Reader Tips

Reader Tips 32 Comments

The soundtrack to tonight’s Reader Tips thread comes from yet another strong and remarkable Saskatchewan woman. Born to a Scots Irish mother and a father of Norwegian stock, Roberta Joan Anderson and her family moved between a series of small towns in Alberta and Saskatchewan before finally settling down in Saskatoon, which she still considers her home town. Serious childhood health problems, including a near-fatal bout with scarlet fever and, later, temporary polio-induced paralysis, stoked her inner life and her creative talents; determined to become a folk singer, she left at the age of 21 for Toronto, where she met and was briefly married to a folk singer by the name of Chuck Mitchell, whose name she kept throughout her professional career.
Spotlit in the dark surrounds of Wembley Stadium, just her and her mountain dulcimer, here’s Joni Mitchell singing Carey.
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.

32 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. Former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar:
    “What binds us, however, is our unyielding support for Israel’s right to exist and to defend itself. For Western countries to side with those who question Israel’s legitimacy, for them to play games in international bodies with Israel’s vital security issues, for them to appease those who oppose Western values rather than robustly to stand up in defence of those values, is not only a grave moral mistake, but a strategic error of the first magnitude.
    “Israel is a fundamental part of the West. The West is what it is thanks to its Judeo-Christian roots. If the Jewish element of those roots is upturned and Israel is lost, then we are lost too. Whether we like it or not, our fate is inextricably intertwined.”

  2. Bravo! Well-said, Mr. Jose Maria Aznar.
    The West’s Achilles Heel is to not recognize the importance of the Judeo-Christian foundations of every one of its democratic institutions.
    To dump Israel and its ties to the West’s foundational institutions –which have succored individual freedoms and multiculturalism — is suicidal.
    What is our problem recognizing this?

  4. Charles Krauthammer:
    “Pedestrian is beneath Obama. Mr. Fix-It he is not. He is world-historical, the visionary, come to make the oceans recede and the planet heal.
    “How? By creating a glorious, new, clean green economy. And how exactly to do that? From Washington, by presidential command and with tens of billions of dollars thrown around. With the liberal (and professorial) conceit that scientific breakthroughs can be legislated into existence, Obama proposes to give us a new industrial economy.”
    (…)
    “Obama is dreamer in chief: He wants to take us to this green future ‘even if we’re unsure exactly what that looks like. Even if we don’t yet precisely know how we’re going to get there.’ Here’s the offer: Tax carbon, spend trillions and put government in control of the energy economy — and he will take you he knows not where, by way of a road he knows not which.”
    The whole thing here.

  7. Back to the original post, Joni Mitchell, in my humble opinion has always represented what one would call, a “class act”.
    She may have enjoyed an excentric opportunity or two, but the lady cannot be touched in the quality of her work.
    Politics and work never mixed as far as I know, or at least not a great degree. Worldwide, her fans recognize this. And that’s what they pay for.
    Other “saviour” artists should take note.

  8. *
    back in the eighties… coming off nights…
    used to spark one up and fall asleep to
    “miles of aisles”.
    joni really had the chops to soothe the
    savage swing-shift blues.
    *

  12. O’s KatrinaBP: Barack Petroleum’s Hollywood China Syndrome.
    …-
    “Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Other Stars Pitch In After Gulf Oil Spill
    MTV.com – Kara Warner – ‎11 hours ago‎
    A collection of artists has agreed to boycott fuel sold by BP on their tours this summer, after the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.”
    (googlenews)

  13. Further to my comment from last night: “To dump Israel and its ties to the West’s foundational institutions –which have succored individual freedoms and multiculturalism — is suicidal”:
    I mean genuine, productive multiculturalism, where the West drew immigrants from countless shores who integrated into their new countries and contributed positively to the common good — as opposed to the “new” multiculturalism whose mantra is that “all DWEMs are bad, whereas all visible minorities are good.”

  18. O’s Swan Song: Vetted by O’s Harvard buddy, Canadian Liberal leader, O’Ziffy.
    “The Thrill Is Gone*”.
    Leftist NYSlimes has dumped O’narcissist.
    NTSlimes confirms/accepts O’s legacy**:
    “What’s left for many is a big plume of disappointment and sadness lurking just beneath the surface.”
    Dr. Sam foretold it here** before O’narcissist was elected:
    “**This is his sole legacy: a massive post-traumatic stress disorder.”
    O’s Hope: “inspired by his vision of a happier ever after.”
    O’s Fear: “He wasn’t always elegant in method or clear in message, and that allowed the more cynical side of America to find a footing and feed its fear.”
    …-
    “*The Thrill is Gone
    President Obama’s relationship with America, like many a young marriage, is growing sour.
    That’s my surmise after reviewing recent polling and watching the carping that followed his Oval Office speech (which I thought was just fine, by the way).
    It is becoming increasingly apparent that the magic has drained away. Even among his most ardent supporters, there now exists a certain frustration and disillusionment — not necessarily in the execution of his duties, but in his inability to seize moments, chart a course and navigate the choppy waters of public opinion.
    What’s left for many is a big plume of disappointment and sadness lurking just beneath the surface.
    Desperate to escape eight-years of an abusive relationship with a reckless cowboy and scared by a calculating John McCain who chose a feckless running mate, America was charmed by Obama’s supernal speeches and inspired by his vision of a happier ever after.
    But once the marriage was official, reality set in and Obama tried to lower expectations. Life would not be lit by the soft glow of an eternal sunrise. Change would come slowly; pain would be felt presently; things would get worse before they got better.
    In addition, he had to make tough choices (and not always the right ones) to steer us out of our darkest hour and secure a better future. He wasn’t always elegant in method or clear in message, and that allowed the more cynical side of America to find a footing and feed its fear.”
    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/19/opinion/19blow.html?
    …-
    O’narcissist:
    http://www.globalpolitician.com/25109-barack-obama-elections
    (H/T *The Thrill Is Gone Lyrics, BB King ****
    Oh, the thrill is gone baby. Baby its gone away for good. Someday I know I’ll be over it”
    (search)

  19. While I always liked and appreciated her music, my one personal encounter was not so great. She had scheduled a concert at Hamilton Place in the ’70s, and as talent of the day being seen anywhere but Toronto was rare, the audience was appreciative and dressed to kill for the concert. Anyone who knows Hamilton Place know that the venue is wonderful for a performer to connect with their audience and give a great show. Intimate, but not too much so. Anyway, she greeted the audience, did her opening chatter and began sing one of her signature hits, just got into it, and stopped cold. There was some discussion between her and crew at the back. It was then the audience found out that it was to a taped live performance and they were having audio problems in recording. The audience had not been told this and they weren’t too pleased. She restarted several times in different songs, until it was evident the audience was becoming angry and they continued to have problems. She was apologetic, but by the time the fiasco ended, most people left more angry then pleased. Despite putting up with it the show never made it air. Every time I hear her music or her name I think of that night – I had second row seats. I don’t recall that refunds were offered – they may have been.

  20. andycanuck @12:30 – what the hell was that?!?

    Some internet trick, sorry I’m not an IT guy, that superimposes an image etc. over another web page.
    I tried it with the NYT, too, but I guess they’ve got some protection against this that blogs don’t have. Too bad, too, because I was going to do a link for it with the line, “Krugman blows”.

  21. Thanks for this post.
    When I was about 8, my parents took the family up to Saskatoon (where they’d both grown up) and looked up some old friends. We went for dinner at the home of their old friends, the Andersons. They had some lovely paintings on the wall which I was admiring. At that age the only exposure to art I’d had was finger-painting at school, and while I’d seen a lot of painintgs, I’d vaguely assumed that they were mechanically produced somehow, something like fancy photography. It had never occurred to me that people made them.
    So when my folks expressed their own admiration, I was floored when the Andersons replied, “Oh, Joni did those.” That was their teenage daughter who was still in high school. I’ve never forgotten what an eye-opening revelatory experience it was to realize suddenly – wait a minute, people make things like that! Regular people, people still in school, can make things like that!
    And yes, it was the same Joni Anderson who not long after became Joni Mitchell.
    As to the song, God knows if anybody anywhere has a copy of “Carey/Morning Morgantown” as recorded by Tony Malone. (He was a mainstay of the Toronto scene for many years, the man behind Drastic Measures and much more.) It was commissioned for a Joni Mitchell tribute CD, and rejected as “disrepectful to the material”. I thought it was a good deal better than anything they actually used. I was in a band at the time and Tony hung around with us, and so we pressed it up as a vinyl single on our vanity label, but that was about 25 years ago now and I have no idea where, if anywhere, you’d able to find it now. But it’s well worth looking for.
    Well, forgive the meandering nostalgia, but thanks.

  23. Shamrock,it appears that Travers rewrote the Young Liberal playbook out of spite or laziness,and to think the CBC never noticed his bias. This column should be titled “Why I hate the Conservatives”.

  24. O’Barack Petroleum:
    O’I’m Barry Soetoro and O’I’m reporting for duty*.”
    …-
    “BP Tries to Clarify Who Is in Charge”
    “… the same day Mr. Hayward attended a yacht race off the southern coast of England. “He is having some rare private time with his son,” a BP spokeswoman, Sheila Williams, said in a telephone interview on Saturday.
    Mr. Hayward, she said, runs all of BP’s operations, including those in the gulf, even if he is handing over some of the day-to-day duties in the region to Robert Dudley. “Tony receives regular updates from the Gulf,” Ms. Williams said in an e-mail message.”
    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/us/20spill.html
    (*H/T John Skerry)

  25. OK – so Hayward is out yachting – and what should we bet that Obama is out golfing?

  26. “G20 protesters: A guide to who you’ll find on the barricades
    Toronto Star”
    Sources say, this is a short list:
    Libby Davies, Suzuki, AlTippedGore, Liberal Kyoto Dionky, Pablo The Whino Liberal, Taliban Jack LaytoNDP, Mao Stlong’s nephew, aka “Liberal Leader” Bob Rae, et al.
    Liberal Ziffy is absent; says he was “Just Visiting” “The Canadians”.
    Our mole says, Ziffy has winged off to his retreat in Provence, France. Sends his regrets.

  27. Under the category The World’s Being Run by Crazy People:
    More than 1,200 workers have been banned from flying England flags on their own cars by managers – over fears they could deemed as racist.
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1285492/Council-workers-banned-flying-England-flags-OWN-cars.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#ixzz0rKkHAVAF
    So, showing pride in Enlgand and one’s British heritage is now a multiculti offence? I wonder what flags the Islamists are flying from their cars?
    Dhimmied England is doomed.

  30. A new word, I think, coined by the erudite and articulate David Warren in the article linked by Revnant Dream, above:
    “vuvuzelaceously loud”
    !!!!!!

  31. Tip wanted: Herp person? Snake hobbyist?
    Photograph of a little beauty right next to a crow. He may have swiped the crow’s dinner. He just ate….obviously.
    The little snake dove down into the weeds, so only one photo.
    Can you name this little snake?…photo
    ToneRobinson.blog.com
    These guys at SaltWaterReptiles are stumped.
    http://tinyurl.com/2g64nej
    Who is this pretty little snake?

  32. Canadian soldiers served in Iraq?????
    But, but, but, ,,, Canadian “Liberal Leader” Bob
    Rae said no Canadian soldiers served in Iraq.
    See/hear Boob on BoobTube*.
    “Lt. Gen. Peter Devlin, who served in Iraq with the U.S. like Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Walter Natynczyk,”.
    “Canada’s army gets a new boss”
    http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2010/06/19/14449096.html
    “*Tindal and Rae disagree on Cdn Involvement in Iraq (full)”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jiQAyGFADc

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