With Whom Should He Run?

GoshHe'sGotGoodGrammar
PoufyHairedGreenVille


Vlog Brother with thicker rimmed glasses, John Green, has been thinking.

Thinking hard about who Barack Obama should pick as his Vice Presidential Candidate.

And he has come up with 10 interesting possibles.

My favorite is possibility #7:

".....The junior Senator from Montana, John Tester!

The upside?

He only has seven fingers because of a hunting accident......and that type of thing plays fantastic in Appalachia.

Plus, he's funny as hell and he's gotten the same $6.00 flat top haircut at the same place in Montana his whole life.

{snippety doodle-dandy}

But, he has almost no political experience.

But.

Who cares!

Because you can BUY political experience, but you CAN'T BUY seven fingers!"


The words alone are good, but the delivery (see below) is even better.

Or maybe I should say do gooder.....




OK?

_____
btw: LesVlogetFreres are also involved with this cooler bianca website .

.

What's Khadr Got To Do With It?

DoTheRightThing
CanuckistanmikitaVille


The really, really tall Hey Zeuss! over at 'A Creative Revolution' asks three important questions when it comes to linking the latest Canadian Armed Forces casualty and the barbaric treatment of Omar Khadr:

Isn't that what our soldiers are fighting for? Human rights? Not selective human rights, but the human rights of all nations?

As for our answers......

Yes!!

Yes!!!

Yes!!!!


OK?

.

Are Casinos Progressive?

AllTheNon-LobbyingThatFits
NoSkimmin'TonightVille

In the wake of Sean Holman's American FOI-assisted story on the non-lobbying activities of Patrick Kinsella's Progressive group south of the border, Bill Tieleman has called for a public inquiry.

Which, in our opinion is a fine idea.

It also led to some discussion regarding Mr. Kinsella's association with both the current British Columbia Government and the Casino industry which, of course, has been much in the news lately.

British Columbia's Casinos I mean, not Mr. Kinsella's association with them.

It is worth noting however, that the latter 'association' is not a new thing.

In fact, the following passage is from the minutes from a 1998 Vancouver City Council Meeting:

Patrick Kinsella, consultant representing Great Canadian Casino, reviewed the rationale for the proposed relocation. The lease is expiring, and the new Provincial Government regulations permit twice as many gaming tables. Therefore, Great Canadian Casino wishes either to expand or relocate, and believes it would make sense to relocate to an area which Council has designated an Entertainment District. The prospective landlord has expressed no objections, and will advise prospective residential tenants of the casino's presence prior to any lease being entered into. Mr. Kinsella also responded to Police and Social Planning concerns.


Of course Mr. Kinsella also responded to Police and Social Planning concerns.

After all, that would be the progressive thing to do.

The thing is, with all those new tables, wouldn't there have been a need to expand the laundry services as well?

In order to clean all those extra table cloths, I mean?

Just askin'.


_____
And thanks to 'NorthVan Grumps' on Mr. T's comment threads for reminding us of some of the above mentioned 'associations'.

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Was Richard B. Channeling Ned Beatty?

DeliverThemFromAwful
BanjoVille


And why, exactly, does Mr. Cheney hate West Virginia so much?

Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) was hospitalized Monday shortly after he released a strongly worded statement condemning Vice President Dick Cheney for making an incest joke at the expense of his great state. Today, Byrd is feeling "much better," according to his spokesman, and had just one burning question for his staff during a conference call with aides this morning: Did the vice president apologize yet to the people of West Virginia?

See and hear exactly what Mr. Cheney had to say here.

Now, them's some 'Family Values'.


.

The Derby Comes To Lotusland.....

Makin'TheirOwn
BigScenesVille



Well, Richmond, to be more precise.

And the "Bukowski of the Backwoods", Mr. Beer 'N Hockey, was there:

Soon as I got in the arena I found the beer garden. A couple roller girls were pouring pints of Russell ale. I was impressed. Usually you have to drink sh*t beer when there is a beer garden. I opened up my beer hole and filled up.

The first period of the bout was some great derby. It was a much more violent bout than the first one of the season. The Riot Girls and the Bad Reputations were all going home with big ass bruises tonight.

On my way to the beer garden at the first intermission I asked for and was granted an autograph by Andi Struction of the Faster Pussycats. My first roller girl autograph. She drew a little heart on it. (I keep it under my pillow.) Then I got myself some more Russell.

As I was drinking my beer I asked some of the people I was drinking with why it was they liked roller derby. One biker who was there about summed up what everybody else told me. "I like watching girls fall on their can." There is something just a little Clockwork Orange about the whole spectacle.

In the second period the derby's intensity increased even more. The crowd was getting wilder with each can that landed on the cement floor. The girls and the crowd were rocking like Bo Diddley.

It's good stuff, but a little over the top, so be forewarned if you are going to go there because it is not for faint of heart and/or those that didn't spend a good part of their misspent youth watching the Bay Area Bombers when the Puget Sound Loggers weren't on the bad/scratchy late night, almost local, not quite cable, TeeVee.

But Beer's kicker is bigger than the Derby.

Because it's what everybody whose worth anything is always looking for, from Jack Kerouac to Julia Nunes to Joe Keithley.

And it goes like this:

The people I look up to the most in this world are the people who create a scene; the people who make a scene out of nothing. The people who give you the opportunity to raise the motherf***ing roof on Saturday night. That is what the Terminal City Roller Girls are doing.


And, come to think of it, that is what Jim Croce did during the short time we had him raising the roof before he followed Bo Diddley 40, or maybe even 50, years too soon.....





OK?

.

Sammy And Peter Sitting In A Tree....

TheIncredibleShrinkingNPA
SourCremeVille


Sullivan and Ladner that is.

Actually, they were both in the same room together with the PuffMaster Flash, Rick Cluff, on Lotusland's CBC Radio One this morning (real audio file).

And, despite the PuffMaster's best efforts, a real debate almost broke out:

Shorter Ladner: Sammy can't win in the general.

Shorter Sullivan: The only thing that matters is that the four remaining NPA councillors love me.

On the first point - who really knows? Although somebody from Ladnerland actually left us a press release in the comments to our last NPA Battle Royale post. I won't reprint it here, because most of this he said/he said stuff being said in response to selectively leaked internal polling numbers seems to have the whiff of codswallop about it. However, if you want to you can read it here.

On the second point - Sammy is clearly running scared, because he dropped all pretense of playing to the wider electorate and instead tried to shore up support amongst those remaining NPA members that haven't already jumped ship prior to Sunday's nomination vote.

Meanwhile, back in a place called reality, FABula points out that Chinese community commentator K.K. Wan thinks both of them are doomed:

The most direct attack on Ladner came, actually, from the journalists' panel that he assembled to quiz him on Tuesday night in front of 150 people who, I'm fairly certain, know how they're going to vote on Sunday.

K.K. Wan, a dentist who's also a commentator on Chinese radio, said there's a strong ABS -- Anybody But Sam -- movement in the Chinese community. But they're going to Vision, even though the NPA is the "natural home" for their conservative values, because they don't see Ladner doing anything differently from Sullivan.

"I see the NPA losing lots and lots of support to Vision Vancouver," said Wan, who also waved his arm at the room of mostly white people and said "When I look around, I see big trouble in your campaign."

Wan hammered Ladner repeatedly about the lack of Chinese candidates and supporters and also about Ladner's lack of separation from Sullivan.......

Wow.

It's almost more exciting, and hopefully even more devastating for the Creme-de-la-Creme party, than the never-ending Obama-Clinton slugfest.

Especially if the loser makes a fuss on June 8th.


OK?


.

When Is A Lobbyist Not A Lobbyist In British Columbia?

TheGreatestPlaceOnEarth
ToPeddleInfluentiallyVille

.....When They Say So?

At least that appears to be the case in Mr. Gordon Campbell's British Columbia.

Sean Holman, this time writing for 24 Hours, has the story:

Pat Kinsella, an architect of the provincial Liberal's election success, has apparently been reaping the benefits of his close relationship with the Campbell administration.

His firm has helped win major government contracts and benefits for powerful foreign and business interests over the past five years - although Kinsella has never personally registered as a lobbyist with the B.C. government for any of those clients.......

Hmmmmm.....

Haven't we heard about another close confidant of the Campbell government who had issues with registering as a lobbyist.

But I digress.

Back to Mr. Holman's story about Mr. Kinsella:

According to documents exclusively obtained by 24 hours via an access to information request with Washington State, a May 2006 contract between Kinsella's Progressive Group and Washington State boasted the firm "has strong relationships" with Campbell administration cabinet ministers Kevin Falcon, Colin Hansen and Olga Ilich.

That relationship extends to B.C. Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games secretariat president and chief executive officer Annette Antoniak and former deputy tourism, sport and the arts minister Virginia Greene.......


Double Hmmmmmmm.....

Lobbying?

Not, apparently, according to Mr. Kinsella:

When asked in 2004 whether he ever talks about his clients with cabinet ministers and their staffers, Kinsella said, "Absolutely not. That's an understanding that I have ... I suspect there's no one in government who would say they've ever been lobbied by me."......

But that statement appears to be somewhat at odds with Mr. Kinsella's company's own representation to its clients:

However, as part of his work for Washington State, Progressive's president, Mark Jiles, promised to "facilitate opportunities for Washington State to develop important relationships" with Falcon, Hansen, Ilich, Antoniak and Greene.

And, if that wasn't enough, the firm stated, it is "able to engage" other "ministers." After all, in the words of Jiles, "access to key decision makers is simply the price of admission in our business." This, according to a confidential proposed strategy prepared for the state in October 2006........


Triple Hmmmmmmm.......

Is it possible that Mr. Kinsella and the good folks that work for him just wear a lot of different hats?


____
By the way, Mr. Jiles himself has some pretty close ties to Mr. Campbell given that he was once his constiuency campaign manager.
Oh, and for the record, according to the documents obtained by Mr. Holman, the Progressive Group has also apparently bragged to clients about its inside track with Enron's old accountant 'Accenture'. You do remember Accenture's relationship with Mr. Campbell's government don't you?

.

Killing Him Softly With His Polls....

StandingOnHisNeck
InHisSlippersVille


Well, whadd'ya know.

Looks like Smilin' Sammy Sullivan's war chest has been opened to the pollsters (again).

Ms. Bula has the story in today's VSun:

Neither Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan nor Coun. Peter Ladner is clearly in a position to beat a Vision Vancouver candidate in the city's November mayoral election, according to results of a poll done for the Sullivan campaign.....


But why would the Smilin' one release the results of an internal poll that says he is behind?

Well, there is that 'Underdog Victorious' thing I suppose.

But there is also this part too:

But Sullivan is "within striking distance" of beating Vision, says pollster Barb Justason, while Ladner is further behind.

"In a tight race, there's a better chance with Sam Sullivan," Justason said.

Cazart!

Or, put another way, "A Vote for Ladner is a Vote for Doom, Creme Dwellers!"

After all, in SammyWorld, who needs messy participatory democratic stuff like debates, when you've got polls, pollsters and PR payrolls.

OK?

.

We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Programming....

.....To Inform You That, Yes!, This Is Still Canuckistan

Don'tTakeOff,Eh?
StayForTheBackBaconVille


New, and fabulous, Canadians Laura and Alan have the story:

The House of Commons has voted in favour of the resolution that demands the Harper government immediately cease all deportation proceedings against any Iraq War resisters currently in Canada and allow all resisters and their families to remain in Canada and apply for permanent residence.

Vote total announced as Yea: 137 & Nay: 110!!

It was a very simple procedure: The motion was read and then voted on. Yeas stood and were counted, then the Nays. The totals were announced, the speaker declared the motion passed, and they moved on to the next item.

{snippety doo-dah}

"House of Commons votes to let U.S. War Resisters stay in CanadaOTTAWA, June 3 /CNW/ - The Opposition parties in the House of Commons joined together today to adopt a recommendation which, if implemented, would make it possible for U.S. Iraq War resisters to obtain Permanent Resident status in Canada.

The recommendation was adopted by a majority of Members of Parliament from the Liberal, Bloc Québécois, and New Democratic Parties. The Conservatives voted against the motion......"



OK Mr. O'Reilly......


Have At Us!


Ha!

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RailGate v.2200

AllThePrivilegeThatFits
EveryWhichWayVille


If you read Neal Hall in the Vancouver Sun yesterday, everything is just fine and dandy in the run-up to the RailGate Trial Of The Century:

VANCOUVER - It looks like the BC Rail corruption trial will finally get rolling at the end of the month.

The case, involving three former government aides accused of corruption in relation to the sale of BC Rail in 2003, was in court briefly today before the trial judge, Justice Elizabeth Bennett of the B.C. Supreme Court.

The judge set June 30 as the date when lawyers for the Crown and the accused will finally get down to sorting out all the trial issues still outstanding......

Sounds good, eh, although it actually represents a(nother!) delay of ten days as things were supposed to get going on June 20th.

But wait!

What's this that's tossed under the rug, offhandedly, in Mr. Hall's report:

"It is pretty shocking that Mr. Basi and Virk have had four and a half years without even starting a day of trial," said New Democratic Party attorney-general critic Leonard Krog, who attended today's pre-trial hearing.

"On one of the applications, there are 2,200 documents that the Crown is asserting some form of privilege, which is an absolutely astounding number," he said......

What's that?

Twenty-two hundred new 'privileged' documents that defense attorneys either can't get their hands on or get unlimited use of?

What the heckfire is that all about after that all that has happened with both 'cabinet' and 'solicitor-client' privilege that has been claimed/not-claimed/pretend not-claimed by Premier Gordon Campbell's arms length, non-surrogate, non-content, non-consultantative consultants over and over and over again over the past year-and-a-half?

Well, if you're looking for it in Mr. Hall's piece you will find nothing further.

For that you must go to Mr. T., Bill Tieleman:

Virk's lawyer Kevin McCullough told Bennett that the Special Prosecutor is claiming privilege over about 2,200 documents - a claim that may take several weeks to sort through in court.

Outside court Basi's lawyer Mike Bolton explained that the privilege claim is not to be confused with the privilege claims of the BC government based on either cabinet privilege or solicitor-client privilege that have earlier been bones of contention.

"There's a variety of different claims," in the 2,200 documents Bolton said. "Pertaining to other investigations, solicitor-client privilege, relevancy claims and police work project privilege."

"It's completely separate from the cabinet solicitor-client privilege, different documents," he added.

Holy Macaroni!

Pretty soon we'll have as many 'types' of privilege as there are privileged documents.

I have never said this out loud before, but now, finally, I have come to fear that this trial may never occur.

At least not before May 2009.

Man, I sure hope this absolutely unprivileged feeling I have is wrong.

OK?


____
*Of course, this may not have been Mr. Hall's fault given his insightfulness in the past. Instead, I wonder if an overzealous editor cut his word count and/or rearranged his lead to make everything sound like it's going ahead on schedule (the defense thinks differently - see Mr. T's report for more details).
Meanwhile, back in the land of 'What really happened?' (ie. Mary's place), Anon-O-Maestro commenter extraordinaire, E.C.S., asks a most excellent question: "I also had to ask myself how OmniTrax found out about Pilothouse and did they contact the government first and then get directed down the tracks to the wheel greasers ?" More, much more, on that to come......


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Who Cares About The Harpoon....

.....Bring On The Mata Hari Of The 450*!

AllTheSmartsThatFits
NotMaxieVille

From David Akin's latest report on what some have dubbed the 'Is His Head Really An Empty Suitcase?' affair:

The Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security will begin hearings June 10 into the Bernier affair, and has issued invitations to Harper, Bernier, his ex-girlfriend Julie Couillard, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day and some bureaucrats.

"The key question is, what happened?." said Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh and his party's critic for public safety. "What breaches of national security occurred?"

A source close to the prime minister indicated he would decline the committee's invitation.

"The opposition should stop trying to score political points after the minister has resigned," said Dimitri Soudas, the prime minister's deputy press secretary.

Harper, Bernier and Day - just like any MP - cannot be compelled to testify before a Commons committee. But Couillard can be subpoenaed, which means she risks a contempt of Parliament charge if she fails to appear to before the committee.

Which begs the question.....

Based on all that has taken place so far, why would anyone seriously believe that Ms. Couillard pass up the chance to lord her smarts over Mr. Bernier and his former Maximum Bossman one more time?

Eh?


____
*450 is the Area Code for Laval, the Montreal suburb that Ms. Couillard calls home.


.

Operation Rolling Thunder - It's Not A New Bob Dylan Tour*

AreThereKnownKnownsThatWeDon'tKnow?
WhoKnowsVille


There was a breathless account of something called 'Operation Rolling Thunder' in Saturday's Globe and Mail from reporter Katherine O'Neill:

"Code-named Operation Rawa Tander, Pashto for Rolling Thunder, the joint Canada and Afghan military mission was aimed at disrupting insurgent activity in one of Kandahar province's most dangerous areas, Pashmul.

{snip}

The operation, which involved multiple platoons, started before day-break on Tuesday and, by 6:15 a.m., bullets were already ripping through Pashmul, a collection of small, ancient villages and farmland. The few locals still living in the area either fled by foot or hunkered down in their compounds before the fighting started. Most are poor farmers."


Which I found heartening.

After all we sure wouldn't want to be 'ripping bullets' through the houses and huts of civilians.

Or Hellfire missiles:

"Canadian and Afghan soldiers were able to sneak up on a suspect compound and take the militants by surprise. The insurgents, toting AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, returned fire for about half an hour from a grape hut.

The battle ended a short time later after the Canadians called on U.S. military air support to drop several bombs, including Hellfire missiles, on the area."

Yes that's right, Hellfire, with a capital 'H', the good old 'fire and forget' ordinance.

So, enough of all that..... Who won the Battle of Rolling Thunder (is that what you hear when the Hellfires scream?)

Well, according to Ms. O'Neill, we did.

Overwhelmingly:

About 8 a.m. Friday, a large number of insurgents began shooting at the soldiers from several positions. The terrain, which was mainly lush grape fields and small groves of dense trees, made it difficult at first to tell exactly where the militants were hiding.

For about two hours, the two sides exchanged fire, with the Canadian and Afghan forces calling in air and artillery support. More than 30 rounds of artillery fire whistled through the hot, spring morning air and hit mud grape huts and compounds where the insurgents were positioned.

By 11 a.m., the shooting had largely stopped. A short time later, Afghan National Army soldiers followed a trail of blood into one compound. Four insurgents were inside; only one was alive. He was later detained.

During the lengthy operation, several insurgents were killed or injured. Only one Afghan soldier was hurt; he accidentally shot himself in the foot. No Canadians were injured.

But here's the thing - as of midnight Sun June 1st there was only a single 'on the ground' report of 'Operation Rolling Thunder'.

And that report was from Ms. O'Neill

So, does that mean Ms. O'Neil was embedded with the Canadian Forces?

I do not know this for certain.

I searched the Globe and Mail's website in vain. However, their 'Witness Afghanistan' blog does make mention that Ms. O'Neill's predecessor, Colin Freeze, acted as an embedded.

And Ms. O'Neill herself mentions thar 'Operation Rolling Thunder' was a 'top-secret military mission'.

Thus, given that there is also a picture of a Canadian Forces soldier firing his rifle during the 'top-secret' operation that was taken by Ms. O'Neill herself, I think it is reasonable to assume that she was likely embedded.

Now, I'm not attempting to impugn the work of Ms. O'Neill here.

But if she was embedded there are many, many 'instructions' and 'ground rules' she had to follow (careful: pdf).

And after reading these carefully I have come to the conclusion that many of them are designed to curtail the independence of the embedded reporter.

Regardless, in the end the person in charge of the embedded reporter is no longer their editor.

Instead, it is the Canadian Forces commander, as per #37 of the 'instructions':

37. Commander CEFCOM is the final authority, through the chain of command, for the provision of support to embedded media and may add supplementary instructions or rules for embedded media.

Given this, I believe it is imperative that every single story by every single embedded journalist be labelled as such, at the story's outset.

After all, how else are we going to know when to take things like overwhelming operational successes and/or 'official' source casualty numbers after the firing of Hellfire missiles into areas where the locals still living in the area either fled by foot or hunkered down in their compounds' with a grain of salt.

OK?



_____
*Or a motorcycle ride into the heart of Mr. Bush's tribal compound.

.

Collective Punishment Is....

.....Just That

_____
Update: There has been a reversal of policy, of sorts, but only in terms of U.S. policy so far, and only for the small group of Fulbright scholars (ie. not the greater 'collective'). See comment thread, and thanks to Dr. Dawg.
_____

AxisOfEvilWalls
BuildingUncivilSocietiesVille

This, tossed off on the front page, above the fold in the NY Times in a story about why the U.S. State Department has cancelled the Fulbright scholarships of eight young Palestinians in Gaza is chilling, indeed:

Israel has isolated this coastal strip, which is run by the militant group Hamas. Given that policy, the United States Consulate in Jerusalem said the grant money had been “redirected” to students elsewhere out of concern that it would go to waste if the Palestinian students were forced to remain in Gaza.

Why chilling (no matter all the spin that has been driven by the media-driven backtracking since the story was published last Friday)?

Because collective punishment is collective punishment no matter how you slice it, and no matter where and when it happens.

And some in Israel understand this:

"This could be interpreted as collective punishment,” complained Rabbi Michael Melchior, chairman of the (Israeli) Parliament’s education committee....


And besides, to the best of my knowledge, no one who has received a Fulbright scholarship to study in the United States has ever become a terrorist.

In fact, it is very likely that just the opposite would happen.

Unfortunately, this development will likely make it MORE difficult for a young Palestinian named Abdulrhman Abdullah to help build a civil society in Gaza.

A letter was sent by e-mail to the students on Thursday telling them of the cancellation. Abdulrahman Abdullah, 30, who had been hoping to study for an M.B.A. at one of several American universities on his Fulbright, was in shock when he read it.

“If we are talking about peace and mutual understanding, it means investing in people who will later contribute to Palestinian society,” he said. “I am against Hamas. Their acts and policies are wrong. Israel talks about a Palestinian state. But who will build that state if we can get no training?”

OK?

.

Paul Willcocks On InSite

OpinionsOfTheWellInformed
CountForColumnistsTooVille


It's good:

The ruling on the future of Vancouver's safe injection site should change the way we talk about drugs and addiction.

It will certainly reveal that those who cling to the status quo - like federal Health Minister Tony Clement - place prejudice ahead of evidence and the law.

Justice Ian Pitfield was ruling on an injunction application aimed at preventing the federal government from closing Insite......


After laying out the arguments of both sides, Mr. Willcocks then goes to the heart of the decision from Judge Pitfield:

Pitfield reviewed the medical evidence supplied by both sides.

And he found that Insite users weren't making a choice to inject drugs. Addiction is a disease.

"However unfortunate, damaging, inexplicable and personal the original choice may have been, the result is an illness called addiction," he found.

"While there is nothing to be said in favour of the injection of controlled substances that leads to addiction, there is much to be said against denying addicts health care services that will ameliorate the effects of their condition," Pitfield found. "Society does that for other substances such as alcohol and tobacco."


And, finally, as is so often the case with Mr. Willcocks's posts on his own site, some his best gloves-off stuff is in the footnote:

Footnote: Clement said the Harper government still doesn't approve, though he did not explain why people should die for its prejudices. The facts, as the court found, support Insite, which is also supported by Premier Gordon Campbell and Health Minister George Abbott and is funded by the province. Vancouver's mayor and police force also back its continued operation.


So, again, the next time you hear federal HEALTH Minister, Mr. Clement, setting us up for one of his diversionary 'alternatives' just remember that we already have one.

That works.

OK?

_____
Mr. Willcocks also does us the service of pointing us to the link for Judge Pitfield's actual judgment which can be found here (careful: pdf).

.

If We Had A Million Dollars....

AllTheJoy
ThereIsVille


Yesterday our friend A. got married to her partner B.

We have known A. since, well, forever.

And her Mom K. has saved us more than once or twice, or maybe even fifty times, since we returned to Vancouver from our days of wonder living in our second favorite city in the whole wide world.

So, it was no surprise that A. was the flower girl at our wedding.

And, even more so, you probably won't be surprised to hear that our youngest, littler e., was the flower girl yesterday.

Using the same basket for the petals that A. used 16 years ago.

****

Our other daughter, Bigger E., was in the wedding party too.

But instead of bringing the flowers E. brought the song - a beautiful a capella version of the Sarah Slean tune called 'I Will Love You'.

It came just after the vows.

And there was not a dry eye in the place.

Both of mine included.

Then they released the doves.....

****

After that it was all fun.

My wife C. and a gaggle of her friends spent most of their time in the kitchen of the Aberthau House cranking out the food, course after course, with cooking channel/reality TeeVee show-like jocularity, precision, selective editting and laughter.

Mostly I tried to make myself useful by acting as the goatherder/crowd control guy - moving folks from one place to the other for pictures/receiving lines/toasts/food/drink and various other assorted sundry items.

Which didn't really matter all that much in the end because this was an event that had everything such events have always, and probably always will, have......

Very old people and very young people (and a Pinata!); inside formality and outside informality for the periodic escape and respite that everybody needs; stories and tales of all sorts, some straight-ahead, some touching, some mumbled, some silly; brothers, sisters, cousins and parents and pride and the wonder of it all turning out so well, along with a crazed uncle with really, really important things to say that no one could really understand; whooping and hollering that culminated with much screaming to release the witches during the cake cutting; the first dance, the slow dancing, and then, finally, the crazed young people dancing to music that has mostly passed this old geezer by.

And then, just as things reached their peak, the two E's and me* slipped out into the night (me, always prepared with headlamp) to work on our own contribution to the festivities which we sang at the party's end.....

'Falling Slowly' by Hansard and Irglova (you may have heard of them by now).

And then that old war horse from the Barenaked Ladies that we turned into 'If WE Had a Million Dollars (....We would build you a park....with Shakespeare Shows and Skateboards which, along with their beautiful baby L. who they cradled as we sang to them, are two of Aidy and B.'s passions) and everybody joined in the choruses, so much so that I couldn't hear myself play, which was alright in the finest of the finest kind kind of way.

Indeed.

****

And after that the very oldest and the very youngest folks began to drift away as the bride, the groom and the baby whisked themselves away and all the mad, dancing kids rushed off to the clubs.

And then, when all was quiet in empty driveway, A.'s Dad told me he was so happy he was having a little trouble actually comprehending it.

Back in the still bustling kitchen those that were left behind helped C. and friends clean up, and I did too for awhile before I took the two E's home in the VW (notso)Microbus.

We listened to my latest mad-tabbing passion, Wilco, down low while talked about weddings.

And as we approached the great divide littler e. mentioned that she thought I looked like the guy who had been playing the warm-up music before the ceremony.

I could see the resemblance, to a point.

But Bigger E. was emphatic, saying that I looked like way more like Captain Von Trapp.

Which I most certainly do not, of course.

But given how his character evolves, and how he comes to embrace the artistic efforts of his kids, I was well, touched.

All over again.

But I didn't cry.

But then again....

It was pretty dark in the Microbus.

So neither E. would have known, even if I did shed a tear of joy or two.

OK?




______
*Of course, if I had written this for my grammatically rigourous grade 5 teacher Mrs. Griffiths I would have written 'the two E.'s and I'; thing is, I just like the sound, phonetically and otherwise, of the phrase "the two E.s and me". OK (again)?

.