Cultural Articles
By Eva van Loon Once upon a time there was a slender little English preposition named Of. She had no business starting her name with a capital letter, naturally, since prepositions never do that, even in titles, but she was a restless, rebellious little thing who sneaked into all sorts Of linguistic crannies where she had no business. Being so small, she figured she could get away with stunts the bigger prepositions, like her mother from, her uncles under and above, and especially fat old Aunty between, could never have pulled off. Defying her tutor, the Grammar Gremlin, was Of’s favourite game. One day halfway through the last century Of found a costume in a back room that made the sound uh but looked like the letter a. She tried it on and found it had velcro straps that easily attached to passing big words, particularly nouns. “Lotta!” Of crowed. “Buncha! Groupa! Lotsa! Alla! Fulla!” Impaired verbs were fun to swing with, too: “Woulda! Coulda! Shoulda!” Even the odd kinky pronoun could be persuaded, as in “Who’da thunk it?” What a mischief Of is! Look what she’s doing- bolding all her preposition family members. She’d blacken all fifty-four of their names if I tempted her by putting them into this story. She had found her freedom, and swung happily through noun and verb society, high and low, at the opera and in the pubs, blithely ignoring Grammar Gremlin, who struggled after her as she partied, shouting, “Of! Of, I say! Say your full name, you little-! And will you please put something on!” Too late! Even as Grammar Gremlin raged, awash in a tide of hippyisms, Of exchanged the fateful Look with a dreamboat preposition. There he stood, invincible on his double fs, so like Of and yet…so thrillingly different. She sidled up to him. “My name rhymes with love,” she suggested softly. |
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by Eva van Loon Avatar: My usually tough-minded daughter cried twice. The film made Townsite parking difficult for the first time since I’ve been here and put a smile on theater-proprietress Ann Nelson’s face quite possibly never seen before. Even an old fart like me plans to see it again…seeing this film in three-D would almost be worth a trip to the Big Smoke. 
Seems like one helluva movie…until you hear people playing Film Critic: “It’s racist—the Noble Savage all over again.”
“It’s just a stupid fantasy about race told from the point of view of white people. It reinforces the whole white Messiah thing.”
“Dances with Wolves in space. Another white guy has to save the natives from the bad guys.”
Wo! It may be just a movie, but it sure brings out the sneer in some people. Protest too much?
The Wolf at Twilight: This thick but easy-flowing book I received for Christmas from someone who knew me for a wolf nut but hadn’t apparently spent so much as a micro-second between its covers. There’s not a paw print in this book. It’s about a white guy, author Nerburn, who’s been exceptionally close to the “Indians” (as Americans still say), getting wisdom from a First Nations elder (the wolf). Been there; done that,I thought, unwrapping it, but it’s the thought that counts.
Was I mistaken! Every morning over coffee I reached for that dratted book and two weeks later was reading as slow as possible so it wouldn’t end.
One helluva book.
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by Wendy Devlin Seedy Saturday is coming, March 13, 2010 to the Powell River Recreation Complex! Everyone is invited to Seedy Saturday, with or without seeds to swap. If you have seeds, package them in closed envelopes and label them clearly to swap for other people’s seeds. The number of seed packages you bring is recorded by a volunteer who puts your seed packages into the exchange and gives you a signed chit for them. You can then browse over the hundreds of alphabetically indexed seed packages and make your selections. When you return to the front table, a volunteer checks out your seed packages. 
If you don’t have seeds to swap, you can purchase seed packages for fifty cents each, up to a 10-package limit.
Two community seed-packing parties have already packaged up 1500 packages of local seeds for the swap. Seedy Saturday also features a gardening, farming, and self-sufficiency book-and-magazine swap.
The plant exchange has been discontinued. Any non-profit groups planning plant exchanges or sales, however, can submit time and place information to our Seed Saving Committee for placement on a list of upcoming garden-related events. That list will be made available at Seedy Saturday.
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