Grouse Grind Blues: Wednesday, June 18th!

 The problem with being sure that God is on your side is that you can't change your mind, because God sure isn't going to change His. -Roger Ebert, film-critic (1942-2013)

Pungle:

MEANING:

verb tr.: To make a payment; to shell out.

ETYMOLOGY:

Alteration of Spanish póngale (put it down), from poner (to put), from Latin ponere (to put). Ultimately from the Indo-European root apo- (off or away) that is also the source of after, off, awkward, post, puny, apposite, apropos, and dispositive. Earliest documented use: 1851.

Pat and David checked out of l'Hermitage and into The Islay Inn around noon. After I had settled them in The Annexe we set off in the Tesla, (David wanted to charge the battery.), making for Grouse Mountain. I was planning to do the Grind and they would take the gondola. Once atop, they would play tourist, looking at the grizzlies and attending any number of the shows, (raptors, lumberjacks), which caught their fancy. Unfortunately, mountain was completely covered in cloud when we drove over the Lions Gate so I assumed there would be no view that day. This was confirmed when we inquired about tickets. A webcam showed a wall of fog so pea soup was all Coffaros would see of Vancouver!

This being the case, they decided to forgo the experience and we headed back home. Once we'd parked we took a stroll around GI. David had made reservations at Edibles but chatting as we wandered, it became apparent that neither of them "needed" to eat out again. We'd had a fabulous meal at Le Crocodile the night before, (graciously and generously hosted by the Coffaros), so I knew Cora Lee would not be devastated if we simply bbq'd at The Island Inn. David and I made the executive decision and that was that.

Once we knew what was going to happen, as far as supper was concerned, I left them to continue wandering on GI, (David planned to buy steaks for dinner.), while I made for home as I needed to take a run to Young Brothers for some ingredients for the antipaso I was planning to serve on Thursday evening.

Brodie Errando stats: 15.18 km over 0"51'15 for an AVG of 17.8 km/hr. Fruit and vegetables at Young Brothers and then back home to drop those groceries off before heading to Cheap Thrills for milk and red wine vinegar.

Once I returned, Cora Lee was home and I informed her of change of plans. She was just as happy to have dinner on the patio. She had already invited Flamin' for a drink, assuming we were off to Edible Canada. Sarge wasn't to be back from Whitehorse until 7:00 pm so we hadn't invited them to dinner at Edibles. However, with change of venue, we couldn't keep The Freeloaders from insisting themselves on us, yet again!  Around 6:00 pm we started with drinks and hors d'oeuvres on the deck and  Kurt, a neighbour, walked by, walking Mavis, their adorable dachshund, so we invited him to have a glass of wine. 

Before Sarge arrived, Kurt said he had to go. [To keep numbers up, Flamin', at our insistence, had invited Kid Chelene and Avery to stop by for a drink as Corey had to work next day and would not be able to attend Cofaro Farewell BBQ.) As he was saying goodbye, dad and daughter arrived and Lonnie, friend from next building, walked by so we brought her into the fold and I had fun introducing her to everyone. She couldn't stay for dinner as her husband had prepared meal and was waiting for her. We waved goodbye and then Sarge made a timely appearance as he was immediately dragooned into grilling the fabulously marbled Porterthouse steaks David had paid an arm and a leg for at Armando's! David insisted on grilling the fresh corn I'd picked up at Young Brothers, covering cobs with olive oil and a medley of spices. 

While all the action was happening outside, I threw together a large mixed, green saladin and opened countless bottles of wine. Dinner was an absolute wonder and sated, we sat around patio table and chatted about everything. Around 9:00 pm I noticed a woman striding down the path towards our deck and she barged onto the patio and announced, in no uncertain terms, that she lived across the way and could hear every word spoken! David suggsted she join us and have a glass of wine but she simply turned around and stormed off! Of course, I wanted to moon her but was dissuaded from so doing by cooler heads! Compensated by speaking even more loudly until we repaired inside for malt! Had we been carousing past 11:00 pm she might have had a case but why she was so fussed at 9:00 pm God only knows.
 
At any rate, a fabulous, spontaneous evening so everyone was more than happy to have a relatively early night as we knew Thursday's bbq would be even more lively. Said goodnight to one and all, loaded dishwasher before watching an episode of Breaking Bad and then it was Land of Nod time.  

From The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future, by Vali Nasr. The centuries-old struggle between Sunni and Shia is still so fresh and relevant in today's Middle East that in 2003, Saddam Hussein was able to whip up sectarian emotions by referencing events that occurred seven centuries earlier.

"The voice on tape was grainy, but all Iraqis could tell who it was. Saddam Hussein was sending them a message. Recorded at his hiding place shortly before he was arrested and addressed to 'the Iraqi people and the Arab nation' on the occasion of his birthday, April 28, 2003, the tape was vintage Saddam. The fallen dictator blamed traitors for the way his troops had failed so quickly, letting U.S. forces storm Baghdad in just a few weeks of high-speed maneuver warfare. He exhorted Iraqis to resist the occupation and to remain true to their Arab honor and sense of nationalism. They would be triumphant if they remained defiant, he said. 

"Saddam had always had a flair for drama and a keen sense of history. To make sure that his countrymen felt the meaning of what had happened as well as to poison the well for the United States, he compared Baghdad's fall to the Americans in 2003 to its fall to the Mongols in 1258. That earlier conquest had spelled the end of the caliphate and is remembered by Sunni Arabs as a calamity, when the rivers of the cultured Abbasid capital are said to have run black with ink from books and red with the blood of the Mongols' massacred victims. Iraqis, Saddam hoped, would come to see resisting the coalition's occupation as an Islamic duty. 

He then made an ominous comparison in which he likened the Shia's lack of resistance to the Americans to the alleged offense of Ibn al-Alqami, the caliph's Shia vizier, who supposedly helped the Mongols to sack Baghdad. 'Just as [the Mongol chieftain] Holagu entered Baghdad,' he ranted, 'so did the criminal Bush enter Baghdad, with the help of the Alqami.' His implication was clear: just as the Shia had betrayed Islam in 1258, he was saying, so they were betraying it again in 2003.

"Since Saddam raised the ghost of Ibn al-Alqami, references to him have become ubiquitous in communiqués of insurgents and Sunni extremists. As the bloody travails of war and occupation have unfolded in Iraq, the Shia have once more been held responsible for the failures of the Arab world. Long persecuted and suppressed by the Sunni-dominated Iraqi state, now they are being blamed for the debacle that Sunnis face in the new Iraq -- and by extension in the whole Middle East.

"The ready way in which a 'secular' Ba'athist figure such as Sadddam [could] ring a change on a seven-century-old Sunni grudge to appeal to sectarian prejudices is a sign that the concepts and categories that are often cited in order to explain the Middle East to Western audiences -- modernity, democracy, fundamentalism, and secular nationalism, to name a few -- can no longer satisfactorily account for what is going on.

It is rather the old feud between Shias and Sunnis that forges attitudes, defines prejudices, draws political boundary lines, and even decides whether and to what extent those other trends have relevance."

with special thanks to Ambassador Joseph Torsella (ret.)

The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future, Vali Nasr, W. W. Norton & Company, 2006

Mongols at the gates of Baghdad in 1258 ... from the Jami al-Tawarikh by Rashid al-Din, c 1310.

Corben is now an Earth Ranger :) After seeing a presentation at school he wants to help raise money for protecting Beluga Whales. If you are able to help, Corben would be thrilled. He has watched the video and understands why it is important to protect the habitat from increased ship traffic in the arctic.Thanks so much for considering this :) Take care, Ariane

Hello, Animals are in serious trouble and they need our help. I'm doing my part by becoming an Earth Ranger and creating a Bring Back the Wild campaign to help protect the animals I love. You can do your part by supporting my campaign and together we can make a difference!
 
I've chosen to help protect the beluga whale living in Western Hudson Bay area. Threats facing the beluga whale include climate change, sea ice loss, pollution, predation by killer whales and noise from boats that can disrupt their echolocation communication.

The funds raised will support research on how boat noise affects the whales' ability to find food, detect sea ice changes and react to predators, and to study how contaminants affect beluga health. 
Don't miss the opportunity to have your donation doubled! The W. Garfield Weston Foundation will generously match all donations made to the beluga whale project up to $100,000.  

My goal is to raise $75, but I need your help. There are two ways you can help me in my mission to Bring Back the Wild: Sponsor my campaign, by making a donation  or Spread the word using Facebook and Twitter Click here to visit my personal donation page on EarthRangers.com Thank you for your support (and the animals thank you too!) Earth Ranger Corben

Dear Earth Ranger Corben! Bravo to you for caring about the beluga whales! Good luck with your campaign. We need more Earth Rangers like you! Cheers, Patrizzio!
Damian is now an Earth Ranger :)  They had a presentation at school and he is determined to continue fundraising for various causes.

See the message below. Your donations are appreciated in his effort to help the Blanding’s turtles :) Take care, Ariane 

Hello, Animals are in serious trouble and they need our help. I'm doing my part by becoming an Earth Ranger and creating a Bring Back the Wild campaign to help protect the animals I love. You can do your part by supporting my campaign and together we can make a difference!

I've chosen to help protect the Blanding's turtle living in Ontario.

Threats facing the Blanding's turtle include wetland habitat loss and fragmentation due to development, illegal pet trade and predation (when other animals prey on turtle eggs).
 

The funds raised will help increase the Blanding's turtle population in Ontario through head starting, which involves raising young turtles indoors and releasing them when they are big enough to survive better in the wild.

My goal is to raise 75, but I need your help. There are two ways you can help me in my mission to Bring Back the Wild: Spread the word using Facebook and Twitter or Sponsor my campaign, by making a donation Click here to visit my personal donation page on EarthRangers.com Thank you for your support (and the animals thank you too!) Earth Ranger Damian

Dear Earth Ranger Damien! I had never heard about the Blanding's Turtles until I received your appeal. Hip Hip Hooray to you for caring about them! All the best with your campaign. We certainly need more Earth Rangers like you! Cheers, Patrizzio!
Hi Nadine, Ingrid wanted me to pass on this information for you to share with the retired librarians group.

Ms. Tung-King Ng, the first Head of Asian Library, from 1960-1977, passed away Tuesday June 10.  The memorial ceremony for Ms. TK Ng will be held this Friday June 20 at 10am at Anglican Network Church of the Good Shepherd (189 West 11th Avenue, Vancouver).

Harry Young, Executive Coordinator, Office of the University Librarian
University of British Columbia, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre

The obituary is on p.C11 of today's Vancouver Sun (June 18, 2014):

It is with sadness that we received news from our Asian Library colleagues on the passing of Ms. Ng Tung King, the first Head of the Asian Library, on June 11 at age 94.
 

Ms. Ng graduated from Hong Kong University on a scholarship with a stellar academic record and pursued library science studies in England where she held a Rockefeller Scholarship at the Library of Congress. Upon graduating, she returned to Hong Kong where she worked at the Fung Ping Shan Library at her alma mater.

Ms. Ng joined UBC in 1960, a year after the Asian Library at UBC opened, and relocated to Canada with her family. For the next 27 years, Ms. Ng provided outstanding leadership and mentorship for the first Chinese and Japanese reference librarians, including Mr. Yim Tse and Mr. Tsuneharu Gonnami. Working together, they developed the largest Eastern Asian collection at an academic library in Canada.

“She was a smart, diligent and strong leader and a pleasant person,” Mr. Gonnami fondly recalls. “Everyone was happy to work with her.” He adds that Ms. Ng was instrumental in acquiring and cataloguing the Puban Collection which to this day remains a renowned collection of the Asian Library.

During her career at UBC, Ms. Ng was also a great friend of students opening her home to provide reasonable accommodation to students from Hong Kong. Many of those students became life-long friends. Ms. Ng was a devout Christian participating in many activities in her Anglican church including singing in the choir and assisting with administrative assistance.

A Funeral service for Ms. Ng was held in Vancouver at the Church of the Good Shepherd on Friday, June 20^th, 2014 followed by internment at Ocean View Burial Park.