Blog about politics (mideast and pro-Israel, Canadian and local Montreal), world events, and random thoughts.

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The World I Know is updated on a semi-regular basis by segacs.

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Comments are open and unmoderated, although obscene or abusive remarks may be deleted. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of segacs's world i know.

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10:37 AM
Whazzup wit dos ads?

You may have noticed some rather odd-sounding advertisements cropping up at the bottom of the comments screens lately. Things like "Vote for Bush" or "accept Jesus" or other oddities that those readers who know me would know I would NEVER endorse. It seems Haloscan is making these decisions arbitrarily and, well, I'm too cheap to pay for a commenting system to get rid of them. I'm checking into my options, but in the meantime, consider this a disclaimer that any ads showing up in the comments screens do NOT reflect the views of this website.

Chanks.

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2:12 PM
A stroll down memory lane...

Packing up boxes of old stuff that I haven't even looked at in years inevitably caused the nostalgia to kick in. So maybe that's why I was so excited when I stumbled on Emily Jones' list of her favourite books that she read as a child. All the classics are on there, and Emily got the idea from a discussion with friends Sheila and Dan, both of whom have pretty steller lists themselves. Sheila's list in particular reminded me of some of the books I used to love, but had totally forgotten about.

I always loved to read. Books were my candy. I would painstakingly save up my allowance every week to make a trip to the neighbourhood bookstore for new titles. That bookstore is gone now - a victim to the superstore phenomenon of Chapters/Indigo - but then, it was the kind of place where the salespeople knew me and had recommendations set aside every time I walked in. I would read my favourite books until they were in tatters, committing them to memory.

So I figure I gotta put together my own list, but I know I'll leave so many out and I'll probably have to add them once people remind me:

• The Kit Pearson books: "The Daring Game", "A Handful of Time", and the "Norah" series - about a young girl and her brother sent from England to Canada as "war guests" during WWII.
  
  
• From Anna by Jean Little, about a German girl who immigrates to Canada with her family, and the sequel "Listen for the Singing". Jean Little also wrote a bunch of other favourites, including "Mine for Keeps" and "Home From Far".
  
  
• The Babysitters' Club series - all of them, until I got too old for them. I could quote from them. Literally. It was scary.
  
  
• The Root Cellar by Janet Lunn, about a girl named Rose who was transported back in time to the Civil War.
  
  
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - a classic, of course.
  
  
• the "Booky" trilogy by Bernice Thurman Hunter, about her childhood growing up in Ontario during the Great Depression.
  
  
• Centre Stage- I can't remember who the author is on this one, but it was about a little girl named Jenny who wanted to be a ballerina and attended the country's most prestigious school in Toronto. The movie "Center Stage" a couple of years ago was clearly based loosely on this book, but they made the characters older and moved the story to the States, and though I looked high and low, I couldn't find any mention of the book in the movie's credits.
  
  
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith - another classic.
  
  
• The Secret Garden and A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Both were made into movies, plays, and all sorts of other forms. The original books are still better.
  
  
• All of the Lois Duncan books - she wrote about the supernatural, and her books scared the hell out of me. Some of them still do.
  
  
• The "Ramona" series by Beverly Cleary. Thanks to the lists above for reminding me. To this day, I never hear the Star-Spangled Banner without thinking of the special kind of lamp, "the dawnzer lee light".
  
  
• Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery. Anne of Green Gables is more famous, but I liked Emily better.
  
  
• The "All-of-a-kind-Family" series by Sydney Taylor, about a Jewish family with five kids growing up in the Lower East Side of New York at the turn of the (last) century. Thanks to Sheila for reminding me of these.
  
  
• Sheila also listed Katherine Paterson's "Bridge to Terabithia" which was a great book, and reminded me of one of my other favourites by Paterson, "Lyddie".
  
  
• Dicey's Song and the rest of the Dicey series by Cynthia Voigt.
  
  
• No Promises in the Wind by Irene Hunt, about a teenaged boy who leaves home to make it on his own with his little brother during the Depression.
  
  
• The Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Especially the earlier books in the series, when Laura and Mary were growing up.

There are so many more and I'll probably add to this post as I think of them. But this trip down memory lane's been fun... feel free to join in.

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12:33 PM
Believe it or not, traditionally anti-Israel CBC has hired Irshad Manji as a commentator on The National:

. . . and the debut of someone who will be contributing some Point of View commentaries for us in the weeks ahead -- writer and broadcaster, Irshad Manji.

Judith, in a comment at LGF, wonders if someone at CBC read Manji's bio but forgot to read her resume:

I'm stunned, I'm amazed, I'm astounded, I'm shocked. How did the CBC allow one of Canada's finest anti-idiotarian on their airwaves to speak as a regular!?!

Well my husband says its because she's Muslim, she's a lesbian, she's a woman, in other words she's perfect for CBC, except that someone forgot to actually read what she says. This evenings talk was about how anti-Americanism is stupid. Wow! A pigs flying moment!

If only my TV were hooked up... I would've loved to see that.

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11:41 AM
There's been another suicide bombing in Israel. A female Palestinian suicide bomber blew herself up at a Gaza checkpoint, murdering at least four Israelis, in a case that yet again displays how every attempt by the Israelis to extend courtesies to the Palestinians is exploited and thrown back in their faces:

Brig.-Gen. Gadi Shamni told reporters that the woman evaded metal detectors by claiming she had platinum insets in her legs.

Shamni said she was taken to a side office and then fell over, the Jerusalem Post reported. When soldiers rushed to her help, she blew herself up.

"Because she was a woman, a female soldier was sent for, to inspect her. The terrorist made use of the waiting period for the arrival of the woman soldier, made her way further into the complex, and exploded," Shamni said.

You can imagine how the human rights groups would scream if, heaven forbid, a male soldier were to inspect women who set off metal detectors. How could they deny the terrorists these valuable loopholes to claim more innocent lives?

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10:04 AM
Moving

Blogging is light at the moment, and probably will be for most of the week, because I'm in the process of moving and I don't yet have Internet at home. Normal posting should resume shortly.

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