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The Year in Review: 2009

January:

My blog was resurrected after a near death experience with an ill-fated WordPress upgrade. I got approached by a stranger and asked if I was Duncan’s owner. I wrote three real letters, with paper and ink and stamps and everything. I sold a piece of art to a mysterious dark-haired stranger. Everybody at work […]

Bill C-15: Stupid policy, shrewd strategy

The Conservatives are trying to take the war on drug users to another level with Bill C-15, which proposes mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses.

This Bill, if passed into law, will strip judges of their discretion in sentencing Canadians convicted of drug offenses. Rather than being allowed to take all factors into consideration before making […]

Crime Prevention Ottawa on the chopping block

I read with interest yesterday that in the interests of holding our tax increase to 3.9%,   the City of Ottawa is considering getting rid of Crime Prevention Ottawa.

I’ve attended a couple of community meetings organized by Crime Prevention Ottawa, and frankly I wasn’t all that impressed.

I’m in favour of crime prevention, but CPO’s approach to […]

TimeRaisers 2009: The one that got away

It was a busy, busy weekend, including a brief trip to Montreal, the TimeRaisers event on Saturday night, and the Vintage Clothing Sale on Sunday, with knitting, novel-writing, novel-reading and breakfast eating crammed into random little pockets of time.

TimeRaiser was even better this year than last, because they simplified and streamlined the whole thing. It’s […]

Brain Feast and Eye Candy

We thought we were late, but actually we were early, which was why there weren’t any zombies at Murray and Dalhousie yesterday afternoon at 3:30. We underestimated how long it would take them to lurch their wayfrom Beechwood Cemetery to the Byward Market.

“Maybe,” I suggested, “They changed their route this year.”

“You posted the route […]

Mental Illness and Stigma

The keynote speaker at the Mental Health Symposium* was Dr. David Goldbloom, a psychiatrist with a succulent C.V. The subject of his address was mental illness and stigma.

In terms of how we talk about and treat people with mental illnesses, we’ve come a long way since the days of lunatics and asylums,but we still have […]

Lying Around, Day 2

When I was first told I had to spend the next six weeks lying down, my first thought was “That’s crazy! I might be lazy, but I’m not THAT lazy!”

But, you know what? Maybe I am that lazy. I’m adapting. I’m getting into it. I’ve been writing, and I’ve had visitors and I’ve knit a […]

The Bank Street Bully walks away

Police watchdog drops blogger case (Ottawa Citizen, September 25, 2009)

And so ends another chapter in the life of the Bank Street Bully.

There are no surprises here. But how come, in the Citizen article, everything I said or wrote is qualified by words like “allegedly” or “claimed,” which makes it sound like I’m lying? And […]

Get-Well-Soon Kitty Litter

I hate to say it, but my unbridled optimism is taking a bit of a beating. After a couple of days of consistent improvements in my pain levels, an irritating pain settled into my left leg and butt on Sunday and has been getting steadily worse ever since.

As you know, I got my medical […]

The silver lining

I was given the most wonderful and heartwarming gift last night! I’m going to blog about it in a few days, after I’ve given all the feelings a chance to bubble up to the surface.

In the meantime, I’ll tell you about something else that happened yesterday.

The Billy Bookcases

Duncan and I were sitting […]