Thought for Today ~

"To like and dislike the same things, that is indeed true friendship."

~ Sallust, [Gaius Sallustius Crispus] Roman historian, 86 - 34 B.C.
(This quotation is for our friend, "Diane Loves Camping." ~ lw)

"The renown which riches or beauty confer is fleeting and frail; mental excellence is a splendid and lasting possession."
~ Sallust.

~ Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, John Bartlett, 16th ed., 1992.

"We must hope that in coming years more people, here and abroad, will realize how dangerous it is to live in a culture with a limited choice of ideas and alternatives, and how essential it is to maintain a wide-ranging debate.  In short, to remember how important books have always been in our lives."

~ Andre Schiffrin, The Business of Books, Verso, 2000.  European-born American writer, publisher, socialist.

"Books Differ In Crucial Ways From Other Media"

"The idea that our society has been fundamentally affected by the importance of money is widely recognized...Not only our belongings but our jobs and, indeed, ourselves have become commodities to be bought and sold to the highest bidder...
"What has happened to the work of publishers is no worse than what has taken place in other liberal professions.  But the change that has occurred in publishing is of paramount importance.


"It is only in books that arguments and inquiries can be conducted at length and in depth.  Books have traditionally been the one medium in which two people, an author and an editor, could agree that something needed to be said, and for a relatively small amount of money, share it with the public.  Books differ in crucial ways from other media.  Unlike magazines, they are not advertiser-driven.  Unlike television and films, they do not have to find a mass audience.  Books can afford to go against the current, to raise new ideas, to challenge the statusquo, in the hope that with time an audience will be found.
"We need to find new ways of maintaining the discourse that used to be considered an essential part of a democratic society."


~ Andre Schiffrin, The Business of Books, Verso, 2001. 

As Albert Einstein was a late talker, his parents were worried.  At last, at the supper table one night, he broke his silence to say, "The soup is too hot."
Greatly relieved, his parents asked why he had never said a word before.  Albert replied, "Because up to now everything was in order."

(Story told by Otto Neugebauer as a "legend," but that seems fairly authentic.)
Source:  The Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes, Clifton Fadiman, editor.1985.

Haldimand and area recently witnessed the death of the weekly, This Week The Regional News, an independant, family-owned newspaper dependant on advertising dollar.  Whether it be the loss of municipal notices, the withdrawal of O.P.P. reports or a tired owner, the paper that searched for the facts, welcomed the facts and did not shy away from controversy is gone.
"Investigative journalism" as an expression is ridiculous according to Paul Foot* since all journalism worthy of the name carries with it a duty to ask questions, check facts and investigate.  It is almost impossible to separate facts and opinion ~
". . . most opinion worthy of the name is prompted by facts, and facts should lead opinion, not the other way around."

Although we love to get the good news, most of us want the reporting of facts.  Thank you, Christine and Kevin for forty years of reporting and respected opinion.  We wish you all the best. ~ lbwalker

~*The Slow Death of Investigative Journalism, The Penguin Book of Journalism, 2000 edited by Stephen Glover.

DIRTY BUSINESS The Reality of Ontario's Rush to Wind Power* is published by Wind Concerns Ontario.


"While renewable energy project developers are still enjoying the last blush of their gold rush, job-destroying, budget busting electricity rate increases have just begun.  The McGuinty government's massive portfolio of excessively priced, take-or-pay energy contracts will be ripping off ratepayers for 20 years. . .
"Armed with new, sweeping directive powers, McGuinty is gutting the regulatory agencies meant to protect the public interest, shouldering aside their expertise and due process."
~ Tom Adams, former executive director of Energy Probe www.tomadamsenergy.com

"So I ask that the next time you think about industrial wind, consider these points.  Ask yourself why an industry would hide from science if the truth was on their side.  Why would an industry support an end to local democracy if their product was all it was cracked up to be?  People should be fighting for  these projects if these are what the industry claims these projects are.  To those who are involved in this industry, ask yourself just how far you are willing to go, and how much of what you and your company are doing would you like to explain to a judge."
~ John Laforet, President, Wind Concerns Ontario http://www.windconcernsontario.org/

"Seems like the devil is in the details. . .  '"  lbwalker

*Available at The Neat Little Bookshop, Cayuga $12.99.  DIRTY BUSINESS, 2011, is edited by Jane Wilson, contributing editor, Parker Gallant.

May flowers always line your path and sunshine light your day.  May songbirds serenade you every step along the way.  May a rainbow run beside you in a sky that's always blue.  And may happiness fill your heart each day your whole life through.

~ Traditional Irish Blessing



Melancthon Township, Ontario. Photo: lbwalker



On a Shoestring ~

When the publisher of a struggling American magazine* asked short-story writer, Dorothy Parker, why she had not come in to do a piece she had promised him, she retorted, "Someone else was using the pencil."

Roy Thompson, patriarch of the great Canadian dynasty, multi-billion dollar, Thompson Newspapers, was known for his "count-every-pencil" accounting.

Herb Mardindale, owner/founder of The Neat Little Bookshop, expressed concern that we could "make enough money."  Herb kept his accounting on a pile of stapled scrap paper, using stubs of pencils.  Herb knew, of course, that our goal was not to become a Canadian dynasty, or certainly not The New Yorker magazine.  Herb, we are coming up on our sixth or seventh year ~ depending on which Cayuga Street location you figure!  The Neat Little Bookshop doesn't collect tax on used books;  we don't earn enough to qualify.

Book people seem happy with modest surroundings ~ a round table where great conversations naturally and spontaneously erupt.   Pencils abound, ratty, chipped with long-ago fossilized erasers.  We will never be trail-blazers in The Neat Little Bookshop, but then no one is counting the pencils either.  

*The New Yorker