To thine own self be true

(many songs ended up in the poetry anthologies)

(fun stuff: I asked Bruce to sign his poem after one of his concerts)

There are many innovative aspects to my old textbook work (25 textbooks, 23 guides) that stand out in retrospect. Thematic structures for the most part. Early on, we aimed for 50% Canadian writers and, later, 50% female authors and 50% non-caucasian authors. We also used many visuals including cartoons from the get-go; later, color photographs.

But, given my musical background, it was not surprising that I selected many poetic pop-song lyrics. Teachers and students were often pleasantly surprised by and took to the songs that culturally and entertainingly expanded traditionally dry and conservative book-publishing.

(N.B. Songs fit various themes and some of them were strong enough to use more than once in different books.)

1982: Connections 1:
The Circle Game (Joni Mitchell)
The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill (The Beatles)
Sympathy for the Devil (The Rolling Stones)
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (Gordon Lightfoot)

Connections 2:
Like a Rolling Stone (Bob Dylan)
A Most Peculiar Man (Simon & Garfunkle)
Everything Put Together Falls Apart (Paul Simon)
Home from the Forest (Gordon Lightfoot)
At Seventeen (Janis Ian)

Connections 3:
I Am a Rock (Simon & Garfunkle)
Going to the Country (Bruce Cockburn)
Wooden Ships (Crosby, Stills, & Nash)
You’re So Vain (Carly Simon)

1984: Inside Poetry (1st ed)
A Child’s Song (Murray MacLauchlan)
King of Pain (The Police)
Wonderful Tonight (Eric Clapton)
We May Never Pass This Way Again (Seals & Crofts)
The Logical Song (Supertramp)
Both Sides Now (Joni Mitchell)
Silver Wheels (Bruce Cockburn)
She’s Always a Woman to Me (Billy Joel)
Leader of the Band (Dan Fogelberg)
Pinball Wizard (The Who)
Puff The Magic Dragon (Peter, Paul & Mary)
A Horse with No Name (America)
Don Quixote (Gordon Lightfoot)
Wired for Sound (Cliff Richard)
Circle of Steel (Gordon Lightfoot)
Wondering Where the Lions Are (Bruce Cockburn)
Amelia (Joni Mitchell)
She Remembers (Shari Ulrich)
When You Gonna Wake Up? (Bob Dylan)
The Mary Ellen Carter (Stan Rogers)
The Gambler (Kenny Rogers)

1990: Connections 1 (2nd ed.)
Small Blue Thing (Suzanne Vega)
Message in a Bottle (The Police)
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (Gordon Lightfoot)
Goin’ to the Country (Bruce Cockburn)
Puff The Magic Dragon (Peter, Paul & Mary)
Luka (Suzanne Vega)

Connections 2 (2nd ed.)
A Most Peculiar Man (Simon & Garfunkle)
At Seventeen (Janis Ian)
Allentown (Billy Joel)

Connections 3 (2nd ed.)
The Logical Song (Supertramp)
The Boy in the Bubble (Paul Simon)
9 to 5 (Dolly Parton)
Fast Car (Tracey Chapman)

1995: Choices
Cats in the Cradle (Harry Chapin)
He Thinks He’ll Keep Her (Mary Chapin-Carpenter)

2000: Crossroads 10
Superman’s Song (Crash Test Dummies)
Goliath (Melanie Doan)

2002: Between the Lines 11
Candle in the Wind (Elton John)
Shamaya (Susan Aglukark)
What a Good Boy (Barenaked Ladies)

Between the Lines 12:
If a Tree Falls (Bruce Cockburn)
Fast Car (Tracey Chapman)
Cold Missouri Waters (James Keelaghan)
The Hockey Song (Stompin’ Tom Connors)
I Am a Rock (Simon & Garfunkle)

2002: Inside Poetry (2nd ed.)
The Sound of Silence (Simon & Garfunkle)
Ironic (Alanis Morissette)
The Music of the Night (from Phantom of the Opera)
Wondering Where the Lions Are (Bruce Cockburn)
Like a Rolling Stone (Bob Dylan)

2008: jr. high anthology
O Siem (Susan Aglukark)

added: 1982: Connections 3:

If You Could Read My Mind (Gordon Lightfoot)

Home as Job Base (home office/study)

Home as Community Centre (neighborhood garage sale)

Home as Retreat (inner-sanctum music room; here playing with 12 string Beatles-style Rickenbacker)

Home as Museum (our house is filled with many interesting artifacts like this book coffee-table in the family room; also many collections, paintings, and displays)

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

(from What Color Is Your Parachute–for Retirement)

1 Home as Job. (maintenance: being caretaker, handyperson of home and yard)

2. Home as Project. (as in home improvements)

3.Home as Museum. (physical possessions, collections, treasures, archive often on display)

4. Home as a Community Centre. (for social gatherings, entertaining)

5. Home as Base of Operations. (for travel/while travelling)

6. Home as Retreat. (from community, city, world)

I would add Home as Job Base. (where you work from in your job)

High-school kid suspended for posting a photo of a crowded hallway at his school.
There are a lot of adults and authorities down south who are in denial of physical reality and have chosen the (Trump) party line.

he was thinking of Ghislaine Maxwell and Stormy Daniels?

“Yo! Semite!”
(As in How’s it going, you Semite?”)
Unconsciously racist?

From a televised speech yesterday mentioning a famous American national park landmark.

for a small crowd, McCartney’s “Live and Let Die” was appropriately/ironically playing. (Previous time was in May on a mask company tour.)

Organize yourself.
Organize your days.
Organize your home.
Organize your life.

Maximize your day. Maximize your inner life. Maximize your perspective.

Three things suggested from a highly recommended book (for people planning retirement): What Color Is Your Parachute? for Retirement by Richard N. Boles and John E. Nelson.

Book of the year: Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman.

We are so used to seeing humans cynically as being selfish and governed by self-interest (which, of course, is true in notable cases as in Trump). On the contrary, Bregman suggests that most people are good, decent, kind, and altruistic and uses a mine of examples from the last 200,000 years of human history to advance his radical thesis. The result is a very convincing, positive read.

Along the way, he re-visits Lord of the Flies, the many soldiers who never try to kill their enemies in battle, the mystery of Easter Island, famous rigged experiments to ‘prove’ the selfishness and evil of participants, the death of Catherine Genovese, impressive prisons in Norway, and school practices.

All in all, it’s an amazing trip that will challenge anyone’s negative or cynical views of human behavior and others. I highly recommend what is a truly ground-breaking book by an important new Dutch researcher and scholar.

In crazy cult-leader style, Trump is trying to kill off his own followers, tweeting that they should consume the ‘kool-aid’ of dangerous, unproven hydroxychloroquine and stop wearing masks. A master liar (over 20,000 in office) and master of divisive conspiracy theories, he remains active, trying to destroy America and Americans, by tweeting yet another false conspiracy touting a bogus, dangerous ‘cure’.

America’s only hope is that the election-defeated Trump is ousted from the White House by the military so the joint can be fumigated and the innumerable court cases against him can proceed.

The witch doctor, who is Trump’s new Health Minister and advisor in charge of managing the COVID crisis, is right out of The Crucible or that old ’50s song: “My friend, the witch-doctor (s)he told me what to do”.