IIDD, Chill November: Monday, November 12th

The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit. -Moliere, actor and playwright (1622-1673) 

Dear George "It's a Mad Mad World" Maddison,

Received your e-mail many moons ago regarding upcoming meeting of the book club. A few questions... is the Islay Inn a mythical resting spot at the edge of a misty moor or is it an establishment patronized by hard- drinking- penny- pinching louts searching for the cheapest pitchers of beers. Either way I'm in.

Question two pertains to the current title you are reading, Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow, is there a streamlined method for getting a hold of a copy? Now that's me thinking lazy. The next question is in regards to the book list you sent me... are these all titles that you have already read or are they suggested future reads? If it's the former then I would have to declare that most of the inevitable future referencing would soar over my head. The latter looks like a very appetizing challenge. The fourth and most important area of inquiry involves the secret handshake. Is there bloodletting involved? Do I have to do it twice because I'm ambidextrous? Send details! Thanks.

Cylcepaths beware, the brotherhood is hot on your trail Cheers, Stephen

Robo Ray!

NRBC now HDPPL under section (I) Naming disorders

Stephano,

You have aptly pegged the group -- the HDPP louts allowing us to abandon all pretense of book related activities and get down to the real work. We are pleased by your admission that you may just fit with this focus group and can contribute to the arduous task before us -- the drinking. 

Your description of the II was close: The Islay Inn (also known as the Island Inn) is a comical jesting spot on the edge of a False Creek. The Conductor is the host and proprietor. He will provide directions for getting to the Heart Break Terrace.

The list of titles to which you refer is recommended reading from various non-readers and only exists to impress and underwhelm the sisterhood who finds a way of seeing these lists and likes to think they know what we are doing.  In fact the unread list is much longer and has much more depth than what you see on that list.

The current title Drinking Fast, Drinking Slow: is available online from our resident cyber thief: Markus Aurelius (aka Tanner). He will send you the linkage.

For security reasons I cannot reveal the secret handshake in an e-mail. It will serve you well to be able to drink with either hand.

See you at 3PM on the 2nd of December if not before -- with the Cylepaths. W

Giggenheimer!

Welcome Wunderkind Stevealimo and attendant Cyclepaths and HDPPL!!!

You do nor know how much I look forward to you joining the group. Since The Secretary has invoked Section (I), Naming Disorders, in our Constitution, I will shortly, (at the next gathering), be invoking Section (F), Fines, Cruel and Unusual Punishments, the regulations to be followed for non-reading the current book before the assembled company, as well as the considerable levies to be imposed for infractions, be they minor or heinous. By Executive Fiat, Club Secretary and Islay Inn Proprietor constitute a Quorum, (see Section (R), Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies.

Continuing on in the vein of much needed military authority, to keep the HDPPL in line, more than enjoyed the special Remembrance Day screening of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp at Van City Theatre yesterday afternoon.  Cheers, Patrizzio "Cat o' Nine Tails" Puncheon Purveyor or "Dungeon" Dunn! Non-Readers and HDPPL, alike, Beware!

Amsterdam!

Hi Stevealimo!

Just follow attached directions. If you get lost, you are halfway there! Cheers, Patrizzio! 

Mr. Patrick : )

thank you so much for the invitation, especially considering you don't know me too well. of course I'd love to come and raid your whisky cabinet! haha do we need to bring food or anything?

I'm a swimmer myself and I feel for you, I don't know anyone with a chlorine allergy but I feel for you, swimming is such a great way to exercise. Easy on the joints and all for old men like me! haha

As far as the joke you sent, the ATM part is true for men of ALL ages

What is the address to your place for the Christmas party? Take care, VL

Hi Vittorio and Patrizio!

Trust you are both well and glad that you can attend our pre-Yuletide gathering on December 2nd, anytime after 5:00pm. Direzzione attached!See you on the 2nd, if not before! Cheers, Patrizzio!

Hi Rose and Joe!

Trust your dogs are enjoying their welfare cheques by now!


Hi Erich!

Enjoyed your last missive but I am afraid that I simply have no head, at all, for investment figures and the like. Am always amazed by people who can understand such things. Have not taken part in any of the charity/fun rides but would like to do so. A number of friends have done the Vancouver/Seattle ride for cancer, as well as one in the Fraser Valley. I'm hoping to enter the Grand Fondo, (160K), out of Penticton next July. Planning to see John Hawkes, Helen Hunt and William H. Macy in The Sessions this coming Thursday, Searching for Sugar Man, domani. Want to see Lincoln as well as I am an admirer of both Daniel Day-Lewis and Tommy Lee Jones. Am Reading Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow, at the moment. Groundbeakinging work on how we think and the way we make choices. Thanks, but I'm not a cigar fan, (In fact, quite the opposite as smoke gives me a nasty headache!), but can only imagine how the lads will be overjoyed. Whether wine is available via Amazon or not is beside the point, for Canadians, at least, as it is virtually impossible to have wine delivered across the border, through the mail. Bad enough, with respect to duty, to bring it back, in person, from the US or from other producing countries. Cheers, Patrizzio!

Pat,

Thanks for bringing the Campy over. As I expected, Cobby is thrilled and has big plans for revamping the bike – which will be so named the Gino Bartali. I removed the seat and other peripherals and have them here ready for delivery. Cobby would really like to have the original handle bars if you can find them.  

I also have a library copy of Road to Valour if you want to start reading that. It is due on the 20^th and I cannot renew -- great story.  

Maybe we can plan a ride for early May when next we see the sun? W

Thought you all might enjoy this lesson in the etymology of the German language.

Language is the archives of history. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)  

Kant ve be villing to give esperanto vun mor tri?   

Hi Giggster!

Loved your reply to Stevealimo! However, I have serious reservations about the HDPPL official language. Please do not introduce anything that will give the NR an excuse!

I'm hoping to venture into the Cave of the Unknown tomorrow or the day after to search for missing handlebars and The Sisterhoods' flotsam and jetsam, mainly discarded shoes! Glad JTT liked the camper trailer. Did I leave a case of expensive malt in one of the the side lockers?

Thanks very much for offering your copy of Gino Bartali's story. I'd dearly like to accept Road to Valour but I think Drinking Fast and Slow will be more than enough to keep me off the bookmobile! Are you on for Searching for Sugar Man domani? Matinee is at 3:05pm. I'm up for a ride whenever rain allows. Will probably swim tomorrow morning, however. Wednesday and Thursday look not too, too bad. Let me know about Cinema Paradiso. Cheers, Il Conduttore!

P,

Tomorrow may well be best day for Cinema Paradiso with one proviso: the flooring is being restored to Cobby’s suite tomorrow and we will, at some point, need to move furniture out of one room once the flooring is installed in rest of the suite. Will determine the timing from the installers in the morning.

Played my first match of squash this afternoon and I am quite pleased (my knees are feeling very good) even if my performance was not up to my Hungerford-like expectations.

Cobby was very pleased with the cask strength malt you inadvertently left in the bottle cage. I have saved a small taste for you as a reminder.

Brave of you to ride lasterday. May we get a ride in later in the week? W

Hi Giorgio!

It would seem that with timing of furniture move/screening time, all should be well. If not, Wednesday is fine with me as an alternativo. I await, with bated breath, your call!

Well played, on the doubles front, 'Orrible! Onward! Fight!! Muchly appreciate the modicum of malt left for my savouring. I believe I should be able to unearth at least the right handlenbar! (Note Germanic spelling!)

Lasertday's ride was not really brave, more of too stupid to know better. System 1 told me to do it!!! System 2 was too lazy to kick in its opinion being all jacked up on malt!

Had a rollicking evening with Sarge and Flamin' tonight. Sarge just back from weekend in Seattle with RCMP mates and The Sisterhood a double bill at Fifth: Argo and Midnight's Children. More than delighted by both, so it appears. Sutherlands freeloaded their way to dinner of quite appetizing overlefts. To give them their penny pinching due, they brought along a marvellous Warrabilla 2008 Reserve Durif, 16.5%, Rutherglen, pickings from our trip there together this past year. Paired it with a Quinta Ferreira, 2008 Shiraz, Oliver, but an anaemic 14.2%, yet a tasty drop indeed. As a  postprandial, we polished off the dregs of an Oban 14yo, West Highland, 43% and a Coopers Choice Aberfeldy, 14yo, Highland, 46%. The Sisterhood were clawing at each bottle, wanting more than their fare share. A disturbing development, as I'm sure you can imagine!

Will chat about ride, domani, one way or another. Cheers, Patrizzio!

Amused at your enthusiasm, contrarily, I reserve deepest scorn for depictions of British awfulness, daily fare in my two years there. I can't find it funny.  I believe the national malaise is lurking admiration for the awful Colonel Blimp, Flashman,  Alf Garnett, the duchess of york, throw in Virginia Woolf and Cris Patten - inexplicably regarded with barefaced pride.  The only thing remotely funny about Absolutely Fabulous, to take another example, is that the producers seriously think its viewers don't understand that the awfulness it humorises is accurate, probably a bit underdone.

Piano stimulating, at 3.30 a.m. I construct scales and chords, try nut out modes.  Awake, I revel in matching LH chords with RH licks.  Even the technique exercises (finger exercises) are wonderful!

Guitar boot camp in January.  I'm trying to decide whether to sell my DK Martin to buy a traveller - a Baby Taylor.  Tried one in NZ and my small hands were liberated from the long stretch to the finger board on a dreadnought.  But I can't justify buying another guitar without selling one. 

I'm off to BNE this week, my old friend Colin Ball has emerged from cranial surgery - sensors inserted to control tremors that were affecting his jaw as well as forearms, etc.  There were complications, he had to return to hospital when I spoke with him last.  I'll stay with my brother, hoots of irreverence, but no sitting round!


Hello again, Stefano!

I wondered if I should mention Blimp but thought why not. I'm not really going to change, so why should I expect you to do so either. Rage on me lad! Rage on!  Stiff upper lip and all that, eh what! Cheers, Patrizzio! 

Patrick your early work is already spawning debate, such as:

1) Among contemporary west coast cultural practitioners, is spawning salmon imagery considered a meme, a trope, or a cliche? 

2) Are the piscine subjects in the union, and if so are they working for "scale"? Guy 

Dear Kranky Critic!

In order to answer your first query, it is absolutely essential to understand that one of the keys to internalizing tropes is to think about them as cliches, (An expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel.), that have not yet lost their rhetorical power. However, using the word cliche to describe a trope, (A literary trope is the use of figurative language in literature in which words are used in a sense different from their literal meaning.) often has a negative connotation or a judgmental quality, for tropes are similar only in their ability to convey information, if you catch my drift. On the other hand, the difficulty in discussing memes as tropes can be attributed to the fact that they are, by definition, a representation of an idea that cannot easily be articulated through other means. Memes evolve out of a culture that requires a reduction in ideas. Parsing out the rhetorical function of a meme requires knowledge of the culture they operate in, as well as a foundational education in the types of information they are trying to communicate. The use of memes to create a sense of ethos or mutual validation can be a compelling subject but I suspect this important, nay critical, discussion must wait for another time.  

In answer to your second question, the Chum in question, happen to be chums from good times spent in the North Pacific and these friends wanted to capture their last reunion in their natal river, the Brunette. In fact they were not working but rather holidaying, dancing their last dance, so to speak, while I, for my multi-tasking part was receiving union rates as gaffer, best boy, cameraman, sound editor, script writer, director, producer and stand-in for Mr De Niro, the macho, outsider fish who always chose to swim against the current.

I thank you for your pedantic interest, you interfering muck-raker and I hope your next meal is worm-infested, farmed salmon. Yours sincerely, Chumthbert Chumster III, author of Salmon Fishing in Yemen, co-star, Chum-Ahoy, The Old Man and The River, a riveting docu-drama, played out in the wilds of Burnaby Lake, a risqué Canadian version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof=Fish on a Cold Gravel Stream Bed! Cheers, Sarah Polley!

VIFF? I say pish, posh! Cannes here he comes! 8^) cheers, Mark

Hi Marcus Aurelius!

Thank you for the unconditional support. Unfortunately, not all my viewers are as forward thinking as you. This from one frustrated film maker:

To which I replied, as follows:

Again, Marcus Aureelius, I thank you for your support. Yes, you an accompany me to Cannes and yes there will be plenty of stanchionettes! Cheers, Il Conduttore!

PS: Thanks for the YouTube link to Blimpster!

Hello Patrick

I trust you have no problem with Erich forwarding to me your e-mail to me.  I find the two received very interesting to the point I look forward to meeting my fellow Canuck.
  

A short bio of me is that I was hatched in Saskatoon (oh dear) but more interesting is I was conceived on a CN train westbound from Port Arthur, Ont.  My grandfather was president of the CNR Hotel system until his untimely death in 1942.  Right after my arrival at Saskatoon City hospital, had barely gotten to let my first screech out when my Dad was transferred to Vancouver to assume an executive position at the Hotel Vancouver.   After many years and a good income plus potential dandy retirement, he quit the CNR Hotels, went back to school to become a 'shrink' and then uprooted his family, me included and in 1955  moved bag and baggage to Whidbey Island.  I was devastated leaving my school (Kitsilano)and almost ready to graduate with a potential scholarship to UBC on a fencing award to take my place among a bunch of cows and chickens on a little 'hobby farm' he bought.  It has been downhill ever since, okay on a bicycle but that's about it!

I lived in Southern California, got married (ugh) had four children whom I personally escorted into the world for better or worse, at times mostly worse.  My sojourn in this area provided me with some memorable experiences, my favourite was being a grunt for Mae West, living at the Ravenswood apartment hotel.  This period in my life the most exciting with Miss West and close friend Gloria Swanson!  (don't you love name droppers?)  In my spare time worked at the SPCA in L.A.



Eventually returned to the Northwest and of all places to Whidbey Island (a bear for punishment) but my secret longing was to return to Canada, pissing my family off with all my gripes about what I hated about the U.S., almost everything!  Never became a U.S. citizen and lost a good job for my crappy attitude.  Who wouldn't after getting deported for burning my draft card and calling Eisenhower a 'pinko' and should be shot!  Not smart!

Well after almost 30 years working for the Port of Everett, I retired but soon started working part time for a micro brewery.  Erich and Nola have enjoyed our products but don't ask me anything about beer, I know nothing!  I also keep other friends supplied with brew and will be sued for contributing to them becoming alkies. 

As Erich mentioned to you, I have been an avid bicycle rider until one day I found that the motorcycle was a better invention and proceeded to enjoy the joys of motorized jaunts.  My several RSVP rides with my son have been especially enjoyable and maybe before I turn my self in (or should I say 'under') would like to do it once more. As for now, I keep rides to around 20 or 30 miles.  My two best riding partners were killed enjoying a nice ride and haven't been that active since then.  That was tough!  My other joie de vivre is music and among other musical pursuits play the organ, assisting at my church on occasion.  On a recent trip to New York/Washington D.C. I was fortunate to play at the National Cathedral, making this a thrilling experience.  I had gone to New York to greet my step son arriving on the Queen Mary 2! 

 Well if this hasn't put you to sleep (read it again) I will cease this banter and hope for a little response from you.  I assume you live on the north shore but when you mentioned walking home (?) across Granville St. Bridge after the movie, wasn't sure.  For my edification what is HBC?  Erich had me interpret some of your unique shorthand but wasn't sure of this one.  It brought tears to my eyes hearing of the rides around SP and UBC, places I have made several visits to.  Just love the 'seawall' ride then over Burrard Bridge along the waterfront (Kitsilano) then on to Point Grey etc. Oh my! 

Well, it's been fun communicating with you.  Oh yeah, just installed that speech recognition software 'Dragon' but have not achieved enough skill, so this is the old 'hunt and peck' system.  Take care and 'happy trails' to you! Personal regards, Thomas Van Wyck   

Hello Tomasino!

I'm delighted to have the opportunity to correspond so am glad Erich forwarded my latest email messages. It would seem, from your "biography" that we have much in common. For a start, my grandfather, Adam Danilevitch, worked for the CN all his working life, but on the extra-gang, at least when he started, not managing hotels. he and my grandmother lived in Rivers, Manitoba, wher my Mom, Anne, was born, at home, in 1913. This past August, the 29th, she died just three weeks short f her 99th bithday! After WWII, her younger brother, Walter, (As a bombardier with 617 Squadron, The Dam Busters, he is credited with sinking the Tirpitz in Tromsø Fjord on November 12th, 1944.), was first  a brakeman and then a conductor running between Rivers and Melville, Saskatchewan. As a child, I loved riding in the caboose on the freights.

When we lived in Kits, we had a house on 12th and Mackenzie, just a couple of blocks west of Kits High. Our eldest daughter, Ayn, lived in Oak Harbour shortly after she was married. Her now ex-husband, Melvin, was stationed at the Navy Base on Whidbey. We are scheduled to leave Vancouver, (as of this writing!), on December 12th. We want to take our time driving south to LA to spend Christmas with Ayn and Los Horridos, our grandsons, both in university. Chloë, (She is presently working for Granville Island Brewery so you two can trade trade secrets!), our youngest daughter, and Clarisse and Dusty, my in-laws, will fly down. We are actually house-sitting for Ayn's cousin, Rick, who has a gorgeous home in Simi Valley. He and his family will spend holidays in Bora Bora to celebrate his 60th. Have already been in touch with David and Nancy, friends in Berkeley, and mentioned that we will probably arrive on their doorstep sometime around the 18th/19th/20th, depending on how long we spend wine-tasting in Sonoma and Napa!

A day or so after the 10th of January we are planning to continue driving south and east with a mind to seeing New Orleans, as one goal. I'd like to visit some bourbon distilleries in Tennessee and Kentucky but whether this transpires or not, remains to be decided. We hope to see friends, Randy and Ruth, formerly living in San Antonio, now in Dallas, en route to New Orleans.  

Makers Mark

I have had a number of cycling accidents myself and can only imagine how devastating the loss of your two friends must have been. I never take things for granted as I'm constantly reminded of just how fragile life is. Motor cycles are not the safest vehicles either, as I'm sure I need not remind you. Just a few days ago two people were killed, instantly, but three blocks from us between 1st and 2nd and Burrard. I gather that a rider and passenger were struck by a vehicle which pulled around a large truck at that intersection. Corinne came upon the scene coming back from a yoga class and had quite a time returning home due to street closure and backed up traffic. She didn't know the seriousness of the accident at the time but knew something was up, given the sheer chaos at the site.

Again, as a child, I lived overseas, on the island of Cyprus, from 198-1957 and on one trip we travelled from New York to Southhampton on the Queen Mary, sister ship to QE I. Cannot match your musical ability, however. I'd play the trumpet or the sax or mandolin if I could wish for a muscal talent. I'd even settle for a tin flute or harmonica, especially the latter.

As far as initialisms go, I think HBC should really be HBT, Heart Break Terrace. Whirlygig, (an old squash nickname), and I always play around with names and our place in Kits used to be called Hotel Kits, now The Island Inn since we moved near Granville Island. (We often meet outside our place, hence the patio became HBT.) HK became The Islay Inn due to single malt consumption and on and on and on! 

I loaded Dragon Speech on my iPad almost a year ago and still haven't dfound the time to master it. Wanted to try to use it when travelling in order to make keeping a diary easier. Good intentions at least! Terrific to make your acquaintance Tomas, aka TGV, not TVW! Cheers, Il Conduttore!