To thine own self be true

344/500 ltd. ed.

1 of 350 framed Canada Post ltd. ed.

She’s been a part of our life since her first major publication– The Circle Game poetry book we bought back in 1967.

Just finished reading his 1959 memoir of his encounters with visual art and culture in his life.
Covers his growing-up years in a reasonably well-to-do family, his first art purchase as a teen, his early travels to Europe and becoming familiar with painting greats as well as his operating an art gallery, the art of collecting, and a memorable trip with his wife to Europe to visit those works he had not seen before.
Many interesting anecdotes. His own collected art was eccentric; he had a totem pole in his back yard and had Mayan art and few of the classic painters.
Not surprisingly, a little snobby in tone, but an entertaining 300+ page read and photos of his own collection.
Also gives insights into American collecting, his theatre friends, and family.
Recommended for Price fans, painting fans, and collectors.

“One thing is certain: the arts keep you alive. They stimulate, encourage, challenge, and, most of all, guarantee a future free from boredom.”

“Looking through my bedroom window, out into the moonlight and the unending smoke-coloured snow, I could see the lights in the windows of all the other houses on our hill and hear the music rising from them up the long, steadily falling night. I turned the gas down, I got into bed. I said some words to the close and holy darkness, and then I slept.”
–Dylan Thomas, conclusion of “A Child’s Christmas in Wales”

Yesterday’s announcement allowing what remains of his unvaccinated base to mingle in with vaccinated Christmas dinner/party attendees.

He has learned nothing from his disastrous summer announcement which hospitalized and killed off Albertans. No common sense and no sense of what other more cautious provinces are doing. All to please his meagre and hugely-dwindling political base.

1. Personal survival. As in having 3 meals lined up every day, having income, being able to pay bills, not getting Covid or Omicron, not being devastated by floods, fires, or earthquakes, having no violence and abuse in one’s family, and maintaining one’s focus and mental stability.

2. Global survival. With ice caps melting, fires burning out of control, uncontrolled flooding, large numbers of people not having heat, water, and electricity shut down. Can the climate crisis be fixed? Will the planet survive a collision with solid masses from outer space? Will there be enough land for people to live on near oceans? Will another world war be avoided?

We are pretty much hunkered down every day now with different levels of personal survival and dwindling global stability. That is pretty much our prevailing daily reality for each person, family, community, place, and nation.

about “folks dressed up like Eskimos” in Mel Torme’s “The Christmas Song”. The phrase merely and accurately describes how bloody cold it can get on the holidays so that people have to dress much warmer than they do ‘down south’.

Contextually, back in the ’50s and ’60s when people referred to Northern aboriginals, “Eskimos” was the common prevailing term world-wide pretty much.

So, no, I don’t believe Nat King Cole is politically incorrect or some nasty black colonial abuser who is looking down his nose at the people in question when he sings Torme’s song. He is simply being honest, truthful, and perhaps a bit funny in an old saner world far less torturously serious. full-of-itself, and agenda-edly limited than ours now is.

“We all have expiry dates. Some of us will die today, some tomorrow. Some next month, some 15 years from now. No one gets out alive.”

We should never kid ourselves or dwell in ignorant bliss. Especially at Christmas as we remember all the dead who are no longer in our lives. If I were to recommend one story for Christmas reading, it would be James Joyce’s “The Dead” from his story collection Dubliners.



The excellent 1987 John Huston adaptation of Joyce’s classic story, starring his daughter. Make certain you see the 83 minute version from Amazon, not the 73 minute version.

the single Hamilton irrationally conceded in the 4th quarter when they could have run the ball out of the end zone easily. Had they not stupidly done that, they would have won the game in regular time by one point when they later kicked a field goal. Whoever made that decision will be royally roasted by Hamilton fans and media.