Annual Foolishness 2013 copied from my blogSelimatheshredder

As I have several friends who cannot see, or if you prefer tolisten rather than read, click the MP3 audio file It is about 20minutes long.

About halfway through The 2012 Christmas Card Project, Ifoundered. I can’t even find the cards that weren’t sent, so Ihave to start from scratch this year. I just read somewhere thatit is okay to start from scratch every day of your life - a worthymaxim for terminal procrastinators. A further motivation: Canada Post announced, a huge postal increase (about $.25) onJan 1 and elimination of door-to-door delivery within the next 5years. It may not a be a huge inconvenience for us until we aremore decrepit, but job losses and cost to business will besignificant. Why do these announcements always come just

before Christmas - like Kellogg’s in London, On. Who will be left to sacrifice to the Golden Goddessof Consumerism when no one has a good job or modest pension?

Amid anniversaries of massacres, and continuing man-made and “natural” disasters, we have lostNelson Mandela, a man whose name has resonated from the time we began calling for his release,and boycotting South African wine, to joining the throngs in Montréal to greet him in June 1990and watching the amazing events that unfolded afterwards. To have in our lifetime even one suchindividual in our weary world, rising “above the sad and lowly plains” is miraculous. Alas, the “menof strife” will not “ hush the noise” to listen for the angels. Hmmm? Those old hymns are oftenhard-hitting when you look more closely beyond the familiar first verse. Thank you Edmund Sears forthe poetry of “It came upon a midnight clear”.

We had a VERY noisy year in Canada with an embarras de richesses of public figures wallowing ingreed, entitlement, lies, cheating, denials, shallow apologies, appalling shenanigans and intrigue toavoid discovery. The spin doctors are in dervish mode; the Buck never stops. The powerful colludeto divide, befuddle and sell our futures and our livelihoods to the highest bidder. Just imagine whatmight be accomplished if all the money spent by oil companies and our federal government onpropaganda were re-directed toward alternative energy development, finding better ways to housethose cast out by increasing social disparity, and helping damaged soldiers and people whose liveshave been ruined by disasters and the "economy". Most annoying are federal “Action Plan” ads paidfor with tax dollars. It’s hard work to try to turn anger into something resembling compassion for thelikes of Duffy, Wallin and Ford with their hubris on steroids - or mental instability in the case of thelatter. Mandela showed a powerful way, but the road is long and few of us are brave or strong. Manytalk; how many walk the walk? We need stories of goodness, not just of great souls, but in ordinarylives.

I turn to two such lives near and dear to us. In July, Ron’s brother, David, died after several monthsof such diminished quality of life that he lost the determination that had marked so much of his life. His roommate of decades, Michael, died in February, surviving many years beyond what wasexpected for someone with his complicated and rare condition: Coffin-Lowry Syndrome .

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David with his favourite "kind of Coke": Root Beer

We think David’s system simply could not handle sucha great change in his life. Within a month he, too, wasin the hospital on life support, with pneumonia, ananeurysm and surgery, and a rapid decline intohelplessness: respirator, tracheotomy, feeding tube, and enforced immobility – not things easy for any ofus, let alone, David, who didn’t much like peopletouching him. Ron visited in May and came backhopeful. David’s wonderful team in Calgary tried tofigure out ways for him to be at home again, but it wasnot to be. The doctor called from the hospital forpermission to stop interventions at the end of July andin less than a day he was gone, and we were en route toCalgary. I still haven’t done all the thank you notes. Istill feel a low. This summer, Ron also lost his dearUncle Aubrey in Cape Breton, who had lived a long andfull life, and his cousin Patty, 64 in Ontario who lived agood life, but too short. And there were so many good friends and neighbors. The list grows longer every year.We are at that age. David's memorial page will be hereuntil August: David's Memorial Page

Last year I was immersed in the Roman Empire, theBurgundians and Goths, Brynhild and Siegfried, and theother characters of the Nibelungenlied. I still am, buthave sidetracked through Caesar’s own account of hisconquest of Gaul, which is far more interesting than I thought it would be. Of course, it is rife withgenocide, as rebellious Gaulish tribes vanish from the face of the planet, just as the wrong tribes didin the Old Testament - and sadly still do. I continue to read about the religions of other people,otherwise known as mythology, and the mythology of the one in which I was raised, which is a richtrove, too. I’ve discovered British classicist, Bettany Hughes, and enjoyed her very readable books onSocrates and Helen of Troy. Hope she writes more. Imagine my surprise to come downstairs and findRon watching a documentary on Alexandria with Bettany Hughes. Perhaps I will be a classicist in thenext life. At my summer intensive storytelling workshop with Laura Simms in New York thissummer, I worked on the story of Io who was turned into a cow, but am now turning toward cats foranother story project to be entitled Holy Cats. Now that I’ve written that down, it means I have tostop procrastinating and get it up and running or I’ll be very embarrassed if/when I write AnnualFoolishness 2014. I'm slowly escaping from being webmaster for Storytellers of Canada so I can geton with these imagined projects. Tempus fugit! We’ve hired a designer and a project manager. Myrole is to provide content, background and 12 years of ?wisdom as this unfolds. My own wee websitemolders from inattention, a victim of being the shoemaker’s child; ergo, Annual Foolishness is stillon a blog - maybe it always will be. I’ve been reading a lot this year – never enough, of course – buthave especially enjoyed: Trickster Travels: A Sixteenth-Century Muslim Between Worlds by NatalieZemon Davis who also wrote The Return of Martin Guerre; The Swerve: How the World BecameModern by Stephen Greenblatt; Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe byNorman Davies and all three of the Call the Midwife books. Ron and I enjoy Simon Schama’sdocumentaries, and the Met Opera Live in HD broadcasts.

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Cherry blossoms in Newark

In addition to singing with Dartmouth Choral Society, I’ve joined the choir at Dad’s church (United)which is conducted by the excellent Malcolm Bradley, who also conducts the Choral Society. Theywere looking for altos, even this pagan alto. We generally sing interesting music, though every nowand then concessions are made to some rather sappy modern things. I may be a pagan, but I preferstaunch old pre-20th century Protestant hymns. I’ve even been doing some Scripture readings. Whenapproached to do this - because of the mellifluous voice in which I read the lectures before the operabroadcasts :-) – I did make full disclosure of my pagan state and said, “.. well if the Lord don’t mind,I don’t.” Apparently he didn’t. No thunderbolts struck the church, or me, so I expect we’re okay. The Dartmouth Choral Society took on a large project in the spring, The Peacemakers by Welshcomposer, Karl Jenkins, with three massed choirs and an orchestra. My impression was that this is asometimes saccharine piece, but it certainly is fun to sing in 150-voice choir with an orchestra . Onenight at rehearsal, Halifax soprano, Jennifer Farrell, and came by to announce a summer workshopcalled “Sing Yourself Well” run by her, Gary Ewer and Wayne Rogers, in whose choirs I sang inCorner Brook many years ago. Given that dancing, long walks, leaping tall buildings, or even ridingmy bike (I fell off it once too often this summer and did some fairly permanent damage to my hip),are not on my can-do list anymore, I heard this workshop call my name loudly. I spent a few monthstrying to stretch away the pain, before I learned that I had injured more than my dignity, and wasprescribed a serious “rest” period and a lot of sitting on ice. Thus, I am taking private singing lessons,for the first time in my life, from Jennifer Farrell, and was diagnosed a soprano at the workshop afteryears of singing alto. I still sing alto in the church choir as altos, pagan or otherwise, are needed. Soare tenors, but I can’t do anything about that though I did volunteer. Malcolm is letting me singsoprano in Choral Society. Last week, we did a concert of Bach’s cantata Wie schön leuchtet derMorgenstern and Vivaldi’s Gloria with the Blue Engine String Quartet and 2 French Horns - nopartridge in a Pear Tree, though, and had good reviews. I’ve blundered my way through two recitalssinging Yum Yum’s song from The Mikado, The sun whose rays… , and an Italian art song, PurDicesti, O Bocca, Bocca Bella. I come from lessons glossy and happy. It is more about process thanresults. I do not come from physiotherapy appointments for a frozen shoulder with as much glee. Ihead to the Italian market for mushroom cheese torta, the ultimatecomfort food - and a completely counterproductive gluten fix. Ihope this will be more about results than process.

Our travels are becoming smaller: Corner Brook in March, and ashort visit in April to New York for as many hours of opera as youcould get for the buck: Handel’s Giulio Cesare and Wagner’s Siegfried with my own hero, Jay Hunter Morris from Paris,Texas. He is one who replied to my fan email last year. We visitedmy high school friends Tamsen and Bobbi and their husbands andwere taken out for the meal of our lives at a place called Blue Hillat Stone Barns, a serious locavore habitat in Tarrytown. Rondiscovered it is # 63 on a list of 100 best restaurants in the world. Ibet that’s the only time we will ever experience one of those. Ronalso learned you can buy sous-vide machines for home kitchens -this from an interesting couple we chatted with at a restaurant wewent to after Siegfried. Bobbi and Ed took us to a recital atNewark Cathedral which has an impressive pipe organ. We had atour the Cathedral by an most enthusiastic priest who was clearlypassionate about the wonderful building. It was cherry blossom time in Newark. Who knew? They

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Dad, Nov 11, 2013

have more cherry trees there than they do in Washington DC. The park along the river was filled withJapanese visitors eating picnic lunches under the blossoms. We went to the Newark Museum which isa little gem. I had visited it before, but Ron had never seen it, and we had lunch in an Irish pub inPearl River, New York where I went to high school. The 50th anniversary reunion is in August, but Idoubt I will get to it.

The Storytellers of Canada conference was held in Ottawa and we were there for Canada Day.Canada’s celebrity astronaut, Chris Hadfield, was among the folks on stage on Parliament Hill.Wanna bet he'll go into politics, eh? There were wonderful musical groups on the streets. The moodwas lovely. I enjoyed the mothers in niqabs and abayas clapping along while their boys step danced tothe bluegrass band, and a performance of Capoeira which was new to me. We ate at Murray StreetRestaurant in Byward Market three times! One of the partners is a Newfoundlander; we love theplace. I won a $250 VIA rail travel voucher at the last conference; it seemed appropriate to take thetrain to this one. It was so relaxing, unlike plane travel, but the return trip would have cost far morethan two plane tickets home so we flew. That just doesn’t seem right. We managed an all-too-briefvisit to Ron’s brother in Brockville.

Ron continues with his Scottish country dancing and is on the executive of the performing groupnow. He’s kept very busy and as much in demand being 1) a man, and 2) a man with a kilt. He wasat a week-long Scottish country dance teaching workshop in Sackville, New Brunswick when we gotthe call about his brother, and I had fetch him. He continues to acquire culinary toys. I should begrateful it isn’t snowmobiles or motorcycles, but I’m worried about parrots. I don’t want any creaturethat is going to outlive us. He gave in to his lust for sous-vide machine mentioned above and can nowaspire to the modernist cuisine made famous in Barcelona. He has been watching I-university courseson the science of cooking from Harvard - but there is an essential dimension missing until they candevelop an aroma App on iPad. We both blundered into the 21st century with iPhones and iPads thisyear. Ron was the first to venture forth, just before he went to Alberta in the spring, and dragged mekicking and screaming after him. It’s rather nice to have someone else in the house to whom I cannow turn for techie issues. It used to be the other way around. These are handy devices but I can say

with certainty, that they have not made us better or happier people. Ithink it probably took me less time to compose Annual Foolishnessback when I did it with ancient Underwood and white-out. Now thatit can make it look “professional”, I’ve becomeobsessive-compulsive, and trying to get it to look right in Bloggerrequires medication. For those of you who don’t waste hours onFacebook, I have prepared a little gazette of the postings that seemedto receive the most comments and “likes” which I put on the Blog,too - and appended here

Dad turned 92 this year, and is doing very well - he’s probablyhealthier than me. He finally gave in to pressure from his doctor, andus, to get a walker, and we picked out a shiny, red one. He is nowable to get downtown to the Seniors’ Centre and the Legion twice asfast, and probably more safely than he did before. I think he is morevisible to cars, too. We’ve been having an epidemic of cars hittingpedestrians in Halifax, and he doesn’t always look. Nov 11 is a bigday for Dad. As one of the few WW2 veterans who can still make itup to the cenotaph, he is frequently called upon to lay wreathes. and

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Father Christmas was a gift from David many years ago

this year he placed two, one on behalf of the provincial governmentand one on behalf of the Legion, in which he was active for manyyears. This year he got “Tweeted’ and his photo ended up on the CBCRemembrance day blog. If you visit the blog, you will find him abouthalfway down the page, just 4 photos below Rob Ford!! CBC'sNational Remembrance Day Photo blog

It is time to stop ranting now and wish you some quiet time over theseason, and most of all, peace and freedom from all the noise. Here isdear old Father Christmas, sent to us by David many years ago. He isthe first decoration to go up each year. Behind him on the tiny tree is aDanish paper-cut sent last year by our friend, Doreen, in Corner Brook. He and we wish you a Happy New Year in 2014.

The Best of My Facebook Page 2013These are the ones that got lotsa likes and comments: Cats andfoolishness get the most. Few ever like the political rants, but ya gottado it, so there is one.

Ron with Michael Pollan and Cabbage Dec 4, 2013Ron appeared at the top of the stairs thus, and asked me if he looked like aman seeking a religious experience. With "Bible" (Michael Pollan's"Cooked") in hand, he strode boldly forth into the kitchen to essaysauerkraut. "Why?" one might ask. We live in a province where goodsauerkraut is readily available due to the perseverance of our Germanancestors. Not good enough for Ron. He is truly, madly and deeplyimmersed in the hands-on study of bacterial life and useful rot. To date, the30-hour 100% whole wheat and rye sourdough bread was a "superiorcomestible". I bet it will be cheese next. Blessed are the Cheesemakers.

Nov 29, 2013As Ron sat in the day surgery waiting room at the hospital VERY earlytoday, to face one of those unpleasant little procedures to which men of hisage, and medical history, are often subjected, he read the New Yorker on his

Iphone. When the nurse came to fetch him, he hit the wrong button. The phone did not close but burstforth quite audibly “What brings me here?” Emerging from the still-open New Yorker app was thevoice of poet Gerald Stern reading his poem of that title in this week’s issue. The nurse remainedstony-faced, but laughter spread down the row of waiting patients, some clad in johnny coats. Howgrateful are we, who reside in the laughing belly of theuniverse, for the little cosmic jokes that lighten us all onour hysterical descent into decrepitude.

Nov 15, 2013This came from one of Dad's bridge-playing friends. Ireally like both of them. As one of the few WW2 veteranswho can still make it up to the cenotaph, Dad is frequentlycalled upon to lay wreathes.

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Elinor at the Ghostly Gala Storytelling Event Nov 5, 2013It's Giller Prize Day in Canada (Big literary prize) . Here is a little 6degrees of separation story. In 1983, on my "Dance your way down theNile" trip, Doris Giller - yes, that very Doris Giller, in whose honourthe prize was created, a seasoned traveller, dragged a few of us to aperfumerie in the Khan El Khalili bazaar in Cairo, when we supposed tobe content just sitting around the swimming pool at the Holiday Inn. Itwas an adventure. Ask me some day. Doris had come on the trip with adancing friend. She was bold and funny, and book editor at theMontreal Gazette, so we had lots to talk about. We got lost in the Cityof the Dead together. She found a great taxi driver who took us allkinds of places we would never have seen otherwise. Back home, shepicked me up for dinner in Montreal in a little red sports car, and toldme to find myself a rich man instead mucking around with losers. Me -I found a winner, don't you think? Thank you,

Doris. Here I am with kohl eyes, blackened from the very pot I bought in theKhan that day. Is it toxic lead sulphide or soot and resin? Who knows? I useit only on very spooky occasions - like our Ghostly Gala at Cole HarbourFarm last week. Thank you Jill Hogg for the photo. It is cropped from agroup photo which you can find on the Storytellers Circle of Halifax FBpage. Alas, poor Doris - she was a woman of infinite jest, of most excellentfancy, and gone too young.

Nov 1, 2013You know you have a First World Cat when you spend more on hersupplements than your own. This is Clara, known to us as Mummy. At leastwe get a nice photo from it. Our vet is a photographer, too. I expect we areon his FB page too.

Oct 31, 2013 - Yeah, I know. Grumpy Stuff - but it got published in theChronicle Herald's Letter section. They don't publish everything I send.

Ah the Senate Scandal - brought to us by a politician who claimed to hate corruption and appointedSenates. Have I got it figured out right? As soon as we get elected, we cut taxpayers' contributions topolitical parties - a small amount based on # of popular votes. Then we hold our noses and appointsome friends to the disdained body and send them off to fund-raise for our own party - courtesy of thetaxpayers. When our minions embarrass us by getting caught, we try to buy them off in secret, thenturn on them and pretend we had nothing to do with it, and try to force the Senate to fire them,because, of course, we know nothing. and are arms length from it all. Rather smelly armpits! Thiscircus is taking far too much of our energy and distraction from Real Issues - like silencing scientistsand dissent and selling us out to foreign interests. It's interesting to observe that it doesn't takeabsolute power to corrupt absolutely. A mere taste will suffice.

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Oct 14, 2013 Marilyn Sveen's portrait of David on a swing with themountains in the backgroundThanksgiving. We are grateful to have had David Richards in our lives. Itmade life more complex but somehow sweeter. We miss him and we thankeveryone who extended condolances to us. This is a watercolour painted byhis friend Marilyn Sveen. We have it framed now at our house. It is apicture that makes you smile whenever you look at it.

Aug 10, 2013 David at Indefinite Arts -paintingThis is a photo of Ron's brother, David, afew years back, working at In-Definite

Arts, a wonderful programme in Calgary, that has artists workingwith people with a variety of physical and mental disabilities. Davidproduced some amusing, and sometimes beautiful, objects. It lookslike he is painting the dinosaur from the Flintstones which we haveat our house. His favourite colours were green and purple. That'swhat I wore to the funeral. Our graveside service yesterday was allwe could have hoped for. A dear friend, the mother of David'slong-time roommate, who died in Feb read "Green Eggs and Ham" -David's all-time favourite, and it cheered us all. His old worn-outcopy went into the niche with him. Ron told David's story and Isang All through the Night. Many people offered memories andstories both during the service and at the reception. Thank you to everyone who sent condolances.

Mar 13, 2013 Thank you Tom Cochrane for this fantastic silhouette photo ofRon and me waltzing on Sunday night at The March Hare inCorner Brook - evidence that Sherman Downey can make thelame dance! - with enoughwine and Tylenol.

Feb 9, 2013 Sam theTabby's Collage ArtSam the Shredder's latest

collage project. Yes, whenever Sam the Tabby wants to go out, heshreds paper. Remember this is the cat who ate Alberta*. Here ishis latest effort. I must say that his choice of subject matterdisplays a kind of perverse intelligence rarely seen in his species.The last thing he shredded was Adam Gopnik's article aboutElaine Pagels new book on Revelations which Ron is readingcurrently.

* I left an atlas open to Albert on the sofa, and came back to discover the entire page

had been chewed. This is a Newfoundland cat!

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