Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds is dead

By macleans.ca - Monday, September 28, 2009 at 2:51 PM - 2 Comments

Beatles devotees haven’t had it easy in the bereavement department. Two of the Fab Four died much too young, George Harrison of cancer, John Lennon after a crazed fan gunned him down. Now Lucy is dead. If Lennon’s song has long been understood as a hymn to LSD (Rocking horse people? Newspaper taxis?), it’s worth remembering that his cover story—that his young son Julian drew a picture of a classmate, Lucy, floating in a sky surrounded by diamonds—did have a grain of truth to it. Little Lucy Vodden has died in London, aged 46, after a long battle with lupus.

Associated Press

How would you rate the Harper government's handling of the economy?

By macleans.ca - Monday, September 28, 2009 at 2:43 PM - 65 Comments

Finding out what men are up to

By Rebecca Eckler - Monday, September 28, 2009 at 1:30 PM - 8 Comments

On a recent episode of the reality show Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Kourtney Kardashian tells her sister Kim she has her boyfriend’s old phone. “Have you gone through it?” Kim asks Kourtney excitedly. What’s the point, Courtney wants to know. “What do you mean what is the point?” Kim asks. “You want to know what your boyfriend is up to.” Then, speaking directly to the camera, Kim proudly says, “I can break into any phone, can get any code, can get into any voice mail.” She’s not the only phone-email snooper out there. One of the main characters on the show Entourage just dropped a woman who listened to one of his phone messages when he was in the shower.

Ali Wise, a stunning 32-year-old New Yorker, was arrested in July on felony charges of computer trespass and eavesdropping after allegedly hacking into the voice mail of Nina Freudenberger, an interior designer and socialite. Hacking “isn’t the sort of crime that normally comes to mind when you think of a pretty young publicist who attends glam parties on a nightly basis,” says Remy Stern, founder of Cityfile, a gossip website that has followed the story. “It was a little more juicy because she wasn’t accused of hacking into her boyfriend’s voice mail; the victim was another woman . . . who may have been involved with an ex-boyfriend of hers.” Continue…

It's not about him, but now that you mention it…

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, September 28, 2009 at 1:26 PM - 9 Comments

I try again to explain Jack Layton.

This seemed a terrible day for the leader of the NDP. But if you were thinking Jack Layton had just turned himself inside out, that the unrelenting opponent of this government had just debased himself for the purposes of political expediency, you would be wrong. At least so says the NDP.

“Canadians are fair-minded and want their politicians to use common sense,” Brad Lavigne, the party’s national director, said over coffee a few hours after the vote. “And what you’ve seen is probably Jack Layton’s best week of his leadership.”

Really? “Absolutely,” Lavigne confirmed. “I’d say it’s one of his best weeks by far. In terms of seizing the opportunity, sticking to the principles, recognizing that it actually takes strength to get things for the people that sent us here. I think what Jack Layton has done this week is give a voice to the millions of Canadians who want to see this Parliament work and don’t want to go to an election.”

Fussing over fonts

By John Intini - Monday, September 28, 2009 at 1:25 PM - 7 Comments

When news broke last month that Ikea had changed the font in its catalogue—replacing Futura, after more than 50 years, with Verdana—twittering typophiles took their outrage to the Web. Some wondered, with varying degrees of snark, if shifting to such a ubiquitous font might hurt the company’s carefully crafted aesthetic. “Doesn’t Verdana reinforce their brand image as cheap, low-quality and overused?” sneered one online critic. Others, while not as directly on point, were no less devastating: “I’m not going to enjoy the meatballs as much at a Verdana-fonted Ikea.”

That font geeks can be snobs is no surprise. But, says Michael Walsh, a marketing professor at West Virginia University, they can also be dangerous. In a recent study, which focused on how consumers reacted to changes to Adidas and New Balance logos, Walsh found that a brand’s most committed customers react the most negatively to change—research, he says, that translates to the Ikea case, even though the company isn’t altering its logo. Fonts, like logos, are a key part of the brand aesthetic, and so a font change in a catalogue—nearly 200 million Ikea catalogues are printed every year—can threaten a company’s bottom line if the new look alienates the wrong customers. “A catalogue is part of the totality of a brand,” says Walsh. “To the extent Ikea has a large number of highly committed consumers, a change like this has the potential to be a problem.” Continue…

Barbra Streisand at the Village Vanguard

By Paul Wells - Monday, September 28, 2009 at 1:18 PM - 7 Comments

Only 125 seats, but for five tunes, you can have a front-row perch here. Of course there are no bad seats. I’ve been to the Vanguard four times in 25 years, to hear Joe Henderson, Branford Marsalis, Bill Charlap and Eric Reed. Once after I hadn’t been there for a long time, I fretted unduly about getting a good seat, fretted again that the ones we were stuck with were awful, and then realized I was sitting about 16 feet from the pianist with an unobstructed view. It really is an extraordinary room, and one of the things I like best about these Barbra Streisand clips is that it still sounds like the Vanguard. She still sounds like Streisand, which means she’s an excellent singer, in no way a jazz singer, incapable of understatement, clearly everything the crowd came to hear.

Taking sides

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, September 28, 2009 at 1:15 PM - 22 Comments

Just short of 10:30 a.m. last Friday morning, Jack Layton stood in his place in the House of Commons and did the previously unthinkable.

The House was asked to approve various measures in last January’s federal budget and allow the government to proceed with confidence. All those voting “yea” were to stand, and after Stephen Harper’s Conservatives and Gilles Duceppe’s Bloc Québécois were counted, it was Layton’s turn to lead the NDP acquiescence. And so he did. The Liberals howled, at least until Michael Ignatieff, grimacing, waved his hand for them to settle down. A few minutes later, with Ignatieff’s side voting nay, the motion passed by a count of 224 to 74. Continue…

Au revoir

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, September 28, 2009 at 12:55 PM - 8 Comments

If, as has been reported, Denis Coderre will be resigning his post as defence critic in the Liberal shadow cabinet, let the record show that these were his last two contributions to Question Period in that role.

Mr. Speaker, the only climate change we have witnessed today is the change in the colour of the Prime Minister’s tie. It has changed from blue to orange. Although the NDP leader and the Conservative Prime Minister are trying to invent a new dance, known as the SOCO or socialist-conservative dance, Quebeckers are no fools. They have no faith in this government. Tomorrow, the Prime Minister will be in Washington. Will this be another Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? We would like to know who will be the real Prime Minister? Will it be the friend of the reformist dinosaurs, who we heard speaking in Sault Ste. Marie, or the smiling Conservative charlatan?

Mr. Speaker, what I find interesting about this minister’s tie is that now that it is almost blue, it is turning orange. At the meeting of the three amigos this summer, President Obama pushed aside, even trivialized, the issue of the “Buy American” clause. He even said that it was not that serious and not to worry. At the time, the Prime Minister had the opportunity to protect the interests of Quebeckers and Canadians, yet he did nothing. Tomorrow marks one month of silence. It has been seven months since he said anything. He will have another opportunity to assert our interests. How can we have confidence in this Prime Minister when he is rendered speechless by President Obama?

Coderre's old habits die hard

By Philippe Gohier - Monday, September 28, 2009 at 12:31 PM - 31 Comments

The Star‘s Susan Delacourt combs the archives:

The executive of the Quebec youth wing of the Liberal Party will ask for the resignation of party leader John Turner at a news conference scheduled for Monday in Montreal.

Time has run out for Mr. Turner, Denis Coderre, the president of the Young Liberals of Quebec , said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Mr. Coderre, once a strong Turner loyalist, co-ordinated the pro-Turner youth movement at the convention that confirmed Mr. Turner’s leadership last November, and was also youth organizer during his 1984 leadership campaign.

Idea alert

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, September 28, 2009 at 12:27 PM - 52 Comments

La Presse confirms Michael Ignatieff’s intention to pursue high-speed rail.

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff will reportedly promise the building of a high-speed train as part of the Liberal Party’s election platform.

The train would be built along the Quebec City-Windsor corridor, and would have many economic spin-offs for Quebec and Ontario, according to a report in Monday’s La Presse. A high-speed train for the corridor has been studied several times and estimated to cost $20 billion, so the timing of the project would have to depend on government finances at both the federal and provincial levels, the report adds.

The U.S. is no Libya

By macleans.ca - Monday, September 28, 2009 at 12:24 PM - 4 Comments

Barack Obama as an opening act for Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi at the UN? Even Mark Steyn, himself no fan of the American president, was confused by that one. And yet, Steyn fumes, despite being given an opportunity to contrast his vision of the world with those of “a terrorist pseudo-Bedouin running a one-man psycho-cult of a basket-case state,” Obama still wasn’t impressive. Steyn takes particularly umbrage to Obama’s lament that countries are “increasingly defined by our differences,” which, in Steyn’s opinion, is exactly the way things should be. “By declining to distinguish between the foreign minister of Slovenia and the foreign minister of, say, Sudan,” Steyn writes, “you normalize not merely the goofier ad libs of a [Ghadafi] but far darker pathologies.”

Orange County Register

The lawn that waters itself

By macleans.ca - Monday, September 28, 2009 at 12:23 PM - 0 Comments

A small team of dedicated scientists is on a quest to engineer a “super lawn”—an elusive blade of grass that is drought-proof and pest-resistant, but still a beautiful shade of green. In this age of climate change, dwindling water supplies and no-sprinkler bylaws, the status quo just won’t do. It could take years, maybe decades, but the researchers believe they are in the early stages of what will become the front lawns (and golf courses) of the future. “My colleagues say I’m crazy,” says plant geneticist Jason Goldman of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, who has already invested five years in his efforts to create a super lawn in Woodward, Oklahoma. “But it doesn’t hurt to dream.”

Los Angeles Times

No wonder GITMO is so hard to close

By macleans.ca - Monday, September 28, 2009 at 12:22 PM - 0 Comments

Shutting down the notorious Guantanamo prison camp is not proving as easy as Barack Obama had hoped. Even Robert Gates, the U.S. Defense Secretary, conceded this week that it will be “tough” to meet the president’s January deadline for closing the infamous jail, which now houses 223 detainees. Here’s a small part of the reason why: a Uighur man held at Guantanamo since shortly after 9/11 was approved for release after the Pacific island nation of Palau agreed to accept him. But Bahtiyar Mahnut turned down the offer because it would mean abandoning his older brother, a fellow detainee who has developed a severe mental illness during his years in U.S. custody. “Every day here is an eternity,” Mahnut told his lawyer. “But I have to look out for my brother.”

The Washington Post

If you were an Irving-employed machinist, you'd be home now: Virtually liveblogging the PM's Action! Plan update

By kadyomalley - Monday, September 28, 2009 at 12:15 PM - 43 Comments

That’s “virtually” as in, through the magic of television, not almost, but not quite doing so, although if the networks don’t cooperate by running the whole thing live, that may end up being what happens.

Anyway, check back at 12:30 for what ITQ fully expects to be full coverage of the sporadic split screen images of an empty stage on the Hot Room flat screen, as increasingly frantic segment producers rediscover the mercurial magic of prime ministerial scheduling. Or maybe he’ll be on time for once. Who knows? In any case, stay for the show — or as much of it as makes it to broadcast — as well as reaction from the Hill.

12:21:50 PM
Greetings, armchair stimulus spending analysts and/or ordinary Canadians, and welcome to what ITQ feels fairly secure describing as the biggest media circus to hit the Southern Railway mechanical shop in Saint John history: the latest installment in the long-running serial, How I Spent My Your Taxpayer Dollars, starring the one and only prime minister of all of Canada, Stephen Harper. Is everyone excited? ITQ hopes so, since there was some concern expressed yesterthread that we-the-media were focusing far too much attention on the process — why New Brunswick? Why today? What’s the angle? — and not on the substance of the report itself, which has made her even more determined to follow every last carefully-framed moment of today’s announcement.

12:29:34 PM
One minute to go! Oddly, the networks don’t seem to have switched to the live feed yet. Y’all have played this game before, haven’t you?

Incidentally, ITQ actually has a copy of the report, which was deposited with the gallery under strict embargo earlier this morning. I don’t think it’s violating any parliamentary procedure to note that the covers features a stylized ‘STAYING ON COURSE’ action! sign. The fork logo doesn’t look any better in print, in case anyone was wondering.

12:35:16 PM
Five minutes late! Which is practically early by PMO standards.

12:37:34 PM
And here we go! Hey, who’s that? Is that Jim Flaherty? What on earth is *he* doing there? Shouldn’t he be tabling a report in the House?

Continue…

That's one big bill

By macleans.ca - Monday, September 28, 2009 at 11:58 AM - 1 Comment

There aren’t many people out there anymore who don’t have a cell phone. So wireless companies are looking to expand their networks to one day connect to a whole host of new devices: from cameras and games (like the Nintendo DS) to automobiles and GPS devices. The big focus so far has been on e-readers, like the Kindle. This week, Verizon said it will become the wireless carrier for a rival e-reader from iRex Technologies (part of the electronics giant Royal Philips Electronics). There is one big concern behind this growth: getting consumers to pay for all these communications services. As more and more bits of everyday technology go wireless, people can look forward to some very complex bills.

The Wall Street Journal

British booksellers brace for Super Thursday

By macleans.ca - Monday, September 28, 2009 at 11:57 AM - 1 Comment

For years British publishers have tended to release their fond hopes for a Christmas-based profit on the same days as their competitors do. This year, with Dan Brown’s massive bestseller taking up all the September oxygen, three times as many titles as normal will be published on Oct. 1. “It’s not a formally organized thing, and there’s no suggestion that publishers are working together to make it happen,” says Benedicte Page, associate editor of Bookseller magazine. “But in the run-up to Christmas, now is the time when they need to get their big titles on to the market, get word out about them, get some momentum going. There is a lot riding on securing one of the huge slots that will sell a lot this Christmas, and for the bookselling market, certain dates are particularly propitious.” In what is regarded by industry-watchers as a particularly strong offering, this year will also see big releases from David Attenborough and Jeremy Clarkson, alongside memoirs by comics Jo Brand, Frankie Boyle and Dara O’Briain, the late chef Keith Floyd, and Ozzy Osbourne. Though big name literary fiction releases often peak in early September to qualify for Booker prize consideration, popular fiction is well represented, including new novels by mega-sellers Kate Mosse, Audrey Niffenegger, Terry Pratchett and Jacqueline Wilson.

The Guardian

Liberal Quebec lieutenant resigns

By macleans.ca - Monday, September 28, 2009 at 11:55 AM - 9 Comments

Denis Coderre has announced his resignation, saying he lost the “moral authority” to continue working as the Liberal lieutenant for Quebec. This comes just days after Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff announced former MP Martin Cauchon would become the candidate for Outremont overturning Coderre’s decision to have Nathalie Le Prohon run for the riding. Coderre criticized Ignatieff for ignoring the people who know what’s best for Quebecers. “I always believed the head office of the Liberal Party in Quebec was in Montreal and not Toronto,” he said. Coderre will remain as the MP for Bourassa.

The Gazette

Hummer drivers are pro-America, not anti-Earth

By macleans.ca - Monday, September 28, 2009 at 11:52 AM - 6 Comments

In the latest Journal of Consumer Research, scientists from Canada, the U.S. and Austria reveal that American drivers of Hummer vehicles believe they are protecting the American ideals of freedom, the “rugged individual” and the “boundless frontier.” That these drivers take such a high moral ground is at odds with the popular critiques by dissenters who say Hummers are bad for the environment, unnecessary and social nuisances. The more Hummer drivers are condemned, the greater their sense of moral superiority. The researchers conclude that being under attack is viewed as an “historically established feature of being an American,” and that antagonism “readily inspired Hummer owners to adopt the role of the moral protagonist who defends American national ideals.”

ScienceDaily

Here we go again:

By macleans.ca - Monday, September 28, 2009 at 11:42 AM - 18 Comments

Deprived, at least for the moment, of a fall election, political junkies can at least distract themselves debating whether Elizabeth May and the Greens have earned a permanent spot at the lectern during future leaders’ debates. The Hill Times reports the Liberals and Bloc Quebecois still support Ms. May’s inclusion, but judging from their respective non-responses to the question, the Conservatives and the New Democrats seem distinctly underwhelmed by the prospect. The NDP’s Brad Lavigne “declined to offer any position,” preferring instead to trot out the party’s now familiar talking point about making parliament work. The Conservatives, meanwhile, simply refused to be interviewed at all. Meanwhile, Ms. May continues to make her case, pointing out that the Greens are “the favourite choice of one in 10 voters,” and as such, her exclusion would be “simply untenable.”

The Hill Times

Will Roman's arrest liberate him?

By macleans.ca - Monday, September 28, 2009 at 11:41 AM - 6 Comments

Roman Polanski’s surprise arrest at the Zurich airport could lead to extradition, or exoneration. The Swiss move may result in the Oscar-winning filmmaker finally being sent back to the U.S. to face sentencing for the 42-year-old charge of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old. But as his legal team fights for clemency, with support from French politicians and Hollywood celebrities, Polanski’s new ordeal may trigger a successful bid for freedom. He’s certainly receiving some impassioned support. The Huffington Post features an ardent defense of Polanski by Kim Gordon, who analyzes Catherine Deneuve’s torment in Repulsion to demonstrate how this director really understands women.

The Huffington Post

Associated Press

Denis Coderre: Classy

By Paul Wells - Monday, September 28, 2009 at 11:18 AM - 90 Comments

“What I find disappointing is that we’re washing our dirty laundry in public”

— Denis Coderre, during a nationally televised news conference announcing his resignation as Michael Ignatieff’s Quebec lieutenant

This week's travel news

By Bruce Parkinson, Takeoffeh.com - Monday, September 28, 2009 at 10:48 AM - 2 Comments

This Week’s Take offers you a capsule summary of the high and low lights of TakeOffeh.com’s Daily Dispatches from the past seven days.

Let’s Make A Deal, 2010 Edition
Many pundits heralded 2009 as the year of the travel deal, and just as many have been warning that the deals won’t last. It’s true of course – most of the deals we’ve seen this year can’t last forever, and as soon as demand spikes, so will prices. But prominent travel columnist and ‘Travel Troubleshooter’ Christopher Elliott says that before travel prices recover, there will be at least another ‘year of the deal,’ and it might be an even better one. Recent research suggests flat overall travel demand in 2010, with both air travel and hotel demand slipping slightly. That means airfares should stay low, and hotels will continue to either drop rates or sweeten the pot with incentives to fill their rooms. On the cruise side, ships have to sail at least close to full, so the dramatic discounts we’ve seen this year are likely to continue. There’s already plenty of evidence of that. Elliott says to watch out for more travel companies following the successful lead of the airlines and ‘unbundling’ rates, so he advises always asking for the full price before booking. A couple more tips: Vegas hotel rates are expected to drop even further with new properties coming online; and ‘opaque’ websites where you don’t find out your specific hotel until after booking will continue to offer bargain-basement deals, as hoteliers fill rooms without the indignity of having to advertise deep discounts. Continue…

It's not me, it's you

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, September 28, 2009 at 10:27 AM - 22 Comments

Jack Layton tries again to explain himself.

In the end, as we debated whether we would support the $1 billion for the unemployed or give Harper the election only he and Ignatieff seem to crave, I kept coming back to the faces of the many people I’ve met who asked me to help them. For them, the financial support will make a big difference.

I feel anguish right now, but it has nothing to do with the criticism that has been levelled at us. No, it is that we haven’t been able to help more hard-working Canadians who are in need. It’s going to be a hard, hard winter for far too many of them.

Tough crowd (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, September 28, 2009 at 10:16 AM - 7 Comments

Quite surprisingly, Lawrence Cannon’s speech to the United Nations was not considered the place to be on a Saturday night in New York.

Cannon addressed a two-thirds empty hall three days after the summit’s opening, when U.S. President Barack Obama spoke to a packed chamber. But delegates have long agreed the real benefit of the weeklong summit comes from working the corridors to meet with many decision-makers from other countries in just days.