AUTUMN

~Emily Dickinson

The morns are meeker than they were

The nuts are getting brown;

The berry's cheek is plumper,

The rose is out of town.

The maple wears a gayer scarf,

The field a scarlet gown.

Lest I should be old-fashioned,
I'll put a trinket on.

~ E. Dickinson (1830 - 1886) American Poet

Thanksgiving Greetings

Post Card from 1911

In memory of a brave soldier Merlyn Kinrade

October 6, 2012

"The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush.  It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment." ~ Robert M. Hutchins. Great Books

"If we win here we will win everywhere.  The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very much to leave it." ~ Ernest Hemingway. For Whom the Bell Tolls

"A man can be destroyed but not defeated." ~ Ernest Hemingway.  The Old Man and the Sea 

Demise of Canadian Canners Ltd,

the famous packers of Aylmer/Del Monte line of Quality food products.

Joseph Rider, 2012

SIMCOE CANNING CO.

Available at The Neat Little Bookshop $20.

Like so many multi-million-dollar Canadian businesses, Canadian Canners Ltd., closed a few plants at a time ~ then disappeared for good. Simcoe, Dresden, Vancouver, Penticton, Hamilton, St. Catharines, St. Davids, Toronto, Exeter.   Jobs gone, processing plants closed and abandoned, replaced by cheap labor and imported food.  Read a detailed account by an insider with forty years in the cannery production.  Read how Canadian Canners went from fifty plants in 1957 to five in 1991.  None exist today.

A well-documented, 235 page, soft-cover book including numerous color photographs, a chronological history of Canadian Canners Ltd.

Joe Rider lives in Brantford, ON.  He spent his early years in Haldimand County and Hamilton, Ontario.

Kohler Road, Just South of Rainham Road

Canadian Drilling Rig MUSEUM ~ A Short Drive Through the Country

One Reason for Writing?

"Of all the ways of acquiring books, writing them oneself is regarded as the most praiseworthy method. . . .Writers are really people who write books not because they are poor, but because they are dissatisfied with the books which they could buy but do not like."  ~ Walter Benjamin* (1892 - 1940)

* Literary critic, philosopher.

Audiobooks ~

The October issue of Fitness magazine has a tip for better sleep:  "The next time you wake up in the middle of the night and can't fall back to sleep, ignore the prevailing wisdom about getting out of bed to read by dim light.  Dr. __ recommends a new strategy:  Quiet your churning mind with an audiobook, preloaded on your phone or music player and at the ready, bedside.  Plug in your earbuds, press "Play" and cover the display to block the glow.  The story shouldn't be too stimulating, so choose a biography or your favorite book from childhood. . ."

by Nancy Gottesman

(Other tips:  Make your bedroom into a spalike sanctuary.  Don't drink a drop of caffeine after 2 p.m.  No laptops.  Don't like sleeping alone?  Get a dog.  "It's fine to break the no-pets-in-bed rule.)