A recent weird book thing

I've always like Malcolm Gladwell's essays. They're interesting and well written, often with a bit of a twist bringing a fresh point of view. You might remember his "Tipping Point" caught the attention of a lot of people.

We'll, he's revisited it. The Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.

I saw it in the library and picked it up almost without thinking about it. Then when I was reading it, I had the oddest sensation that I'd read it before. That happens, of course. Publishers change covers, and sometimes different editions of a work will have different titles. Often there's a big time gap between the old and the news.

This was a bit different. I have no memory of ever seeing this cover before, and the book was published in 2024 so it wasn't even that long ago. There is no library stamp inside it indicating when they acquired it. I don't have a photo of it in Lightroom, or if I do I never edited it and it's buried. I don't have it on the shelf downstairs with the other Gladwell books, but maybe it was put somewhere else.

And yet, the book was entirely familiar, so I must have read it before, but have no memory of actually doing so. Anyways, it's a good read.

The other recent library book is a topic near and dear to my heart, enough is enuf by Gabe Henry.

I saw a reference to it on a youtube channel called RobWords, here. His voice gets a bit, I don't know, unctuous might be the right word, but it's sort of understandable given his profession and the topic at hand. Pronunciation would be important to him.

He brings up lots of interesting points about English words, and in one of them referenced this book. English is a brutally difficult language to spell, though that makes it one of the easiest languages to do puns in. I clearly remember a grade three class as we were taking turns reading out loud. I liked to read ahead and came across the word "island". All my readers know it's pronounced 'eye-land' and I knew it then because of the context, even though I'd never seen it in print. I also knew whoever was reading it would probably pronounce it as "is land" because the teacher was a stickler for saying "sound out the new word". And they did, and it was corrected. The teacher said it was an exception to the rules. 

Then later she got onto 'i before e except after c'. Given my name is spelled Keith, there's an exception right there. I later found out the rule is more complicated than that, depending on the sound the vowel pair makes, and there are still exceptions. So best not to think of it as a rule after all, and just memorize the spellings. And the pronunciations. There's a lot of that in English.

Consider:

The "ow" sound (when you cut your finger) and the "owe" sound (I need to pay off my bookie). Let's go through it.

Bow (and arrow) or Bow (to the king) but not spelled Bowe. What about Bough (of a tree)?

Cow 

There is no Dow, but there is Doe.

There is no Fow, or Fowe, but Foe.

There is no Gow, but there is Go.

How, but not Howe unless you're talking about Mr. Hockey, but Hoe.

Low, pronounced Lowe. But why not Lowd (loud).

Mow (part of a barn to store hay), and Mow (the lawn) but we pronounce it Mowe, but don't spell it Moe.

Now, but also No but not Noe or Nowe.

Pow, and Poe (the author).

Row (your boat) or Row (squabble), but we pronounce it Rowe, but don't spell it Roe because fish eggs, I guess.

Sow (a pig) or Sow (the seeds), but we pronounce it Sowe and don't spell it Soe, or Sew.

Tow (a trailer) or the Toe of your foot, but not Towe. And what about the whole To, Too, and Two thing?

Vow

Wow

That's just one example out of my head. Here's one from the book. "A rough cough and a hiccough plough me through." 

I can appreciate the desire for people to rationalize English, thinking a word ought to be spelled the way it sounds, or pronounced the way it's spelled. That a given sequence of letters should have a unique pronunciation and preferably, a unique meaning, but that ship has long sailed. 

But it's complicated. Oh boy, is it complicated. Words that have a similar appearance might come from different languages with different pronunciations. Then there was the Great Vowel Shift which influenced figuring out how to spell things when the printing press came along. It didn't help that the people running the printing press didn't speak English as their first language, and besides, it wasn't quite the English we know yet. Which sort of explains why food does not rhyme with good.

Part of the problem is that we have more word sounds than we have letters to express them. Yet creating new letters to express those sounds, or reassigning the sounds the existing letters make is enormously complicated. So many exceptions, and making changes makes the words look like the person using them is uneducated. We have letters from Latin, but English doesn't use Latin rules. We have words imported from other languages but we don't pronounce them the same way, and sometimes they overlap with existing words.

In the end, I admit to being a bit of a language snob. Just the other day I rejected a job application because the person was seeking a "carrer". It's good advice to not read the comments and certainly not take them seriously. But even the actual articles, I look at how it's written. Spelling mistakes and poor usage flag it as either AI, or someone that can't be troubled to express themselves clearly. Big red fail button, with some exceptions for people using English as a second language. 

Reforms are happening, though. Or is it tho? If I were texting someone I'd probably type that, unless the damnyouautocorrect fixed it correctly. Don't get me started on that. I'm sure that by the time I'm actually old, I'll be waving my cane at the text, shouting, "Hey you vandals, get off of my language!"

Of the Day

Driftwood (NZ)

Driftwood (NB)

Linda

Newfoundland

New Brunswick

Why ever didn't I publish this, and maybe I did

Film and 90 days, or so ago

Flower

Landscape

First peony ant of the year

Peonies and ants go together like, well, just about any great combo you can name. Our four main peonies are pretty eager to get going on the season and are just beginning to show the bulbs. Getting the ants isn't quite as hard as getting a bee or a dragonfly, but it's still pretty tough to get their faces. Mostly it's their hairy butts, which I know appeals to one of my readers. 

I was out today, and even though it's not Friday, here's some of the current crop, in between frosty nights. Last night it got down to -1. Linda was out double and triple wrapping some of the more tender flowers.

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7. The promised ant.

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9. It's kind of odd. This dahlia looks like it took one for the team, since the other dahlias in the same pot are doing fine.

Of the Day

Driftwood (NZ)

Driftwood (NB) and Linda

Newfoundland

New Brunswick

Why ever didn't I publish this, and maybe I did

Film and 90 days, or so ago

Landscape

Michelle

Winter again leading to a rant

Now is the winter of our discontent

Made glorious summer by this sun of York;

And it is winter again outside. Actually snowing. It's still above zero and it's all melting as it hits the ground. For now. Linda prepared, double or triple wrapping the more tender plants in pots. That was during the sunny part of yesterday, and it rained while the work was in progress.

This is what it's doing this now, at 11am on Saturday, compared to that previous now. (And the most current now, 12:30, there is actual accumulation on the grass, but not the sidewalks or pavement. Yet.)

Some of the preparation.

We aren't fussed, though. We knew it was possible, the snow. It's always possible, sort of like Alberta separatism flare-ups.

As was said by the wit Alan Fotheringham on the election of Gordon Kessler of the Western Canada Concept party in 1982, "They're breathing a different kind of air." True then, true now.

Much of the froth around Alberta separatism reminds me of a 3 year old shrieking, "You're not the boss of me!", or "I'll hold my breath till I turn blue and then you'll be sorry."

They bleat about the Eastern elites ignoring them, and get upset because the Liberals win elections. All they see is the massive majorities that happen in most Alberta ridings and imagine that should carry over to the rest of the country. Except it doesn't. It's the number of votes IN A RIDING that elect an MP. Any excess votes do not carry over to help elect an MP in another riding. Don't get me started on proportional representation.

Those massive majorities per riding are part of the problem. All of the federal parties know two things perfectly well. That of the 37 MP seats in the House of Commons only a few of them in Edmonton and Calgary are actually in play, so there is no point in spending any serious amount of effort to win the seats. That includes the Conservatives. 

They know a turnip painted blue would get elected because it happened in Battle River - Crowfoot in August 2025, after Poilievre was booted out of his Ottawa Carleton seat in 2025. They would rather have him, than an independent local with deep roots in the community. Some of the loudest bleating is about policies enacted by a Conservative government led by an Albertan. See equalization. It's a total fantasy of course, but imagine a world where Albertans switched their vote to NDP, and it held the balance of power in the House. 

They also know that it's easily possible to form a majority government without needing any Alberta seats in the house because it's been done. The Liberals are very good at figuring out where the votes are, and getting them out in key ridings. The winning strategy is to spread the votes out just enough to get a few more votes than the next most popular party, in at least 172 seats. Which explains why Canadians can end up with a majority government with less than 40% of the popular vote. (Again, proportional representation.)

The other related fact to all this is that Quebec has 78 seats in the House of Commons, and even more importantly, the electorate can and does change how they vote. All the federal parties know most of those seats are in play, and adjust their campaigns accordingly. 

Let's do the math here. 343 minus 78 is 265, and 172 are needed for a majority government. Mathematically that might be possible, but it means a near sweep of every other seat in the country. Ontario alone has 122 seats. And it's not like seats are distributed unfairly. Each MP in Alberta and Ontario serves almost exactly the same number of people on average. That's where people live and thus where the votes are. One person, one vote, and all. Tell some Albertans that a legitimate majority government could be formed with just seats from Ontario and Quebec and their heads would explode with rage.

Yes, Alberta is often out of step with the rest of Canada on a variety of issues, but it baffles me why separatists think they'll get a better deal as an independent nation. If Alberta can't negotiate with other provinces and the federal government as part of the country, how will they do better outside it? BC could, and probably would block any pipelines to the west coast, or impose such punishing tolls that it's uneconomic.

Joining the US as a state is a fantasy. We would go from being the most prosperous province per capita to being a mid-pack state. That doesn't sound promising for getting more attention paid to our issues. Why would the US want Alberta as a state, rather than a territory? By their standards, we're practically Commies and come with dangerous ideas, like single payer health care. And really, right now the US is a festering dumpster fire of racism and misogyny. Why would someone even visit if they had a choice about it?

Then we come to the Clarity Act of 2000, passed in the wake of a Quebec referendum on separation. So the argument of "Quebec got to hold a referendum without consultation with anybody, why can't we?" is moot because the rules changed. And no, they can't notwithstanding clause their way out of consultation with First Nations. 

A summary of the Clarity Act:

• Giving the House of Commons the power to decide whether a proposed referendum question was considered clear before the public vote;
• Specifically stating that any question not solely referring to secession was to be considered unclear;
• Giving the House of Commons the power to determine whether a clear majority had expressed itself following any referendum vote, implying that some sort of supermajority is required for success;[16]
• Stating that all provinces and the indigenous peoples were to be part of the negotiations;
• Allowing the House of Commons to override a referendum decision if it felt the referendum violated any of the tenets of the Clarity Act;
• The secession of a province of Canada would require an amendment to the Constitution of Canada.

And on that last point, amending the Canadian Constitution requires requires a specialized process established in 1982, involving combinations of consent from the Senate, House of Commons, and provincial legislatures, rather than a single direct vote system. Most changes require the "7/50" formula: approval by Parliament and at least 7 provinces representing 50% of the national population.

In summary, you couldn't get that that group to sing Happy Birthday in unison. Any effort to open it to amend one specific point would soon descend into various groups withholding their support unless they get a cookie as well.

Let's just say, you don't hear much about the Clarity Act from Alberta separatists. They also enabled a massive data breach with voter records that completely taints their petition. The RCMP should send in a team to work with Elections Canada to investigate all involved. Heads should roll. I read a post that implied David Parker had fled to Texas rather than face the music, but I don't know if that's actually true. 

Of the Day

Driftwood (NZ)

And yes, I want to be walking on this beach today. Almost any beach.

Driftwood (NB)

Linda

Newfoundland

New Brunswick

Why ever didn't I publish this, and maybe I did

Film and 90 days, or so ago

Flower

Landscape

Flowery Friday 2

Yes, some of the bought flowers are in the ground and pots. Yes, it was an act of optimism. Yes, we knew there was a possibility of frost. Then again, that possibility exists nearly year round.

Saturday is looking like another round of winter. Maybe. Nobody is quite sure. The weather statement quote is "Forecast snowfall amounts are highly uncertain. Accumulations of up to 20 centimetres are possible over higher terrain and along the Trans-Canada Highway west of Calgary." Make of it what you will.

Here's a selection of the flowers from the other day. 

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5. The two peonies beside the house are getting a good start. I'm sure they have their eye on the image of the year podium.

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7. The white peony on the left, and the red one on the right are a bit slower to get started. I cleaned out those beds yesterday and can see lots of shoots springing up. I'm sure they have podium plans as well, especially the white one.

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9. All the roses appear to have made it through the winter.

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12. First tulip of the year, and several more are coming up.

Of the Day

Driftwood (NZ)

Driftwood (NB)

Linda

Newfoundland

New Brunswick

Why ever didn't I publish this, and maybe I did

A reflective selfie on the road between Whitehorse and Dawson City.

Film and 90 days, or so ago

Landscape