On low information voters


High information voters believe that voters should understand many of the issues of an election and the stances of the candidates on those issues before they vote for someone. High information voters also believe that most voters should be like that.

I am a high information voter who believes something different. I believe that most voters are not like that and never will be. I believe most information are low information voters.

Low information voters vote for or against a candidate based on one or two pieces of information. This limited information could be:

  • Party affiliation: they vote for a candidate because they belong to a party they like. Or they vote against one candidate of a party they hate by voting for a  less hateful candidate.
  • One overriding issue: they vote for a candidate because that candidate supports the issue they care about more than any other candidate
  • Character: they vote for a candidate because they consider them the strongest or the least corrupt or the most forthright about matters.
  • Alignment: they vote for the candidate that is most aligned with them, however they see themselves. Or they vote for the candidate they see as most aligned with being a leader, whatever that is.

Once a low information voter has this information, they will make their choice.

As a high information voter, you might have a hard time understanding why someone chooses to be a low information voter. But there are many reasons why someone chooses to be this way, such as:

  • The voter votes on one issue because they feel that nothing is more important than this issue. Once they know how the candidates stand on this issue, they can cast their vote without discovering much more.
  • The voter votes for one party and their candidates consistently. They believe that  members of that party govern best.
  • The voter doesn’t have the ability to find out about all or most of the candidates. This is especially true of candidates for minor offices.
  • The voter doesn’t feel they have the ability to understand the issues at stake in an election. The information is at hand, but they can’t process it.
  • The voter has important or difficult things to deal with in their lives and so they lose their ability to focus on the issues.
  • The voter feels the responsibility of voting but they dislike politics and politicians and would prefer not to think too much about it.
  • The voter feels the system is wrong somehow and wants to limit their involvement in the system.

Of course there are a number of invalid reasons that low information voters vote, too, such as:

  • prejudicial or bigoted reasons (e.g. they only vote for white men)
  • silly reasons (e.g., they don’t vote for bald men or men that are short or wear glasses)
  • corrupt reasons (e.g. they vote for a candidate because the candidate buys their vote)

Regardless of what their reasoning is, this is how many voters vote and they will not be persuaded by a flurry of facts from a high information voter. Either they will not have the ability to weigh the facts provided, or they don’t think those additional facts matter to them.

It should be noted that low information voters are not uneducated or stupid. A single issue voter may be highly educated and decide that only candidates that support better healthcare. An intelligent voter may vote against a candidate because of a major scandal, even if they voted for the candidate repeatedly in the past. A vote is a limited instrument: what the meaning is of the vote is only known to the voter.

In the future, when you read a piece about the election (or rejection) or a candidate who stood for A, B, C, D, E, F and G on the issues, don’t assume that most voters voted for or against him/her because of the sum of A to G. Assume many voters voted for or against the candidates based on just one of those.

P.S. This was inspired by many things I’ve seen on social media that read like this:

‪Michael Hobbes‬ ‪@michaelhobbes.bsky.social‬

This is the whole ballgame for me: You cannot run a functioning democracy in a media environment where voters do not know basic facts about what candidates do and believe.

Voters are living in a post-internet world and legacy institutions have not kept up.

Basquiat’s Eyes and Eggs at The Broad

The Broad museum in Los Angeles has a fine collection of works by Basquiat, including the above, Eyes and Eggs (and many more). Indeed, it has a fine collection of modern art in general. I recommend you check it out, either online or — better yet — in person.

Found via this post: Austin Kleon — Horn Players – Jean‐Michel Basquiat “There was…

The last 200 days and the next 4 years in America


If anyone wants to know what happened in the last 200 days or what will happen in the next four years, then this is a good place to start: Donald Trump wins presidential election, defeating Harris to retake White House (The Washington Post). Specifically, when it comes to the economy, he promises this.

Trump did everything wrong in the campaign and Biden and Harris did everything right and none of it mattered.  The economy is doing great now but the economy has also been terrible for the last few years because of a pandemic. Beyond that, housing is simply unaffordable for many people, so having a job doesn’t necessarily make you feel good about your place, economically speaking. For those voters, the hope is Trump will fix that.

While Trump will have the Senate to make changes, he may not have the House. In terms of passing laws, that could provide him with difficulties. Difficult or not, it may not make much difference to him personally.  He will likely continue to use the office to get richer. And few if any of the charges against Trump will remain, so he will likely spend his time at the White House rather than a cell.

If anything, Trump will delegate governing to others, like Musk and RFK Jr and the Heritage Foundation. He’s not much interested in the job of the presidency, while others around him are. He’s content to be the Boss of the country and use it to get wealthy.

I suspect this is the end of Ukraine as a free country, though the rest of Europe may decide otherwise. I imagine things will only heat up in the Middle East as Netanyahu feels more impowered, but it is risky to make predictions in that part of the world.

It’s also risky to make any sorts of predictions about what will happen in the US, but unlike 2016, there’s more to base any prediction on. Generally, if you are a fan of Trump, you’re going to predict things will be great again. If you are a foe of the man, your predictions will be full of darkness and difficulty.

 

 

 

 

 

Your problem is actually a solution. And that’s the real problem. Which calls for the real solution.


Your problem is actually a solution. And that’s the real problem. Which calls for the real solution.

Let’s unpack that.

Many of the common problems we have are actually solutions for underlying problems we have. So if you have a problem with: eating, drinking, smoking,  sleeping, shopping, etc. too much, you need to look at those behaviours not just as problems but as solutions to underlying problems. You might be indulging in those behaviours because they solve your underlying problem of being anxious, bored, tired, etc. If you try and solve the problem of doing something too much like eating without dealing with the actual problem, you will have a difficult time. And you will have a difficult time because you will may have taken away the solution for the actual problem you were avoiding.

One approach to start dealing with this is get out a notepad and write down what problems you are struggling with and try to get underneath them and see if those problems are actually solving other problems. Then write down those problems and see what you can do to solve them. If you can make progress in solving the underlying problems, you might find that the other problems dissipate.

As always, talk to a professional if you think or feel that your problems are harming you. Take good care of yourself; get help if you can’t do it alone.

 

The oddness of the Al Smith Dinner

It was a no show for Kamala Harris at the Al Smith dinner in 2024. And while Trump was there, he wasn’t wearing white tie, as presidential candidate wore in previous years. Typically the candidates looked more like these guys:

Maybe Trump was trying to channel President Kennedy:

Who knows.

For those of us outside Manhattan, it’s truly an odd event. Perhaps it made more sense before the television cameras, but it seems strange for those of us outside of NYC to watch candidates dressed in white tie and hobnob with that city’s elite. Maybe that’s why Trump wore dressed down black tie. Or why Harris didn’t attend at all.

The pandemic put a dint in the Al Smith dinner. I wonder if we will see it restored to its former importance in 2028? Or maybe, like top hats and top coats, this event will become an anachronism.

if it starts to die off, that’s too bad. I like a good white tie event. 🙂

The New York Times knows what it is and what business it is in

500What is the New York Times? Based on those who have NYT Derangement Syndrome**, it’s a newspaper that has betrayed its progressive readers by publishing articles and oped pieces that are centrist or even right wing.

I have sympathy for such views. I love the Times and I wish it were solidly to the left politically the way a paper like the Guardian is. But is that what it aspires to be?

The best way to understand their aspirations is to look at what they say about themselves. We can see that recently in things they published here, here and here. The CEO himself says the Times is…

on the path to grow our subscriber base and become the essential subscription for every curious person seeking to understand and engage with the world. The combination of our world-class news destination plus market-leading lifestyle products means we have complementary offerings in big spaces, each with multiple growth levers fueling multiple revenue streams. Together we believe these make The Times resilient in a changing media landscape and well positioned for continued value creation.

That’s the business the Times is in. Indeed, it is reflected in things they produce, like the New York Times mobile app. Sure the News is still front and center on top of the app, but with a simple swipe left or right you have Cooking, The Athletic, Lifestyle, Great Reads and more. If you never ever read the news but digitally subscribe to get access to the Cooking section or The Athletic section, that’s fine by the CEO. Or if  you read / hate read Bret Stevens and Ross Douthat, that’s good for revenue as well.

The days of the New York Times being a city newspaper or even a national paper are long over. I suspect the days of it being a progressive paper are over too. Rather than be progressive it will be for everyone. Rather than be a Paper, it will be a Destination.

The days of the Manchester Guardian being a city newspaper or even a national paper are long over too. But if you want a progressive paper, that may be the place you want to go.

Meanwhile read the reports I linked to in order to see what the Times is focused on. Specifically, they have to grow digital subscriptions to increase ad revenue, especially as print subscriptions and the revenue associated with that is decreasing. As they state, “revenues grew 4.4 percent in the second quarter of 2024 to $585.2 million from $560.5 million in the second quarter of 2023. Subscription revenues increased 6.5 percent to $410.0 million from $385.0 million in the second quarter of 2023, primarily due to growth in subscription revenues from digital-only products, partially offset by decreases in print subscription revenues. Advertising revenues decreased 0.2 percent to $112.1 million from $112.3 million in the second quarter of 2023, due to declines in print advertising revenues partially offset by higher revenues from digital advertising”.  There you have it in black and white.

** NYT derangement syndrome is a derogatory term used to describe a form of toxic criticism and negative reaction to the newspapers articles and oped pieces. Not unlike Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Thinking about the non-endorsements of Harris using basic game theory ideas

No Presidential endorsements were provided by the LA Times or the Washington Post this year. This caught people by surprise, since it was expected these two papers would endorse a candidate and that candidate would be Harris. Soon it was revealed the endorsements were held up by the owners of both papers.

One way to assess the choices of the owners of the Times and the Post is to use a payoff matrix found in game theory and apply it to the moves available to them:

Action vs impact Harris Wins Trump Wins
Endorse Harris No Loss Huge Loss
Endorse No one Small loss Small Loss

My payoff assessment is based on an estimate of how much each paper has to lose by endorsing/not endorsing a candidate. If Harris wins, there is very little downside regardless of what they do. Likewise, if Trump wins and they don’t endorse, I suspect they will also lose subscriptions and staff, but overall they can manage that.

The wrinkle in all this is if Trump wins and they endorse Harris. I think the owners of both papers see a huge loss for them — either personal or financial — if that happens.

Both men have different things at stake. We already know that the team from Bezos’s other project, Blue Horizon, has been talking to Trump. No doubt Bezos would not want Trump to come into power and ban Blue Horizon from any future space exploration with NASA. That would explain why Bezos did not want the Post to endore Harris. As for Soon-Shiong, the owner of the LA Times, he tried to get a post in Trump’s first administration. Perhaps he hopes he will be successful the second time around.

If the above payoff matrix had a bigger payoff or a bigger loss regarding Harris, then they might have chosen differently. As it is, they decided to minimize their risk by endorsing no one. They are guaranteed to suffer losses, but not big ones for them personally. It’s a rational choice, but a disappointing one.

I wouldn’t be surprised if both of them got out of the newspaper business in the next four years. They clearly don’t have the appetite for the risk of running such publications.

 

 

 

 

How to paint using one color, and more how to advice for artists


I’ve been working on drawing and painting again. During this work, I’ve collected a fair amount of good links on the subjects. Take a look:

Good luck to all who strive to create art!

Jerry Seinfeld, and the art of changing your mind in public

Jerry Seinfeld gives a good example of how to change your mind in public, here: Jerry Seinfeld says he was ‘wrong’ to blame ‘extreme left’ for killing comedy.

Not only does he says his old way of thinking was wrong, but he shows that he has considered what he thought before and contrasts that with his new way of  thinking.

If you have to change your position on a topic in public, it’s not enough to say, “well I thought A before, but now I think B”. You want to show why you no longer think that way. It shows you’re thoughtful and sincere.

No one likes having to change your mind in public. If you have to do so, consider the way Seinfeld did it.

 

 

Forget ChatGPT. Now you can build your own large language model (LLM) from scratch

Yep, it’s true. If you have some technical skill, you can download this repo from github: rasbt/LLMs-from-scratch: Implementing a ChatGPT-like LLM in PyTorch from scratch, step by step and build your own LLM.

What I like about this is that it demystifies LLMs. LLMs aren’t magic, they aren’t Skynet and they’re not some sentient being. They’re software. That’s all.

So ignore all the hype and handwaving about LLMs and go make your own.

Prefer to read it in dead tree form? You can get the book here.

If you get your blood pressure measured, make sure you do this

If you get your blood pressure measured, arm position is important. As this piece states:

When the arm is on the lap or the side, a blood pressure reading can be erroneously high. But when the arm is supported and at heart height, a blood pressure reading is more likely to be right.

Whenever I go to my doctor, she makes sure my arm is in that position. When you get your blood pressure read, make sure you do so too.

Don’t just take my opinion, though: ask your health professional.

Twitpic lives! In 2024 no less.

Is enjoying the colours of autumn (tho’ today’s temp is summer! :))

Twitter may be no more, but twitpic still lives! Photos I posted on twitpic back in 2008 still exist. To see what I mean, check out the link to the photo above with my accompanying tweet that went with it.

Back then, you didn’t have the ability to post photos directly on twitter, so new services like twitpics allowed you to do that. Of course that all died off as twitter grew and added photo posting into their core features.

What’s amazing to me is

  • the photos that twitpics still exist online
  • that anyone can see any photo posted by anyone that used that service
  • that you can just make up a URL to see a photo. For example, the URL of the above photo is https://twitpic.com/g26i but if you enter https://twitpic.com/g262 or https://twitpic.com/g26e or  https://twitpic.com/1234 you will see totally random photos.
  • At one point I had some code to crawl the URLs from 0000 to see if I could just find my own, and I did find some, but at some point I gave up

Anyway, fascinating to me that this archive still exists. Long after Elon ruined twitter and turned it into X. So check it out while you can.

P.S. For more context on twitpic, I wrote about it in 2008 here and here. And here’s one more from me: Saturday coffee at Indigo at yonge and Eglinton, Toronto

All taken from a Blackberry. 🙂

If you want to make a case for getting rid of cars out of public spaces….

If you want to make a case for removing cars from public spaces, I highly recommend you read this piece on Europe’s car-free plazas in Politico.

The pictures alone are striking — seeing these famous plazas jammed with cars instead of open and pulsing with pedestrians seems unbelievable at first. The article also illustrates the path these cities took to achieve these now great spaces (hint: it wasn’t easy at first).

For people who crave better cities, I highly recommend that piece.

On Ina Garten (a few thoughts)

Ina Garten has a new memoir out that’s generating much publicity. Sometimes when I think of her, Martha Stewart comes to mind. For starters, both women have a large following and their earlier career was in something other than food.

But this line from a review of her Memoir got me thinking of how they differ:

I also distinctly remember how different the book (her first cookbook) felt from Martha Stewart and Gourmet magazine and other big food names of that era — Ina’s food was messy and real, without making any sacrifices in quality.

I think that’s part of Ina’s unique appeal. As wikipedia describes her first cookbook, the Barefoot Contessa:

Garten deconstructs simple French recipes like boeuf bourguignon or Baba au Rhum cake. She focuses on preparing foods efficiently, allowing more time to eat and spend with guests.

Post World War II, North American cooking went away from traditional home-cooking and towards French cuisine. (See Julia Child.) later in the 80s it aspired to be broader than that, bringing in flavours from around the Mediterranean, from Asia and elsewhere. Despite this expansion, the cooking aspired to be excellent and involve much effort (See Martha Stewart and Gourmet magazine.) Ina and others who followed wanted to change that: they still wanted their food to be excellent, but without all the fuss.

P.S. to see what I mean, here’s Ina Garten’s take on Julia Child’s boeuf bourguignon recipe which is naturally streamlined.

In a conflict with significant bad actors on both sides, there are no good options for bystanders

In a conflict with significant bad actors on both sides, there are no good options for bystanders.In such a conflict, you have three options:

  1. you can take a side
  2. you can try to rise above the conflict
  3. you can do nothing

If you take a side, you will be associated with the bad actors on that side. If you try to say “I take this side but I don’t associate with the bad actors on this side”, you will come across as a hypocrite, or naive, or ignorant. And when the bad actors on your side do something wrong, which they will, you will be associated with that wrong too.

You might say, I don’t care. Or the other side is still worse. And that’s fine. But it doesn’t make this option a good one. It’s just an option you are willing to take.

If you try and rise above the conflict, then you will be criticized by both sides for ignoring the bad actors on the other side. In addition, you will be seen as ineffective and weak and irrelevant. Again, it’s an option, it’s just not a good one.

Doing nothing is the flipside of trying to rise above the conflict. You won’t be stuck with having to side with bad actors, but you will be criticized for being indifferent and uncaring, cold and thoughtless.

In life there are often situations where there is no good options to choose from. A conflict with significant bad actors on both sides is one of those situations.

On Jimmy Carter, the 39th president and responder in chief of the USA

Last week former US President Jimmy Carter celebrated his 100th birthday. This piece sums up how many think of Carter as president:

In the popular imagination, his presidency was viewed as a fiasco. Besieged by inflation and a hostage crisis in Iran, it ended with a landslide loss to Mr. Reagan after just four years.  … But Mr. Carter’s presidency was more consequential than is commonly remembered, said Stuart E. Eizenstat, his chief domestic policy adviser in the White House. Eizenstat’s 2018 book argued that Mr. Carter notched significant but overlooked wins, including on energy, the environment and foreign policy.

All that’s true, but it leaves out an important detail. Whatever Jimmy Carter was, he was Not Nixon. Indeed he came across as the anti-Nixon. President Ford was Not Nixon either, but he was still attached to his disgraced predecessor. Carter allowed Americans to turn the page on Nixon in a way Ford never could.

The Vietnam War, the Pentagon Papers and then Watergate were a lot for Americans to handle. Carter gave Americans an opportunity to move on from all that and restore the presidency by being everything Nixon was not.

Sometimes presidents come along and act like first responders to a crisis. FDR did that. So did Obama and Biden. In between them was Carter. He restored the country in a way he doesn’t get credit for. Here’s hoping that becomes a bigger part of his legacy.

For more on the aftermath of Watergate, see here and here.

What you mean when you say you’re wasting your time doing X

What does it mean when you say you’re wasting your time doing X?

This question came to me recently when I was sitting on my porch. I thought: why am I wasting my time here? And then I had the follow on thought: what should I be doing this is not a waste of time?

Before I moved though, I asked myself: why was sitting on the porch a waste of time? I concluded I was sitting on the porch because it was a nice summer day and I was enjoying it. In other word,  enjoying a nice summer day has no value (i.e. it’s a waste of time).

Now there are other enjoyable I do that I don’t consider a waste of time: talking with loved ones, eating a good meal, going for a walk. So why is this different?

I think I have been conditioned to think simply sitting around is a waste of time, best done on vacation. Otherwise I think deep down I should be doing something productive. it’s a weirdly puritanical view that conflicts with my non puritanical views on food.

So the next time you are doing something you enjoy doing, attach some value to that. 

 

How to shop for a duffle bag or gym bag on Amazon and get the right size

If you are shopping for a gym bag or duffle bag on Amazon, you might be hard pressed to know if the bag you are buying is big enough. Some of them will say they are large but they aren’t really.

One good way to gauge how big a bag is look for its litre size (e.g. 60L) Roughly speaking, there seems to be four ranges that gym bags or duffle bags come in:

  • 40 L – small
  • 60L – medium and a typical gym bag
  • 100L – large. Good if you have a lot of gear.
  • 150L – extra-large. Likely a good size for hockey gear.

If you just have a few items, a small might do it, but something in the medium range might be more versatile and typical for a gym bag. If you have equipment to carry, though, you want to get something in the large or even extra large size, depending on how much equipment you have.

 

The Fall. A time of change. Here’s some thoughts on what changes have occurred recently (and what stayed the same) in my usual ramblings for a new season  (i.e. the September 2024 edition of my not-a-newsletter newsletter)


It’s the Fall, a season of change. Let take some time and look at what’s changed and what hasn’t since I last posted.

The obvious thing that hasn’t changed is I am still writing newsletter.  Thanks for continuing to read these odd newsletterish posts of mine. I’ve been writing them since the beginning of the pandemic. There’s a certain pleasure in adding another link in the chain.

Olympics: Since the last newsletter, we’ve had the Paris Olympics. That was a nice change for many people. It was a bit unusual, as it used the city for much of the venue. But since it was Paris, the venue was beautiful. Speaking of beauty, here are some of the most beautiful moments of the Olympics. And here are some of the best moments.

While there were plenty of amazing stories coming out of the Olympics, This  one of one Olympic ahtlete who competed at age 61 caught my attention.

Pandemic: you might not think there is anything changing regarding the pandemic, but there was a spike in covid over the summer. (Get those fall vaccines when you can.) More on that wave, here.

The kids who were preschool age during the pandemic are now in classes and struggling. Just one of the many long term impacts of that period.

Inflation: lots of good change on this front. Inflation  is finally below 3% in the US. Grocery prices are finally falling. Dining out is getting cheaper, at least in the fast food industry, as this and this explain. All good to see.

Work: Some companies are trying to get employees to change their routine and stop working from home. Some, like Amazon, are forcing employees to return to office (RTO) fulltime. Are there also layoffs coming down the pike at Amazon? I am guessing yes. After all, weaponizing RTO is an easy way to shed employees. And while they might be able to get away with this in the US, they should expect legal issues in the UK.

As time progresses, who knows how many offices there will even be in the future? The Times has a good piece on how banks are quietly dumping  commercial real estate loans.

USA: it’s an election year in America, which should bring in much change come November.  If you want to understand who is leading in the US polls, read this.

A big part of the presidential election comes down to certain states. This piece on  swing states explains that for you and why it’s important.

Have you heard of sanewashing?  Poynter explains what it means. It will be interesting to see if journalists can allow Trump’s words speak for themselves, or whether they will continue the practice.

When it comes to supporting a presidential candidate, are the Silicon Valley elites right wing or left wing? As this piece explains, it depends. Some, like Peter Thiel, are very conservative to the point of being directly involved in sponsoring  JD Vance, Trump’s VP choice, among others.

As for American conservatives on the whole, they’ve had some big wins with regards to US supreme court term decisions lately. Here”s a good piece the dives deeper and assesses the radically right wing Roberts court.

With all these wins, what might conservatives in the US come after next? Possibly no fault divorce. And if you are wondering how conservatives are so successful getting their way legally, here’s something on how they game the US supreme court.

On last American item. I think the fact that  insurance companies are going to try to stop losing money because of  climate change is going to be a big thing politically and otherwise.

China: things continue to change in China. The government is struggling to improve  the  economy. The government is also concerned with Russia and North Korea getting closer. Perhaps that explains the big shakeup in the military. This has nothing to do with changes, but this piece by a Times bureau chief exploring his father’s time spent in Mao’s army was quite good.

The World: After winning a landslide victory, Labour in the UK is shaking things up there with plans to remove all hereditary peers from the House of Lords.

Like a lot of cities, Barcelona has had it with too many tourists. To change that, it is ending apartment rentals by foreign tourists. On the other hand, Oslo had a viral ad campaign that is meant to attract tourists.

War continues to shape the Middle East. Israel is now ramping up their attacks on Hezbollah to the north of them. For readers not familiar with the group, this is a good piece on what is Hezbollah’s role and influence in Lebanon.

Finally, people have been worried about AI disrupting the world. While all that worrying was happening, the computer company  Crowdstrike caused a massinve outage on computers all over the world after pushing out a change. Talk about disruptive. Not the type of change the world needs.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read these rambles. I appreciate it.

Restaurants loved and lost: the places that Greg Couillard cooked

Reading this piece by Greg Couillard in Toronto Life (from 2018) brought back tons of memories of dining in the 80s and 90s. Back then fine dining went from being French-centric to representing a diverse range of cultures and flavours. Greg Couillard was at the center of all of that in this city, and the restaurants he and others cooked in drove that change. Whenever he joined a new place, I would grab a table and eat his Jump Up Soup and anything else he was plating. He didn’t stay at places long, but while he was there, the food was great. (In fact the soup was so great the Loblaws bottled it up and sold it in stores.)

It was a treat to read his piece and to recall places like Avec and Emilio’s. A treat to read those old clippings from NOW (shown above). It got me thinking about his soup, too. I’ll have to try and make it some day and relive old times and tastes. It won’t be as good as eating it at his places, but it’s the best I can do these days.

 

Toronto: a city of surpluses and abundance (random updates from the Big Smoke, September 2024)

Toronto is a city of abundance. But don’t just take my word on it. In a recent
travel piece on this place, The New York Times described Toronto as…

…proudly multicultural with an outstanding art scene, fantastic food and a patchwork of diverse neighborhoods to explore… this sprawling city — Canada’s most populous — has more to offer than one could possibly digest in a single weekend.

So there!

On the topic of abundance, city hall also seems to have it. Indeed, it is doing much better than it was a six months ago when I last wrote about it. For one thing, local politicians have gotten its finances in order and it is now running a surplus! Much thanks to that should go to the mayor, though of course it is a team effort up to including all levels of government. Nonetheless the Mayor should feel good about that.

Toronto also has a surplus of problems. Case in point, real estate. Commercial real estate continues to suffer.  There is talk of converting or even demolishing them. Some Toronto CEOs tried to enlist Mayor Chow with regards to encouraging employees going back to downtown offices. She later said something more nuanced than what’s in here.

The residential market has also been struggling recently, with some Toronto developers saying no one is buying condos anymore. I am not sure about that. After all, housing prices are too high and some say unattainable in Toronto. So something is going to have to adjust.

The TTC has seen some highs and lows in the last while. There are still episodes of horrible incidents happening on it, such as a sword attack of all things. Then there was a major incident so bad the TTC CEO apologized and offered to have open review. Not good.

On a more positive note, it looks like the TTC will be adding service to 24 bus routes with focus on off-peak hours. So that’s good. Also good: the Ontario line is progressing. And multiple subway stations are getting colourful transformations.

Shawn Micallef recently asked if  Toronto’s streets are boring and brought in my area, Yonge and Eglinton, as an example. He’s not wrong. But a new park is coming to the area. It will likely get here before the LRT is done. A new grocery store is also coming to the area, which is good, because people here are fed up with the local supermarkets and their high prices.

As for other maligned grocers, here’s a story of the recent loblaw boycott and a statement by their CEO regarding it. The good news is inflation in Canada is really coming down. This may take the heat of them and other food companies in the future.

In other food/bev news, the strike concerning LCBO workers was recently resolved. Good thing for wine drinkers, because  the Wine Racks that had been making up for the closed LCBOs almost ran out of wine.

Like other cities, climate change is affecting Toronto. Case in point, the bad flooding we’ve been having the overwhelms place like Union Station  and even  Drake’s mansion. It didn’t help we had the wettest summer on record.

The film festival has come and gone as it does every September. One frequent visitor is Guillermo Del Toronto, who apparently loves Torontos bookstores. We do have good bookstores. Also good libraries! Not only are they great to visit, but a Toronto Public Library card will help you get access to places in the city! One more reason libraries are great.

As for other parts of Toronto, downtown the renaming of Dundas Square is not going well according to this. Meanwhile over in the Annex there is sad news regarding the hot docs cinema, with a temporary closing and a laying off staff. Here’s hoping for better things for them. Indeed, they may be reopening soon.

I hope so. I loved that theatre — once known as the Bloor — since I first moved to Toronto in the 80s. I hope it is open for business and doing well, just like I hope that for all of the city.

Thanks for reading this. I’ll have another update in another six months!

Friday Night Cocktail: the Wet Martini

Too much is made of martinis being dry. Meh. A martini is a cocktail: if you just want to drink gin or vodka straight up, do that instead.

I especially like this Wet Martini Recipe from Pete Wells because it leans into not one but two different vermouths as well as some other ingredients to make a true cocktail. Martini lovers especially should give this a try.

On BECKHAM, the documentary

BECKHAM the documentary is very good. So good, it won an Emmy. Very good, but not flawless. Indeed, this piece argues, Netflix’s ‘Beckham’ Is a Very Good Docuseries with Two Glaring Flaws. I’d say it has one overriding flaw,and it has to do with any documentary like this.

With a documentary like this, the documentarian (Stevens) is dependent on the subject (the Beckhams) to tell the story. And whatever story he meant to tell, the Beckhams also had a story they wanted to tell. I felt those stories were in sync up until the end.

Then the ending occurred and I felt a bit betrayed. I thought David Beckham was telling a story about wanting to settle down with his family, but then it ends with him in Miami, seeming to do anything but settle. I thought he wanted to be different than his dad when it came to football, but getting a glimpse of how he talks to his son, I heard echos of his dad talking to him.

That ending made me wonder if the Beckhams were using the documentary to tell a certain story they wanted to tell in a way they wanted to tell it. A way of maintaining the brand, the way they had been maintaining a brand for many years.

I think there’s alot of sincerity in the film, and it’s a great story, well told. But I felt there was more going on than the narrative driving the film, and I think that slipped away from us.

Collage is alive and well as an art form

If you don’t think of collage as a serious or living art form, think again. Collage is alive and well as an art form in some of the largest publications out there. I often see it used to illustrate stories in the Atlantic:

But the New York Times uses it a fair bit, too:

Those are just a small sample of the type of collages I see there. Keep an eye out for great collage work and you’ll see some too. It might even inspire you to try making some of your own.

(Top illustration by Vivian Dehning, bottom by Shoshana Schultz)

On Brats, and other 80s artifacts

Sure it’s Brat summer, but I want to talk about some other Brats, specifically those from the 80s.

Andrew McCarthy recent made a documentary film that looks back at his time in the 80s when he was a member of the Brat Pack. Watching it, I was fascinated by how the various members of that group were affected by that label. Of all the members of said pack, no one seems as deeply affected by it as McCarthy. He’s a good reminder to leave the past in the past. It’s fine to revisit it from time to time, but it’s not good to get affixed to it.

Brats is a good film. The Times has a review here. More thoughts on it, here.

Relatedly, here are five films from that era, if you are feeling curious or nostalgic. Here’s even more on the brat actors who defined the 80s.

If after seeing McCarthy’s documentary, you might have been curious as to why Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson don’t appear in Brats, so click on this.

Brats is all about reunions. Speaking of 80s reunions, this is a story of the SCTV reunion from a few years ago. That group was one of the best things to come out of that decade.

Other things from the decade I thought worth noting:

 

Can you live in a 74 square foot apartment?

Well if you are these two architects who designed a tiny apartment in Rotterdam that’s only 74 square feet, then…maybe?

I dunno. It is impressive how the whole room expands and stores away depending on how you configure it. And as an experiment, I think it is impressive. Is it practical? Of course not. But it is well worth checking out, especially if you are a fan of small spaces like I am.

How to predict who will win the US Presidential Election?


Here’s two ways to predict who will win the presidential election:

First: look at the 13 keys of Allan Lichtman, Presidential Predictions Guru. According to Lichtman, there are 13 keys to determine who will win the next election:

  1. Midterm gains
  2. Incumbency
  3. Primary Contest
  4. Third Party
  5. Short-term economy
  6. Long-term economy
  7. Policy Change
  8. Social Unrest
  9. White House Scandal
  10. Incumbent Charisma
  11. Challenger Charisma
  12. Foreign Policy Failure
  13. Foreign Policy Success

Of the first 11, Lichtman says Trump comes out ahead on 1, 2, and 10 (in italics) while Harris comes out ahead on the rest (e.g. there was no primary contest, no third party, the economy is doing well, no policy issues, no major social unrest, and no scandals for her.)  That’s enough to assume she will win the election, regardless of foreign policy (which he skipped over).

Mind you, based on this, Biden was set to win the election, but I am not alone in thinking that was not going to happen.

Still, I think there is alot to agree with in the 13 keys. As people go to vote one or more of these keys will be on their minds as they cast their ballot. Check out the link above to get more insights from the man saying Harris is the next US President.

Second: look at the Electoral College map and the swing states. That’s certainly what the candidates are doing on their campaigns. Two states in particular could make all the difference as to who is the next US President: Georgia and Pennsylvania. The Washington Post takes a closer look at the two states that loom largest in 2024 election.

What will get lost if activists continue to vandalize paintings

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The above is a painting by Francis Bacon that I saw in 2022 in London at the Royal Academy. I am a huge fan of Bacon, and this show not only allowed me to see many of the works of this great artist, but it also allowed me to get up close and examine the paintings, like this:

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If you click on this link you can do so yourself.

I love being able to do that. You can see the brush strokes, the markings on the surface. You can better understand how the painting was made. You gain a different appreciation of the work up close.

That’s why it continues to bother me when people vandalize these paintings. I fear exhibits of paintings could end up looking like this:

Mona Lisa behind glass

Sure it’s fine if you want to send a selfie to your friends, but as far as looking at the painting, you might as well resort to a book.

The next time you go and look at art, look at it from all angles and all distances. You will gain an appreciation of it you won’t get any other way. And do it soon: someday you might not be able to.

(Top two flickr images by me. The bottom one from Valerie.)

Taking care of yourself is not optional

I’ve been thinking of this commandment, ““taking care of yourself is not optional” ever since I read it on an email from Mike Monteiro’s newsletter. I think that is an important commandment to abide by, especially as you get old.

When you get old, it is temping to think taking care of yourself doesn’t matter. Why bother, you think. You don’t have that many years anyway.Why waste your time on that when I have so little time as it is. Besides, no one cares.

But here’s the thing: people do care. You don’t know how many years you have left, and you never have, even when you were younger and you did take care of yourself. And if you don’t take care of yourself, that little time you have might be miserable due to your neglect of yourself.

If you argue that “I don’t believe in all that self-care goopy nonsense”, consider that taking care of yourself doesn’t have to mean meditation and massages and whatever else new age beliefs you may be rejecting. Taking care of yourself can just be the basics: get some good sleep habits, some good eating habits, add some good hygiene habits, plus a bit of exercise too, even if it is walking regularly. If you have all that going on, then you can extend that out to taking care of the environment you are in and the relationships you have, because that comes back to taking care of yourself, too. Have you been to the doctor lately? If not, get checked out. Dentist? Do that too.

Here’s another thing. Taking care of yourself sends a message, to others and yourself. The message is, you matter. You have value. You are precious, even. So start acting like it.

Start taking care of yourself. It’s not optional.

‘Unexpected red’ works for clothes too.

According to this piece, What Is ‘Unexpected Red’? in The New York Times

“The ‘unexpected red’ theory is basically adding anything that’s red, big or small, to a room where it doesn’t match at all, and it automatically looks better,”

That makes sense for homes.  It also makes sense for men’s clothing, especially if the colour palette of your clothing is neutral, black or navy. A pop of red — a toque, some shoelaces, a tote bag — can add some pop to your look. So grab some red accessories and add them to your wardrobe.

If you like to shop online, do what I do and on the search line type in “men red”. I find it will come back with all the men’s clothes that are red or have red in them. I’ve found toques, scarves, T shirts and socks that way.

For more thoughts from me on red in fashion, go here.

P.S. I think this theory could also apply for colours like purple and yellow.

What should you do? Here’s a chart to guide you

I like this chart, found at substack TBM 16/52: Can Do vs. Should Do by John Cutler. I use a similar one when working with clients.

If you have a list of tasks you feel need doing, list them out and grade them on a scale of 1 to 3 (or 5 or 10). We grade them usually on a scale of Low, Medium and High. If you rank a task High for you Should do it and High for you Can do it, then that goes up in the top right corner of this chart (#3). Those are the tasks you want to do first.

See #1 and #2? The way we tackle them is by breaking them down and finding a part of them we can do. That part we move into the #3 section. There’s always some part of #1 and #2 you Can do, even if it involved asking someone for help with them.

Obviously those things you shouldn’t do (#9) should move off your list, no matter how capable you are of doing things. Likewise #6-#8 should be avoided, but sometimes we do #8 when we are blocked or tired (which is a form of blocked).

Anyway, a great chart. Check out the substack post for more insight on it.

 

Robots, robots and more robots.

I haven’t written about robots in awhile. That’s not for a lack of news stories about robots. We are finding them popping up all over the place.

Robots have always been used in manufacturing. Now they are moving into other businesses. Here’s a story of how robots are moving into restaurants. I’ve already seen one of these…it was less than impressive.

Drones are a form of robot. Here is a story on how IKEA is using drones for inventory management.

Wildlife has to be managed, too. This robot dressed up like a predator makes flights safer at airports by keeping wildlife away from runways.

The military is known for using robots. Here’s a piece on gun carrying robot dogs in the Chinese army. Not to be outdone,  the Canadian armed forces are ramping up with the use of drones.

Back at home, this unit from Samsung can vacuum and steam clean your floors. And this home robot comes with an arm. (No word on if it can unload the dishwasher.)

Speaking of vacuuming robots, this quadruped robot can pick up cigarette butts on beaches. That’s a good use of robots.

Back at work, these BMW robots being tested in their factories in South Carolina give off Terminator vibes. (see below.) More on them, here.

Boston Dynamics has it’s own Terminator like robots too. This dog like robot gives off Boston Dynamics vibes, but isn’t from B.D.

Here’s a robot that can become your child’s protector, teacher, and even playmate. Meanwhile, this one hangs out in your  kitchen and acts as an air purifier.

Here’s is a robot that is part of a work of art.

Finally, is the robot backlash starting? It already has in San Francisco, where a crowd vandalized a Waymo driverless taxi.

Forward: the new Shepard Fairey


Just as he did for Obama, you can find his latest imagery for Harris by Fairey,  here.

I’d add it’s smart he did this. I’ve been seeing all sorts of remixes of his old work, applied to Kamala Harris. It’s good to see his version.

(Art by Shepard Fairey. Reference photo by Lawrence Jackson / Biden for President is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0; For personal, non-commercial use only.)

In praise of teenage engineering

How great is Teenage Engineering? Let me count the ways. Or devices. In this case, three very special devices designed by them.

Device #1: the play.date

First up is the Playdate, a unique game playing device with a black and white screen and a crank. Is it any good? It is according to this: Playdate, all it’s cranked up to be (The Verge). You can read more about it, here:playdate – teenage engineering.


Device #2: Rabbit R1

For the second device, there is a chance you’ve heard of the rabbit, “ a pocket companion that moves AI from words to action”. I have one and I like it. Is it good AI? Yes. Is it brilliant design? Definitely.

If you’ve only ever read disparaging things about the device, then read this: Rabbit R1 Explained: What This Tiny AI Gadget Actually Does (CNET) and this:I just spent my first day with the Rabbit R1 — here’s what this AI gadget can do | Tom’s Guide.

Device #3: the EP–1320 medieval.

finally for the third device, you might exclaim, what is that?? Well let the folks from Wallpaper explain: Teenage Engineering EP-1320 Medieval: back to the Middle Ages.

What I love about the 3rd device is a) who knows what kind of market there is for this if any, and b) they don’t care, they made it anyway!

I love how different these devices are from most current handheld devices. The form factor is different, the colors are bold, the inputs are unique. They are small pieces of equipment, but they are not minimalistic pieces of equipment. I love them.

For more of teenage engineering’s great products, go here. For the longest time I wanted to have something from them, but most of their musical devices would be wasted on someone as non-musical as me. (Although if I ever get around to building my own computer, I am getting this:)

How can you learn about Project 2025? Three ways

If you are curious about Project 2025 — and if you are an American, you should be — there are at least three ways you can learn more about it.

The first way is to go to a web site set up to describe it, Project 2025: Presidential Transition Project.

Personally, and as a progressive person, I found this the best way to understand the effects it could have, 25and.me: How Does Project 2025 Affect Me?

However, if all that is hard to get a handle on, or if you want something more neutral, you can also check out: Project 2025 in Wikipedia.

Chances are if Donald Trump is reelected president, many of the things proposed in Project 2025 will come to fruition in the four years he is in office. So before you vote, read up on Project 2025 and know what you might be in store for.

It’s ok to hate August and love February (and vice versa. Or neither)

It’s ok to hate August and love February (and vice versa. Or neither.)

If you live in the northern hemisphere and you say you hate February, many people will get it. It’s a month of darkness and cold, they will say, of course you hate it.

Not all will agree. For many others love the middle of winter. They love doing winter activities. They love snow. They love staying indoors and being cozy and warm.

However, if you say you hate August, many people will not get it. They will ask you what’s not to like about warmth and sunlight? They love doing summer activities. They love BBQs, going to the beach, being outside. How could you not love that?

But like February, August is a month of extreme temperatures. And for those of us who don’t do well in high heat and humidity, it’s a brutal month to get through. Especially if you can’t go to the beach or the pool, or if you don’t like being outside so much. Or if you have to be inside and don’t have AC. For people of that group, August is easy to dislike.

I am no fan of either February or August. I prefer more moderate temperatures of September and June. But to each their own. Not everybody has to like what you like, and that is especially true of the weather.

I am glad for the folks who love July and August. As for me, I am patiently waiting for September and October.

Some thoughts on using the Digital Holga

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I bought a digital Holga for two reasons (some time ago):

  1. I love the images produced by cameras like the Diana camera and hoped the digital Holga would give me similar images
  2. I was happy to have digital images and not have to deal with film

Alas, my thoughts on the camera are similar to the ones expressed here. The images I captured were disappointing. I didn’t get what I had hoped for despite taking photos in a variety of light sources.

It’s true, you can make it better with with Adobe Lighthouse, as that piece argues. That kinda defeats the purpose of having the camera, to me.

If you are going to get one, then read this review: it is good for helping you understand the device.

Here are some of my photos. If you want to see more photos of this sort, this section of Flickr can help.

Finally, this here talks about the Holga in general.

(Top photo by me.)

New York in August – hot time in a hot city

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New York is always great to revisit, and revisit it again I did last week. Like my visit in March, I stayed with my girlfriend in the Lower East Side, eating and walking around and even taking in a Broadway show (“Illinoise”).  We hit up Freeman’s Alley and Lafayette for the breakfast, because they are always good. Plus Clinton Street Baking Company. We also dined at WildAir and King. The best of the lot, though, was Via Carota (seen above). Is it New York’s most perfect restaurant? This piece argues it is. It’s hard to disagree, although it is a bold claim, since New York has so many great restaurants. Not just now, but in it’s entire history. Read this piece on the social history of the city, told entirely through its restaurants, to see what I mean.

During the pandemic New York adopted outdoor dining and many places like Via Carota set up a big outdoor area to serve people. It’s still going strong, although the city is cracking down on outdoor dining. If you like that kinda thing, you may want to do it while you can.

Speaking of New York City post pandemic stories, here are two: this one on a 23 floor midtown Manhattan office building going for a 97.5% discount. (Practically free). And this one about how people are returning to the Met Opera, but selectively.

Here’s three good stories on NYC history: 1) a fascinating history of  Lincoln Center you might not know about, 2) the abandoned islands of New York in pictures, and 3) a bio on Lorne Michaels.  Hey, when I think of the recent history of New York, Michaels figures prominently in it.

When we were visiting, New Yorkers were talking about an impromptu goldfish pond set up outside a leaking hydrant in Bedstuy. (See above.) It was all going well until an animal lover thought she was doing the right thing by freeing fish from the pit. The man who created the pond saw it differently. Mayhem ensued.

I am not sure who thought it would be a good idea to put up a Portal between New York and Dublin, but they did. More mayhem ensued.

Finally a non-story about how the M.T.A. wanted runners of the New York City Marathon to pay bridge tolls. Needless to say, this did not happen.