Why some people should not be parents

No one ever said life was fair or balanced.

After all, you need a license to sell hot dogs on a street corner, keep a dog or cat in your house, or broadcast your grandmother's dessert recipes via ham radio. But anyone with working biologicals can have a child.

Sadly, having functional parts does not qualify a person to be a parent. This story, Police: Parents gave crying baby vodka, underscores why some people deserve to be sterilized before being thrown in jail.

The short strokes are chilling - a three-month-old baby girl died after her parents gave her a lethal dose of vodka. She had a BAC of 0.47 - over five times the legal limit. As if should could have decided for herself anyway.

I hope they throw away the key when they catch and convict these monsters.

One small consolation: we needn't worry about these two selling us hot dogs on a street corner.

Your turn: Is it time to tighten society's rules around becoming a parent? Should this be licensed? Is it even feasible?

Early morning at the breakfast table

Forget that it tastes good, it's relatively healthy and low-fat, and the kids really like it. What's most important is that it has a neat surface when it's first opened.

Your turn: Are you a hummous person? How do you pronounce it?

Nuts

Your turn: I can't put my finger on it, but these remind me of something. Anyone want to hazard a guess or two?

Quick aside: Why this pic? Simple: a new grocery store opened up in our neighborhood. So, without anything better to do on a Saturday night, we loaded the kids into the wondervan and went on an adventure. The place seemed somewhat overstaffed - typical for a new store, because they want customers to think the store will always have an abundance of folks prowling the aisles just begging to help lost customers....we know the truth, however. But I digress.

Zach and I set off in search of photographic targets of opportunity. We felt like kids exploring a brand new playground. It was all so fresh and clean. Pretty soon it'll be a depressing big box store, just like every other depressing big box store. But for a little while anyway, it was fun to wander the pristine rows and think about all the possibilities. Zach did the spotting and I did the shooting: he thought the nuts would be cool. I think his photographic judgment is better than mine.

Yeah, we definitely need to get out more.

Just a faucet?

Our typical intercity drive often has us spending oodles of hours on the 401. Canada's busiest highway cuts through Ontario from Windsor all the way to the Quebec border just east of Cornwall. All in all, it's a shade under 500 miles or 800 km long.

We've come to know this highway well in the years since we moved to London. It's the route we take to visit family back in Montreal, and in the dozens of times we've driven it, it's not a stretch to say that we've likely memorized every exit, curve, and geographic feature.

On our way home recently, we stopped in Belleville for a much-needed break. We parked beside the Quinte Mall - which despite the fact that it looks like any other indoor mall on the planet, is nevertheless a welcome refuge on a long, boring drive - and headed for the food court.

Little people have little constitutions. So we found the family washroom and were blown away by the pristine cleanliness, comfy chairs, lovely music and overall coziness of what is usually a disgusting facility that is ignored by management and reviled by those of us who care about such things. This place was different: we could have stayed there all night.

While the kids raved about how cool this loo was, I concentrated on the faucet and tried to get photographically artsy with it. This is a longer-than-handheld, flashless exposure, using the counter as a makeshift tripod. It may look plain. But it will forever take me back to a 10-minute slice during which my kids happily unwound with each other in a surprisingly warm place far from home, and I got to watch them be themselves.

Lucky me.

Quoted - eWEEK

Damn, I can't believe I missed this one: eWEEK published a piece entitled Microsoft Sees a Google Future on November 2. Byline was Ben Charny. I was commenting on Microsoft's Windows Live and Office Live announcement.

Here's what I said:

"This is the clearest evidence yet that Microsoft is getting Google's message," said Carmi Levy, senior research analyst at Info-Tech Research Group, a technology consultant. "Google has clearly shifted software towards a new, Web-based paradigm."

That opinion, a popular one nowadays, would have drawn a snicker two years ago when Google was showing how free, advertising-supported Internet search generates billions of dollars in annual revenues. But now...

I've been hoping to be quoted by eWEEK - a serious tech journalism heavyweight - for ages. This makes me skip a little more lightly on my feet.

Publish Day - Ink Blog - Suicide isn't painless

My paper has been running an excellent series on suicide all week. Entitled Ending it all, it has lifted the veil, so to speak, on a problem that at once touches us all, yet is deliberately not discussed by the very same people whose lives it darkens.

I wrote this because I wanted to ensure the discussion didn't stop here. I know so many of us have been brushed by it, yet haven't had the courage to discuss it in the open.

Your turn: Although it may be difficult for some, I hope you'll consider sharing a thought of two on suicide, depression, and the toll it takes on individuals and society.

Here's my perspective, published in today's paper:

Cloak of silence lifted from suicide
Published Saturday, November 26, 2005
The London Free Press

A lifetime ago, I was a 13-year-old learning to sail Laser-class boats at summer camp. My instructor, Robert, painstakingly guided me from neophyte to a confident captain who could easily command the boat in any situation.

He was barely out of his teens, but his maturity and wisdom made him seem so much older. He was a patient mentor who always seemed to have his hand firmly on the tiller on his way to a bright future.

A few years later, he killed himself.

This week’s London Free Press series on suicide has taught us how this disease of society thrives in dark shadows. We never talk about it for fear of offending. It has touched so many of us, but we keep it buried deeply.

But if the teenagers of tomorrow are going to have young mentors to guide them, someone’s got to shine the light on this silent menace, to flush it from the recesses of shame and into forums where we feel safe to talk about it.

Look inward, and don’t be afraid to start that conversation.

-30-

Me again: My editor, Larry Cornies, today published a searing column, Suicide series touches many lives. Editor-in-chief Paul Berton ran a great journalist's perspective column - entitled Time to talk about suicide - in today's paper as well. As difficult as it is to talk about suicide, the all-stops coverage by the paper is encouraging, to say the least. I hope the dialog continues.

Here are the links to the articles in the Ending it all series that inspired this thread. Randy Richmond is the reporter who researched and wrote these articles. It's great, necessary reading.

• Help is fragmented
  
• We have no answers
  
• Family hopes to help others survive
• Negotiators' words hold life and death
  
• Life goes on
• A jumbo jet crash every month

Quoted - BlackBerry heads to the East Coast

It was a good media day for me yesterday. I was interviewed by Canada's national wire service, Canadian Press, for an article on Research In Motion's decision to open a technical support centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

They made the announcement on Friday, and this was big news in a region that has had more than its fair share of economic hardship.

The National Post is running the story, Research In Motion sets up shop in Nova Scotia; creates 1,200 jobs. Byline is Michael Tutton from CP.

Canadaeast.com is running two versions of the piece: here and here.
The myTelus site has it here.
Yahoo! posted it here.
The Brockville Recorder & Times (even small-town Ontario reads tech) has it here.

Here's my snippet:

Carmi Levy, a research analyst with Info-Tech Research Group in London, Ont., said the government money was likely key to the deal, but the major factor was Ontario's tight high-tech labour market.

"Waterloo and Ottawa are talent markets that have been tapped dry by the major technology vendors in Canada and the United States," he said.

"For now RIM has Halifax mostly to itself."

The company said it expects to begin hiring through job fairs beginning in January.

Levy also said the company needed some good news after months of troubles in the U.S. courts in a patent dispute with NTP Inc.

The legal dispute threatens BlackBerry sales in the United States unless there's a settlement or an appeal victory for RIM.

"This is the perfect kind of good news announcement that diverts attention from all of the bad news that's been dogging the company for the past year," said Levy.

Update: The Daily News (in Halifax) is running this piece: High-tech RIM to create 1,250 jobs. Byline is Stephane Massinon. Here's what I said...

Carmi Levy has watched the growth of Research in Motion. The senior research analyst with Info-tech said the jobs coming to HRM will be coveted.

“These are not entry-level jobs at all. This is one of the highest of the high-tech companies right now,” said Levy yesterday.

Levy described the company as a significant force with international clout.

“This a high-flyer in the mobile-wireless sector; they are the acknowledged leader in what’s called push-based e-mail. The term BlackBerry has become synonymous with mobile e-mail.

“For a small, upstart Canadian company, they have become dominant around the world.”

RIM has thrived in Waterloo because of that city’s high level of people with post-secondary education. Levy said Nova Scotia’s reputation for universities was part of the decision to bring an office here.

But not all is well with the company. For years, it has been in an American court facing a patent infringement lawsuit from NTP Inc., a company based in Richmond, Va. The judge hearing the case has said recently that a decision would come soon, possibly any day now.

Levy’s read of the situation is that RIM could end up paying between a half-billion and a billion dollars as a result. “That money isn’t that much of an issue,” said Levy.

“(Paying) would give them the right to continue to use the underlying technology to drive their network and BlackBerry service until 2012, when the patent runs out,” explained Levy.

Publish Day - Ink Blog - More local politics

I seem to be in a bit of a political mood this week. I didn't set out for it to be this way: I'm never fully sure what I'm going to write about until I sit down and start writing. I often start writing through a couple of story ideas before I let them battle it out. One wins, the other (or others, as the case may be) will simply wither on the screen.

This one jumped out at me because it dealt with one of my favorite anti-democratic bodies, the Ontario Municipal Board. As a free-speech-crusading journalist, few things bug me more than government-sanctioned bodies that ram decisions down the population's throat - which the OMB has done repeatedly since I started writing about them.

For once, though, I think the OMB sorta got it right this time. So I felt somewhat compelled to get off my usual critic's chair and give them the writer's equivalent of a pat on the back.

I still think the OMB is undemocratic, and I'll still flay it when I think it has crossed a line. But for now, I'm smiling.

New ward system will drive change
Published Friday, November 25, 2005
The London Free Press

I’ve long criticized the Ontario Municipal Board for its heavy-handed rulings that have often gone against the will of the communities it supposedly serves. But I may become an OMB fan in light of its latest position on London’s municipal roadmap.

The OMB’s order to London to replace its current seven-ward system with 14 smaller wards has raised cheers from citizen advocacy groups. City councillors who oppose this ruling have said the new system will make it easier for special interest groups to hijack the city’s agenda. I think they worry too much.

This city needs a good shakeup. Tax rates have consistently outpaced the rate of inflation. Services have been cut. City hall has been rocked by one embarrassing and expensive controversy after another. Civic bureaucracy has steadfastly resisted calls for change.

Something needed to change, and like it or not, London’s new ward system will form the basis for driving that change.

Any city councillors who aren’t comfortable with this might want to find a new line of work.

-30-

Publish Day - Ink Blog - Canadian politics

Here in the Great White North, we're on the verge of a call for a federal election. The ruling minority government is on its last legs after being hit with a corruption scandal, and the opposition parties are already circling their prey, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

If I'm being brutally direct, all of this kinda bores me. Political machinations never really change. The arguments are always the same, and the players are almost universally shallow and incomplete human beings. They are hardly the role models I thought they were when I was a kid, so I don't think it's worth my while to actively memorize every word they say on the evening news.

Still, it's democracy. So it's important to still know what's going on.

So I took out my pen and thought I'd muse on the irony of a pre-election spending spree by the ruling party. It always seems to work that way: the checkbook comes out just before voters go to the polls. It's nothing more than a blatant way to steal votes through bribery. And history shows that it works.

Of course, that's all our money that's being spent. I thought readers might want a little additional perspective on this.

Darn, I've become cynical and jaded.

Payback at polls for spending spree
Published Thursday, November 24, 2005
The London Free Press

I’m thinking of sending Prime Minister Paul Martin a card to thank him for the wonderful gifts he’s decided to lavish on us this holiday season.

All the things I’ve been wishing for – including a fleet of Hercules transport planes to replace aircraft that should have been retired decades ago, compensation for native Canadians who were sexually abused in church-run residential schools, and support for grain farmers so they can better compete internationally – will finally be mine. It’ll be the best holiday season ever.

I know that as a taxpayer I am footing the bill for this pre-election largesse. I know that none of this spending might ever actually happen if the government is not re-elected. Politics is, after all, a game of smoke and mirrors. And what better way to bamboozle the electorate than to wave gobs of goodies under their noses.

Still, it’s the season of giving. Taxpayers will have ample opportunity to give back what’s been taken when they finally go to the polls.

Happy holidays, Paul.

-30-

Publish Day - Ink Blog - Auto sector smackdown

Today's column deals with the fallout of the General Motors retrenchment announced earlier this week. I was originally going to write about something else. I figured enough ink had been spilled over the unfortunate loss of thousands of Canadian and American jobs.

Then I read the union response to the cuts, and I changed my mind. The leaders of Canada's largest autoworkers union trotted out same old themes. If it were up to them, we'd all go back to the days of guaranteed jobs, high wages, low education requirements, and a limitless future with no real-world competition.

Unfortunately for the Big Three, the cushy world they dominated fifty years ago is gone forever. They have failed to compete on the same playing field as their new competitors. They have become dinosaurs. And as much as we all - and I include myself in that "we" - pine for the days when we'd work for a benevolent employer until our retirement day, it's easy to see that the employment world is a much colder place these days.

So I wrote the following piece.

Your turn: After you're done reading this, I hope you'll share your perspectives on unions, and whether or not they've managed to adapt to the new realities of the business world.

Big Three, CAW running out of gas
Published Wednesday, November 23, 2005
The London Free Press

It is both fascinating and sad to watch domestic automakers cutting their operations to the bone, while Honda and Toyota invest billions in new plants and people.

The only response Canadian Auto Workers union President Buzz Hargrove can muster is the same old rant about foreign manufacturers having unfair, reduced-tariff access to the North American market.

Domestic manufacturers, hobbled by aging products union contract limitations, can’t compete against their more agile competitors. Their products lag behind.

Consumers spending their hard-earned dollars on a vehicle expect efficiency, performance and reliability. Other automakers have figured out how to do it better, and they’re eating up the domestics’ market share.

The war is over, Buzz. The imports have won. Union contract and pension costs have become an albatross around the domestic manufacturers’ necks.

Stop whining about unfair competition. You simply can’t compete any more.

-30-

Update - Sat. Nov. 26. I've been getting some nasty e-mail from readers - obviously union members who believe in everyone's inalienable right to permanent, high-paid employment. I'm not upset by this. As I've said before and continue to maintain, any response is a good thing. If I force readers to sit up, take notice and get involved in the discussion, then I have accomplished my goal.

Beyond the e-mail, much of which is so rife with grammatical and spelling errors as to be hilariously pathetic, the Free Press published a letter to the editor in todays paper. Here it is:

Auto workers only want decent living standard

Regarding the Ink Blog, Big Three, CAW running out of gas (Nov. 23).

Carmi Levy argues that it is our unwillingness to be "competitive" that has led to the current dilemma of North American automakers.

He is misguided. All unionized workers have ever asked for is a fair shake. That means fighting for liveable wages, adequate benefits and secure pensions, so that workers can raise a family, purchase a house, send their kids to school and retire comfortably. Is that too much to ask?

One of the main reasons Asian autoworkers cannot unionize and aspire to the standard of living we enjoy in the West is that unionization is banned in many Asian countries (China, especially). Is that the type of undemocratic society to which we should aspire?

Mike Hurley
London

Publish Day - Ink Blog - Drinking to excess

It's another publishing week for me at the newspaper, so from now until Saturday I'll be posting my daily quick missives on whatever's coursing through my mind. I invite you all to share your thoughts - agree or disagree, it's all good - and personal stories in the comments below.

I wrote this after reading another report on how problem drinking is an even bigger issue in this region than in any other part of the province. Holiday season always seems to bring with it an increase in the frequency of booze-related stories in the media. I know I'm contributing to it, but I don't have a problem shining the spotlight a little brighter or wider if it means even one person takes notice.

I thought of this piece last night as I drove my family home through a dark and rainy night. We were at the end of a 700+ kilometre drive from Montreal, about five minutes away from home, when an idiot in a blue Civic coupe charged sidelong through four lanes of oncoming traffic to get to the parking lot of an apartment building. I panic-braked to miss him, as did every car around and in front of me. My first thought was no sober person would consciously drive like that, and that had I been alone, I would have stayed at the scene, called 911, and had him charged.

Although my overriding parental instinct to get my sleeping family home in one piece prevailed last night, part of me feels guilty for not doing more - especially on the day that I had written this - to get this moron off the road. Decisions.

So without further ado, here's the piece. Please note the editing gremlin that seems to have crept into my byline. My family name is "Levy", not "Levi".

Drinking report needed wake-call
Published Tuesday, November 22, 2005
The London Free Press

It’s a sobering reality check to realize the rate of problem drinking in Middlesex County far exceeds the provincial average.

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health has just released statistics showing Middlesex residents report far higher incidences of drinking and driving, binge drinking, hazardous drinking and drinking-related problems than any other Ontario region.

If you’ve got a problem with booze, this is your wake-up call to get help. If you don’t, you are also accountable for fighting this scourge before you or those you love are killed by a drunk driver.

If a friend or colleague has hit the bottle too hard, we must all do anything in our power to help. Take away the keys, call Alcoholics Anonymous, rally some friends to intervene, do whatever it takes to stop the deadly cycle.

Christmas is just over a month away. Holiday partying season is already hard upon us. Consider this society’s long-overdue wake-up call. It is, simply, now or never for problem drinkers – and for the rest of us.

-30-

Cool shades on warm sand

I look outside the window and see nothing but a steel gray horizon and bare trees. I go outside and draw my coat tighter to ward off the bone-chilling cold that suddenly seems to dominate our days.

As winter begins its descent on this part of the world, I hold onto words and images that remind me of warmer days. It wasn't so long ago that my wife and I watched our kids frolic on the beach, wondering where they got the energy and how we'd be able to perpetuate the magic of days like that for as long as possible.

Hopefully we'll soon be able to give our kids the opportunity to let the warm sand ooze through their toes. Until then, I'll hold onto images like this one to keep the fires burning inside.

About this picture: I took this at the end of a great day at Grand Bend. As we began to pack everything up, I noticed our little guy's shades just sitting on the sand. I liked what I saw, so out came the camera.

Your turn: I hope you'll share a brief story in a comment about what brings you warmth. This time of year seems to be about keeping warm - in body and thoughts - and I'd love to see what y'all do to keep the cold - literal and figurative - at bay.

Young person's honesty

While driving along the highway yesterday, our youngest announced his need to use the washroom. His timing was impeccable: the exit to the rest stop was just coming up.

When he was done, he dutifully trooped over to the sink and I helped him stretch his little hands into the sink to wash his hands. It was tough for him, but he told me how much he likes washing his hands, and he always has to wash when he's done.

I thought he was ignoring the regular parade of men who were using the facilities, then nonchalantly walking out the door. As he proudly announced that his hands were all clean and rinsed, he turned to me and asked, loudly, how come that man wasn't washing his hands.

He: "Didn't he make a pee, too? He must have forgotten to wash his hands. Should I tell him?"
Me (quietly): "I'm sure he forgot...but we never forget, do we?"
He (still loudly): "We always wash our hands. Then we don't get sick."

Smart kid. It's amazing how so-called knowledgable adults could learn the basics from a five-year-old.

Your turn: How do you respond when you see someone not washing in a public washroom? Does it disgust you as much as it disgusts me?

Ivy - dead and alive

Whenever I visit a new place, I always try to walk around a neighborhood or two if I can spare the time. I cart along my camera as well so that I can bring back images to illustrate what I was feeling as I drifted through the alien landscape.

On my recent trip to Boston (click here, here, here and here if you haven't seen the original entries) I was lucky enough to have had an hour or so to stroll and shoot. In the middle of a fast-paced business trip amidst a period of intense workload, it was an idyllic way to unwind and let my mind roam. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

I took these two images a minute apart as I walked through the Back Bay area. They are mere meters away from each other on the wall of a beautiful old apartment building. But they couldn't be more diametrically opposed in the stories they tell.

As an aside, I've always wanted to shoot pictures of ivy, but for some strange reason never managed to get around to it until that day (October 19, at 2:36 and 2:37, respectively). The plant's abilty to cling to a hard, foreign surface and survive through whatever nature can throw at it has always struck a poetic chord with me.

Strikingly, even when it loses its battle, it remains a compelling image.

Your turn: Two parts...

1. Which one of these images is your favorite, and why?
2. Please walk through a neighborhood - your own or a new one - with a camera and post an image to your blog. Feel free to share in words what you were thinking as you took the shot. Post the link here so we can all see the uniqueness of your vision.
   

Little man's nightmare

I always look forward to quiet evenings at home. After the kids are in bed, calmness descends on the house as my wife and I enjoy an all-too-brief respite from the craziness of the day.

Last night was no different. We were in the living room. My wife was reading and I was rearranging words on my laptop. As the clock struck our almost-bedtime, we heard stirring from upstairs. As we have done countless times since we became parents, we looked at each other and wondered who it was, and why.

Little feet pattered their way down the stairs. It was our youngest, clutching his blanket, and he didn't look happy. He wasn't crying, but his face was pained.

He: "I can't sleep. I had a bad nightmare and it woke me up."

The last words weren't out of his mouth before he buried himself in my wife's arms.

We: "What did you dream about?"
He: "I dreamed that I died."

After my wife and I recovered from the kick in the abdomen that hearing something like this from a five-year-old can deliver, we scrambled to say the right thing to him.

Although we don't actively encourage them to sleep in our bed - not even the world's best sleeper would be able to handle it next to little people who flip themselves over almost constantly and steal the blankets - we felt an exception was in order this time.

So we trooped upstairs and tucked him in between us. Many hugs, kisses and calming words were shared. He drifted off to sleep in minutes and woke up the next morning with his usual cheery face.

Parenthood...

Chaos, close-up

I've been busy lately. Calls aren't returned. Voicemails remain in an eternal blinking red-light state. E-mails stay in my inbox until they are buried by the never-ending torrent of new messages. Even my wife often has to IM me from across the room.

Often, when fighting a deadline or otherwise juggling more things than I should, I tend to let the blizzard of papers get the better of my desk. Strangely, it doesn't slow me down any. I seem to thrive on the chaos that is my environment. It stresses me to that just-optimal point where I am most creative. Any more and I'd freeze up; any less and I'd be so relaxed that I'd spend too much time making the perfect mug of tea.

So this is a desk's-eye view of where I work. One the surface, it's pretty routine stuff: two-21-inch monitors, a keyboard (Microsoft...sorry), a set of headphones for the requisite drown-out-the-world soundtrack, enough paper to start my own recycling plant, and pictures of the people who inspire me. But it's homey, and I can't imagine it being any other way.

(BTW, those are indeed my hands. Madge - of dish-pan hands/Palmolive fame - would not be impressed. Typing is murder on my skin.)

Your turn: What does your immediate workplace look like? Is chaos the answer for you as well?

Quoted - twosies

The never-ending geek parade remains never-ending. I've been quoted in a couple of neat places over the past couple of days:

InformationWeek is running a piece entitled Fixing Your Network's Five Worst Bottlenecks. This piece, written by Matthew Friedman, reflects my contention that most network administrators need to spend more time doing their homework.

The Globe and Mail is running another in a series on Research In Motion's BlackBerry mobile device: RIM's U.S. customers needn't fret, analysts contend: BlackBerry service shutdown unlikely over patent fight. Simon Avery, the paper's technology reporter, penned the piece, which was published in today's paper on page B6. Here's my bit:

Mr. (Jim) Balsillie (chairman and co-chief executive officer of RIM) has said the company has tested a "workaround" system that would deliver BlackBerry service but operate on technology independent of the patents NTP holds.

Some analysts dismiss his claim as a temporary public relations effort meant to ease concerns.

It would involve nothing less than the "complete overhaul of the hardware and software that supports the BlackBerry messaging service," said Carmi Levy, a senior analyst at Info-Tech Research Group in London, Ont. "It's analogous to rebuilding an airplane while it's still in flight."

Live free or die? Not quite

In the never-ending search for content to read over breakfast oatmeal, I came across a rather provocative piece in The Washington Post.

Entitled N.H. Puts a Price on Panoramas, the article describes how assessors in the state made famous for banishing income taxes are now placing monetary values on the views from certain homes. These so-called bonus features are then used as the basis for increases in property tax assessments.

I have no quarrel with the basic concept of taxes. As I've repeated so often before, it's the price we pay for the standard of living we currently enjoy. I take issue, however, with blatant grabs for cash that violate every ethical contract between ratepayers and their democratically elected governments.

I know these things matter little to the porcine politicos we put into office and their civil servant cousins who collectively feed at the publicly-funded trough. But their indifference does little to reduce unfair taxation's impact on the rest of us.

Selfishly and somewhat sheepishly, I do admit I'm almost sorry that municipal governments closer to home haven't tried anything similar. I'd happily devote a column or two to this if it was ever floated for our part of the world.

Your turn: Now that they're taxing the view, I guess it's open season on all of us. What will they decide to tax next? Will this cat-and-mouse game ever really end?

Technorati tag: writteninc

Update: The Washington Post has picked up this link on its "Who's Blogging?" page. Click here to see who else is blogging about this story.

Don't cry

With the return of cooler weather, I once again find myself wearing a trench coat during the day. This supports my somewhat odd habit of taking surreptitious pictures of things I come across in stores, because it makes it relatively easy to carry my little digicam in a deep coat pocket without being caught by the grocery store police.

Your turn: I never thought I'd see the day, but I believe I'm starting to run out of things to photograph in supermarkets. Do you have any suggestions regarding other retail environments which might offer interesting photographic fodder? Do tell...

The sky has fallen

We took the little 'uns to see Chicken Little at the local movie theatre this afternoon. They've been talking about the movie for weeks, so we thought it would be a special treat to make an event of it.

More on the movie itself later. I need to vent on a little public etiquette issue that seems to come up every time I choose to view a film in a theatre. Here are the key bullet points:

• Father brings young son - I'd guess around three years-old - to see the movie.
• As is our usual luck, he sits close to us.
• Midway through the film, there is a sorta scary scene. OK, it's not really scary. But everything is relative. To a little guy, it probably seemed more traumatic than it did to me.
• Little guy starts to cry. Dad attempts to calm him down by speaking in quiet tones.
• Dad's attempts fail. Cries turn to wails, which quickly de-evolve into outright screaming.
• Dad gives up. Screaming continues.
• I turn around and see him shushing the munchkin while he tries to watch a pivotal scene. He seems somewhat perturbed that the child is affecting his ability to enjoy the movie.
• I stare at him until he notices. My lack of smile must translate well, for he sheepishly scoops up the teary child and heads for the exit.
• He remains beside the exit. Screaming child now bothers a whole new set of moviegoers.
  

When the theatrical chains wonder why attendance continues to freefall while home theatre sales skyrocket, I invite them to read this entry as a pretty succinct explanation of what's driving the trend.

The same thing happened during the last film we attended in a theatre. Mom didn't want to miss the movie, so crying baby (aged under a year...don't get me started) had to wait - and wail - for at least 20 minutes while Mom enjoyed herself and the rest of the attendees fumed.

OK, now, about the movie itself...

Chicken Little represents Disney's first post-Pixar computer-animated film. Off the top, it's no Toy Story. But with some solid voice work by Zach Braff (Scrubs, Garden State) and Garry Marshall (Happy Days, The Princess Diaries), along with a well-written script that scoots along at a pace that keeps kids engaged, it's a lovely way for families to spend a couple of hours on a weekend. The kids enjoyed it, and we even found ourselves laughing in parts.

Although it's not as adept as a pure Pixar product at playing to the adult audience with deeper meanings and messages, there are enough of them here and there to keep Mom and Dad from snoozing. The musical references alone were worth the price of admission.

But if I had to do it again, I'd wait for the DVD and watch it at home. Fewer interruptions..

Your turn: Is there room in modern society for manners in public places, or have they been lost to the ages? How do you handle something like this?