Richard Jeni, a comedian, commenting on graduating from university with a political science degree, with honours:
“Imagine my surprise when it turned out the main thing that I was qualified for was to get another degree and teach political science to other people, who would, in turn, teach it to other people. This wasn’t higher education – this was Amway with a football team.”
Richard Jeni committed suicide on March 11, 2007
Quotes
Moderator: Mark Llew
Iraq
by Mark Llew » Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:28 pm
"They keep talking about drafting a constitution for Iraq. Why don't we just give them ours? It was written by a bunch of really smart guys, it's worked for over 200 years, and we're not using it any more."
George Carlin
George Carlin
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Love
by Mark Llew » Wed Mar 14, 2007 10:25 pm
Shirley Wagstaffe died on July 25, 2005. She was 75. Born and raised in a village near London. England, she was 14 when she met Andrew, a young soldier from Yorkshire who was stationed in her village. Andrew returned to marry her after fighting from Normandy to Berlin. They were both kind and generous and funny and otherwise had absolutely nothing in common except their love for each other and for their three sons. They argued about anything and everything that came to hand, saving their most intractable disputes for family vacations in a small travel trailer a thousand miles or more from home.
When she was required to observe “a woman’s place” she did it badly, to the delight of her children who could sense the danger in asking her to pretend she was second best to anyone. All her life she had a steady gaze that could stop a man from whining in an instant. She was a terrific mother, ever ready to jump into our games, resourceful and encouraging. She loved us and we loved her back.
She never studied at university but when the chance came to work at UBC, she jumped at it. As assistant to the Faculty of Arts Advisor she managed the chaos of registration, steered the lost and encouraged the disheartened.
In retirement she ran, volunteered, jousted with Andrew, loved and encouraged her five grand-daughters.
Andrew died in March of this year after 54 years of marriage to Shirley. She was inconsolably lonely without him.
Andrew and Shirley were not the Owl and the Pussycat, they were the Mule and the Wildcat. Now, in their beautiful pea-green boat, they are arguing about who doesn’t know how to read charts and who would make it easier to read the chart if he wasn’t splashing water on it with his oars. Dear Lord it was hard to give them back. Look after Shirley and Andrew.
Obituary in the Globe and Mail
When she was required to observe “a woman’s place” she did it badly, to the delight of her children who could sense the danger in asking her to pretend she was second best to anyone. All her life she had a steady gaze that could stop a man from whining in an instant. She was a terrific mother, ever ready to jump into our games, resourceful and encouraging. She loved us and we loved her back.
She never studied at university but when the chance came to work at UBC, she jumped at it. As assistant to the Faculty of Arts Advisor she managed the chaos of registration, steered the lost and encouraged the disheartened.
In retirement she ran, volunteered, jousted with Andrew, loved and encouraged her five grand-daughters.
Andrew died in March of this year after 54 years of marriage to Shirley. She was inconsolably lonely without him.
Andrew and Shirley were not the Owl and the Pussycat, they were the Mule and the Wildcat. Now, in their beautiful pea-green boat, they are arguing about who doesn’t know how to read charts and who would make it easier to read the chart if he wasn’t splashing water on it with his oars. Dear Lord it was hard to give them back. Look after Shirley and Andrew.
Obituary in the Globe and Mail
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by Lisa Copland » Wed Mar 14, 2007 10:30 pm
That is a fabulous obituary. Didn't obituary writing used to be an art? I wish more were like this one.
I almost wish I'd known her.
I almost wish I'd known her.
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by colbuki » Thu Mar 15, 2007 9:08 am
I wish I was her... sounds like a life well lived!
although seeing that's her obituary I don't think I'd want to be her now... hmmmm well at least she had a heck of a time of hit before she passed over.
although seeing that's her obituary I don't think I'd want to be her now... hmmmm well at least she had a heck of a time of hit before she passed over.
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Freedom from tyranny
by Mark Llew » Fri Mar 16, 2007 10:11 am
"In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself."
James Madison, 4th President of the United States (known as 'The Father of the Constitution')
James Madison, 4th President of the United States (known as 'The Father of the Constitution')
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by Jamie Harrison » Fri Mar 16, 2007 11:26 am
There is some question as to its veracity but the following paraphrase, attributed to Winston Churchill, was a stinging rebuke to a civil servant who dared correct the grammar in a memo issued by the Prime Minister:
This is the type of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put.
Of course Churchill quotes abound but one of my verified favourites is: "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire. "
More, much more, at www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Sir_Winston_Churchill
This is the type of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put.
Of course Churchill quotes abound but one of my verified favourites is: "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire. "
More, much more, at www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Sir_Winston_Churchill
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by Lisa Copland » Fri Mar 16, 2007 11:31 am
Jamie Harrison wrote:There is some question as to its veracity but the following paraphrase, attributed to Winston Churchill, was a stinging rebuke to a civil servant who dared correct the grammar in a memo issued by the Prime Minister:
This is the type of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put.
Of course Churchill quotes abound but one of my verified favourites is: "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire. "
More, much more, at www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Sir_Winston_Churchill
I love that last one Jamie - it's a good way to choose your friends!
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by Jamie Harrison » Fri Mar 16, 2007 11:37 am
I could sit and read Churchill's quotes all day. Unfortunately that isn't what they pay me for (though I do try and sneak in Churchillian references whenever I can -- with some success, I might add).
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A Canadian we can all admire
by Mark Llew » Fri Mar 16, 2007 2:04 pm
A Canadian we can all admire
Taken from an obituary in today's Globe.
Bob Stollery…the man who helped build Edmonton, grew up during the Depression in a humble house on the south side, along with six siblings. Mr. Stollery's grandfather and father worked as contractors. Before he left to join the navy in 1942 at the age of 18, Mr. Stollery worked with his father as a plasterer. The combination of the down-to-earth labourer's life, the hard times of the Depression and the even tougher arena of the Second World War all helped shape Mr. Stollery's egalitarian and philanthropic outlook on life. "He was raised in working-man circumstances," his son Doug said. "Those were his roots."
After the war, Mr. Stollery studied civil engineering at the University of Alberta. Upon completion of his degree, the engineer… went to work for Poole Construction Ltd. in 1949. He started as site engineer on Edmonton's Aberhart Sanatorium, but quickly progressed to bigger things… In 1969, Mr. Stollery became the company's president.
What those inside the company may remember best, however, is how Mr. Stollery led a team of 24 employees who purchased Poole Construction Ltd. in 1977 from brothers John and George Poole. The brothers knew they didn't want to lead the business forever and agreed to the buyout. After PCL came into being, Mr. Stollery sold 10 per cent of his shares every year, enabling younger workers to participate and leading the way to the firm becoming 100-per-cent employee owned.
After retirement, with his wife Shirley, the engineer began to make his presence as a philanthropist better known in the community. Mr. Stollery set out on a 25-year mission to create the Stollery Children's Hospital. He would let nothing step in his way, not even the Alberta government. At a time when the province was cutting back on health-care facilities, Mr. Stollery galvanized community and medical support for the centre. "They just became a force. You didn't want to get in their way," Ms. Young, the president and CEO of the Stollery Children's Hospital Foundation said.
Part of Mr. Stollery's belief in the building stemmed from the fact his own children had ended up in hospital from illnesses and he and his wife had found the services of the time woefully lacking. To prove to the government that the community supported the building, Mr. Stollery led a campaign that raised double the goal it originally set for itself, coming up with $12-million in the late 1990s for the institution, which opened in 2001. While the hospital was under construction, Mr. Stollery visited the site daily. "He was a legend," Ms. Young said. "He would walk around with his hard hat, and he was checking. Where that hospital was concerned, anything but the absolute best was not acceptable to him."
Mr. Stollery's community involvement ranged from the creation of the Stollery Charitable Foundation, which provides support in such areas as poverty reduction, to a financial endowment to and board service with the Edmonton Community Foundation. [he also helped to fund the building of the Women's Emergency Shelter and the construction of housing for the disadvantaged in the inner city] But the retired executive didn't just restrict his support to a chequebook. If circumstances called for it, Mr. Stollery could be outspoken. At an awards banquet in 2001, he stood up in front of Edmonton's civic leaders and the city's business community and laid into them.
"We all love this city. But we pretend a lot," he admonished an assemblage of Edmonton's finest, including Mayor Bill Smith, business leaders, judges, MLAS and Community Development Minister Gene Zwozdesky.
Was Edmonton truly the best city in the best province in the best country if hundreds of its children had to rely on volunteer hot-lunch programs and the like? he asked. Why did the rich stand by while Albertan children suffered in poverty?
There was no doubt his speech reached its audience.
"It was absolute silence," recalled someone who was at the occasion. "You could have heard a pin drop. He was right. He said shame on us, all of us. It was so colourful and motivating, because you just wanted to take action after you left that room."
Later, Mr. Stollery told Edmonton Journal columnist Paula Simons he had no regrets. "I'm not sure that either the mayor or the cabinet minister were that thrilled with the speech, but tough bananas," he said. "I didn't know who was going to be there, and I didn't care."
It wasn't the first time he had broached the subject of how to help disadvantaged children. In 1997, in a speech delivered to a similar Edmonton group on the occasion of National Philanthropy Day, he called for volunteers to get down and dirty. It wasn't enough to just hand over money.
"I have been involved with two capital campaigns and they were real eye-openers to me," he said. "We thought of 14 people who could assist us on the campaign. We found out that nine of those people were involved already and three people were burned out."
As an example, he pointed to one of his teachers way back in grade school. "My teacher said, 'I'm not going to tell you what to do. I'm going to show you,' " he told the Edmonton Journal. As it turned out, they were words he lived by.
Robert Stollery was born May 1, 1924, in Edmonton.
He died of prostate cancer on March 14, 2007. He was 82.
Taken from an obituary in today's Globe.
Bob Stollery…the man who helped build Edmonton, grew up during the Depression in a humble house on the south side, along with six siblings. Mr. Stollery's grandfather and father worked as contractors. Before he left to join the navy in 1942 at the age of 18, Mr. Stollery worked with his father as a plasterer. The combination of the down-to-earth labourer's life, the hard times of the Depression and the even tougher arena of the Second World War all helped shape Mr. Stollery's egalitarian and philanthropic outlook on life. "He was raised in working-man circumstances," his son Doug said. "Those were his roots."
After the war, Mr. Stollery studied civil engineering at the University of Alberta. Upon completion of his degree, the engineer… went to work for Poole Construction Ltd. in 1949. He started as site engineer on Edmonton's Aberhart Sanatorium, but quickly progressed to bigger things… In 1969, Mr. Stollery became the company's president.
What those inside the company may remember best, however, is how Mr. Stollery led a team of 24 employees who purchased Poole Construction Ltd. in 1977 from brothers John and George Poole. The brothers knew they didn't want to lead the business forever and agreed to the buyout. After PCL came into being, Mr. Stollery sold 10 per cent of his shares every year, enabling younger workers to participate and leading the way to the firm becoming 100-per-cent employee owned.
After retirement, with his wife Shirley, the engineer began to make his presence as a philanthropist better known in the community. Mr. Stollery set out on a 25-year mission to create the Stollery Children's Hospital. He would let nothing step in his way, not even the Alberta government. At a time when the province was cutting back on health-care facilities, Mr. Stollery galvanized community and medical support for the centre. "They just became a force. You didn't want to get in their way," Ms. Young, the president and CEO of the Stollery Children's Hospital Foundation said.
Part of Mr. Stollery's belief in the building stemmed from the fact his own children had ended up in hospital from illnesses and he and his wife had found the services of the time woefully lacking. To prove to the government that the community supported the building, Mr. Stollery led a campaign that raised double the goal it originally set for itself, coming up with $12-million in the late 1990s for the institution, which opened in 2001. While the hospital was under construction, Mr. Stollery visited the site daily. "He was a legend," Ms. Young said. "He would walk around with his hard hat, and he was checking. Where that hospital was concerned, anything but the absolute best was not acceptable to him."
Mr. Stollery's community involvement ranged from the creation of the Stollery Charitable Foundation, which provides support in such areas as poverty reduction, to a financial endowment to and board service with the Edmonton Community Foundation. [he also helped to fund the building of the Women's Emergency Shelter and the construction of housing for the disadvantaged in the inner city] But the retired executive didn't just restrict his support to a chequebook. If circumstances called for it, Mr. Stollery could be outspoken. At an awards banquet in 2001, he stood up in front of Edmonton's civic leaders and the city's business community and laid into them.
"We all love this city. But we pretend a lot," he admonished an assemblage of Edmonton's finest, including Mayor Bill Smith, business leaders, judges, MLAS and Community Development Minister Gene Zwozdesky.
Was Edmonton truly the best city in the best province in the best country if hundreds of its children had to rely on volunteer hot-lunch programs and the like? he asked. Why did the rich stand by while Albertan children suffered in poverty?
There was no doubt his speech reached its audience.
"It was absolute silence," recalled someone who was at the occasion. "You could have heard a pin drop. He was right. He said shame on us, all of us. It was so colourful and motivating, because you just wanted to take action after you left that room."
Later, Mr. Stollery told Edmonton Journal columnist Paula Simons he had no regrets. "I'm not sure that either the mayor or the cabinet minister were that thrilled with the speech, but tough bananas," he said. "I didn't know who was going to be there, and I didn't care."
It wasn't the first time he had broached the subject of how to help disadvantaged children. In 1997, in a speech delivered to a similar Edmonton group on the occasion of National Philanthropy Day, he called for volunteers to get down and dirty. It wasn't enough to just hand over money.
"I have been involved with two capital campaigns and they were real eye-openers to me," he said. "We thought of 14 people who could assist us on the campaign. We found out that nine of those people were involved already and three people were burned out."
As an example, he pointed to one of his teachers way back in grade school. "My teacher said, 'I'm not going to tell you what to do. I'm going to show you,' " he told the Edmonton Journal. As it turned out, they were words he lived by.
Robert Stollery was born May 1, 1924, in Edmonton.
He died of prostate cancer on March 14, 2007. He was 82.
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?
by Mark Llew » Fri Mar 16, 2007 2:25 pm
“The lease said about my and my fathers trip from the Bureau of Manhattan to our new home the soonest mended. In some way ether I or he got balled up on the grand concorpse and next thing you know we was thretning to swoop down on Pittsfield.
Are you lost daddy I arsked tenderly.
Shut up he explained.”
Ring Lardner, in The Young Immigrunts
Are you lost daddy I arsked tenderly.
Shut up he explained.”
Ring Lardner, in The Young Immigrunts
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by Jamie Harrison » Fri Mar 16, 2007 3:56 pm
Funny, I spent six years at the University of Toronto working on the communications surrounding capital campaigns and some of the most generous people, those who truly believe in the power of philanthropy, are those that are the most despised in our society: corporate titans.
Leslie Dan and Barry Sherman, both multimillionaires (billionaire in Sherman's case) in pharmaceuticals, Ted Rogers (cable), Hal Jackman (insurance), Rose Wolfe (Ontario Food Terminals) and many, many other individuals provided more than half the funds towards a capital campaign that passed its goals of $350 million, then $400 million, then $575 million and finally $1 billion in just seven years.
With respect to Bob Stollery, I met his son Doug when he funded the Stollery Chair in Mine Engineering at U of T in 2002 or 2003.
Leslie Dan and Barry Sherman, both multimillionaires (billionaire in Sherman's case) in pharmaceuticals, Ted Rogers (cable), Hal Jackman (insurance), Rose Wolfe (Ontario Food Terminals) and many, many other individuals provided more than half the funds towards a capital campaign that passed its goals of $350 million, then $400 million, then $575 million and finally $1 billion in just seven years.
With respect to Bob Stollery, I met his son Doug when he funded the Stollery Chair in Mine Engineering at U of T in 2002 or 2003.
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by Mark Llew » Fri Mar 16, 2007 4:20 pm
Jamie, if anyone wants an obvious example -- how about Bill Gates. And there have been a few others that I have read about who are doing their best to give away their money (but ain't it a kicker -- I can't remember their names).
Speaking as a long-time (but now quite cynical) NDP supporter, one of the things that struck me about Bob Stollery was how completely his views permeated his life -- in particular, how he made a point of selling all his shares to the younger employees, so that it could be truly a worker-owned business.
Speaking as a long-time (but now quite cynical) NDP supporter, one of the things that struck me about Bob Stollery was how completely his views permeated his life -- in particular, how he made a point of selling all his shares to the younger employees, so that it could be truly a worker-owned business.
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by Gloria Jones » Fri Mar 16, 2007 4:40 pm
Jamie, if anyone wants an obvious example -- how about Bill Gates. And there have been a few others that I have read about who are doing their best to give away their money (but ain't it a kicker -- I can't remember their names).
How about Warren Buffet. Didn't he and Gates get together on some charity. Oprah Winfrey gives away a lot of money also.
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And in the same vein
by Mark Llew » Sat Mar 17, 2007 2:33 pm
"Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." – Jesus ( Matthew 5:38–39 )
But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." – Jesus ( Matthew 5:38–39 )
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Keeping the population increasing
by Mark Llew » Sat Mar 17, 2007 2:42 pm
"Because the number of birth-giving machines and devices is fixed, all we can ask for is for them to do their best per head." – Hakuo Yanagisawa, Japanese Minister of Health
[in this context, 'birth-giving machines' refers to women between the ages of 15 and 50]
[in this context, 'birth-giving machines' refers to women between the ages of 15 and 50]
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Re: Keeping the population increasing
by Lisa Copland » Sat Mar 17, 2007 3:46 pm
Mark Llew wrote:"Because the number of birth-giving machines and devices is fixed, all we can ask for is for them to do their best per head." – Hakuo Yanagisawa, Japanese Minister of Health
[in this context, 'birth-giving machines' refers to women between the ages of 15 and 50]
What is the time frame on that quote?
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Lisa Copland - Posts: 2477
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Unfortunate choice of words
by Mark Llew » Sat Mar 17, 2007 4:07 pm
Hi Lisa,
That's from a story in the Manchester Guardian dated January 29, 2007.
I should have put the whole quote in, as reported. Here it is:
"The number of women aged between 15 and 50 is fixed. Because the number of birth-giving machines and devices is fixed, all we can do is ask them to do their best per head ... although it may not be so appropriate to call them machines." – Hakuo Yanagisawa, Japanese Minister of Health
That's from a story in the Manchester Guardian dated January 29, 2007.
I should have put the whole quote in, as reported. Here it is:
"The number of women aged between 15 and 50 is fixed. Because the number of birth-giving machines and devices is fixed, all we can do is ask them to do their best per head ... although it may not be so appropriate to call them machines." – Hakuo Yanagisawa, Japanese Minister of Health
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Re: Unfortunate choice of words
by Lisa Copland » Sat Mar 17, 2007 11:26 pm
Mark Llew wrote:... although it may not be so appropriate to call them machines." – Hakuo Yanagisawa, Japanese Minister of Health
Jeeze Hakuo - ya THINK!
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