Pie Palace

In the past few years, Canadian coins have improved from the bland loonie/quarter/nickle/dime of my youth. But this sucker is beyond awesome.

The five euro coin has layers of symbolism than a Masonic lodge. It commemorates Dutch architecture by showing the queen’s face in bolded letters made from a spiral of architect’s names (as ordered by internet popularity). It indicates Dutchlandthe Netherlands by showing a map of country in an outline of books spines by/about (you guessed it) Dutch architects. Within the map, there are a series of birds, each indicating the capitol of each province. Each bird is the province’s bird, natch.

And the kicker? It was designed solely with open source software. (I don’t really think it matters, but the designer seems to care about it)

Days with My Father is a fantastic site. It’s beautiful, it’s compelling, and it has a fantastic UI.

David McLelland posted a photograph of a building with a sign for the now defunct Scharf Grocer.

ORESTA cosmetics at O’Conner and Pretoria has taken the cake when it comes to history showing its past. The owner has tracked down the names of the previous owners of their building and stuckoed their names onto the side. Not only that, but they’ve tracked down the businesses as well.

Some highlights: the Supreme Court of Ontario was based there for four days in September, 1922. Okay. That was the highlight. Aside from that, it’s mostly people with British sounding names.

Update: Bit of a rewrite when David pointed me to his original post.

Let’s get this over with: W is a terrible movie. It’s like a really long “This is Your Life,” showing select scenes from George W Bush’s life: his frat hazing, him losing his first bid for congress, him meeting his wife; while kinda, sorta, almost showing the lead up to his invasion of Iraq.

The documentary portions are boring. It skips over the more tawdry (hence interesting) parts of his life, in favour of showing W’s conflict with is dad. Who cares? The interesting bits are glossed over: why did Laura, a Democrat librarian, decide that W was worth her time? How did W act during his father’s presidency? What did he do as governor of Texas?

There is the occasional jab: Bush and his posse of advisors get lost on his ranch while discussing their plans for the war; the scene where W’s advisors try to convince Colin Powell that the Iraq invasion is diabolical. The movie would have been much better if it had given up on trying to be serious and presented itself as an over-the-top comedy: when W says that god has told him to run for president, it should have been a musical number; Carl Rove should have had devil horns and a tail; W should have had nightmares about choking on an Iraq-shaped pretzel.

If you’d like to see an interesting commentary on the current president, rent Homecoming. It’s weaker on current events, but it’s no less insightful.

The election is over. The NDP and Conservatives gained a few seats. The Liberals lost a few. The Greens doubled their percentage of the popular vote (6%, up from 3%). The only way I can describe the the last 35 days is as a waste of time. The next time Steve-o decides to call an election, Governor General should look to the other parties to form a government.

Pie Palace now accepts comments from everyone. It won’t randomly discard your scribblings because it can’t add numbers properly. (cough cough)

Election day is Tuesday. I’m going to be voting for my Green Party candidate, Jen Hunter. As a long-time Green, that shouldn’t be too surprising, but I am happy about a number of planks in the Green Party platform. My favourites are:

Fixing Our Electoral System

In case you hadn’t heard, our electoral system is broken. It needs to be fixed. Duh.

Afghanistan

I’m not a fan of Canada’s current mission in Afghanistan. I do believe that Canada should be doing its best to promote the expansion of human rights, but I’m concerned about the way the mission is being run. I’d like to see more civilian oversight, a broader humanitarian mission, and a wider coalition of forces in the country. As such, I approve of the Green Party’s proposal that Canada should push for a UN mandated mission, and operate within that framework.

Removing Corporate Subsidies

Corporations are odd beasts. At their best, they reward innovation and generate wealth for their employees, investors, and suppliers. At their worst, they gerrymander government policy, squander economic resources, stifle innovation, and mistreat their employees. The Green Party policy reflects my belief that economic entities should not receive long-term subsidies from the government, nor should they receive large one-time perks. Yes, I’m looking at you, Fort McMurry.

Fair Trade

Imagine the crappiest job that you’ve ever had. Now imagine that job with a fraction of the pay, a 60 hour work week, and physically dangerous conditions. Toss in some physical and sexual abuse to make things a rollicking good time. Don’t forget that you’re enjoying these conditions so fat bastards people in the first world can buy a t-shirt for less than $10. Or save ten cents on a coffee.

Certified fair trade is a mechanism that exports human rights to countries that make our stuff. First world countries pay a little more for goods, and the premium is rolled into educational programs, local infrastructure, and health initiatives in countries where the government is either unwilling or unable to provide for those needs.¹ The Green Party wants to include those principles in our international trade agreements, and government procurement.

Yeah, there’s other stuff: decent healthcare policy, doing something about Darfur, and, yes, even environmental policy. But those are the things that caught my imagination. I don’t particularly care about income splitting. Nor do I care about nixing nuclear weapons.

Vote how you will. I’m voting for tomorrow.²

1. It’s a little more complex than this. In some cases, it also involves agreeing on prices before the start of a growing season, third-party verification that labour and environmental standards are being adhered to, etc. TransFair has a fairly opaque website, but they’re the most trustworthy certification body that I know of. (back)
2. Or possible next Wednesday, we’ll see. (back)

I’ve long been a fan of Threadless Ts, but RedBubble is edging it out…

This is a very long response to XUP’s post (seen on Blogawa) about stripping titled Peelers and Peelees:

---

I’m surprised that nobody has mentioned the other side of the degradation equation. What about the customers?

My one noteworthy stripper experience was in Gatineau at a fairly classy club. Being young and foolish, I payed for a lap dance.

Before and after the dance, we chatted. The young woman told me a little about herself, and I told her generalities about my life. When I said I was a software developer she told me how much she loved staying in and playing video games when she was growing up. When I said I had just finished university, she told me that she was saving up to go to school. Funny coincidences, but I didn’t think much of it until after I paid her for the dance – she hugged me, kissed my neck, and told me her “real” name, and said to come back the next time she was working.

I’m not sure if I have a “solid sense of self” (or had one at the time), but that rattled me for a good week or so. Who wouldn’t be interested in a member of the opposite sex who sits in your lap, has a good uh, sense of rhythm, and hangs on your every word? I knew she was tapping me as a repeat customer, but I still wanted to go back. She’d done the equivalent of putting a smiley face on the bill, and I was willing to open up my wallet.

My sweetie tells me that it’s the same story in clubs with male dancers. The dancer treats the clients well, wooing them for cash.

If you want to talk about degradation, remember that the knife cuts both ways. I’m sure some patrons can walk into a club, enjoy the experience, and walk out. But I suspect that a fair number of the regulars are coming back compulsively. They’re being played directly by the dancers and indirectly by the club owners.

As to the question of degradation of the dancers, I can’t help but notice that 100% of our non-scientific sample of ex-strippers enjoyed peeling. I doubt that’s true of all dancers, but to say that “I don’t believe for an instant that a woman with a solid sense of self would choose to [dance] for a living” seems to be painting women with a pretty broad brush. Take a few minutes to skim http://lettersfromworkinggirls.blogspot.com. They aren’t strippers, and it sounds like most of them don’t work on Gladstone, but they sound like the enjoy their work.

Long, long ago I worked from home doing consulting work. I eventually gave it up because I wanted co-workers (amongst other things). It looks like Montreal has a solution to this problem in Station C. Why is Montreal so damn awesome?