Lundland

Winnifred's pictures of the trip to and from Lund last weekend. Includes a waterwheel now being used as a roadside advertisement for a campground; banana trees (she didn't see much evidence of it, but there's a reason they call it the Sunshine Coast); and lots of louring clouds.

Must-Have Soap and Summer Fashion Advice from Felix

You know how you don't know what you're missing until you see something that fulfills a need you didn't even know you had? Win had to go up to Lund last weekend, so she missed my birthday. She brought me back some home-made soap from the ferry lineup in Saltery Bay. In B.C., waiting for the ferry is a summer ritual and local craftspeople make the most of this captive audience. It's like buying Mexican blankets at the border crossing at Tijuana. This particular soap has a feature I've never seen before: there is a piece of loofah embedded right into the soap.

I can't seem to find "Heaven Scent Soap Works" online, but a big thank you to them and Win for this great product, and for a new addiction which will dog me for the rest of my years. Just what I needed.


Earlier this week I had the chance to visit the aquarium with, among other people, Felix. Here he is admiring some coral. I liked the way the blue and pink of his shirt mimicked the blue of the water and pink of the coral. Felix showed me his flip-flops, one of which is stripey and the other of which is polka-dotty. Felix wanted me to know that they "came from the store like that." Felix is about to be five and has one of the better-developed fashion senses I've run across.

For a change, the Vancouver Sun had a decent editorial on the city strike yesterday, still stalled and looking like it'll be a long one.

Librarians, Again

Call me a naive, library-loving fool, but I don't see any reason why Vancouver's striking public library workers shouldn't be given every single thing they want. It is 2007, so you'd think you could go around assuming that nobody really believes female-dominated professions are worth less because they are, well, female-dominated? Apparently municipal governments think just that. You might also think auxiliary workers, who do the same work as regular employees, should be entitled to earn pro-rated benefits, but apparently they, too, are second-class citizens. And when you consider that the mayor and city council give themselves pay increases automatically (apparently in Vancouver they don't even have to vote an increase for themselves, to avoid embarrassing publicity: the increase just kinda shows up in their paycheques every January)--and this year the mayor gave huge raises to all his cronies, the senior managers in Vancouver's city bureaucracy, well, you get the picture. Meanwhile he's been claiming library workers don't need a pay increase because they get 50 days of holiday a year. What's he smoking? They get about 20.


I will say, though, that this is the most creative picket line I've ever been on. People bring kids and dogs, they have speakers, music, and literary events right on the library steps. What a great idea! I'd like to think this little guy was engrossed in Stan Persky's outstanding reading Friday afternoon, but I think he was concentrating on getting every drop of juice out of that box.

They get support from the Button Lady, Melva of Bablyon Buttons. The scene above took me back in time. Melva's been making buttons for, if I'm not mistaken, 22 years. She made the first ones in her bedroom in an apartment we shared on Victoria Drive.

Then there's the knitters. About 40 members of CUPE 391 have been knitting with donated yarn on the picket line. Most of the hats are being sent to homeless shelters in the Downtown Eastside, but some are being sold to benefit the hardship fund. I bought one for Winnifred, who is surprisingly fussy about the kind of wool hat she will and will not wear. I thought this one fit the bill, and apparently so did she.


I didn't manage to get a picture of the bike pickets, a bunch of library workers who go from one branch to another spreading energy and good cheer; or of the skateboarders, handstands, and other stuff for amusing the kids. Sometimes there are guitar lessons and there's been at least one accordion. They do tai chi in the morning and have laptops to answer directional questions for lost tourists. So Vancouverites: get out on the picket lines and give your librarian a hug. After five weeks they're getting awfully sunburned out there. Drop a few bucks in the hardship fund pushke. And remember to write city council and the mayor to voice your displeasure.

Weekly Food Allowance

Given that we didn't set out to write a food blog, I've decided to limit our blogging about it to once a week. Once a week shows a healthy appreciation of the importance of food in our lives to provide nourishment, enjoyment, and sociability. More than that might mean we lack other interests, have little imagination, or are only able to experience culture via the stomach.

We haven't actually experienced that much non-stomach culture since we got here, but we've been unpacking, okay? And on that topic, since we have been quite busy these past few weeks, it's good Vancouver now sports a phenomenon that did not exist when we left it in 2000: the Indian fast-food place.


It used to be that Indian food in Vancouver was expensive and an all-evening affair, which was great but obviously could not be done frequently. I often wondered why Chinese food could be had at any band in the economic spectrum, but not Indian food. The curry take-away is a British staple. Why not us, God? I used to plead. God seemed to be ignoring me just because I don't believe in him/her.

Yesterday body and mind were both fed robust, stimulating meals in the Oakridge neighbourhood of south Vancouver. I started the day by meeting my new Yiddish study partner in the library at the Peretz Centre. I was meant to be helping him improve his Yiddish, but as usually happens, I learned more than I imparted. Afterwards, I went across the street to the Oakridge Mall, and found Curry Express where none used to be. Huzzah! Next time I'll know to get the one-curry special for $4.95 instead of the two-curry special for $6.95. So much food! Delicious, cheap, filling: one of you Believers has been petitioning God while I was away, haven't you?

There were no pickets at the Oakridge Library, so did my shopping on Commercial Drive and walked by Britannia to sign their petition. Vancouverites: please stop by a library and sign the petition. As you know if you've been paying attention, Librarians Fix Everything. Which makes it doubly horrible that they are being treated so badly by the city. Since this is our weekly food round-up, I should probably mention that getting enough to eat can be a struggle for those who haven't had income for a month: contact CUPE 391 to make a donation to the hardship fund.

Then came home to discover the SFU library calling. Why was the SFU library calling? Why, to offer me a job, of course. So now my "To Do" list reads:

• donate to CUPE 391 hardship fund out of first paycheque
• get haircut
  
• find ride to SFU
• find decent food on campus

Unrelated picture below, by Winnifred, of some of our neighbours resting while shopping in Chinatown earlier this week.

Librarians Fix Everything

I want you to know I'm not one of those chauvinists who thinks the kind of person she is is likely to be superior to everyone else. For example, I'm Jewish, but I don't think Jews are automatically smarter/better/more cultured than others. I know, the people of the book: tell me about it. The people of the goddam book. When I was a Judaica librarian all this translated into was, they kept sending us books and we had to catalogue them and put them in the collection and nobody cared. Nobody was reading most of those things. So okay, Jews write a lot of books, but I have no illusions that it translates into much in the way of intrinsic value.

Similarly, I'd like to think that lesbians are better, nobler people than others, but in fact I find we run the gamut. My girlfriend, of course, comes out on top of pretty much any scale in terms of overall fabulosity; but otherwise, you can't jump to any conclusions.

But when it comes to another group to which I belong, I feel I can make some generalizations, to wit:

1. Librarians Want You to Get What You Want
2. Librarians Have Heard It Before and Thought of a Workaround
3. Librarians Fix Everything

The occasion for this rumination is the acquisition of my temporary Faculty Library Card at UBC. Here's the thing. You can't get a library card until you have a Campus-Wide Login (CWL). You can't get a CWL until you have an employee ID. You can't get an employee ID until Human Resources says so. Human Resources goes to sleep through August, apparently.

This means that for a lowly adjunct such as myself, I might not get a library card until well into the semester in which I'm teaching. (Apparently I also might not get paid in September, but one battle at a time). This would be dire at all times, but especially during a public library strike. Do people normally prepare lectures around here, or what?

Librarians to the rescue. Barely had I launched into my tale of woe at the circ desk at Koerner Library when the librarians were explaining to each other how to make me a temporary card and how long it could last. I showed them my letter of appointment, and five minutes later I had my card. It has a purple stripe and says "Faculty" on it. I love my library card. I took out two books and recalled four. Probably some future students of mine are using them. I don't care! I'll see your lousy graduate student card and raise you one faculty card!

In the picture above (mmmwa! I love my camera phone) I am standing contentedly in front of Koerner. I had to position the sun behind my head and use a flash so that you would be able to see both me and the library. While I was standing there two groups of tourists went by and one member of each group explained to the others that the library is shaped like an open book turned face down on the table. The rounded atrium is the spine of the book and the two wings are the pages. Since I heard the same thing twice in five minutes, I have to assume this is something in either a guidebook or on the UBC web site. In two years of graduate school at UBC shortly after the construction of Koerner I never heard this story. If it's trying to look like a book, the proportions are all wrong, for one thing. And for another thing, I hope they aren't giving the impression that turning a book face down is an acceptable way to treat your library books. People! I beg you! Use a bookmark!

In retrospect I feel a bit bad about complaining of too many Shadbolts in Koerner Library. They actually may only have one Shadbolt, but any Shadbolts are really more than I care to contemplate. But in the end, what's the defect of a Shadbolt--even a relatively large one--compared to the incredible joy the Koerner librarians brought into my life today?

Our Talented Friends

Not sure if I remembered to mention that my sister is now a published children's author. Her book, appropriate for 6 to 8 year olds, is called Theodora Bear and can be ordered through Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk, and from the publisher. Congratulations are accepted at any time. [Librarians and bookstores: it is also in Baker & Taylor.]

While I'm waiting for your congratulations (and book orders) to come pouring in, I thought I'd send out a few congratulations of my own.

Three of our New York friends have great music web sites to check out. Faron recently posted some of his drum solos online. About the time I was getting to know Faron, when he was 9, he got his first drum kit. Now he gets gigs. Life is so confusing that way. Unknown to Faron, across the city in Queens is JHM, who has an entrancing, evocative style on guitar and vocals. You can hear some of his tracks (like this one) on his sophisticated, arty blog.

Meanwhile, electro-groove fans should take a gander at Shoshke-Rayzl's web site. Shosh is a huge inspiration to me: smart, gorgeous, she speaks a mouth-watering Poylish Yiddish, and far from resting on these laurels, she's doing all the things she wishes she'd done when she was a teenager. "You see, you really don't have to grow up," she told me once. Wish I'd listened much sooner, but I'm doing my best now to be half as awesome as she is.

The New York Wanderer, Ben Feldman, branched out recently with the publication of his first book. Butchery on Bond Street is hot off the presses, and fascinating. The New York Times said Ben "brings the texture of 19th-century New York to life in a tale punctuated by cameos and full-fledged appearances by, among others, A. Oakey Hall, the Tammany crony who prosecuted the case and would become mayor."

We've also got a million klezmer and Yiddish buddies with CDs and books out. Two that are coming soon are Wex's new language primer for people with a sense of humour; and Anita's long-awaited book on Yiddish culture in post-war America.

Unrelated picture above by Winnifred. Now go out and buy Theodora Bear.

Scoffer to Addict in 24 Hours

Today's trip was to SFU with my mum, and we found ourselves in the middle of an anime event of some kind. There were many capes and swords in evidence. I could not fathom the meaning of this scene, in which two young women appear to be to be buying some fish. They don't seem big enough to eat (the fish, I mean) and they seemed to be arguing with the young man (the women, I mean) about either the quality or the quantity of fish they were getting and kept making the young man empty the plastic bag and scoop up new ones.

Getting into the car this grasshopper-like cutie was hanging out on the back windscreen.

Later we found him on the front windscreen while we were driving. Wonder why he liked my mum's car so much?

And then I noticed a yellow ladybug on the window beside me, and thought I could get a shot of its lovely dottiness by gingerly lowering the window a smidge, sticking the camera phone out the window and shooting back in. But all I got was me with a fuzzy blob. I suspect it of being a Multi-Coloured Asian Lady Beetle, but with this photographic evidence it's going to be hard to prove one way or another.

But of course the most galling thing about the whole day was realizing that I love my camera phone. I mean, do you care about that grasshopper thing? I don't even care about that grasshopper thing. But there it was, and there I was, and there my camera phone was. Stop me, before I shoot again.