Our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear
the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the
way that it cares for its helpless members. -Pearl S. Buck, Nobelist
novelist (1892-1973)
Hello Time Traveller, et al!
I wouldn't mind borrowing your H G Wells Time Machine as I need to lose a few years myself. I see from your farewell missive that you arrived in Vancouver on July 4th, 2014! I suppose your time here has been more of a fourth dimension dream than anything else! If my calculations are correct you will leave city a day before you landed at YVR. Well done. This feat alone should guarantee that the Gods of Fortune will smile upon your bid for one of the EITB positions. Buona Fortuna!
I wouldn't mind borrowing your H G Wells Time Machine as I need to lose a few years myself. I see from your farewell missive that you arrived in Vancouver on July 4th, 2014! I suppose your time here has been more of a fourth dimension dream than anything else! If my calculations are correct you will leave city a day before you landed at YVR. Well done. This feat alone should guarantee that the Gods of Fortune will smile upon your bid for one of the EITB positions. Buona Fortuna!
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| Art: Leah Palmer Preiss |
Thank you, of course, for your kind
words about the NRBC. Your presence was much appreciated, certainly
enjoyed and although we trust a new career opportunity comes your way,
I'm sure I speak for everyone else when I say that we would welcome you
back, at the drop of a hat, or of malt! That being said, I regret to
inform you that the fine for non-attendance will still be levied. Have
you read Mai Jia's Decoded? Additional NRBC revenue I suspect. You
"haven't got ride of [NRBC] definitely!"
Eastward Ho, young man! Bravo! Hip Hip Hooray! For He's a Jolly Good Fellow!!! Travel safely and keep in touch as I think an NRBC meeting in Pamplona, to coincide with the running of the bulls, would be one way to ensure everyone reads the next selection! Fondestos from Cora Lee. Cheers, Patrizzio!
PS:
If you have a moment, before leaving on July 3rd, [2013!], give us a
shout and please think about popping by for a quick
visit and a farewell tipple!
Eastward Ho, young man! Bravo! Hip Hip Hooray! For He's a Jolly Good Fellow!!! Travel safely and keep in touch as I think an NRBC meeting in Pamplona, to coincide with the running of the bulls, would be one way to ensure everyone reads the next selection! Fondestos from Cora Lee. Cheers, Patrizzio!
Dear Jon: Good luck with the job application and with what follows...It was a real pleasure having you as part of the NRBC. Please keep in touch. Kind regards, --Kurt
This is a rare moment when I find myself in agreement with both Kurt and Patrick. I agree with, and adopt as my own, the sentiments they have expressed about enjoying your presence in the NRBC, and the wishes for your great good fortune in the competition.
Please keep in touch, and continue to be frugal so that you can afford to pay the arbitrary and oppressive fines that the NRBC functionaries seem intent on levying against you. Guy
This is a rare moment when I find myself in agreement with both Kurt and Patrick. I agree with, and adopt as my own, the sentiments they have expressed about enjoying your presence in the NRBC, and the wishes for your great good fortune in the competition.
Dear Begrudging Guy, Gianni, et al!
Had a lovely visit with friend, Isabelle, who lives in Powell River, this evening. (Lurch's sister, along with Alex, her 15 year old, and Paolo from Palermo, here on a Kiwanis exchange. Paolo's flight didn't arrive until 5:30 pm, too late for them to catch both ferries back to PR. At any rate, it was touching to have him drop by.) Coincidentally, by a combination of chance and design, Jon, wanting to forestall legitimate NRBC levies, which according to Consigliere Guy are "arbitrary and oppressive fines", dropped over to say goodbye. In spite of his malice of forethought, it was more than touching to see him. Thought that rest of you might like to see a few snaps of him as doubt if any of us will have the opportunity to see him again before July 3rd. Bon Voyage! Buona Fortuna, Gianni! Cheers, Patrizzio!
Pics: Gianni speed-reading Decoded in a desperate attempt to avoid fine! Drowning bitter-sweet sorry of parting!
thanks Patrick, for “drowning bitter-sweet sorry of parting” pics. Did not realize you are a translator of Chinese poetry! Guy
Hello Mr Nit-Picker! I must admit that yes, I find it rather difficult to move back and forth between Mandarin, Basque and English, especially when translating poetry, under the influence of malt! Cheers, Patrizzio!
Well thank the good lord then. Though do feel free to open with 6
points if you are NOT my partner...really...it will be good for your
soul!
Thanks for all the snapolas....we'll really enjoy having them as memories of our brief visit to Vancouver! On our drive home, I enjoyed looking through the Okanagan Wine Festival brochure which you kindly gave me and was trying to look on a map we had in the car to see how far that area is from your home and in which direction.
It appears to be a little north and to
the east - ? I couldn't estimate how far it might take to get there
though. So are you and Sarge staying in the area
for a week before the babes - as you so call them - arrive? In the
meantime, have a joyous Canada Day celebration and please don't be too
loud. Perhaps you should invite all the neighbors in both buildings so
as not to offend anyone's sensitive ears.
PatPS I was showing Susie (our English major) the Vancouver Writers Fest brochure and saying wouldn't it be fun I flew up to Seattle in the fall and then she and I could drive up for the event and spend a few days in Vancouver. But, alas, we have other plans for October this year - maybe next year!
As a reminder, this phase of the pool is to simply complete the draw. NOTE, do not modify the spreadsheet in any way other than to enter teams in the spaces provided.
*** IMPORTANT *** I *MUST* have your entries before the first game!!! Late entries will score 0 points for any games already played. Cheers & good luck! Branko Perić [*] World Cup 2014 [*] [*] El fútbol es vida. Todos lo demas son detalles [*]
Met Robo Man at Point Grey, at 1:30 pm, and then out to UBC, Marine, Crown and then 37th to 39th and Yew where we waved goodbye, he to Kerrisdale Library, I back out to UBC and home. Stats for today's ride:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/529672484#.U63bJE9sxQs.email
From The Invention of News by
Andrew Pettegree. In the wake of the invention of the printing press
came printed news, first in the form of more lively news pamphlets, then
in the form of more regular but less colorful newspapers.
From the very first newspaper published in 1605, the problems that still
plague the industry were present. Real news was often dull so
publishers were inclined to spice it up. Politicians and rulers had a
vested interest in getting favorable coverage so they
maneuvered to influence or own newspapers. And content was inclined
toward advocacy rather than reporting:
"The real transformation of the news market [which prior to the printing
press had been oral or laboriously hand-written] would come from the
development of a news market in print. This would occur only haltingly
after the first invention of printing in the
mid-fifteenth century. For half a century or more thereafter printers
would follow a very conservative strategy, concentrating on publishing
editions of the books most familiar from the medieval manuscript
tradition. But in the sixteenth century they would
also begin to open up new markets -- and one of these was a market for
news. News fitted ideally into the expanding market for cheap print, and
it swiftly became an important commodity.
This burgeoning wave of news
reporting was of an entirely different order.
It took its tone from the new genre of pamphlets that had preceded it:
the passionate advocacy that had accompanied the Reformation. ... News
also became, for the first time, part of the entertainment industry.
What could be more entertaining than the tale
of some catastrophe in a far-off place, or a grisly murder?
"Naturally the elites sought to control this new commercial market, to ensure that the messages delivered by these news books would show them in a good light.
"Naturally the elites sought to control this new commercial market, to ensure that the messages delivered by these news books would show them in a good light.
Printers who wanted their shops to remain open were
careful to report only the local prince's victories
and triumphs, not the battlefield reverses that undermined his
reputation and authority. Those printers who co-operated willingly could
rely on help in securing access to the right texts. ... From remarkably
early in the age of the first printed books Europe's
rulers invested considerable effort in putting their point of view,
and explaining their policies, to their citizens. ...
"The divisions within Europe brought about by the Reformation were a further complicating factor: the news vendors of Protestant and Catholic nations would increasingly reproduce only news that came from their side of the confessional divide.
News therefore
took on an increasingly sectarian character. All this led to distortions
tending to obscure the true course of events. ... The purveyors of the
news pamphlets had a clear incentive to make these accounts as lively as
possible. This raised real questions as
to their reliability. How could a news report possibly be trusted if the
author exaggerated to increase its commercial appeal?
"The emergence of the
newspaper in the early seventeenth century represents an attempt to
square this circle. As the apparatus of government grew in Europe's new
nation states, the number of those who needed to keep abreast of the
news also increased exponentially.
In 1605 one enterprising German stationer thought he could meet this
demand by mechanising his existing manuscript newsletter service. This
was the birth of the newspaper: but its style -- the sober, detached
recitation of news reports inherited from the manuscript
newsletter -- had little in common with that of the more engaged and
discursive news pamphlets.
"The newspaper, as it turned out, would have a difficult birth. Although it spread quickly, with newspapers founded in over twenty German towns in the next thirty years, other parts of Europe proved more resistant -- Italy for instance was late to adopt this form of news publication. Many of the first newspapers struggled to make money, and swiftly closed.
"The newspaper, as it turned out, would have a difficult birth. Although it spread quickly, with newspapers founded in over twenty German towns in the next thirty years, other parts of Europe proved more resistant -- Italy for instance was late to adopt this form of news publication. Many of the first newspapers struggled to make money, and swiftly closed.
"The trouble with the newspapers was that they were not very enjoyable.
... The desiccated sequence of bare, undecorated facts made them
difficult to follow -- sometimes, plainly baffling. ...
"News pamphlets offered a very different presentation of news, and one far better adapted to contemporary narrative conventions. Pamphlets concentrated on the most exciting events, battles, crimes and sensations; and they were generally published at the close of the events they described. They had a beginning, a middle and an end. Most of all, news pamphlets attempted an explanation of causes and consequences. By and large, this being a religious age, news pamphlets of this sort also drew a moral: that the king was mighty; that malefactors got their just deserts; that the unfortunate victims of natural catastrophe were being punished for their sins.
"News pamphlets offered a very different presentation of news, and one far better adapted to contemporary narrative conventions. Pamphlets concentrated on the most exciting events, battles, crimes and sensations; and they were generally published at the close of the events they described. They had a beginning, a middle and an end. Most of all, news pamphlets attempted an explanation of causes and consequences. By and large, this being a religious age, news pamphlets of this sort also drew a moral: that the king was mighty; that malefactors got their just deserts; that the unfortunate victims of natural catastrophe were being punished for their sins.
"The news reporting of the [first] newspapers was very different, and
utterly unfamiliar to those who had not previously been subscribers to
the manuscript service. Each report was no more than a couple of
sentences long. It offered no explanation, comment
or commentary. Unlike a news pamphlet the reader did not know where this
fitted in the narrative -- or even whether what was reported would turn
out to be important. This made for a very particular and quite
demanding sort of news. The format offered inexperienced
readers very little help. ...
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"So it was by no means easy to persuade the inhabitants of
seventeenth-century Europe that the purchase of news publications should
be a regular commitment. It is not difficult to see why newspapers were
so slow to catch on. Consumers had to be taught to want
a regular fix of news, and they had to acquire the tools to understand
it. This took time; the circle of those with an understanding of the
world outside their own town or village expanded only slowly. For all of
these reasons it would be well over a hundred
years from the foundation of the first newspaper before it became an
everyday part of life -- and only at the end of the eighteenth century
would the newspaper become a major agent of opinion-forming."
The Invention of News: How the World Came to Know About Itself, Andrew Pettegree, Yale University Press, 2014
[Title page of Carolus' Relation from 1609, the earliest newspaper, which was begun in 1605]
