AM640 How Things Look Today

Unpopular Mechanics

Dick Smyth — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:20:00 GMT

I thumbed through an old Popular Mechanics... From October 1950...

Fascinating trip back in time but also a solid lesson in what’s wrong with the US economy today.

There were countless ads...Seiberling Tires...South Bend precision lathes...Atlastic Underwear...Wham-O slingshots...Syncro Electric sanders...Kodak cameras...and on and on and on.

In 1950, all this stuff was designed and manufactured in the United States. Today 90% of it comes from Asia. The people who manufactured it in local plants in places like Ramey Pennsylvania and Oxford Michigan have no modern counterparts!

In short, the blue collar work force has been decimated. Today you’re either a college grad making big bucks in computers or finance or else you’re flipping hamburgers. The working class of the fifties provided solidity. It nourished local communities. And it bought what it made.

Sure. There’s progress. Some of those old ads promote $3500 a year as a good income. Mind you ...

Poison Ivy Logo

Dick Smyth — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:20:00 GMT

The new Ontario logo is creeping into our lives gradually...like mould or dry rot.

A few months ago, probably because he didn’t have anything better to do, Dalton McGoofy decided to restyle Ontario’s classic Trillium logo. The new one, more like poison ivy than the trillium, is beginning to appear now on government paperwork, signs, vehicles, advertising...

The old one, bland and rounded and uncontroversial, had served us well through Tory, Grit and NDP governments.

The new one is still a three leafed trillium except it now looks somehow malevolent, threatening, evil. It’s as though you had replaced a happy face with a devil’s head.

The trillium actually is a rather pretty flower and the old logo was an effective, stylized representation of it. But the new one is harsh and threatening. It reminds me of those electron microscope images of deadly bacteria or cancer cells.

There really was no ...

Tainted Newspapers

Dick Smyth — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:42:00 GMT

We have very tough rules on the quality of the food our supermarkets sell.

We have none on the quality of the reading material they sell.

I speak of the execrable scandal magazines like National Enquirer.

In fact these affronts to journalism are so closely identified with food stores that they’ve come to be known as Supermarket Tabloids.

I usually ignore them. But it was impossible to ignore the Globe (the tabloid) which last week boldly proclaimed that US President Obama is gay.

How do they get away with this stuff.

And where do they find the amoral writers and editors willing to prostitute their craft.

Not to mention readers. The day of the bimbo housewife obsessed with laundry detergent and floor polish is long gone. Most people in supermarkets --- whether men or women --- are intelligent, informed people.

Yet this trash continues to sell.

We recall tainted lunch ...

Bewildering Batteries

Dick Smyth — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:18:00 GMT

Appliances all have the same plug. There are only four sizes of packaged batteries.

All this stuff is standardized,

But there is no such uniformity in rechargeable batteries and power supplies, the stuff that powers cameras, telephones, printers, power tools and the many gadgets that we have around the home and the workplace..

There is a bewildering array of rechargeable batteries, all different in shape, size and power. Power supplies can run from 3 volts to 20 with a bewildering variety of plugs.

There are industry associations which discuss these matters and set standards, That’ s why --- until recently anyhow --- all light bulbs have the same base.

I have a drawer full of power supplies for everything from flashlights to computers. What’s more, they’re usually black, so you can’t write on them what they’re for. They’re all different voltages, different polarities and have different plugs. I have four ...

Couple of Joints

Dick Smyth — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:59:00 GMT

Keep in mind that for the last few years I’ve been a country boy, living up in the bush. No longer one of the beautiful people, the media mafia, the city folk.

I saw the COC’s The Nightingale last week. I don’t know what the hell it was all about. The city folks apparently did because it’s a sell out.

To paraphrase Mark Twain’s remark about Wagner, the Nightingale is much better than it sounds... or looks...

You’ve got yer orchestra up where yer actors should be and yer actors are in a big tank of sheep dip where yer orchestra should be. Some of them Stravinski fiddle notes is so off key yuh kinda wish it as them in yer sheep dip.

But seriously...

The COC is to be congratulated for undertaking such an edgy project. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. And I think I mean that ...

They Won't Be Canadian

Dick Smyth — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Saturday is Halloween. Kids will be tricking and treating.

But how many will be dressed as Canadian characters?

There will be any number of Spidermen and Harry Potters. You can be sure the Disney characters, in costumes imported from China, will be in abundance. I’ll bet there will be some Obamas, maybe even a Hillary Clinton or two.

But how about our own images, both real and fictional.

Can you buy a Stephen Harper mask? (Although it would be unfair to ask any decent kid to war that. Too scary!) How about Jack Layton. He’s already a caricature of himself.

Stompin’ Tom Connors? Margaret Atwood? Wayne Gretski?

But there are not only real people... Delve into our folklore... Ogopogo... Anne of Green Gables... Aboriginal spirits... A baby seal...

Halloween not the right occasion for Canadian nationalism? Disagree... Kids often get very serious about their costumes; put a lot of work ...

Scare, Stiff & Screw

Dick Smyth — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

The scare ‘em, stiff’em and screw ‘em exercise is underway, an ancient political, stunt that we keep falling for.

Last week roly poly finance minister Dwight Duncan tabled his economic statement, revealed a 25 billion dollar deficit and issued the first warnings about cutbacks and a tough times budget.

Duncan --- and since image is so important these grim days, why doesn’t McGuinty find somebody who looks like Uriah Heap --- said that the Ontario economy has shrunk to the same level as 2005.

As I recall, 2005 wasn’t such a bad year...

There will be a federal election in 2010 and a provincial in 2011. The Ontario Liberals won’t want to inflict collateral damage on their federal buddies and certainly not on themselves.

They’ll keep making scary noises until March. We’ll tremble and worry. They’ll table a budget with a couple of fishhooks. But after five months of the ...

Arrogant Harper

Dick Smyth — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Maybe he was misquoted. Or taken out of context.

But, if true, it’s astounding that the prime minister openly admits to watching American newscasts but not Canadian ones.

Again, I hedge my remarks because it seems beyond belief. We know that Mr. Harper and his thugs have little use for reporters. We know he rarely grants interviews to Canadian television but pops up on the American channels all the time. Indeed, his sole interest in the media seems to be as something he can use from time to time for self serving photo ops, for opportunities to misdirect the public and for nasty commercials to mislead it.

I quite understand why politicians dislike media. By nature it’s an adversarial relationship. But most administrations have accepted the media, with all their bumps and warts, as an essential part of the democratic system.

For Harper to say he never watches Canadian newscasts ...

Our Projected Doom

Dick Smyth — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Remember the Y2K panic...the greatest non event of the new century...

Now we have the H1N1 boondoggle in which the bureaucrats, the drug companies and yes, the media, have us convinced we’re all going to die.

You ain’t seen nothin’ yet...

Because the world is supposed to end on December 21, 2012.

Hollywood plans to make a buck or two from the imminent Armageddon with a flick called 2012.

There are two reasons for our projected doom. The ancient Mayan calendar ends on that date. And the planets will be aligned in a pattern not seen for 25-thousand years.

Frankly at my age I don’t really give a damn. In fact it might be fun to sit on my deck in Muskoka contemplating the reddish green glow where Toronto used to be. It will be a good opportunity to test the efficacy of Newfoundland rum against a)radiation or b)the plague, ...