Mary Soderstrom's Blog, page 82

Location, Location, Location: the Story Behind Montreal's Mega Hospitals and the Future of Mount Royal

An extremely important conference is being held today on the future of Mount Royal--but it may be too late.  In a couple of years, four health establishments on the flanks of the mountain will be vacated as they move to two super hospitals now under construction. 

Getting agreement on where to build them took a couple of decades, and the awarding of construction contracts is a saga in its self.  Collusion, cost over-runs and even criminal proceedings against one of the major administrators have come out in recent months too. (Dr. Arthur Porter, the Montreal Hospital Centre's former head, is now fighting extradition from Panama.)

But relatively little has been said about what will become of the property which is now used for health purposes. (The photo is of the Royal Victoria Hospital surrounded by the greenery of Mount Royal Park, to give some idea of what's at stake.)  Not only were no studies done at the beginning of the projects of their impact on the city's urban fabric, few have been the questions raised about who might profit from, say, transforming the old buildings with their spectacular views into condos.

Which brings us to the heart of the matter: it seems to me that one of the motors behind the super hospital push from the beginning was real estate speculation.  Who turned a blind eye to this possiblity?  Who's going to profit? 

Not those who love Mount Royal Park, I bet. 

KFC Goes to Mongolia

I just read a really interesting travel book In Search of Genghis Khan by Tim Severin. In it, he recounts his attempt to ride with Mongolians from Ulaan Bataar west toward Europe, following the route that Genghis Khan took.

The time was 1990, the Soviet bloc was just opening up, and the best thing on the menuas they travelled was boiled mutton. How times have changed! Kentucky Fried Chicken just opened its first restaurant in Mongolia and here's a report: nobody mentions mutton.
(For more about the book check out my blog Not So Solitary a Pleasure: A Blog about Books.)

Warning: Polls May Be Hazardous to Your Health

Pollsters have been insisting that even though fewer people can be reached by telephone today, polling still is a valid way of predicting electoral outcomes.

They've turned to elelctronic polling and elaborate models that are supposed to message data so that the population reached by polling reflects the electorate as a whole.

But recently there have been some thundering examples.  The first was the way that Romney forces underestimated Obama strength in the 20012 US Presidential elction. On Tuesday Gallup officials said  they had analyzed their performance and come up with four factors that led to the skewing of their prediction toward the Republicans.

The New York Times reported that "Gallup’s model for identifying those most likely to vote — a series of seven questions — seemed to have failed in 2012, and the organization is re-evaluating its formula for ranking voters who will turn out.

"Just as technology has changed the way campaigns work, it has altered the way survey researchers gather data. A change in the way that Gallup called respondents on land lines may have been a contributing factor that led to its sample to be older and more Republican. Half of their respondents, however, were reached on cellphones — a proportion that is at or above industry standards.

"In addition, there were too many respondents from certain time zones. In the South and the Midwest, there were more respondents from the Central Time Zone, which tends to be more Republican, than the Eastern Time Zone, which skews Democratic.

"Finally, the way Gallup asked callers about their race overrepresented some groups."

Corrcting these problems should not be insurmountable obstacles, but nevertheless it would be wise for Canadian pollsters and political top dogs to consider what Gallup found.  Both BC and Alberta have had recent elections full of suprises, too. 

Plant a Tree for $25 Until June 15

Trees are great.  Not only do they provide a feast for the eye and shade for the body, they absorb carbon dioxide.  You might say they are nature's CO2 sequestering program.

But saying that isn't enough.  We've got to plant and nurture more trees everywhere.  The Rassemblement de Eco-quartiers, an umbrella organization of citizen-based ecology groups in Montreal, are making it easy to do just that.

Until June 15, Montrealers can buy a 1.5 to 2 meter tree for $25, which will be delivered to them over the  June 15-16 weekend.  The trees are of six sorts, all native to this region.  (That's a red maple, one of the most emblematic of all Canadian trees.)  For details, check out the Eco-quartier website.

The goal this year is 1,000 trees planted, but the ecology groups have a bigger, long term one: to increase the urban forest canopy coverage in the city from 20  to 25 per cent.  A laudable endeavor.  Just the thought of it makes feel cool. 

Sounds of Summer: Crickets and Night Hawks

While walking in Mount Royal Cemetery on Saturday I was surprised and delighted to here a cricket.  Usually they come later in the season, but perhaps the very warm weather had spurred this one along.

Over the weekend, I heard nighthawks too.  They usually arrive a week or so earlier, and I'd begun to wonder if they were running into the same sort of problems a number of birds seem to.  Pierre Gingras, who keeps track of birds and flowers on Radio Canada, lamented in early May that he hadn't seen any swallows, even though he keeps a variety of swallow hotels on his property.

After I heard that I keep listening for the chitter of  swallows, and was saddened not to hear any for some time.  But then a week ago the morning silence was broken by the sounds of several swallows chittering as they breakfasted.  Maybe there was something different this year with the timing of insect hatches that delayed the two species.

Early crickets?  Late midges and June flies?  Is anybody keeping track?

Saturday Photo: June Flowers are Here!

I'm not a systematic gardener, I don't keep notes about what blooms when or even a list of what I need to get for next year. But I do know roughly what order things bloom in.
The snow drops start, of course, and then come the other bulb plants.  Now is the time for columbine and forget-me-nots, which make a lovely combination. The photos don't show them growing together, because I don't often get them that way.  But ever since we were in Giverny--Monet's garden-- in spring a few years ago and visited the near by American Museum of Art, during a spectacular display I've been trying to combine them.  This year they're not cooperating, but I love them anyway.

Plumber-time and the Living is Not So Easy

Well, the kitchen sink was making burping noises but wasn't backed up.  My favourite economist/ébèniste wanted to make sure there wasn't a disaster in the making though.  So he took the trap apart, poked around and, voilà, a hole appeared in the drainpipe.

Three hours later all is well: new pipe, clean trap, tools used cleaned with bleach.  The sink runs very well, thank you very much, but it still burps!

And just to give you some idea of what it's like:

Three Good Bearded White Men: Reflections on Feisty Resemblances

Crusading Canadian writer and translator Wayne Grady has a story about trying to talk Dr. Henry Morgentaler into giving him an extended interview for a magazine article.

The good doctor, who died this week at 90, had a lot on his plate at the moment, including running his abortion clinic, trying to make the procedure legal, and toughing out death threats from elements of the  Religious Right.   Morgentaler allowed Grady a short time to make his pitch, but, says Grady, obviously didn't see the point in giving more than that.

Then, however, someone noticed the striking resemblance between the two men: that's the doctor at top left, and Grady right below to give you some idea.  About the same time another threatening message come through.  Grady says Morgentaler  looked at him carefully, considered, and then, without saying why, agreed to make himself available.  The article was published in Saturday Night in July 1984, but I haven't been able to track it down. 

There's another bearded guy who belongs to the exclusive club of Grady twins:  Salmon Rushdie, who had his own problems with fanatics.  Don't know if the three men ever met, but seeing their photos makes me wonder if there is something about balding, bearded men with glasses that conspires to bring out the fight in them.

Why Curious George Starts in Paris and Ends in New York

Reading and the love of books can't encouraged too soon.  The Curious George books by H.A. and Margaret Rey were great favourites of our kids and Jeanne has delighted in them ever since Elin brought a jumbo book containing six tales back from a trip to New York last fall.  She went looking for our old copies shortly thereafter so ever since Jeanne's been read the old ones--now in  tatters--when she visits here.

The stories are still charming, but one of the things that goes over Jeanne's head is the way that the city George lives in changes between books.  In the first one it's quite clearly Paris, and the zoo where he goes to live is the Ménagerie in the Jardin des plantes, but the next one is just as clearly New York.

The reason why came clear this morning when the quality French language daily here Le Devoir had an article about an exhibit on George's creators.  The Reys were German Jews who met in Brazil where each had gone separately as young people.  Rey (born Hans Augusto  Reyersbach) and the former Margarete Elisabeth Waldstein founded the first advertising agency in Rio in the 1930s, but decided to go back to Europe, setting up shop in Paris.  The curious little monkey appears to have been just one of their projects.

In 1939 the French publisher Gallimard was ready to bring out the first book about the monkey, then called Fifi, but the Reys' studio was searched by the French police  on a tip that there might be material for making bombs there.  The sketches of George convinced the flics that wasn't the case, but the Reys took the hint  the following spring.  They decamped for Portugal, taking with them only their Brazilian passports, their sketches and what was left of their advance from Gallimard.  At the Spanish border their German accents raised eyebrows with Franco's Fascists, but the innocuous drawings of George and their Brazilian nationality allowed them to continue.  Their journeyed back to Brazil and then on to New York, where they started over again.

George once again came to their rescue.  Within a month they had a contract with Houghton Mifflin and the first Curious George book was published in 1941.  Since then 17 million copies of the various Curious George stories (the Reyes produced seven, and a  series has been spun off, written and drawn by others which are not nearly as good.)

The Reyes adventures are highlighted in a exhibit at the Montreal Holocaust Museum from now until June 22. The show was created by Omaha, Nebraska, Institue for Holocaust Education, and is touring North America.  Definitely worth the detour. 

Ray Charles on the Way We Should Behave

Lots and lots of depressing news coming when the world in this part of the world is ablaze with luminous greens. How about this for an anthem? When it comes to political parties, I prefer orange, BTW, but notice how the lovely little clip ends--a rainbow.