short round up

Not much to report this week. Stephen Truscott is trying to clear his name. Robert Pickton's trial is progressing as expected. Not much new information after the opening statements, just discussions about the scope of the investigation. For Pickton 400,000 swab samples were sent to labs across Canada. The Crown is progressing in a fashion to prove that they dotted every i and crossed every t, but the sheer scope of the investigation seems to create loopholes. I can only pray that justice will be served in both cases.

The new Bishop of Toronto, Tom Collins, was installed on Tuesday. Toronto is a red hat diocese so in all likelihood he will be promoted soon. I think I'll drink a toast to the new bishop. If only I could think of an appropriate drink. Wait, something's coming to me... it's on the tip of my tongue....

The coverage of the installation was appalling. The people in charge of the Vision channel were remarkably short sighted in not realizing that an installation Mass takes a little bit longer than the ordinary Sunday Mass.

The only newspaper description I read of the installation was that of the Toronto Star and it was a reminder to me of why I don't read the Toronto Star. In the past they had some truly horrible coverage of things Catholic, while at the same time showing sympathy to dissenting Catholics, and great sympathy also for Muslims. Their main religious writer (column every Sunday. I'd give you his name, but I can't be bothered remembering it.) is an ex anglican priest who believes Christ comes from the egyptian tradition (while also mentioning frequently that there is some doubt as to whether or not Jesus actually existed), encourages Christians not to say the Our Father, (Because it's patriarchal and most fathers are abusive and therefore the term has negative connotations for just about everyone) and wants to help people develop some kind of Cosmic Consciousness. At any rate, the paper frequently goes after Catholics in particular. When Toronto had the World Youth Day back in 2002 the Star tried to make sure that they gave equal coverage to the alternative world youth day ("world" in this case meaning "from Toronto") that was running at the same time in protest to the main event. It attracted approxiamately 200 people, by a generous count. And not only were they not "world", they were not "youth", so their pretensions were doubly wrong. At any rate, the Star wanted to make sure their voices were heard in a positive fashion, and therefore negative of the real WYD. And every positive statement they made about WYD was done in a "yeah, but..." kind of way, just to remind us that Catholicism is Bad. I wish I held on to some to give you a few quotations. Similiarly, their coverage of JP II's death listed his accomplishments along with the usual accusations: sex scandals, deaths in Africa, etc. I also recall similiar coverage of Mother Theresa's death.

The Star's coverage of the Installation began with a nice picture of the Mass, with a headline: "Call To Action." It was somewhat in keeping with the Bishop's words, in that his homily was a call to the faithful to be faithful, but I cannot think they would be completely ignorant of the ramifications of that title, and therefore wonder why they chose that one. Probably wishful thinking on their part. It just reminds me to not read newspapers, except for the comics page, along with the Crosswords, jumble and Sudoku.

It's too bad Toronto lacks a decent newspaper.

My e-mail has been down the entire weekend. I get my server from the university I work at, and they are doing something with the system. I think they are trying to get all the employees working on LotusNotes. Not many are going voluntarily, so perhaps they are trying to force the issue. The Notes are a bad joke. A couple of months ago I went over for some training. I gave up three precious hours of my life, never to be seen again, so some propeller head could drone on and on about how wonderful the system was. She showed us how to use the test module. See how everything works so nicely, so perfectly. Everything would be so much better the wide world over, if only more people used Notes. When I went back to my work station to try out this wondrous new system I discovered the actual system was nothing like the thing I had just been trained on. My question: what intellectual colossus was behind this, and how much are they being paid?

I should blog about all the stupid things that go on where I work, beginning with the shuttle bus we have that doesn't have the mileage to go the route it's supposed to be shuttling. Mind you, such a blog would be the ponderous work of a lifetime, and would make Les Recherches de Temps Perdue look like a Coles Notes brochure. For those who don't know Proust, think of a book whose covers are waaaaay too far apart.

Younger went to her first birthday party Yesterday. She was thrilled to be there.

Elder is going on her first overnight school trip. She's excited. Yesterday I took her to one of my choir rehearsals. She spent the practice watching a movie on her portable dvd player. (I blogged about that around Christmas. If I knew how to link, I would.) After practice I asked her if she'd like to play on the pipe organ at the Church. The Organ there is a three manual Cassavant Freres affair from 1930. It looks to have about forty stops. I thought it would be a thrill for her- she takes organ lessons- to play a real instrument. Or maybe that it might inspire her. She played fairly well, but was remarkably blase about the experience. I wish I could get some fire in her. She wants to know how to play, but she doesn't want to practice. She'd like to play better music, but doesn't want to get the skills necessary. Maybe I should have hacked out the Hallowe'en song for her - that's her name for Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D- - just to give her a sense of what one of these babies can do. Still, the other choir members made much of her rendition of the theme from Beethoven's Ninth, and even called her "the next generation." Maybe she'll remember that, and it may sink in.

That's it for now. Puff is asleep. I had best get some zzz's myself.