucilage in the Sea of Marmara 
Polluted RIvers

The Bonus:
  I couldn't help but notice that one of the authors in the articles cited above provides an example of an inaptronym (Kinder in the article about killing) and another an aptronym (Craw in the last article about birds ingesting plastic.) About that subject see: Aptronyms. 
Amen

   

The Most Glamorous Sport?

 You Be the Judge
   Sports are not well covered in MM, so I will offer something short since you may be tired of reading about the Stanley Cup. The following headline was encountered the other day and I wonder what you might think the sport would be that is referred to:  "The Straight-Laced Control Freak Who Conquered the World’s Most Glamorous Sport".  A hint: it is not the one being played for the Stanley Cup. This particular headline was in the Wall Street Journal and it refers to FI - Formula One. Another headline raises the question about the "most glamorous sport" and suggests it is E1 which is electric boat racing: "The F1 of the Seas Returns! Prince Albert of Monaco Presents the Trophy to the Winners of the E1 World Championship (so is this the most glamorous sport in Europe?)" Although the latter headline appears in the Tattler, not the WSJ, I think the photo it presents favours E1 as the winner.

  If you would rather google on about this subject, than watch hockey, other suggestions for most glamorous sports are horse racing, figure skating, polo and even snow polo - "Where else would you see horses galloping on ice at altitude, while wealthy spectators glug Krug champagne?" Personally, based on the photo above, I will vote for Tom and the Prince who do look rather glamorous, don't you think?

The Bonus:

   F1 may be glamorous, but it is also popular:  "The average television audience for a Formula I race is around seventy million people – four times that of the typical N.F.L. game." That quotation is from, Sports News From Elsewhere in MM, where you will also find this one: “American Money Has Discovered Indian Cricket: Billion-dollar investment funds and N.F.L. ownership groups are among those angling for a foothold in the Indian Premier League." 

Biggest Mystery Ever - Solved!

 Well, technically speaking, it may not have been the biggest one since the beginning of time, but for me it was the most mystifying mystery I have ever read about. In a county close by, someone snuck up on 30,000 chickens and then came back later and stole 15,000 more. You can read about the original chicken caper in The Great Huron County Chicken Heist(s). Apparently (and, of course always allegedly) it was an inside job as you will learn from the sources below and we are all eager to know where exactly the chickens were kept inside. 

Large Larcenies Continue to be a Problem
    A litany of them was offered in Large Larcenies. Lest you think that you can rest easy, even in a rural area, that is not the case. Rustlers have returned to Colorado as this headline indicates: "Nearly 200 Cows Disappeared: The Case Remains Cold," Karin Brulliard, The Washington Post, April 9, 2025.
   Even sheep aren't safe, even in England where there are also rustlers: "Hundreds of Sheep Stolen as Livestock Rustlers Target, UK Farms," Aleksandra Cupriak, Farmers Guide, March 6, 2024. Like cars in Toronto, farming equipment is also being nicked: "The Landscape is Centuries Old. The Crime is More Modern," Stephen Castle, NYT, April 22, 2025.
'In rural England, increasingly sophisticated farming equipment has become a target for thieves, adding to pressure on farming communities....Farms can be lucrative targets for thieves, because of the value of their vehicles and equipment. Thefts are “ever more sophisticated with examples of criminal gangs using technology such as drones” to pinpoint expensive machinery or accessories, according to Jim McLaren, chairman of NFU Mutual, an insurance company specializing in rural areas. Some equipment, the police say, is stolen to order and moved abroad...Andy Lemon, a police inspector who works on rural crime at Wiltshire Police, says that in some instances, high-value equipment has left Britain within 48 hours and ended up in Eastern Europe."

Sources:
   "Farmer Who Reported Theft of 45,000 chicks Charged With Fraud, Mischief: OPP: A Huron County farmer who reported the theft of 45,000 chicks in April 2023 has been charged with fraud and public mischief, Huron OPP said,” Beatriz Baleeiro
London Free Press, May 07, 2025
 "More than two years after a reported theft of 45,000 chicks from a Huron County farm, OPP have laid charges – against the farmer who reported the theft.
Huron OPP said Wednesday a 41-year-old South Huron man is charged with fraud over $5,000 and public mischief in a case one farmer described as “mind-boggling” when it was reported in April 2023....Huron OPP received a report on April 20, 2023, that 30,000 15-day-old chicks were stolen overnight on April 19. The alleged theft caused a stir in farming circles and stumped police.
“It’s absolutely mind-boggling,” Ethan Wallace, a farmer and the Ontario Federation of Agriculture director for Huron and Perth counties, said in a Free Press story on May 16, 2023.
“Anybody that’s chased a bird or anything knows how they scatter. To undertake rounding up 30,000 of them is, yeah, absolutely mind-boggling.” In the same story, an OPP spokesperson said investigators were puzzled.“We’re really lacking physical evidence to support the report of the theft, but it still doesn’t explain where are the chicks and how are they in the barn one day and gone the next?” Const. Craig Soldan said. “It’s still a mystery.”

On Blogging

 Why Couldn't It Have Been Called Something Else?
   Posts on MM  beginning with "ON" usually mean the reader is in for a bit of pontification, about which we have had rather enough during the last few weeks. But, it is not the case that I will offer another bloated, preachy essay. I simply will type a few words about the word 'blog' as I consider whether or not to resume blogging.
   My output has declined, partially because I was away and the weather has been good. Now it is raining and I am inside, but I would be more excited about resuming blogging if it was called something else. 
   Let's face it, 'blog' is a homely word, like 'booger' or 'blob' and even 'blobbing' sounds a little better. Blog, like 'fart', 'turd', 'chunk' or 'thud' are words that would not be characterized as mellifluous and one would likely not be particularly proud  to be referred to as a 'chunker' or 'thudder' any more than one wants to be known as a 'farter.'
   Apparently the word 'blog' originated just before the turn of this century from 'weblog.' By the time I started blogging in 2016, the activity was already passé, but when friends my age asked what I was up to, saying 'blogging' sounded just as bad as some of those other words mentioned. Perhaps it would have sounded better if someone like Proust had been a blogger. 
   Blogs are now like emails in that no one reads them. Texts are favoured since they are short and are completed for you and come with emojis. Blogs have been replaced by Substacks, but I wouldn't say that 'substack' is a particularly attractive term either, but one does get paid for producing them. Reddit is not much better and reminds me of the sounds of frogs. For now I think I will keep on blogging, at least on rainy days.
Post Script: 
  If money was the object, I suppose I could start a substack, even though saying "I have my own substack" has less appeal than saying, for example, "I am a surgeon". In any case, talent is required in both cases. Writing a blog does not require any and one avoids getting replies like this from an editor.
   

  

A Tribute to Telnaes

    [Before I move back to the past, where I belong and where we all now wish to be, excuse me again for writing about the present and the THING many of us wish to avoid. But, as newspapers cease publishing and good journalists disappear to subterranean places like Substack, it is worth taking some time to tell you about Telnaes who now resides there.]

Democracy Dies in Darkness and Irony

   The Washington Post just won a couple of Pulitzers. Credit for one of them should go to Ann Telnaes who is no longer with The Post. She also won a Pulitzer in 2001 for editorial cartooning and this one is for "Illustrated Reporting and Commentary." The Pulitzer people say it was "For delivering piercing commentary on powerful people and institutions with deftness, creativity – and a fearlessness that led to her departure from the news organization after 17 years."
   While The Post still gets the credit for the Pulitzer which is based on her work, it should be noted that she felt it necessary to leave that paper after another of her editorial cartoons was 'spiked.' It "showed a group of media executives bowing before then President-elect Donald Trump while offering him bags of money, including Post owner and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos." She has indicated that it was not published because of what it portrayed. Her editor, David Shipley, said that it was not published because it was somewhat redundant, in that there had already been too many illustrating similar themes. Redundancy in Washington is hard to avoid these days.
   Mr. Shipley himself later resigned after Mr. Bezos indicated that subjects in the "Opinion Section" needed to be restricted in favour of those emphasizing free markets and personal liberties.
   Ruth Marcus left after "she said the newspaper’s management decided not to run her commentary critical of Bezos’ policy." Others left after Mr. Bezos would not allow the Post  to endorse Kamala Harris. Perhaps the Post's slogan, "Democracy Dies in Darkness" needs to be re-evaluated by the marketing folks at that publication. 
   I have kept my subscription because the Washington Post still produces good pieces and writers like Ron Charles need to be supported.
 
   So do the people who have left. The work of Ann Telnaes, along with an archive of her cartoons is found at "Open Windows"(https://anntelnaes.com/") which offers  "A view into an uncertain time of isolation and frustrations, but also one of the resiliency of the human spirit."
   Among the writings on her Substack one finds an article which illustrates that cartoons are important and that one can be even more severely punished for publishing them. Remember Charlie Hebdo? She published a story about that atrocity in the Washington Post and she deserves the credit for it, not the Post. Here is a portion from, "Charlie Hebdo, One Year Later," Jan. 7, 2016:

  "One year ago today two masked gunman entered the Paris offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and gunned down twelve people, including five cartoonists. The murderers claimed they were avenging the prophet Muhammed and by the end of two days of terror, five more people were dead.
   In the days immediately after the attack I did hold on to one hope. Surely now that people had been brutally murdered the world would finally and unequivocally support the universal right to freedom of expression, including cartoonists. But it didn’t happen. Support and solidarity quickly turned to questioning the motives of the attacked cartoonists....
   So attacks continued on cartoonists and bloggers who dare to criticize governments, challenge institutions and traditional thinking. It seems like the quantified support for Charlie Hebdo has only allowed for repressive governments and humorless dictators to establish their own list of offensive images, mainly any criticism which ridicules them and threatens their power....
   The only protection these brave cartoonists have is for the world to speak loudly for their right to freely express themselves....
   Banning offensive images either officially or through intimidation will only end up allowing intolerant individuals and institutions to change drawing a red line for cartoonists into drawing an enclosure for them."

   That the cartoonists were criticized more than the killers was surprising as I noted in this post: The Delicate Subject of Cartoons.

Sources: 
  The Post can be given a little credit for reporting this story about a journalist who chose to leave the paper after being censored. See: 
" Ann Telnaes, Who Quit Washington Post in Protest, Wins Pulitzer for 'fearlessness' in Commentary: A longtime editorial cartoonist for The Washington Post who quit in protest after editors killed her sketch of the newspaper’s owner and other media executives bowing before President Donald Trump, has won the Pulitzer Prize for illustrated reporting and commentary," Lisa Baumann, May 5, 2025. 
  "A longtime editorial cartoonist for The Washington Post who quit in protest early this year after editors killed her sketch criticizing the Post owner and other media chief executives working to curry favor with Trump has won the Pulitzer Prize for illustrated reporting and commentary."

"What Hath God Wrought?"

 This should surely be a short post. One subject in it I am completely ignorant of and the other I have promised not to think or talk about. To display my ignorance and break my promises here is something brief about CRYPTO and TRUMP.  This is the prompt for this post and I hope it does not ruin your day as it has mine.
"Trump's 100 days of Profit: Crypto Coin Rakes in Millions, Raises Ethics Alarms: Trump returned to the White House days after launching a cryptocurrency meme coin that analysts say is now worth a fortune," Josh Meyer, USA Today, May 4, 2025.
WASHINGTON – On his second day in office, President Donald Trump was asked if he would continue selling products that benefited him personally, after sales of a new Trump "meme coin" had soared to as much as $20 billion in value.
“I don't know much about it, other than I launched it. I heard it was very successful,” Trump replied. “I haven't checked it. Where is it today?”
“You made a lot of money, sir,” a reporter replied. “Several billion dollars, it seems like, in the last several days.”
“Several billion? That's peanuts for these guys,” Trump said gesturing toward a group of tech billionaires at the White House event."

The Side Bets