Caution: Amphibian Crossing
My first experience with the concept of gerrymandering came in 1972 at the tender age of 15. They built a new high school north of my childhood home, and my sister was going to attend it the following year. I had already completed grades 9 and 10 at Stephen Leacock south of us, a high-end school complex that had finished construction a few years before. They published a map. Dad and our next-door neighbour went for drive, with the map and a cold beer. They came back pretty outraged. Why? Well, first, they were out of beer. More importantly, it was painfully obvious that they had carved out the old subdivisions, townhouse developments and Ontario Housing Projects from everything south of Finch Avenue and put those children in the new school. As you drove the borders, all the homes on the left side of the road were double garage, two stories, all brick, luxury homes with swimming pools. All the homes on the right had none of those things. I assumed my sister was being sent off to the slums of New Delhi. I was OK with that. I wasn't going.
The big fight you see going on in the U.S. run up to the mid-terms, is based on this form of voter abuse. Political districts are supposed to be redrawn every ten years (following the ten-year census cycle) by the state government currently in power. Each redrawn district is supposed to each have a similar number of voters from that geographical area, and just like the counties (which these districts were based on), these geographical areas were historically rectangular. In the middle drawing above, five districts fairly represent the 60% majority of blue voters in those districts. The right hand drawing is what is going on in Texas and other Red states. Trump is a moron, but he can read a poll. He knows he is about to get walloped next year in the mid-terms. What to do? Those pesky college educated liberals are going to side with the Negros and brown people in the inner city and vote in someone who will get Jimmy Kimmell back on the air. Let's redraw the districts for the entire state of Texas five years early, shall we? We will carve up those subdivisions into smaller pieces and lump them in with hundreds of thousands of gun-toting, tobacco chewing law abiding white folks who vote for us! Often, these new districts were salamander-shaped, and a governor (his last name was Gerry) conceived the idea in 1812. Hence the term gerrymandered. If politicians are allowed to pick their voters rather than the other way around ... then political parties can move to appeal to a smaller and smaller demographic. They don't have to worry about appealing to white people and brown people. Rich people and poor people. Conservatives and liberals. Next time a politician knocks on your front door, ask him or her to show you a district map. It's one thing that continues to drive the camps further apart and one thing that Canada does really fairly. We need to keep it that way!
Look Out Below
Have you ever wondered what is beneath a manhole cover? I know firsthand because Sean Hancock and I used to explore storm sewers near home. We were 12, and there was a grate over a large storm drain just south of Huntingwood on Birchmount. You could squeeze past it, we spent hours in there. It was good, clean fun. So, in a normal arrangement, under the cover is a vertical concrete tube with steel rungs that lead down to a little concrete room. Leading out of that little room would be two or sometimes three horizontal tubes that you could walk in, crouched down usually. Every 500 or feet or so, was another little room with a manhole overhead. This is what Stone Road looks like just west of Victoria?
Either this is the epicentre and collection point of every storm drain system in southern Guelph ... or a clusterfudge of unbelievable proportions. My money is on the latter.
My Optimum Week
My month end is tomorrow, and my grocery spend this month was just over $500, so mission accomplished. I'll talk more about my Scene Card experience next week, but I did finagle a nice lady out of 2400 points from a long lost Scene account. Her condition was I use those points right away, and FreshCo had China Lily soya sauce on sale. SWMBO is very p a r t i c u l a r (think of that shreiking stabbing into the shower curtain sound from Psycho) about her soya sauce. This Canadian staple brand is getting harder and harder to find. I bought five 483 ml bottles, so I'm good on the soya sauce front until 2030. Maybe 2035.
I called out those waste bags last week, but there was drama in the checkout line. They were supposed to be $4.50 for a five pack with 1500 points. They were labelled on the shelf at $11.00 but scanned at $5.00?? I didn't have my phone and hate bothering a busy cashier with my whining. When I got home, I grabbed a screen print and popped back in on my way to FreshCo. I'm not sure what new math was employed, but she was determined to give me $9.08 in a refund. I didn't argue. So, I bought seven 5-packs and paid $35. I got 10,500 points and a nine-dollar refund. I ended up with a big stack of waste bags for forty-four cents each. Beat that or shut up.
I counted about 22 baking items in the flyer, so depending on your Thanksgiving entertainment plans, you might want to take a peek? I will forgo listing them all as you need to decide what you are going to bake first. My nephew's wife is the pie whisperer in our family. I'm not much for chemistry. A few good deals in the flyer and huge points on Pepsi products. Offers were below average, I thought, including Shoppers, which is offering 20K in points at a $90 spend. That's usually on a $60 spend, so stay away this week. Here is our list to add to your Fridge List:
Who Could Have Predicted This? (me)
Megan King
One more prediction and then I will stop talking about this. The deposit on cans for beer bottles in Ontario will be dropped. Throw em in the garbage. The Tories will say they are being recycled, but we all know what is really happening.
We Are Watching
Well, since it won five Emmys last week, we started watching The Pitt. Great characters, it's funny, it's really good!
Rabbit Hole Alert
I am not a dyed in the wool car guy. I know a bit about cars and am pretty handy around motors where you can actually see the motor, but I don't look at a taillight and say, "That's the 73 coupe with the tow package!" Those guys are mental. I got dragged down the rabbit hole last week trying to figure out what gorgeous sports car the Lynley character was driving in our new favourite Britbox series. We find out pretty quickly that his family is loaded. I thought perhaps some obscure Maserati? Nope. Way more weird.
A tiny British car maker has hired Carrozzeria Touring (yep, Italy) to design their new grand touring sedan. They come back with a design that this company loves, but the nose isn't long enough. "What's a matta for you?? It's a beautiful nose." They explain to Carrozzeria that they have contracted with Chrysler in Detroit to supply them with these gigantic 7.2 litre V8 engines for their new car. The design is modified accordingly, and they start stuffing these legendary muscle car power plants into little hand built road cars. Only 6000 were ever made, but in 1974, you could order this engine with the insane six-pack carburetor assembly. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls ... I give you the Jensen Interceptor. A giant fist in a velvet glove.
Mitch & Maddie