Generation A

Just listened to an excellent interview with Douglas Copeland , regarding his new book, Generation A. He talked about how the printed word turned us into individuals, opening the door for Freud and Marx (bit of irony there). Think about all the hours most of us have spent alone, with books.
Earlier, I heard an ad from the sessional faculty at U of T, begging us to call the provost and tell him to start paying them more than $15,000 a year each for teaching 30 percent of the student body. Most have PhDs. The ad validated my decision to leave graduate school in 1970 because I felt stuck in a feudal institution based on sucking up to arrogant professors who could destroy you for no reason whatsoever. Think about it. If these students weren't hoping for tenure, they would tell the university to take those jobs and shove them. There would be no need to strike. Graduate students are powerless, and they accept that servitude for the promise of long term reward. Imagine an entire group of contract faculty quitting in the middle of the school year. Walking out with no intention of coming back. Unlike York, which locked out the students for almost an entire semester, the UofT would have no alternative but to hire a new group of feudal teaching peasants. Call the U of T provost, but call the Sessional Bargaining group and tell them to grow some backbone.

Impersonal Influence

As a young student, I read the classic, Personal Influence (PI) , which explained the power of interpersonal relationships on individual preferences and choices. Mostly though, it explained the power of sitting, standing, walking next to someone who was paying full attention to you. I remember the power of impersonal influence (ii) all too well. Watching my mother spend hours happily talking to friends on the telephone, I felt unimportant until I was old enough to have a phone of my own. So I ran to the tv where all my tv friends seemed happy to "see" me. Or to tv family shows where everyone cared about one another--especially "I Remember Mama".
Personal influence has, in my humble opinion, devolved to the point where any entertainer has power over us. Teachers, doctors, police, lawyers, all have to compete with their scripted counterparts, most of whom SEEM to care more for us than their real life counterparts. Impersonal influences have great personal influence. Even if a child has had a nanny or daycare most of their lives, a tv show has filled the parental void. Later, everyone learns that their real home is in their workplace, surrounded by real friends.
Uber-capitalist Donald Trump instills the love of capitalism and fear of failure in us all; while young folk desperately compete for jobs at coffee shops. Grey's Anatomy (public hospital chaos) is followed by Private Practice (duh..) in a not so subtle anti public health care partnership. TV as pseudo-personal influence. So I think I can dance? I used to. That was before Tara Jean put me to shame. On the other hand, if you can dance like Vincent, please contact me immediately.

Dear Barack and Joe

I love it when I get those personal emails from both of you about burning issues in the United States. And you know I've always rallied to your cause. Now it is my turn to ask for your help. For the last 20 years since my uncle was murdered in the Dominican Republic, I have been cheated out of a multimillion dollar inheritance by a series of Dominican lawyers and suspicious international "businessmen" (very much like the New Jersey mafia I grew up with). In my more paranoid moments, I have wondered whether word went out in May of 1989 from the Balaguer government (who may have had my uncle killed) to make sure that Ingrid Philipp, with her dangerously democratic politic history, did not inherit a cent.
How can you help? The "businessman" who stole my preferred shares in Sosua Bay Resort, has gone public with a venture called Caribbean Casino & Gaming. He seems to have built quite an empire on the North Coast of the Dominican Republic, based on the theft of my preferred shares. I'd like you to direct the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate the group, and its two principals--Armando Casciati and Steven Swank. I'm sure you are aware of the value of casinos to organized crime. In the event that you recover any of my family's monies, I'd be glad to make a more significant contribution than the $100 I contributed to your last campaign.
You might also want to investigate how much money the operations of this group are draining out of the American economy. Yours truly in the battle for truth and justice, Ingrid Philipp
cc: Wall Street Journal

Calling all journalists

Yesterday, I received a message about my Dominican (haha) estate that wasn't at all funny. Because this is a legal issue, I am going to attribute all alleged actions. If I don't say "alleged", I can personally testify to the fact.
Background: My uncle, Thomas Philipp was murdered in his Larimar penthouse apartment in 1989. Two months earlier, my uncle told me he feared for his life at the hands of a Hungarian mobster who called himself Tomas Reinis. The Dominican government at the time was Balaguer, a blind puppet of numerous interests. Balaguer backed Reinis fully, and my uncle's murder was ruled "accidental". Ten years later, the original coroner testified on my behalf that my uncle's death was not accidental. The ten year statute to prosecute expired on May 16 of this year.
Fast forwarding past two sets of inept or criminally negligent lawyers (Kaplan, Russin, Herredia; Jesus Garcia Tallaj):.
The estate is broke, trying to maintain Jesus Garcia Tallaj (our lawyer by duress) and his mother and ex-wives. We agree to an offer of 1.2 million for one of our hotels. We net about 300K, and take back preferred shares in Sosua Bay Resort for the remainder. One  partner in Sosua Bay, Armando Casciati, soon claims that our preferred shares belong to him. I laugh, because we have proof. He, however, is able to convince a Dominican Court that my forged signature on the shares means that the shares belong to him. We are assured us that all will be well if we trust in lawyer Sonia Uribe.
But (allegedly) Casciati is able to bribe the Puerto Plata judges to accept his ownership of our preferred shares.
Fast, fast forward to 2009. we are notified that Sonia is now working for Armando to steal yet another hotel my uncle built.  Tell me, what's a good Dominican-American-Canadian girl to do in these circumstances?

The Expressway No One Talks About

This morning I crossed Kingston Road at Main to purchase my usual hit of caffeine. At 8 a.m. Kingston is a constant stream of fast moving traffic that bears no relation to the posted speed limit. The smell is of diesel: buses, trucks, with the occasional pathetic street car. I crossed carefully to avoid cars making right and left hand turns in all directions. I've never seen a radar trap or police car there.
When I returned home this evening, there was a police car closing off Kingston Road to the west of Main. The line ups were long. There had been an accident at 3 p.m, but no details were available as of 10:30 p.m. Talk on the street was that a senior had been hurt, maybe killed. Everyone was wondering if it was a neighbour.
The Toronto Star reported on the several other accidents. It usually does--even if the name cannot be revealed. My bet is that accidents on Kingston are seldom reported. Kingston has become the unofficial continuation of the Lakeshore--The Scarborough Expressway. If people knew how dangerous the street has become; how unpatrolled, it wouldn't be good for real estate values in the Upper Beach. The radar cars hang out on the Danforth, usually after 8, so they can catch docile soccer moms who do 70 instead of 50. Meanwhile, down on Kingston, the deadly races continue.

Sitting ducks

Dear Parents of College Age Students
I notice there is an entire growth industry devoted to mining your fears about your college age children. Please be aware that You are Being Exploited. Your children will succeed or fail depending on your previous experience with them. Other than warning them that you will not be please if they screw up their first semester, leave them alone. The idea of university is Separation--not Lifelong dependence. If they get depressed, or sick, make sure they contact Student Health. Have them talk to their professors if they are screwing up. The idea is to get them to stand on their own two feet--not to have you as props. Freshman year should hurt. Separation should occur. All the rest is exploitation of you as parents.

Talking about music

Writing about music is as futile as writing about sex. Talking about music, however is just fine. Dreaming about talking about music is weird, but powerful. Last night that's exactly what I did. I was talking my way out of getting fired from my teaching job at Seneca, when I gave the lecture of my life. About music. Only music, I said, allows people to escape from stereotype and tell their real stories, and feelings. In my dream I said much more, comparing music to other forms of popular culture where stereotypes rule--illusions that we buy into of ER rooms going to any extreme to help us, and treat us like humans, ditto for CSI (as we learned from the recent kidnapping where no one investigated the sex offender who did it. Jesus, don't they know that step one is to find out what sex offenders are living in the area). But what really grabbed my audience in the dream is when I broke into song. Even my cruel boss had tears in her eyes. Wish I could remember the song. Some astute readers are going to point out how stereotypical many of today's singers and acts are. I'm not advocating anything about the great pop music machine. It squeezes women into stereotype. Some escape, and they are worth talking about.

Manufacturing Kids

The word is that Nadia Suleman has sold her 14 kids for $250 day each to reality tv. Surely, this travesty of child production should inspire a global movement for children's rights. We didn't like the Nazi's genetic engineering--why should anyone be allowed to manufacture children for profit? We close down puppy mills, but allow baby factories? Suleman's freedom must end where her childrens' begins. But children, like American women before the so-called modern age, still have no rights and are property of sick, twisted parents. We even encourage this as entertainment. Remember Michael Jackson.

On Tories and Toronto

I would like to think that the Prime Minister of Canada would ensure his cabinet govern for the good of all Canadians. Instead, the message from Ottawa to Toronto is
"Let them drive cars".
Stephen Harper sees no political advantage to funding streetcars for the city, so to hell with Toronto. Perhaps we should converge on Ottawa and protest our 2nd class citizenship. Harper, Harris and Mulroney seem cut from the same cloth, which has distinct odour of skunk. Shame on them, and shame on Michael Ignatieff for allowing this abuse of power to continue.

Teaching from real books.

'Whom are you?' he asked, for he had attended business college.

George Ade, "The Steel Box", 1898
US dramatist & humorist (1866 - 1944)

I teach at a business college, but my students are not stupid or illiterate. They are open to new ideas. They want to buy real books. They read real books.
It is unfortunate that real book publishers have abdicated so much of the postsecondary market to textbooks.
It is unfortunate that so many professors have abdicated their teaching to textbooks.
Most academics can't write jargon free prose. Few students want to waste their time reading anything that has to be translated from academic jargon to English.
The most important course I took at university while en route to an honours history degree was the History of Economic Thought. In that course I learned to translate economic jargon into English. I learned how language disguises manipulation. I didn't learn this from an economics text, but from a treasure of a book by Joan Robinson on the history of (English) free trade.
In later years, I earned a living translating business writing into trade book language: Strategic Planning, Tax Planning, Investment Strategies. I soon learned that 5 year strategic plans are inherently dysfunctional for any business involving anything except widgets. Colleges do not have to change editions of books every five years or less. We don't have to update our WebCT because business does. The Business Model does not work in education. Instead of partnerships with business, colleges and universities should partner with real book publishers and any cultural "industry" that is not really an industry, but is stuck with that label.
(to be continued)

Educational Fast Food

The new buzz is how schools need to get with the technology. Dreck, shit, here we go again. Educational administrators are either naive or dukes of deception. If we adopt the models the computer consultants are proposing, we are condemning generations of students to educational junk food. Textbooks are bad enough, with their ready made convenience. Now we are buying the idea that everything you need to read can be read online. Because so much of our culture is transmitted orally, through stories, songs, radio, we are in danger of destroying live education. One of my students told me that her generation is so tv and computer based that they don't even think of listening to radio. Now I realize that I need to "teach" radio listening.

Illusions of Freedom

Reading about the tribute to Pete Seeger, I am full of schadenfreude. Of course his life and work should be celebrated, and the energy from the concert may energize us to carry on the struggle. Or will it seduce us into a premature illusion of freedom and victory that will excuse us from the fight? We who believe in freedom cannot rest. Only 15,000 people could afford the fare to the concert. I hope they all consider that their call to ensure that the next concert should be bigger and freer than Woodstock.

Myths of Women's Liberation

Because I grew up in the Fifties and Sixties, I was socialized with the myths of both decades. I learned about sex from reading Peyton Place, A Married Couple's Guide to Sex, and Playboy--all hidden by my father, but easy to find if I looked in their twin-bedded room. Looking back, I realize I learned about sex through a man's eyes, looking only at my own role and body. Now I read about young girls giving oral sex like goodnight kisses, and see their intentional displays of tits, ass and big lips. What have we gained here?
Even in the Seventies, we realized that Motherhood posed a unique opportunity and challenge for women who wanted equality. Motherhood used to be a passage in a woman's life, not a revolving door. No one expected women to shrink back into teenagers after giving birth. We had many sizes of women. Today we have Size 4 fits all. Even as Oprah encourages us to be ourselves, her show bombards us with diet plan ads. I've seen pictures of her in her skinny jeans--she looked awful.
It took Grandmotherhood to allow me to accept my aging body and its unique beauty. Babies require soft curves and padding, not hard edges. As a teenager, I was slim as a young boy. My body was a clotheshanger for the latest styles. Grandmothers can be pleasantly plump. I still remember the comfort of curling into my own Oma.
To paraphrase Spike Lee, any woman with a uterus can give birth--but that doesn't make her a mother.

Toronto Property Tax Credit

As many of you know, I fell on a Toronto street back in January, and broke my arm. It was several days after the snowfall, and the street contained a school. You would think it would have had the snow removed by then. Homeowners are expected to remove the snow from sidewalks within 24 hours. Why should the city get several days? Speaking of days, my claim against the City was turned down by its insurance company because I failed to file within 10 days of the accident.
Rather than throwing money down the legal drain, I plan to suggest to Mayor David Miller that he give injured citizens property tax credits whenever the City fails to live up to its side of the civic bargain.
I think this strategy has great potential. For example, citizens could apply when the police fail to give acceptable service in their neighbourhood.
Parents could apply when their students receive substandard education.
At the moment I'm looking at a mattress still waiting for garbage pickup after 10 days and a phone call.
Etc.....

Dancing with the stars

Wouldn't that be wonderful--if we could really dance with the stars. This season's "stars" are a motley crew, with a heavy bias towards the only two stars who can actually dance. What interests me most is the sexuality of the dances, with the women moving ever closer to moving pin ups, while a few of the men seem to represent classy ballroom idols.

Main Street

I woke up this morning thinking of Sarah Palin and Main Street. I resent her tarnishing my metaphor, since I have lived on two streets actually called Main Street. But then I realize something about the Sarah Palins and Ingrid Philipps of this world. We live Main Street lives, full of the middle class dreams that Main Street women have. No Wisteria Lanes for us. We marry the wrong men, work our butts off for our families, and drag the losers behind us for years. Our kids have some major issues and challenges that we cannot afford to fix by sending them to Ivy League schools. We have our kids too young by boomer standards, live in modest homes, watch too much TV and shop at local stores where we actually know the owner behind the counter. My Main St is a place where merchants and residents know each other well and have meaningful conversations. That reminds me to go pay my tab at Azzarello's, where Dave ran a tab for me while my wrist was broken and the ice kept me shut in.
So as much as I despise putting my name in the same sentence with Palin, I will, if only to reclaim Main St for people who don't shoot animals from helicopters and can see far beyond their front or backyards.

domestic violence

Domestic violence is now fashionable--Oprah and Dr Phil are falling over themselves to address the problem. As I understand the solution, it's onto the woman to walk away, and stop blaming herself. Excuse me, but every TV sitcom and drama show now portrays women who are fully accountable for the mess they are in. Until TV stops glamourizing violence, our young people will grow up emotionally numb to the pain of violence. Ditto for racing through the streets--stop with the dumb car chases.