Toronto Humane Society busted

OSPCA and Police raided the shelter today. Charges of cruelty to animals were apparently laid against several high-level employees and the entire board of directors.

There are some very disturbing photos published online on the Globe & Mail website and elsewhere.

It has been widely reported this afternoon that there has been a 6 month long investigation, involving undercover investigators. There has for some time been strong differences of opinion between the THS and the OSPCA about when it is appropriate to euthanize an animal. If I understand this correctly, the THS is being accused of allowing animals to suffer inappropriately in order to produce lower euthanasia stats.

I’m sure we’ll get more details on this soon.

Uke Magic

A friend recently told me he was planning to take up the Ukelele. An excellent ambition, I say. Here’s some Uke magic….

 

Haydain Neale, soulman, 39. RIP

Jacksoul frontman Haydain Neale died Sunday of lung cancer. RIP

Got you Covered

Ring of Fire was written by June Carter and Merle Kilgore. It was first recorded in 1962 by Anita Carter. Johnny Cash recorded it the following year. It became the biggest hit of his career.

This song has been well recorded over the years. Here’s a list of just some of the performers who took a stab at it:

Roy Drusky
Kitty Wells
The Carter Family
Dave Dudley
Tom Jones
Eric Burdon
Lynn Anderson
Tommy Cash
Country Joe McDonald
The Willis Brothers
Hank Williams Jr.
Ray Charles
King Tubby
Earl Scruggs
Olivia Newton John
Blondie
Carlene Carter
Sleepy LaBeef
Dwight Yokum
The Bobs
Social Distortion
Frank Zappa
Grace Jones
David Allan Coe
Allison Moorer
Leningrad Cowboys

….and more

Bloore Memorial

We were at the Ron Bloore memorial event Sunday night at the Royal Ontario Museum. Former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson spoke, along with a few others, including Ron’s long-time studio assistant and friend Hank Roest.  A number of Bloore’s paintings were hung, reminding me what a marvellous painter he was, throughout his career.

I found my self transported back to York University in the 80s, when Bloore raised the bar for me, and pushed me to find my own path as a painter. I remembered our many sketching trips later on. We would walk the forest paths, most of us looking for a vista to draw or paint. Bloore would sit under a tree and start a fantastic pencil drawing of the forest floor at his feet. We always brought a picnic lunch, and usually Ron would bring along a bottle of Retsina. I loved those days.

I recalled the many lunches, when several of us would meet up at the Bloore studio, then head out for a lunch peppered with lively discussion. It seems like yesterday, Bloore looking up over his lunch plate,  saying he liked painting because you could look at a painting, see it all at once and know within a fraction of a second if you wanted to invest more time in it. This he compared to film, which required a different kind of leap of faith – the willingness to invest the time, sight unseen.

Ron Bloore was a great painter, a Canadian cultural treasure and a dear friend.

A strange thing happened at lunch….

Saturday, I took my aunt M out to lunch. It’s always a delight to see her. She’s my father’s sister, in her late 80s now. We decided to go to one of those big Chinese buffet places. I drove us over there, found a decent parking spot, helped my aunt out of the car, and in we went. Now let me say that my aunt looks pretty good for her age – not a day over 80 you might say. The greeter in the restaurant welcomes us and says, looking at me, “I see we have a senior citizen today”. She then looked at my aunt and said, “Can I see some ID please?” My aunt looked at me, clearly not understanding what was going on. I realized this was about a seniors discount on lunch, so I said, “My aunt is 89 years old, but she will not be showing you any ID”. “But we need to see ID” “Look, you know she’s a senior citizen…..just let us sit down for lunch, OK?”

So we’re seated and we enjoy lunch. My aunt likes the place, much like my dad did in his later years. There’s a certain bustle of activity going on, lots of people enjoying themselves. After lunch, we had a coffee and we’re chatting about this and that when our server comes up to the table. She leans over close to my aunt and says “Can I see some ID please?” I interrupted and said, “My aunt is 89 years old. You can see she’s a senior citizen. Leave her alone please. She’s not going to show you any ID”. The bill came, and we were charged as two adults – no seniors discount. I didn’t care about the discount. If they had never mentioned it, I would have been perfectly happy, no problem. It really bugged me to see their determination to extract some ID from my aunt though. She obviously didn’t get what they wanted or why. I would have even been fine about them asking the first time. When they asked a second time, though, I will admit I was annoyed.

I paid the bill, and wrote a love note to the manager…

My aunt loves dogs, and wanted to visit Memphis, so off we went to Anchovy World Headquarters. Memphis gave her all kinds of the type of slobbery affection she specializes in. I played a few songs for her on the accordion. M closed her eyes, swayed to the music and slid into napland. “You had a little nap.” “Did not.” “I think you did.” “I wasn’t napping. I was thinking.”

Ingemar and Me

We visited Ikea last week and decided to buy a pair of storage cabinets that go together end to end to form one long cabinet. The whole business together is about 8 feet long and maybe 20 inches high. The idea is that this is fastened to the wall (look Ma no legs). This is accomplished by attaching to the wall at six separate points along the eight feet.

After assembling the unit, we placed it and I set to work drilling and anchoring. The screws had to go in specific spots in the unit and the unit had to go in a specific spot in the room. Now you might expect that with 6 opportunities, I would hit at least one stud, right? Har! No way. No problem. I got these plastic super-duper anchors that go through the drywall then open up behind it. Each one was good for 80 pounds. There were 6 of them, so I should be good for 480 pounds right? Right. So I positioned the unit and put in the anchors and screwed the whole business into the wall. It looked great.

Tuffy P put our little orchid collection up on it and I was pretty happy. That was before it crashed to the ground with great vengeance, smashing the orchid containers along the way.

Today I cut out a section of drywall big enough to screw a piece of strapping into the studs, then screwed the unit into the strapping. The house will fall down before the unit does. Obviously I should have done this in the first place. C’est la vie.

Pals

Jacques and Memphis

Photos by Tuffy P

Where life is…visions of the city

Let’s start with poet Charles Bukowski.
Remember Petula Clark?  Listen to the rhythm of a gentle bossa nova.
You can take the Downtown Train, or stay In the Neighborhood.
I’m going to Kansas City. Then I’m Walkin’ to New Orleans.
Anchored down in Anchorage.

What’s your favourite song about the city?

Comfort Food

I think everybody has a favourite comfort food. What’s yours?

Growing up, mine was always my mom’s meatloaf. Any old meatloaf didn’t do it for me. It was this particular meatloaf. Naturally, I learned how to make it. It isn’t something I make very often, but every once in a while, maybe once a year, I’ll do one up. Last time, I added a twist – I cooked it out back on the bbq, adding a perfect smoky edge to it.

Here’s the way you make it….

Chop an onion and a green pepper, fine.
Add it to equal amounts of ground beef and ground pork.
Add a generous handful of breadcrumbs.
Add an egg.
Toss in a generous amount of dried basil and thyme and then some salt and pepper.
Squish it around in the bowl with your hands until everything is mixed together well.
Form it into one big or two smaller loaves. Mom always did hers in yellow rectangular glass baking pans.
Cover the top of the loaves with strips of bacon, so that the top is totally covered.
Be sure there is room between the sides of the loaves and the sides of the pan.
Now you have to brush the top of the loaves with the secret ingredient. Don’t tell anybody. It’s Heinz Chili Sauce. There is no substitute. I don’t have any other use for Heinz Chili Sauce, but it’s what makes this “Mom’s Meatloaf”.
Bake in the oven (or the bbq!) at about 350F for about an hour (depending on the size of your loaves…smaller ones could take only 45 minutes.

Serve hot for dinner… but be sure to save some for sandwiches next day, on crusty kaiser buns.

As you know, I’m on the train, shedding pounds…so I’m not going to enjoy this for a while. Consider it a little food fantasy. I’ll post this also on Dinner at the Anchovy’s for future reference.