Colleen Anderson's Blog, page 57

Peppers and All Things Spicy

When I was a child the pepper shaker sat on our table like an icon to some ancient belief system. No one used it. Instead we liberally abused the salt shaker, over and over and over again to the point where my mother and my brother salt their pizza to this day. I used to salt cheese and my younger brother would make a bowl of vinegar with enough salt in it to make it murky and then dip his potato chips in…till his lips went white. We were heavy salt abusers but we shunned pepper.  

Then when...

VANOC Police State?

Well, Vancouver, are we about to be a police state? Will we feel more protected or more repressed with the beginning of the Olympics? The one billion dollar budget (that somehow the provincial government forgot to include when they were selling BC on this venture) for security means we'll have such a plethora of police and guards that criminals are bound to take a vacation elsewhere.

A police state is defined as the "government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic...

Traveling in India: Betel Nut Adventures

Indian people and many people of other Asian countries eat betel nut in one form or another. It is a hard oval nut that looks an awful lot like nutmeg. It's true name is the areca nut, and it is almost always eaten with the betel leaf, part of the pepper family and therefore slightly peppery in taste. A special knife must be used to cut the nut because it's like hardened wood when dry. Imagine trying to cut nutmeg. The nut, cut into small pieces, is placed on a betel leaf, along with lime...

George Orwell's Doublespeak Continues

In George Orwell's dystopian Nineteen Eighty-Four Winston Smith lives in "a world of perpetual war, pervasive government surveillance, public mind control, and the voiding of citizens' rights." (from Wikipedia) The Ministry of Truth perpetually rewrites information and history, bringing about a truth that is half if not whole fiction. They are the early spindoctors where they put the best spin for the government's means on news and phrases. From Orwell we get the word "newspeak" and...

George Orwell's Doublesspeak Continues

In George Orwell's dystopian Nineteen Eighty-Four Winston Smith lives in "a world of perpetual war, pervasive government surveillance, public mind control, and the voiding of citizens' rights." (from Wikipedia) The Ministry of Truth perpetually rewrites information and history, bringing about a truth that is half if not whole fiction. They are the early spindoctors where they put the best spin for the government's means on news and phrases. From Orwell we get the word "newspeak" and...

Writing: Unfathomable Poetry

There are many styles of poetry, or maybe I should say bad poetry. Crossing my desk as an assistant reader at Chizine, I see a range of good, bad and confusing. http://www.chizine.com/ There are the rhyming poems. The cultural convention of today has fallen away from rhyming poetry, partly because most people don't have the depth of education on forms to write it well and the result is bad rhymes. Joyce Kilmer's poem is touted as one of the worst poems of all time, at least for its time, but...

Writing: Nominations and Shortlists

On one of my writers' lists we've been discussing when you should list that you've been nominated, shortlisted, longlisted or noted in various writing awards and venues. There are many different types of writing awards/honors. For some, the publisher or the writer might send in a copy of their story/novel/poem to be considered for an award. Sometimes there is a submission/registration fee.

Most literary magazines have contests and most of those have an entry fee. An author might win first...

Vampires in the New Year

Well, I hope you didn't expect some retrospective of last year or the hopes and fears for this year. Predictions about and it would be easiest to say some politician will be accused of a scandal, another politician will again say we need so investigation into gas prices and nothing will be done, Vancouver will bubble with the hype of the Olympics and its citizens' taxes will/have already gone up to cover the deficits that they said wouldn't happen, Harper and Campbell will ignore all...

Airport Security: A Make-Believe Tale

"I'm sorry, Ma'am, but you're going to have to get rid of the water bottle."

"What? Why? I just bought it at the airport kiosk. They said it would be okay."

"Nevertheless…" The guard checks her watch. "Regulations changed, again, ten minutes ago. No water."

"But it's a long flight."

"You can buy some water on the plane. Next."

The guard looks at the man's passport and runs it through a computer. She pulls out plastic tie downs. "Put your hands behind your back."

The man does. "But why?"

The guard...

Vintage Christmas Ornaments

This is going to be picture heavy and text light. I already wrote about my favorite Christmas ball and how when it broke I was heartbroken. A few years ago a I found a replacement. As more of these wonderful balls of eras past are being brought back, I find I want more ornaments but I have a small tree and it's already festooned. The ball on the left was around when I was a child. It has three indentations. In those days, Christmas lights tended to be green, blue, yellow and red, and bubble...