About a month ago, I renovated a bathroom and hauled the tub, sink and toilet to the dump. At the dump, I bumped into a friend who said, “I’ll bet it was tough letting go of that avocado tub!”I laughed at his sarcasm and thought to myself, “I liked that avocado colour…”As I was thinking about this exchange of views it occurred to me that the tub colour hadn’t been chosen from a wide range of options. My choices were avocado or… avocado. But who decided that the only colour I should be allowed to choose from was avocado? And everything was avocado in those days. Fridges, stoves, toasters, kettles — all were avocado. A couple of years later the avocado was gone and we got harvest gold. Everything was harvest gold.Retirement comes with free time to perambulate through the internet looking at interesting stuff. Last week I was sniffing through the history of the Labour Party in England given that it was touted as the likely winner of their recent elections. My route took me past lots of pictures of the party in its early days. Two things struck me about the pictures. All the men wore hats and the hats worn by the Labour Party were distinctly different from the hats worn by the Tory Party. Who decided that men must wear hats and that Labour men must wear hats that were different from the Tory men? Sometime in the 1960s all the felt and woven hats disappeared and we got ballcaps. Who made that happen?.It is not a new question. One of the significant issues arising from the aftermath of the Great Plague of 1348-51 was how to distinguish between the social classes. With labour shortages due to large quantities of dead workers, came higher wages and the ability for increasing numbers of people to buy furs and the trappings of the upper classes. There was a significant shift in haute couture because of this existential crisis.This explains the differences in the hats, but not the fact of the hats.One of the enduring features of the recent COVID nonsense was the lockstep nature of the abusive authoritarianism we had to endure. Why were we separated by six feet everywhere in the world? Canada is a metric country. Why weren’t we separated by two meters?During COVID I had occasion to enter a food market in Peru and there on the floor were the familiar arrows telling me how to walk against the flow. I found that very curious. Where did those COVID directions come from and why were they almost instantaneously enacted everywhere? Who was behind all that?I have a deep distaste for authoritarianism and an unhealthy lack of respect for those who would presume to tell me what to do. Starting this past February and March our mayor assured us that we were entering a period of severe drought. Snowpacks and lack of rain and all that. It was nonsensical because Calgary gets most of its moisture in the April to June period, so such authoritarian panic was a bit premature. I mostly ignored her until, on a visit to British Columbia, I heard a newscaster seriously intoning that the province was about to enter a period of severe drought. Almost word for word what our mayor was promoting. Coincidence? Do an internet search of “drought” and coincidence will not be your first thought. You will find out that the Edmonton Oilers have been living through a drought and so have we. Who knew?So, who is behind this? Who tells us the colour of appliances and clothes we can buy? What style of houses will be built? What scary thing we must fear? How densely we must stack our accommodations? What stupid regulation we must follow because “we are all in this together”?Madam Mayor, I don’t know who is giving you the marching instructions, but we are not buying your fear mongering anymore. I can understand that your predecessor had all the fun with his snitch lines and covid lockdowns. Perhaps he revelled in preventing kids from using park swings or playing pickup hockey on local ponds. Did he giggle when local pastors were arrested? Mr. Nenshi stuck you with the bad water pipes and his authoritarianism is no fun anymore. Your timing is awful. I feel for you.My advice is that you tell whoever is whispering in your ear about droughts and water restrictions to go pound sand. Snitch lines are so yesterday. Water restrictions will naturally end as the scary “heat wave” causes lawns to wither. I think we have all had enough of this game.
About a month ago, I renovated a bathroom and hauled the tub, sink and toilet to the dump. At the dump, I bumped into a friend who said, “I’ll bet it was tough letting go of that avocado tub!”I laughed at his sarcasm and thought to myself, “I liked that avocado colour…”As I was thinking about this exchange of views it occurred to me that the tub colour hadn’t been chosen from a wide range of options. My choices were avocado or… avocado. But who decided that the only colour I should be allowed to choose from was avocado? And everything was avocado in those days. Fridges, stoves, toasters, kettles — all were avocado. A couple of years later the avocado was gone and we got harvest gold. Everything was harvest gold.Retirement comes with free time to perambulate through the internet looking at interesting stuff. Last week I was sniffing through the history of the Labour Party in England given that it was touted as the likely winner of their recent elections. My route took me past lots of pictures of the party in its early days. Two things struck me about the pictures. All the men wore hats and the hats worn by the Labour Party were distinctly different from the hats worn by the Tory Party. Who decided that men must wear hats and that Labour men must wear hats that were different from the Tory men? Sometime in the 1960s all the felt and woven hats disappeared and we got ballcaps. Who made that happen?.It is not a new question. One of the significant issues arising from the aftermath of the Great Plague of 1348-51 was how to distinguish between the social classes. With labour shortages due to large quantities of dead workers, came higher wages and the ability for increasing numbers of people to buy furs and the trappings of the upper classes. There was a significant shift in haute couture because of this existential crisis.This explains the differences in the hats, but not the fact of the hats.One of the enduring features of the recent COVID nonsense was the lockstep nature of the abusive authoritarianism we had to endure. Why were we separated by six feet everywhere in the world? Canada is a metric country. Why weren’t we separated by two meters?During COVID I had occasion to enter a food market in Peru and there on the floor were the familiar arrows telling me how to walk against the flow. I found that very curious. Where did those COVID directions come from and why were they almost instantaneously enacted everywhere? Who was behind all that?I have a deep distaste for authoritarianism and an unhealthy lack of respect for those who would presume to tell me what to do. Starting this past February and March our mayor assured us that we were entering a period of severe drought. Snowpacks and lack of rain and all that. It was nonsensical because Calgary gets most of its moisture in the April to June period, so such authoritarian panic was a bit premature. I mostly ignored her until, on a visit to British Columbia, I heard a newscaster seriously intoning that the province was about to enter a period of severe drought. Almost word for word what our mayor was promoting. Coincidence? Do an internet search of “drought” and coincidence will not be your first thought. You will find out that the Edmonton Oilers have been living through a drought and so have we. Who knew?So, who is behind this? Who tells us the colour of appliances and clothes we can buy? What style of houses will be built? What scary thing we must fear? How densely we must stack our accommodations? What stupid regulation we must follow because “we are all in this together”?Madam Mayor, I don’t know who is giving you the marching instructions, but we are not buying your fear mongering anymore. I can understand that your predecessor had all the fun with his snitch lines and covid lockdowns. Perhaps he revelled in preventing kids from using park swings or playing pickup hockey on local ponds. Did he giggle when local pastors were arrested? Mr. Nenshi stuck you with the bad water pipes and his authoritarianism is no fun anymore. Your timing is awful. I feel for you.My advice is that you tell whoever is whispering in your ear about droughts and water restrictions to go pound sand. Snitch lines are so yesterday. Water restrictions will naturally end as the scary “heat wave” causes lawns to wither. I think we have all had enough of this game.
