Harry Shannon
…but not intentionally.
I get regular email updates on COVID-19 from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in the U.S. This is part of the latest one.
Spot the typo.
…
Horror-scopes?
My latest letter to the Hamilton Spectator
Harry Shannon
The letter wasn’t published, but others making some similar points were. It followed a column by the Toronto Star’s public editor, Bruce Campion-Smith. (Torstar owns the Star and the Spec and the two papers print the same horoscopes.) Campion-Smith noted that the astrologer who wro…
How to get rooked
Harry Shannon
If you grew up in the UK before 1971, you had to learn how to cope with your money, which was divided into pounds, shillings, and pence (pennies). The abbreviation is Lsd (or £sd), after the Latin names.
I hadn’t realised before, but according to Wikipedia this was a system once used across Western Europe. There were 12 penc…
UK’s Daily Mail misleads on COVID-19 vaccines
Harry Shannon
What is it about people who write or speak for a living? You often hear them proudly announce that they can’t do math. Which really means they are admitting they’re not properly educated.
It has consequences. If journalists are innumerate, they can’t do their job well. Anyone with an agenda can easily mislead them, and in…
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is not up to the task
Harry Shannon
Background: This letter to the Toronto Star followed their editorial outlining some of the problems with how Ontario Premier Doug Ford has been handling the pandemic. I thought the analogy with sports players would resonate with Ford himself, as well as others. The letter was published in the January 22 edition of the paper.
Re…
The Invasion of Congress
In a speech to the Washington Press Club in 1969, then-Prime Minister of Canada Pierre Trudeau (father of current PM Justin Trudeau) memorably said: “Living next to you [the U.S.] is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt…
If they were really pro-life …
Harry Shannon
Many U.S. politicians, especially Republicans, like to proclaim their ‘pro-life’ stance. But while they’re keen to oppose abortions, the rest of their politics don’t match what they say.
If they were really pro-life:
They would cut military aid and weapons sales to regimes that assassinate their opponents and engage …
Dear Albertans
Harry Shannon
I sent the article below to the Calgary Herald as a possible contribution to their Opinion page. I haven’t even had an acknowledgement.
Some context: I wrote this after hearing the Alberta Premier Jason Kenney on the news. Kenney and his government have tried to keep the province’s economy open during the COVID-19 pandemic.…
Emerald is Not a Gem
Harry Shannon
This morning I got an email from Emerald Publishing, publishers of hundreds of academic journals. The email began:
“In August 2020, we commissioned a global survey to gather views on change within the academic sector. The survey was sent to a random selection of 172,033 academics, librarians and students within …
Exclusive! Paula White mystery solved
Harry Shannon
You may have seen the video of Paula White, Donald Trump’s ‘spiritual advisor,’ praying for a Trump victory in the US election. If you haven’t seen the clip, it’s quite remarkable, and worth a look if only to expand your horizons to see a level of crazy that I didn’t know existed. (And check White’s Wikipedia entry t…