Up in Ontario

A List of Human Universals

Jason Kottke, who I recently met in San Francisco at the Web 2.0 conference, points to a page on the DePaul University website of A List of Human Universals.

The list seems a little dry and academic at first, fancy words, some explained in brackets, some not. But as you spend some time with the list, think back to cultures of the past, and their superstitions, rituals of feeding, ways of describing the animals and plants they knew. Then imagine the same list applied to our own culture. What is our magic to sustain life? How do we have consciousness about economic inequalities yet have economic inequalities continue to exist? How do we overestimate the objectivity of our thought?

Alice Munro in the NY Times Magazine

Sometimes the best juxtapositions happen without planning, in happenstance with the pace of the world. Below is a screenshot from the New York Times Magazine profile of Alice Munro.

Now what were her stories about again?

Feedback on Operation Clark County

In an interesting bit of global citizenship, The Guardian newspaper has run a campaign for British readers to contact undecided Ohio voters to tell them what they think of the US election, and how they think those voters should vote. Readers wrote in to The Guardian and received addresses of voters in Clark County, one of the most tightly contested and contentious districts up for grabs in the Presidential election. Then the readers sent letters to the undecided.

The Clark County campaign has now ended but the letters keep pouring in to The Guardian from US citizens who have been contacted or heard of the campaign. The letters are fabulous. For instance:

Consider this: stay out of American electoral politics. Unless you would like a company of US Navy Seals - Republican to a man - to descend upon the offices of the Guardian, bag the lot of you, and transport you to Guantanamo Bay, where you can share quarters with some lonely Taliban shepherd boys. United States

I am a student and life-long resident of Clark County, Ohio. I just wanted you to know that this is a wonderful idea you've initiated; people here love and respect the United Kingdom, especially the prime minister. I hope this campaign will be successful for your newspaper and for us voters.
Springfield, Ohio

After all the bluster has quieted and the dust has cleared, The Guardian has a retrospective feature piece on the 7 days of the Clark County Campaign and its incredible spread.

At a conference I attended a few weeks ago in San Francisco, one session was titled, The Architecture of Participation, and though it was in reference to open source software design, the phrase applies in a broader sense to digital media. And I think you'd be hard pressed to find a example more suitable than Operation Clark County. The open and global nature of the Internet allows anyone to send and receive from anyone, and information flow is limited mostly by typing speed and sentence creation. The distinction between writer and reader, publisher and audience and colonizer and colonized becomes finer as communication passes back and forth more freely. I'm not saying it disappears, but the 50 percent of Americans without passports seem more likely to be confronted with the words of the people who they see at the other end of the gun barrel every night on the TV news.

But I digress. People have picked up on Operation Clark County all over the world because US foreign policy affects them and no one wants someone who believes in being born again to dictate to them what they can and can't do.

Books Hit the Winnipeg Party Scene

The Winnipeg Sun reports that a new nightclub in Winnipeg is tarting up its image with lewd bookishness and go-go dancers dressed as naughty librarians.

New nightclub goes by the book

Going to The Library could become a favourite pastime for local club hoppers. A new nightclub at 115 Bannatyne Ave., The Library, boasts go-go dancers dressed as sexy librarians, servers who will leave contact lenses at home and wear eyeglasses -- if they have them -- and a general aura of naughty bookishness that owner Greg Haasbeek says is inspired by the movie Varsity Blues and Van Halen's Hot for Teacher.

Formerly the site of LotOne15, which Hasbeek also owned, the new club opens Friday after an invitation-only kickoff tonight. Cover is $4.75.

Next time I'm in Winnipeg, I might just have a spare fiver around, for research purposes of course. And the location is right around the corner from my publisher, Turnstone Press. Perhaps the local watering hole might see a few after-hours meetings?

Wayne Tefs New Novel, 4 X 4

I received word today from my publisher, Turnstone Press, that Wayne Tefs' new novel, 4 X 4, is out and available for purchase. Wayne was the editor on my novel, Up in Ontario, and helped tremendously. Wayne's ear is sharp, his narrative eye is clear and his writing brings together the force and struggle of the Canadian shield country. Wayne writes with a great conviction of the value of his characters' authentic voices. His clear prose tells their personal stories in a way that allows the characters to speak for themselves. If you liked Up in Ontario, I think you may well like some of Wayne's work.

The Dokic family, like any other, has its problems. Half-brothers Clint and Darryl are constantly at odds and just similar enough to not cut each another any slack or let past feuds slide. Darryl sees real-estate-salesman Clint as a slick boor, overly fond of himself and his achievements. Clint sees Darryl as an over-educated under-achiever who flaunts his smarts to belittle others. Their father Jimmy is absent, and their mother, Meg, referees their sniping with more knowledge than either of them can know.

When a snowstorm cancels Clint’s flight from Winnipeg to Thompson, where his pregnant wife Kaly waits, Clint forces Darryl and Meg into an ill-advised road trip.

As the three leave for Thompson, they think the worst they’ll have to face is low visibility and icy roads. What rests between them in Darryl’s 4 x 4, however, is much harsher than the weather, and it will force them to face what they know and what they think they know about each other and themselves.

Available now at McNally Robinson Booksellers and other fine bookstores everywhere!

4 X 4 by Wayne Tefs
ISBN: 0-88801-300-0
Quality paperback
5.5” X 8.5”
404 pages
$19.95 CDN/$15.95 U.S.

"Tefs’ writing 'is sharp, lean and sexy, without a wasted word.'"— Harry Rintoul, The Winnipeg Free Press

"Tefs’s blend of experience and reflection, recounted honestly, holds attention and evokes admiration."—Dennis Duffy, The Globe and Mail

Rat Portage, Early 20th Century

From the Lake of the Woods Museum, a photo of Rat Portage, the town that became Kenora.