My friend Harold Stephens writes about the situation in Thailand from his home in Bangkok. In part:

Our mind does strange things. It cuts out the traumatic experiences we had, or if it didn’t we might go mad. After the Pacific War we learned to survive by not thinking about it, and not talking about it. We let it pass.

The day after this past Christmas the horrors of the past came back. In a fleeting second the Battle of Okinawa was raging again.

By some bizarre coincidence, my brother Steve was on the CBC Montreal afternoon show today along with Kevin “Boomer” Gallant. Steve was live from the Canadian Tire parking lot in Charlottetown. Has there ever been a more Canadian moment?

I tried this suggestion on how to speed up Firefox. It may be the placebo effect, but things do seem faster now…

NORAD has assembled a very weird collection of celebrities to help them track Santa this year. Ringo Star, Paul Gross, George Stroumboulopoulos and Erik Estrada? They’re out of control.

From The Old Farmer’s Almanac:

December 25 - Christmas Day. The ancient Celts divided the year into four sections marked by Quarter Days — the days of the two solstices and two equinoxes, on which the seasons begin. Gradually, to conform more closely to the liturgical year of the Christian church, the Quarter Days became identified with the church’s high seasonal festivals, which occurred close to the astronomical dates. Christmas, the fourth Quarter Day, was both the culmination of the old year and the first festival of the new year. The day originated as a solstice festival and signaled a time of resting and gathering fertility for a new round of sowing and reaping. This festival merged easily with the Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, which occurred at this time of year.

May Your Days be Merry and Bright.

I have never met a consultant — not one — who, at some point in their musing about whatever issue they are consulting on, has not used the “if you put a frog in boiling water, it will just sit there until it’s dead” story to try and make a point.

The most recent occurence was yesterday.

This was publicaly debunked nine years ago:

First we spoke with national scientific authorities. According to Dr. George R. Zug, curator of reptiles and amphibians, the National Museum of Natural History, “Well that’s, may I say, bullshit. If a frog had a means of getting out, it certainly would get out. And I cannot imagine that anything dropped in boiling water would not be scalded and die from the injuries.”

As such, I would like to formally propose that this story be officially retired from the consultant canon, and that any consultant who persists in using it be ineligible for ACOA funding.

Okay, maybe I exaggerate. A little.

The Canadian federal government, through its Department of Public Works and Government Services, maintains a web-based directory of public servants. They call it GEDS, and this is what you see when you arrive there:

I added the Big Red Arrow myself.

I’ve used this page dozens of times, and every time I do, I get confused about where I actually search.

You would think that this gateway to a valuable, up-to-date resource would have a big “search here” button. Or maybe even a search box right on the page.

But, no: you have to click on the little tiny “Search GEDS” link at the bottom of the page. Granted, that click takes you to a page with a nice search box. But I wonder how many people never find their way there.

We all carry around in our heads the perfect combination of our favourite musicians, imagining the perfect “jam session that never was.” Except, for me, it was.

Here is a portion of the description of the album that resulted, from the All Music Guide:

Originally a CBC/NPR radio broadcast from Christmas ‘93, this summit session featuring some of the most unique female performers and voices in the world … is an atmospheric treasure. While individual performances shine, the ensemble work is particularly stellar.

The album is Count Your Blessings, and the voices are Holly Cole, Rebecca Jenkins, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Jane Siberry, and Victoria Williams.

I dare you to listen to Rebecca Jenkins sing the opening lines of the title track, Count Your Blessings [420K MP3], without a tear coming to your eye. If it does not, I fear you are stone-hearted.

The piano at the opening of Silent Night [640K MP3] by Tim Ray, infuses enough invention into the song that all of your elementary school experiences of it may be purged. And it only gets better from there: these are five voices that are meant to be heard together, and this track is the ultimate expression of that. I’m not a big one for the religiously tinged songs, but 5:25 of this Silent Night and I’m in the creche with the myrrh ready to sign on.

Christmas season or not, if you are in need of a genuine music upliftment, you owe it to your soul to have this album in your collection.

Peter Mansbridge is doing The National live from Charlottetown tonight. The “anchor desk” is in a U-Haul truck a block from our house:

Peter is standing in the back of the truck, which is backed up towards Province House, presumably oriented to obtain the best view. I imagine what we’ll see on TV is something that makes Peter look like he’s floating outside; in reality, he’s under the lip of the truck:

Note the heating system at knee height.

Great George St. between Richmond and Sydney is blocked off to allow cables from a satellite truck that’s in front of 180 Richmond St. to wend their way over to the U-Haul:

We just came back from the “meet and greet” at the Confederation Centre with Peter Mansbridge, Rex Murphy and Bruce Rainnie.

Some media personalities shrink when you see them in “real life.” For these three, it was the opposite: they seemed more engaging, more interesting, more genuine in front of a crowd of 100 than they do on television. There was a good hours worth of question and answer, and some snappy door prizes. Bruce even [almost] called it Compass, for which I will have to send him a royalty cheque.

They’re shooting The National tonight from the back of a truck in the Province House parking lot. Although there’s no formal “audience seating,” it looks like it wouldn’t be a problem to drop down and watch things play out.