Archive for December 2004
[NON BLOG] New Year’s Message
2004 was a rather nice year for me.
I got my Master’s degree in English literature from Queen’s University; I’ve successfully gotten settled in Toronto; I’ve established new friendships and other assorted connections with a satisfyingly large number of interesting people (yes, this means you); I’ve had a very fun and profitable time blogging; at long last, I’ve begun dating.
It’s a nice broad collection of life goals that I’ve achieved, in whole or in part, this year, and I think that I’m right to be happy about this.
Now, off for New Year’s Eve.
[BRIEF NOTE] Languages in History
One commenter, Fred, comments on the relationship between Sumerian and proto-Finno-Ugric.
Comments are welcome.
[BRIEF NOTE] A Fan Page?
Googling idly, I found that my article “Genocides and Denial”, crossposted on Living in Europe and Living on the Planet, and my reaction to a Turkish commentator who kept posting annoying, irrelevant, and worrisome comments denying that anything out of line happened to the Armenians, has earned me an entire webpage:
The Mind of a Pro-Genocide Partisan: Randy McDonald
Says the poster about me, “Randy McDonald is a Canadian; his claim to fame is that he runs a blog site, named ‘Randy McDonald’s Livejournal.’ Yes, one of those folks who believe his/her life is so fascinating, that people would actually be interested in the minute details of his comings and goings.” Apparently I am a “nobody” who merits a nine-thousand-word essay criticizing him; also, apparently I feel strong connections with Ireland, because of my last name and because I quote from Sinéad O’Connor.
This is too fun.
I know one post that I’ll be writing in the new year.
UPDATE (4:20 PM) : The page is down, but the cached version is still up.
[NON BLOG] Aggravations
It would have be nice if, when I left home this morning, I had grabbed the 3 1/2-inch disc containing two well-written and intelligent posts that I planned to copy today, not an old backup disk containing school notes from my second year at UPEI.
It would also have been nice if the Zellers at 2290 Dundas Street West that I visited last night had carried the inexpensive and attractive wardrobe set that I wanted to assemble, and if the Wal-Mart on 920 Dufferin Street that I had visited the night before that had sold me a wardrobe that would have been possible to assemble.
Minor things, in the end.
[BRIEF NOTE] On the Tsunami
I can’t say anything that hasn’t been said already.
[BRIEF NOTE] Thinking Like a Tourist About PEI
Would it be condescending to describe the Island as quétaine? It certainly would be if, as the glossaries suggest, it means something much more contemptuous and much less endearing that I thought it meant. At the very least, I should explain why I chose that word.
Moving to Upper Canada last August, I began to notice a variety of cultural differences between Atlantic and Upper Canada, quite apart from the visibly greater wealth of Kingston–nicer urban public infrastructure, wealthier-looking homes, more expensive shops. Two weeks in, I realized that most of the people surrounding me talked like the people on national television, in the stereotypical American-influenced dialect of Canadian English that is slowly making inroads in Atlantic Canada against the more conservative dialects imported by the initial settlers. The fanaticism displayed by Toronto Maple Leafs fans during the playoffs was interesting to observe, from the perspective of a neutral observer. Remembering that the Prince Edward Island National Park is little more than a half-hour from my home, the mania in Toronto for summer camps struck me as odd until I realized that in the half-year since my move, I’ve descended to the Lake Ontario shorefront only twice.
The most visible differences between Toronto and Charlottetown are, of course, the demographic ones. I discovered this Thanksgiving that the city of Charlottetown has barely more than half of the population of the city council district where I live (35 thousand versus 60 thousand). And, of course, Queen-Dufferin is embedded in a very large metropolis, and is itself exceptionally multicultural; Charlottetown is at the top of the Island’s urban hierarchy, and is about as multicultural as Prince Edward Island gets. Toronto dominates its hinterland; in Charlottetown, the process of cultural urbanization described by Dasgupta is still ongoing.
Toronto is hardly foreign; rather, it is different. Returning to Prince Edward Island last week, I realized that I’d begun to operate according to Torontonian assumptions. Growing up, Charlottetown looked fairly large and bustling; returning, it looks small and somewhat quaint. The Island’s relatively lower level of economic development makes itself subtly apparent in any number of little details. The overall effect, though, was hardly unattractive. Rather, the various signs of the Island’s relative backwardness–an underpopulated and relatively poor and certainly monocultural urban landscape, a densely populated and cultivated rural landscape–were rather attractive, novelties almost.
Certainly I was well aware that the Island’s tourism strategy depends heavily on exploiting the province’s relatively low level of development. I did work three summers for the Department of Tourism, after all. Despite all that, though, I didn’t understand the actual effect of this strategy until last week.
A Bit More Detail 