The Alien Next Door

The Somerset Collection: Toulouse Gets Lost in Detroit

2009-11-07T19:34:00.000-08:00

“Toulouse lost? EEK!” you say. What happened? Some of you might also recall that this isn't the first time I "lost" Toulouse. There was the other liquor store incident in Louisville, Kentucky... Well, as some of you know I am on the road again, marketing my fiction writing guide The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now! to schools, colleges and universities (know of one that could use my book?) across North America. My travels took me through several universities like Guelph University, York University, University of Toronto, University of Chicago, Purdue University, Notre Dame and the University of Wisconsin, to name a few. Then Toulouse and I drove to Detroit for a high-brow marketing meeting that my publisher set up for us.

We parked ourselves in Utica, a nice suburb in the northern part of Detroit where we checked out the local restaurants and malls, one of which was the upscale “Somerset Collection” in Troy, an adjacent suburb of Metro Detroit. Developed, managed and co-owned by The Forbes Company, the center is anchored by department stores Nordstrom, Macy's, Neiman Marcus, and Saks Fifth Avenue and contains two centers, Somerset North and Somerset South, joined by a bridge.

The mall started out in 1967 as a Saks Fifth Avenue. In 1969 Louis G. Redstone Associates designed the upscale “Somerset Mall” around the existing Saks. Then in 1991-1992 the center was renamed Somerset Collection, a second level was added, and Neiman Marcus opened a store. In 1992, Tiffany's was added. Co-owners Forbes/Cohen Properties and Frankel Associates expanded the mall across Big Beaver Road in 1996 using the Michigan based JPRA Architects and called Somerset North. Michigan's first Nordstrom and a Hudson's (now Macy's) anchored the new three-story expansion. A 700-foot enclosed bridge with a moving sidewalk called a "Skywalk" joins the two malls over Big Beaver Road. The vast grand court with its full arched glass dome roof, designed by the Michigan based JPRA Architects, is one of the center’s unique architectural features.

Happy with our meeting, Toulouse and I wandered through the south mall, looking for a nice restaurant to celebrate and Toulouse spotted Brio, a Tuscan grille. The place was packed but Toulouse charmed the Maitre d’ and we got a nice table in the back. We started with a house-made flatbread, spiced elegantly with rosemary, parmesan and flax seeds, and a lobster bisque with shrimp and a touch of sherry. Oolala… Toulouse really liked it! The scamp has great taste. I then ordered from the grille, Artichoke Crusted Beef Medallion: beef tornadoes with an artichoke crust and mushroom marsala sauce, served with crispy potatoes and roasted vegetables. Toulouse insisted on ordering his own meal so I relented (I could always take back a doggy—er—catty bag). He ordered a Bistecca: Tournedos Di Manzo: filets served with romano crusted tomatoes, asparagus and Hollandaise. He even let me try some. It was fabulous!

We then sauntered through the mall, which was closing. After I oogled a gorgeous jacket at Ralph Lauren (that would look superb on me!), I left the mall toward the car parked outside to find a liquor store to celebrate some more. That’s when I realized that Toulouse wasn’t with me. I’d last seen him frolicking at the fountains inside the mall. I rushed back but the mall was shut. Would he get sucked down the drain before I had a chance to find him?

Luckily for me, I spotted several of Detroit’s finest in the coffee and donut shop next door and sashayed over to them…. I grinned like a fool and proceeded to tell them that I wasn’t from Detroit…in fact, I wasn’t from Michigan…in fact, I wasn’t from the United States. This really got their attention. “So, where are you from, then?” Officer Plante asked me with an amused crooked smile. When I told him that I was from Canada, he grinned and teased, “That’s a state, isn’t it?”

Randy Plante turned out to be a real fan of science fiction so I said I’d give him my book, “Darwin’s Paradox” if they could help me find Toulouse, my trusted—though unruly—companion--and the liquor store! They got really serious then and found a way inside the mall. Officer Kurt Sharrow (a writer himself—see “After I Graduate”) even brought out Bear, their K-9, who sniffed a ruffled Toulouse out from under a bench by the fountains. Toulouse did not appreciate Bear’s friendly lick.

My new friends then escorted us to the liquor store where Toulouse (ever the connoiseur of good spirits) picked out a delightful Pinot Noir to celebrate our successful adventure.

Detroit was never the same; neither was Toulouse...

Photos:

1. Officer Randy Plante, Utica Police Department

2. The Somerset Collection, Somerset South Front Lobby

3. The Somerset Collection, Somerset South

4. The Somerset Collection, outside Brio

5. Toulouse by the Fountains

6. Officer Kurt W. Sharrow, Utica Police Department

7. Officers of the Utica Police Department

You’re Less Likely to Get Sick If You Actively Socialize

2009-11-03T17:39:00.000-08:00

Isn’t that an oxymoron? More sociable people are more exposed to germs, after all. Yet a study by Sheldon Cohen and his colleagues published in Psychological Science (2003) showed that less sociable people caught colds more often than those who socialized. While that doesn’t follow the straight logic of exposure, it sheds light on the concept of mind-body dualism and the link between physical and mental health. People who socialize have a social identity, possibly multiple social identities, which seems to make them more resilient.

“Belonging to social groups and networks appears to be an important predictor of health—just as important as diet and exercise,” says a September/October 2009 article in Scientific American Mind by Jetten et.al. Socializing makes us healthier and more resilient. A 2005 study by Bernadette Boden-Albala at Columbia University found that socially isolated patients were twice as likely to have another stroke within five years as were those with meaningful social relationships. In fact, being cut off from others put people at far greater risk of another stroke than traditional factors like having coronary artery disease or being physically inactive, said the report.

Karen Ertel and colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health, who tracked a large group of elderly Americans over six years, found “significantly less memory loss in those who were more socially integrated and active.” (American Journal of Public Health).

Does virtual socializing (e.g., social networking through Facebook, MySpace, blogging and chat-lines) contribute to better health like the examples above? That’s what researchers are still asking and some speculate that social networking provides a good socializing venue, particularly for those of us who are less mobile or otherwise more isolated from loved ones and close friends (through travel, for instance). But, researchers also suggest that this venue does not provide a totally satisfying substitute for face-to-face real-world engagement. It comes down to a healthy balance based on circumstance. Now more than ever, we have options for meeting new people, joining groups of like-minds (whether virtual or real) where we can safely be challenged and excited by life, associations that provide us with fulfilling activities and good mental health. I am an active blogger and online communicator (I travel a lot and find online chatting a wonderful way to keep in touch with family, friends and colleagues). I have also formed many associations through this venue, several of whom I have since met face-to-face and forged close friendships with.

That is, in the final analysis, the point: good mental health. You create your reality. Now, go socialize!

Photos:
Photo 1: I think this was some kind of cat-tormenting gang of the suburbs...
Photo 2: socializing at Times Square in New York City
Photo 3: The Witches of SF Canada

Three Mistakes Not to Make When Crossing the Border

2009-10-27T19:16:00.000-07:00

I wasn’t long back from my month-long sojourn out of province and country when I had to cross the border yet again into the United States on a mailing errand. I thought nothing of it, as I grabbed my passport and the package I was taking across the border to send to a bookstore in the United States because I was strapped for time and I knew it would take a bazillion days to get across the border via the traditional carriers. Well, I should have known better. My Karmic relationship with borders verges on dangerous at best. That day, I foolishly wore my new tie-dye t-shirt, donned my pilot sunglasses and had the New Age music blaring loud as I neared the border crossing. What was I thinking? I went on to make three fatal errors, which I pass onto you for your vicarious learning experience—at my expense, of course… LOL! Go ahead and laugh… I did… after…

Mistake #1—Attire and sense of humor: Was it the tie-dye shirt, my shades (which I stupidly didn’t take off right away) or my goofy smile…the customs officer started joking with me. That should have been the first alarm: customs officers don’t have a sense of humor, do they? So, when I told him I was just hopping over to mail a parcel of books to the States because it was cheaper and faster from there, he decided to get curious and wanted me to open the parcel I’d so meticulously put together and sealed. “To make sure it isn’t a bomb or has LSD or cocaine in it,” he teased—or so I surmised from his smirk and laughed. More mistake. I must have looked like some hippy-dippy mama drug dealer…

Mistake #2—Honesty and naïve attitude: I openly showed my disappointment at ruining the parcel I’d taped up so nicely. As I struggled to find something that would open the parcel without ruining the wrapping, I foolishly asked him if he could tape it shut again. He got downright surly and said he didn’t have to do that or anything. He then informed me tersely that I was using very suspicious language. Instantly realizing my error, I decided to adopt a guarded serious tone. As if to counter it, he produced what he called “a dangerous weapon”, which turned out to be a very tiny Swiss army knife to help me open the parcel with less damage. I felt like I’d entered the Twilight Zone as I used the inch-long blade to slice open the tape and showed him the books. After a cursory perusal, he decided that he was suddenly interested in the trunk. I was in for the whole meal deal, I guess…

So, I showed him the messy trunk, including a box full of books, which for some reason he wasn’t interested in. Holding onto my passport, he then told me to pull over and go inside. I felt a little helpless and conjured an old memory of the Cairo Airport when all our passports had been confiscated for over an hour under the guard of strange surly men with Uzis.

Mistake #3—Entertaining and cocky spirit… oh, and BIG mouth: The three large men in flack jackets looked up as I sauntered inside and surrendered by opened package of books to one of them. He pulled out a book and frowned at it then asked me what all that “Alien” stuff was about. I laughed and told him that I was “The Alien Next Door”. What WAS I thinking? (You’re doing the Facepalm thing, right?) That’s when they all got interested in me. Never be “interesting” when you’re alone in a room with four bored customs officials. One of the other men glanced knowingly at my tie-dye shirt, and casually "informed me" that he’d read that the province of British Columbia had the highest per capita sightings of UFOs. Then there ensued a four-way conversation about Canadians and UFO sightings—at my expense, of course. All kinds of theories were argued back and forth, which included Vancouver’s position as a drug-port, British Columbia’s slightly leftist politics and its history of being a haven for American draft dodgers. I tried very hard not to glance down at my tie-dye shirt and knew my windblown hair wasn’t doing me a favor right then.

Then, as if suddenly some light of justice had switched on, the officer put my books back carefully into the parcel, taped it all up with neon green U.S. Customs tape and cheerfully sent me on my way. And, yes, I got my passport back too. I wandered off in a daze as if I’d just left the set of a surreal movie.

The day after, a friend of mine passed me a CBC News article stating that Canadian border guards were pulling out their guns, batons and pepper spray more frequently. The article was based on a June report by the Canada Border Services and obtained by the Canadian Press under access to information legislation. The article reported that guards were pulling side arms from their holsters about three times a month. Pepper spray was used on aggressive travelers four times, but with no serious injuries. According to the report, the Canadian government made its decision to arm the guards for security reasons and to reflect their U.S. counterparts to help deal with cross-border criminal activity.

“Oboy!” I say…

The Speed of Life: Slow Down and Taste Life

2009-10-20T13:58:00.000-07:00

Europeans really know how to eat. More to the point—they know how to slow down so they can enjoy what they are eating. When I was in Paris last year, I witnessed the bustle and rush of working Parisians in the Metros and the crowded streets; but I also saw those same people settled to a long lunch where they savored a quality meal over compelling discussion. When it comes to eating, Parisians do it with superb style.

However, it wasn’t in France but in Italy where the “Slow Food” movement was created in 1986 by Carlo Petrini, in a reaction to the invasion of fast food giant McDonald’s in Rome. Seen as the antithesis of the North American “fast food” phenomenon, the Slow Food philosophy embraces the belief that “the food we eat should taste good; that it should be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; and that food producers should receive fair compensation for their work.” Slow food proponent author and activist Eric Schlosser contends that it is the opposite of fast food, which represents “blandness, uniformity, conformity, [and] the blind worship of science and technology.”

This is how they describe themselves and their mission statement: “Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world. To do that, Slow Food brings together pleasure and responsibility, and makes them inseparable.”

Petrini’s Slow Food organization created the worldwide Ark of Taste to protect culinary diversity. One of the things they did was establish a catalogue of endangered flavors, foods and beverages. In order for a food to be Ark-worthy it had to be made from local plants and animals, with artisanal production (small scale using traditional methods, environmentally friendly and free of biotechnology methods). Ark-worthy foods in Canada include: stinging nettle, miner’s lettuce, Saskatoon berries, nodding onion, Tamworth pigs, the Canadienne cow, Red Fife wheat, herring spawn on kelp, Nova Scotia’s Gravenstein apple, Great Plains bison and Montreal melon.

“Words such as promote, develop, safeguard and educate are the cornerstones of Slow Food,” reports Jennifer Danter in an article in “Taste” magazine. The Slow Food organization established regional chapters—called Convivia—in most countries to address environmental concerns and local food issues. The Convivia organize tastings and special dinners in addition to running educational programs for their community. Here are some cool suggestions for slowing down this fall and winter:

• Shop at a local market
• Cook with seasonal items (available at your local market)
• Visit www.slowfood.com for information on slow food places near you and their events and tastings
• Walk in the woods and smell the fresh air
• Find a slow food recipe, an ideal wine to go with it along with some appreciative friends and have yourself a feast!

Here’s one I filched off “Taste” magazine:

Wild Mushroom Risotto (paired with Firesteed Pinot Noir, described as greeting you with cherry and sweet spice aromas and a mingling of vibrant bold raspberry and strawberry nuance. This is a complex and well-structured wine for serious entertaining!)

Serves 4

1 oz dried porcini mushrooms, broken
¼ oz dried morel mushrooms, broken, OR
2 cups fresh morels, cleaned and cut into ½ in pieces
4 cups boiling chicken stock
5 tbsp butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 shallots, finely chopped
2 cloves, garlic, minced
2 cups arborio rice
½ cup red wine
1/3 cup parmesan cheese, fresh grated

Put mushrooms in a saucepan and add the boiling chicken stock. Cover and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes until dark. Strain, reserving liquid and mushrooms. Heat 4 tbsp of butter in a heavy, medium-sized saucepan. Add onion, shallots and garlic. Sauté for 1 minute. If using fresh morels, add and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes. Add rice and red wine and let simmer until wine is nearly evaporated. Add 1 cup of reserved stock and continue to simmer, stirring occasionally. Add more stock at intervals until all liquid is used and absorbed, about 25 minutes. Stir in the reserved mushrooms, parmesan and remaining butter. Garnish with chopped flat leaf parsley.

Tada! Delicimo!

Photos:
1. gourmet display
2. a Paris cafe in Montmartre
3. A Parisian boulangerie
4. Toulouse enjoys a Napa Valley sparkling Pinot Noir

In Search of a New Paradigm—Part 2: Pixar’s “Collective Creativity”

2009-10-11T21:51:00.000-07:00

The view that good ideas are rarer and more valuable than good people is rooted in a misconception of creativity—Ed Catmull, Pixar

Recently, Piet Voute, my neighbor and a cool animator (you may have read my interview with him here) passed me an article on Pixar in the September 2008 Harvard Business Review. It was a timely sharing, given that Pixar’s business model follows an alternative to the traditional parochial Capitalism model discussed in my previous post. It is a model and culture based not on a hierarchy of closed-minded greed and secrecy but on “collective creativity”. Here’s their story and their model:

In the 1990s Pixar was the leading technological pioneer in the field of computer animation with Toy Story, released in 1995, being the world’s first computer-animated feature film. They released eight other films in the following 13 years. Cofounder and president of Pixar Ed Catmull describes one of the qualities promoted by George Lucas that Pixar embraced. “George didn’t try to lock up the technology for himself and allowed us to continue to publish and maintain strong academic contacts. This made it possible to attract some of the best people in the industry.”

Catmull describes three operating principles that underpin the structure and operation of Pixar’s creative organization. These are: 1) everyone must have the freedom to communicate with anyone; 2) it must be safe for everyone to offer ideas; and 3) we must stay close to innovations happening in the academic community. He recommends that people be able to walk into any department and talk to anyone to solve a problem, without the need to follow “proper” channels. He suggests that managers “don’t always have to be the first to know about something and …it’s okay to walk into a meeting and be surprised.” Catmull shares that people at Pixar are constantly showing their works in progress to others, regardless of discipline or position and within a safe environment for criticism.

One of the keys to a vitally creative organization, says Catmull, is letting people take risks at all levels of an organization from the computer animator to the top executive. The other is “getting talented people to work effectively with one another,” says Catmull. “That takes trust and respect,” something that must be earned over time. “What we can do is construct and environment that nurtures trusting and respectful relationships,” which unleashes the creative spirit. In keeping with his philosophy of good people vs. good ideas, and in nurturing a culture of creativity, Catmull contends that “If you give a good idea to a mediocre team, they’ll screw it up. But if you give a mediocre idea to a great team, they’ll make it work.” Good people and a good team are the prerequisites to good ideas and the fulfillment of a successful project. This philosophy contradicts that of most corporations, which promote product first and people second.

It starts with giving “Power to the Creatives” which resides with those creating the project (e.g., director, writer, artists and storyboard people), not corporate executives or development department; what Catmull calls “filmmaker led”, such as the partnership of director and producer, within a “peer culture”. In such a culture “each person on the film [has] creative ownership of even the smallest task.” Catmull takes pride in Pixar’s “all-level” support network and what’s called “the brain trust”. Showing unfinished work each day, says Catmull, “liberates people to take risks and try new things because it doesn’t have to be perfect the first time.”

In Search of a New Paradigm—Part 1: Is Our Love Affair with Capitalism Over?...An Ecologist’s Perspective

2009-10-05T12:06:00.000-07:00

Do you remember when you first fell in love? Nothing beat the exalting thrill of that first scintillating kiss. The kiss never lies. You just knew you were both in love and that it would be forever. Then followed the exciting romance…. But when the romance fell from grace there followed panic and hysteria, a devastated ego, soulful hurt and then deep grief of a terrible loss … like a piece of you had been lost. What followed the loss of wholeness and naiveté was a great skepticism in the whole relationship thing, along with a reluctance to open your heart again to anyone. You ended up not trusting in people’s intentions in order to protect your soul and your wounded heart. Some of you may have decided to never give yourself totally to love like that again. Blame love itself and never suffer the fool to it again. Welcome to the cynical world.

I may be stretching the metaphor here but … well… read on… Rogue filmmaker Michael Moore did name his latest film “Capitalism: A Love Story” after all…Moore’s film was released last week to mixed reviews: Xan Brooks of The Guardian says, “Capitalism: A Love Story is by turns crude and sentimental, impassioned and invigorating. It posits a simple moral universe inhabited by good little guys and evil big ones, yet the basic thrust of its argument proves hard to resist.” Leslie Felperin of Variety says, “By returning to his roots, professional gadfly Michael Moore turns in one of his best films with Capitalism: A Love Story. His target is less capitalism qua capitalism than the banking industry, which Moore skewers ruthlessly, explaining last year’s economic meltdown in terms a sixth-grader could understand.” According to Kenneth Turan of the New York Times, Moore’s “notion that capitalism, far from being a system that rewards excellence, is a scheme set up to make a profit on absolutely anything. He fears it has in recent decades turned American society into a culture that says money is the only value.”

At the same time Naomi Klein’s bestselling polemic The Shock Doctrine was released as a feature film. The Toronto Star posted York University’s Leo Panitch’s essay “Marx and his ideas rise from the dustbin of history”. The September 19th edition of the

The National Post published a front page story on Richard Wolff, economics professor at the University of Massachusetts (now lecturing worldwide), who promotes a model of Marxism in the film “Capitalism Hits the Fan”

Christine Monnier, sociologist at the College of DuPage, Chicago, suggests that the initial public hysteria over the possible collapse of capitalism has ebbed to a more chronic social anxiety about the way our economy operates. Have we fallen “out of love” with a system our romantic notions can no longer support? Monnier explains that “the meltdown [of 2007-2008] offered a less clear cut moral narrative, with no readily identifiable villains or obvious remedy” (Kevin Libin of The National Post). “We know we’re supposed to take action, but it’s not clear against what and it’s not clear what effect we expect…and that basically leaves everybody in conditions of uncertainty.” Not a very nice place to be; nor does it inspire confidence, forward-thinking or creativity, even. Although the broader factors, such as too much liquidity along with irresponsible lending and borrowing, are obvious contributors, the more subtle details elude most of us.

Wolff suggests that the financial crisis we experienced and are presently dragging ourselves out of is part of a systematic crisis; a crisis that involves how and why we do business, which in turn is irrevocably tied to how we define ourselves.

According to Wolff, North Americans have chosen to define our self-worth and measure our success in life according to our standard of consumption. We define our success by what car we drive, what neighborhood we live in, what outfit we wear. Americans have become related to consumption in a way that other working classes in the rest of the world have not. A good example is France, where I am told citizens value art and philosophy over money and power. To a Frenchwoman, how much money you have isn’t as important as how much culture you bring to a conversation. I speak to this in two previous posts, “Falling for Paris” and “Pearls Before Breakfast”. On the other hand, advertizing (an industry devoted to promoting consumption) has risen first and developed further in the United States than anywhere else, says Wolff. He tells the story of 150 years of working history in America, where productivity, wages and profit all rose with consumption until the 1970s when, among other factors, wages leveled out due to reactions to the post-war economic recovery of competitors like Japan and Europe. But, even though wages leveled out, productivity (and profit to corporate share holders along with it) continued to rise; ironically because workers were compelled to put in more hours and/or take on extra jobs to pay for their inflated lifestyles.

According to Wolff, the solution is not to build a regime of further regulation in a government-run traditionally regarded socialist system, in which corporations currently have the means to avoid or remove said regulations. Wolff recommends that people who do the work for the enterprise become collectively their own board of directors, giving the people who depend upon the survival of those regulations the power to ensure that the regulations are not undone, “democratizing the enterprise.” Wolff asserted that a political democracy cannot be sustained without an economic democracy underpinning it.

Wolff provides examples of companies that use this model successfully: small companies located in the Silicon Valley, south of San Francisco, in which the workers act as their own collective board of directors. According to Wolff, many of the great breakthroughs in computer technology and telecommunication in the past 50 years were achieved by these types of firms through what they call “innovative entrepreneurship”. Wolff is describing syndicalism, which “holds, on an ethical basis, that all participants in an organized trade internally share equal ownership of its production” (Wikipedia). Syndicalism is a form of socialism that functions through co-operative alliances and mutual aid, with local syndicates communicating with other syndicates through a labor exchange, which manages and transfers commodities.” This kind of socialism, says Wolff, “begins and focuses at the bottom, with the individual.”

So, is it the basic premise of the Capitalist model or its application that’s at fault? First of all, scholars have long debated over the definition of capitalism. Most agree that its core elements include: 1) private ownership of the means of production, 2) creation of goods or services for profit in a market, 3) paid employment, and 4) prices and wages set according to market supply and demand. The origins of modern Capitalism and markets can be traced back to the Roman Empire and the free markets of the Islamic Golden Age and Muslim Agricultural Revolution, where the first market economy and earliest forms of merchant capitalism evolved between the 8th–12th centuries (Erdkamp, 2005). Aspects of merchant capitalism flourished in the late Middle Ages and spread throughout Europe in 16th century Europe. Capitalism dominated the Western world following the collapse of feudalism. In the 19th and 20th centuries, it provided the main means of global industrialization. The control and direction of large areas of industry came into the hands of trusts, financiers and holding companies. This period was dominated by an increasing number of monopolistic firms earning supernormal profits as large industrial cartels or monopolies and characterized by the ownership and management of industry by financiers divorced from the production process; and the development of a complex system of banking, an equity market, and corporate holdings of capital through stock ownership (Scott, 2005). The petroleum, telecommunication, railroad, shipping, banking and financial industries are characterized by its monopolistic domination. Inside these corporations, a division of labor separates shareholders, owners, managers, and laborers.

Proponents assert that a capitalist economy provides more opportunities for individuals to raise their income through new professions or business ventures than other economic paradigms. They maintain that the potential is much greater than in either traditional feudal or tribal societies or in socialist societies. Moreover, they suggest that the “self-organized” nature of an open market approach and profit motive successfully coordinates the wants and needs of millions of people. Philosopher/author Ayn Rand, a supporter of laissez-faire capitalism, maintained that the Capitalist model is the only morally valid socio-political system because it allows people to be free to act in their rational self-interest. Rand even created a code of morality, “Rational Selfishness” to describe it.

BUT...Because the Capitalist model relies on continued economic growth, Capitalist behavior will inevitably deplete our finite natural resources. Murray Bookchin argued that because capitalist production externalizes environmental costs to all of society, the burden of mitigating environmental impacts is not adequately addressed. I deal with this insidious problem daily as an environmental consultant.

The Capitalist model currently practiced by most large corporations follows a pattern that economist Joseph Schumpeter described as "creative destruction"—based on the fact that market economies undergo constant change. In ecologist’s terms, this approach is a “boom-bust” model, based on an unsustainable rising productivity that inevitably stresses its resources and is fated to crash and give way to its successor (if a successor is even possible). This is the same pattern followed by small microbes, insects and most weeds. According to ecologists, organisms that follow a pattern of unrestricted production, population growth and spread follow an “r-selected” pioneer-like lifestyle (MacArthur and Wilson, 1967; Pianka, 1970). R-strategists usually live in very harsh or dramatically changing or unstable or new environments. They are typically short-lived and invest everything in “the moment”, trying to beat the statistics of a climate that will kill most of their progeny. Our current status on the planet suggests evolving a “K-strategy”, exemplified by increased cooperation, less focus on number and more focus on quality and longevity. This practice is more apparent in Europe, where you can—and would want to— buy and keep a coat that will actually last twenty years.

Whether we consider the ideology or the practice of the dialectic, whether it is communism, capitalism, or socialism; one factor spoils every single one of these: greed. So, my take on all of this isn’t that Capitalism, per se, is bad or even not the best model for most cultures. Rather, it is that we have allowed our own personal greed to undermine a system that, despite its premise being based on profit and the gain of “capital”, could function on the power of reciprocal altruism. This is both the best and worst trait of Capitalism: its reliance on an individual’s integrity and altruistic behavior.

Power is an interesting phenomenon. Largely associated with dictatorships and large faceless corporations who make billions of dollars a year, power is often regarded as one in the same with greed, tyranny and oppression. Yet, power can exist in the smallest and humblest of individuals. Greed is an empty vessel with a large hole; it can never be filled. It is the opposite of love, and, ultimately, the opposite of power.

And with that we have come full circle with falling in love. Because, ultimately, to fall in love—and stay in love—is to give oneself the greatest power of all: the power that comes with the grace of pure altruism, pure giving, and ironically, pure “being”…

References:

Erdkamp, Paul. 2005. "The Grain Market in the Roman Empire" Cambridge University Press
MacArthur, R. and Wilson, E. O. 1967. The Theory of Island Biogeography, Princeton University Press (2001 reprint).
Pianka, E. R. 1970. On r and K selection. American Naturalist 104, 592-597.
Cambridge University Press. “The Cambridge economic history of Europe” p. 437.Scott, John. 2005. “Industrialism: A Dictionary of Sociology” Oxford University Press.

The Fiction Writer Now on Amazon.com!

2009-09-30T23:39:00.000-07:00

“The Fiction Writer is at the top of the required reading list for my students. With its engagingly direct, conversational style and easily accessible format, it is a veritable cornucopia of hands-on help for aspiring writers of any age…the quintessential book for the soon-to-be published.”—Susan H. McLemore, Director of Glynn Academy Language Arts Department

WOOT! My fiction writing guide, “The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now!” is now available for sale on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca (in Canada) and Amazon.co.uk (in England). So, now you can buy it easily; no excuse! LOL!

Seriously though, I’m kind of proud of this book, which only took me a few months to write. I drew from my own twenty-odd years experience in writing and publishing, from struggling aspiring writer to established internationally published author. I include personal examples of queries and synopses that worked, actual rejection letters and hilarious but educational stories (well, they were funny at the bar) about my publishing misadventures. For instance, in Chapter "R" not only do I show images of my actual rejection letters but I relate an embarrassing story in the section entitled, "Something Worse Than Rejection". What could that possibly be, you may very well ask. You're just going to have to read Chapter "R" then tell me if you agree!

I also borrowed from the wisdom of many experts in writing and publishing, notably Robert J. Sawyer, Elizabeth Lyon, Jack Bickham, Sol Stein, Janet Fitch, Tobias Bucknell, Ansen Dibell, Margot Finke, Marg Gilks, Crawford Killian, Ralph Keyes, Victor Frankl, among others. I mixed their erudite advice with my educational experiences to produce a guidebook that fills a rare niche: a guidebook that seriously educates but is entertaining and fun to read.

I’ve been delighted to see The Fiction Writer and its associated course materials adopted by schools, colleges and universities throughout North America.

Here’s what writing instructors, published authors and writing students said about The Fiction Writer so far:

“I’m very impressed…Nina shares the hard-won knowledge she’s accumulated…I’m thoroughly enjoying the book!”—Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo and Nebula award-winning author of Wake.

“Nina is…lively and knowledgeable…approachable, relevant and humorous.”—Pamela Richardson, University of British Columbia

“Although aimed at the writing student, this is a handy book for the emerging or mature writer as well…a great resource to refresh one’s mind on every aspect of the writing process…I am keeping this book at my desk as I plunge into the writing of my next chapter.”—Shane Joseph, author of After the Flood

“Thanks, Nina! My songs, stories, and screenplays…can all benefit.”—Colin Wiebe, musician/writer

“Great writing lessons! They are practical and simple for any budding writer.”—Graham Seager, writer

“Nina Munteanu’s The Fiction Writer is the book I wish I had 15 years ago. Writers young and old can find ways to improve their work, with the book’s fun, easy to read format.”—Theresa Vinson, bookseller

“Nina Munteanu’s book, The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now is a terrific resource in my professional library. I started reading it almost as soon as I got home after purchasing it. Nina shares tips and techniques from many great writers and I loved soaking all that up. I highly recommend it.”— Zoe M. Hicks, author of The Women’s Estate Planning Guide and Dream Catcher, the Power of Faith

“The Fiction Writer improves with each read. it reminds me of those ‘For Dummies’ books, back when they first were great – except without the ‘you are a dummy’ humor, which I greatly appreciate”—David Merchant, Louisiana Tech University

The Fiction Writer packs twenty-six chapters of relevant, well-researched and easy to read instruction that encompasses virtually all the topics one needs to get published: beginnings and endings; characterization; dialogue; exposition; setting; plot; scene; metaphor & language; grammar; voice and point of view; research; query letters; rejection letters; synopses and outlines; showing vs. telling; writer’s block; attitude, inspiration and passion in writing.

Choosing the Less Worn Path of Intuition

2009-09-23T00:42:00.000-07:00

In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost—Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy

Intuition is sometimes called “gut instinct” as opposed to using evidence-based rationality. Some describe it as the ability to see any event or object from a viewpoint of “the cosmic whole, from its culmination—the seed, the flower, the fruit—to the whole: the comprehensive grip of the principles of universality. A person who develops intuition can “know anything without the barriers of time, space and any other obstructions.” Inventor and founder of the Intuition Network Buck Charleston believed that intuition “comes from a source beyond consciousness itself.”

Carlin Flora in Psychology Today (Vol 40, Issue 3: 68-75, 2007) defined intution as "quick and ready insight." She added that intuition is "the act or process of coming to direct knowledge without reasoning or inferring." It comes from the Latin word intueri which means "to see within" and is a way of knowing, of sensing the truth without explanations.

The notion of an “autonomic non-conscious processes pervading all aspects of mental and social life” is a difficult truth for many people to accept, notes Yale University psychologist John Bargh. In his article, “Intuition: understanding the nature of our gut instincts.” (Scientific American Mind, June/July 2007) psychologist David G. Myers adds, “In reality, we fly through life mostly on autopilot,” making choices constantly on an intuitive level: when to cross the street, how to drive a car, when to pass a car.

Nobel Prize winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman theorized that we have evolved mental shortcuts, called heuristics, that let us make efficient, snap judgments—often based on perceptual and contextual cues. Kahneman also suggested that learned associations, which surface as feelings that guide our judgments, enter from our great reservoir of experiences. For instance, when encountering a stranger, if they resembled a person who had previously harmed or threatened us, we might react warily—without needing to consciously recall the earlier experience. Professional expertise often becomes intuitive. For instance, a master chess player (who may have over 50,000 patterns stored in his brain) need only glance at the chessboard to decide her move. Two colleagues of mine who are IT specialists (both women, by the way) approach hard and software troubleshooting intuitively, often diagnosing a problem through a quick look or listen or feel, and come up with an answer that no one has conceived through the traditional decision-tree diagnosis.

“Intuition is nothing more and nothing less than recognition,” asserts Nobel laureate psychologist Herbert Simon. Judging from his notions on art and artificial intelligence, I’m certain that he is talking about “pattern recognition”, the ability to take pieces of a whole and fill in the rest, based largely on heuristic knowledge. Sorry, Herb, but that’s too sparse and limited—if not parochial—for my taste (I am a writer and not, like Hemmingway, a minimalist writer—though, if I were a golfer, I’d be a minimalist golfer…LOL! Put in link). Simon’s notions on intuition suffer from over-simplification…unless his term “recognition” also encompasses more—I don’t think so judging from his views on creativity, wisdom and art and beauty, for that matter—between you and me, I don’t think he really gets it (see my earlier reference to beauty ). A Jungian would likely describe Simon’s ego functions in interpreting reality as “non-intuitive or sensory and thinking”. While “pattern recognition” may cover the more mundane day-to-day aspects of our intuitive life decisions, it does not address the most intriguing aspect of intuition: that of making the right important life decisions based on no prior experience. This is a different kind of “knowing” and not one we acquire through simple living. It is more like “remembering” how we fit into a larger whole, more than ourselves.

In her bestselling 1992 book, “Women Who Run With the Wolves”, scholar, poet and Jungian psychoanalyst Clarissa Pinkola Estés provides this rich and evocative description of the process of intuition: “We call all our senses to wring the truth from things, to extract nourishment from our own ideas, to see what there is to see, know what there is to know, to be the keepers of our own creative fires, and to have intimate knowing about the Life/Death/Life cycles of all nature.”
Speaking of women, by the way, studies by Judith Hall of Northeastern University demonstrated that women have an edge in spotting lies, genuineness of expressions and in discerning whether a couple are genuinely romantic or are posed phonies. Estés ascribes intuition as “the treasure of a woman’s psyche,” and, ultimately, the primary instinctual power of the Wild Woman. “Intuition,” says Estés, “is like a divining instrument and like a crystal through which one can see with uncanny interior vision. It is like a wise old woman who is with you always, who tells you exactly what the matter is, tells you exactly whether you need to go left or right. It is the form of The One Who Knows…the Wild Woman.”

Cognitive science shows us that human minds operate a two-track system: a deliberate analytical “high road” and an autonomic, intuitive “low road”. Life experiences provide us with intuitive expertise and we learn associations that surface as intuitive feelings, says Myer. To get a sense of someone’s warmth and energy, say psychologists Nalini Ambady and Robert Rosenthal, a mere six seconds will often do. “We’re finding that everything is evaluated as good or bad within a quarter of a second,” said Bargh. “Thanks to pathways that run from the eye to the brain’s rapid-response emotional-control centers—bypassing the thinking part of the brain, the cortex—we often feel before we analyze,” says Myers. There is presumed biological wisdom to such instant feelings, adds Myers; for instance, when our ancestors encountered a stranger and relied on their by speedy and accurate distinction of anger, fear, sadness and happiness.

“Intuition communicates with us through symbols, feelings and emotions. It usually does not speak to us in clear language,” says Angelfire.com. Explanations usually come along with messages on a "need to know basis". Trust that when the bigger, more important messages need to surface, they will. That is also part of intuition: trust and faith. And it all starts with the realization that most things are not as they seem…

Ancient philosophers deemed that intuition was the power of obtaining knowledge that could not be acquired either by inference, observation, reason or experience. They called intuition an original, independent source of knowledge, designed to account for knowledge unobtainable through other means: knowledge of necessary truths or moral principles, for instance.
Intuition provides the spark that fires the genius of excellent art and, what Angelfire.com calls, soulful living. It is the vehicle of a purposeful life and finding one’s place in the world. To exercise the courage to reject what is in the realm of rationality and heed one’s intuition is to unlock the inner wisdom of one’s subconscious mind—and universe—and to listen to one’s heart and “recall what one has always known”.

Intuition cannot be explained through biology, neuro-science or psychology; they can partially describe it, but not fully explain it. Intuition defies explanation because it does not need to be explained; it is to be used on faith. Intuition lies in the realm of God. It is a divine gift. To open to it is to “know” God.

“Cosmetic Neurology”—the Cost of Cognition Enhancement…

2009-09-14T00:32:00.000-07:00

I just helped my son move to the University of Victoria where he will live in residence for a year as he pursues his post-secondary education. It was a momentous event and I have to admit that tears were shed (though I pulled it together enough to shed them after we parted). My son is a grounded, emotionally mature young man and he admitted to feeling the jitters about the move. But he was stoked too and looking forward to university life. He’s bright and motivated to work, though he likes to “party” like the rest of them. So, I’m not worried. I have faith in his wisdom (he is a lot wiser than me in some respects!) and his balanced approach to life.

But… he has also grown up in a culture where the stress of high-performance in school and work is ever growing and where overworked professionals are openly seeking help from cognitive enhancement drugs. How many of my son’s classmates have grown up using or will soon adopt prescription drugs as study aids? Evidence shows that teenagers have casually used attention deficit drugs like Adderall and Ritalin as study aids, often buying them on the internet.

In the December 2008 issue of Business Week, Ellen Gibson described this potential scenario for a recent grad… Facing an important interview the college graduate searches her closet for the perfect outfit, then rifles through her medicine cabinet for just the right cognitive-enhancement pill. Adderall, perhaps, to help her concentrate. Or Provigil, for alertness…or maybe a beta blocker to combat jitters?

According to the Economist cognitive enhancers work on the neural processes that drive mental activities like attention, perception, learning, memory, language, planning and decision-making, usually by altering the balance of the chemical neurotransmitters involved in these processes. A recent report from the Academy of Medical Sciences suggested that scientists are working on more than 600 drugs for neurological disorders and that a large number of such brain-affecting drugs are likely to emerge over the next few decades.

Dr. Anjan Chatterjee, a neurologist at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital, coined the term “cosmetic neurology” for the use of cognition-enhancing drugs. He was comparing their use to the advent of cosmetic surgery. Cognition drugs are already a billion dollar market, said Gibson. Adderall XR (the extended version of the ADHD drug) earns Shire Pharmaceuticals $1 billion a year. The Alzheimer’s drug, Aricept, clocked sales of $1.6 billion in the U.S. in 2007. Cephalon earned $840 million for the narcolepsy treatment drug, Provigil in 2007. Healthy people use it to stay awake, said Gibson.

“From assembly-line workers to surgeons, many different kinds of employee may benefit from enhancement and want access to it,” said Martha J. Farah, director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania in the journal Nature.

With the aging of baby boomers experiencing “senior moments” more and more, memory drugs are big business. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is currently reviewing more and more treatments for Alzheimer’s and age-related dementia. The largest boon will come to the company that comes up with the first evidence-based memory treatment drug for use by still healthy adults.

But, as Shakespeare once said, “To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause…”

On August 25, 2009 the Nature Blog reported that “Abuse of ADHD medications appears to be rising among American teens.”

A commentary in Nature December 2008 sparked headlines about the ethics of using and promoting cognitive-enhancing drugs for performance in universities and in the work place by healthy people (their definition for people who don't have ADHD or ADD, which begs another question: what is "healthy"?). For example, one response to the 2008 Nature article that advocated the use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by "healthy" individuals, was by Christopher Wanjek at Live Science, who asked “what were they smoking?” and questioned what casualties might yet arise from long-term use of said drugs. Although the online Nature article began with this statement: “Society must respond to the growing demand for cognitive enhancement. That response must start by rejecting the idea that 'enhancement' is a dirty word, argue Henry Greely and colleagues,” the authors followed with this commentary: “Safe and effective cognitive enhancers will benefit both the individual and society. But it would also be foolish to ignore problems that such use of drugs could create or exacerbate.”

Side effects of “smart drugs” range from insomnia to dependency to cardiac events. With their rampant use, the pressure to do so would become the difference between getting a job and not. It would be akin to having a bachelor’s degree or not, something else that is available only to those who can afford it. The premise behind the motion picture Gattaca and Nancy Kress's Beggars in Spain come to mind (both of which were about genetic descrimination and the latter about genetic enhancement).

But what are we really creating?

Creative insights often arise when the mind is allowed to wander, said Dr. Chatterjee. He warned that if drugs that sharpen concentration became widespread in the workplace, they might nurture “a bunch of automatons that are very good at implementing things but have nothing to implement.”

The more we rely on exterior aids like “smart drugs” to help us cope with stresses we have bought into (life is full of choices), the more we lose ourselves. The more we lose our creativity. The more we lose our unique spirit and what makes us ultimately successful as a species in a continually changing world. We will be smarter in the going but we won’t know where to go.

Nina and Toulouse Go To Georgia (as told by Toulouse)

2009-09-04T11:44:00.000-07:00

Nina’s too busy (writing 90 articles for her publisher) to post so she asked me if I could post for her. I said, “ok, dude. I can write as good as the rest of them!” On an aside, I should tell you that I’ve been Nina’s ghost writer for years, (since I was rescued from a truck stop in Michigan, that is…) and that her publisher corrects Nina's spelling all the time… In fact, everyone corrects her spelling all the time. But enough about her. This post is about ME…

Oh, and about my neat adventure in Georgia…

Stoked by some cool times at the World Science Fiction Convention in Montreal, Nina and I hopped on a plane at Trudeau International Airport and flew to sunny Georgia because we felt like it. Well, we actually stopped in Jacksonville and drove to St. Simon’s Island on the southern Georgian coast. The drive was boring for me (Nina forgot me in her briefcase!) We drove to Sea Palms Resort, a golfer’s mecca on St. Simon’s Island, to deliver a lecture on “A Hero’s Journey” at a local con there, Scribblers Writers’ Retreat. While Nina slaved on her lecture and handouts, I slipped out of the confining briefcase and wandered the grounds. I remember thinking that they could use the touch of David McLay Kidd, the golf course minimalist that Nina—er I wrote about in a previous post.

My adventure took a hairpin turn for the better when I came underfoot of Mildred Wilcox, a beautiful and elegant southern lady, local art expert and art gallery owner of The Left Bank Art Gallery. Being a lady of impeccable taste, she picked me up and invited me to her house on St. Simon’s where she offered me orange julep and we traded stories about French Impressionism, Paris in the springtime, Georgian marshes, live Oaks and why there are no cats on St. Simon’s Island… She was teasing me, I’m sure!

While Nina did a reading and signings at Hattie’s Books, a quaint independent bookstore in Brunswick, GA that carries both Darwin’s Paradox and The Fiction Writer, I hid in her briefcase. Marcia Stutz, the bookstore owner lets the store’s feisty terrier mascot, Mister Wiggles, run around freely without a leash! Imagine that! I didn’t like him. Even though everyone else did.

The next day, Nina donned her "Nina the writers coach" hat and did at least a dozen one-on-one consultations in the lobby of the hotel. The sessions were filmed by Rizzuti Productions and Starfire World Syndicate. Nina reminded me of Ellen DeGeneres; she was having way too much fun in front of the camera! I was amazed; she did the whole thing without a single break, even though she must have had a dozen coffees. I bet you’ll see a blooper reel on YouTube shortly. I saw a few choice bloopers! That’s what happens when you don’t take any breaks, Nina! But a few victim—er clients walked away from her advice with genuine smiles on their faces, not just dazed grins of confused euphoria… “What did she say?” I heard them whispering to each other in the hallway by the espresso machine where Nina would have preferred to be. “Did she really want me to spell ‘the’ for her?...”

Talking about bloopers… Despite fully embracing new tools, Nina isn’t particularly adept technologically. So, when she decided to give a fancy Power Point lecture using interactive interface and a Wacom Bamboo Tablet, I sniggered and asked her why she didn’t just use a whiteboard and colored felts like she always did. She insisted (rather petulantly, I might add) and what could go wrong did—computer and projector refused to talk, the tablet had a hissy fit with lines scrambling everywhere and the screen decided to cave into a black hole. So, after much hand waving (which never works; she isn’t a Jedi yet…) Nina resorted to her twenty-year teaching experience using a whiteboard and colored felts. Of course, the lecture went well and the audience appreciated her instruction, if not her bad jokes. But I took the opportunity to say “I told you so,” anyway. One must take them as they come. Where I’m from in southern France—No, I wasn’t born in Michigan! I was just rescued from there—there is a saying: quel sera, sera…

I may be posting for her again… I don’t think she’ll get those 90 articles done as quickly as she thought.

Photos (by Nina and Toulouse):

1. Nina stands smug in front of Hattie's Books in Brunswick, GA

2. Sea Palms Resort, 18-hole golf and tennis resort

3. Mildred Wilcox, elegant lady of St. Simon's and owner of Left Bank Gallery, with Toulouse

4. Marcia Stutz, owner of Hattie's Books, with Mister Wiggles

5. Sabre Esler collection at the Left Bank Art Gallery, St. Simon's Island

Toulouse and Nina Go To Montreal—in Anticipation of the 2009 World SF Convention

2009-08-30T23:40:00.000-07:00

“We want to see a hero who works to achieve an environmentally sustainable world through innovation and creative technology,” said Tom Doherty, publisher of Tor Books, beside me at a panel on alternate energy. I was delighted to hear that Tor was officially embracing a new kind of hero along with a new paradigm for storytelling. One based on intelligent innovation, creativity and cooperation.

So, what was I doing sitting next to Tom Doherty at a panel on alternate energy? Truth be told, it was Toulouse’s fault.

Several weeks ago, Toulouse enticed me to embark on a book/convention tour that would last a month. The starting point was Montreal, Quebec (my old digs when I went to university). We went there to participate in the 2009 World Science Fiction Convention. These guys put me in a pile of cool panels on top of doing readings and signings for my latest books, Darwin’s Paradox and The Fiction Writer (Darwin’s prequel, Angel of Chaos, is still in pre-production, so I didn’t even have a cover for it yet to show). I participated in science/ecology, writing and SF panels with rock stars like Tom Doherty, Julie Czerneda, and new faces like Bruce Rockwood, David B. Coe, Peter Cohen, John Kessel, Jason Tuell, Kristin Norwood, Bob Sojka, Mike Gallaher, Michael Sestak and many others.

On the alternate energy panel, besides Tom and I there were science experts Bruce Lindsay Rockwood, Peter Cohen, and Charles Stross. The panel was hot with intelligent and lively discussion as we pursued topics that included solar and wind power, nuclear power and alternatives to hydro-electric power. Tom brought up Craig Venter and Shell Oil’s current venture with genetically modified algae to produce diesel oil, which fueled further debate on future ethical questions.

The other panels were also lively, contentious in some cases, erudite and fun. What struck me about the science panels at this particular convention over previous cons I’ve participated in was the level of commitment and knowledge shown by both panelists and those who attended.
I measure the success of a con through its surprises as well as by how many old friends I visit with and new friends I make. This one was a resounding success because I met so many weird—eh—wonderful people and encountered many thrilling surprises. The list is too long to give here but I’ll include some unexpected highlights.

• The rockin’ Tor party (held at a penthouse suite in the Delta Hotel): where the bathroom had been converted into a wine and beer cellar…
• attending another one of Robert J. Sawyer’s awesome readings (Woot!)
• meeting L.E. Modesitt and his wife at the rockin’ Tor Party; they had to be the most elegant couple there (more on him later)
• sharing an awesome world-building panel with Julie Czerneda, who’s joy for the craft, boundless energy and humor made the workshop fun as well as instructive
• the rockin’ Tor party (where rumor has it that the bathroom was raided by strange ladies intent on having a shower AND a beer, possibly at the same time...hey, I'm just reporting what I hear, folks)
• seeing Cory Doctorow in a tux (for the Hugo Awards)
• getting “abducted” by a group of Romanian writers who took me to an ”Old Montreal” cafe to interrogate me using devious means like roasted wild duck and local cider (they were successful, btw)
• meeting Gabrielle Harbowy, editor at Dragon Moon Press, who I hope to work with on a book soon. We explored Old Montreal and shared an awesome meal with local cider and she even laughed at my jokes (bonus!)
• the rockin’ Tor party (where someone who shall remain nameless jumped on the bed and didn’t spill a drop of his drink!)
• doing the rounds at the Con parties and slumming through old haunts in Montreal with cool dudes and old friends like Hugo and Nebula Award winning SF author Robert J. Sawyer, poet Carolyn Clink, Virginia O’Dine and Dominic McGuire of Bundoran Press , Karl and Stephanie Johanson of the Aurora Award-winning Neo-Opsis Science Fiction Magazine, SF author Alison Sinclair (Darkborn), Rick LeBlanc (photographer), fantasy author Marie Simonne Bilodeau , SF author Michele LaFramboise, Heidi Lampietti of Redjack Books, Diane Walton (On Spec), Claire Eamers, Peter Halasz and other members of the SF Canada crowd
• the rockin’ Tor party (…well, I won’t go there–you’ll have to attend the next con to find out for yourself!)
• sharing a reading with John Kenny, of Albedo Magazine out of Ireland who gave a stirring reading from his short story, Encore, from the anthology Emerald Eye
• seeing Julie Czerneda navigate her way through an all-French panel: merveilleux, Julie!

Photos:

1. Tom Doherty, Nina Munteanu and Peter Cohen discuss alternate energy (photo by Karl Johanson)

2. Montreal Convention Center (photo by Nina Munteanu)

3. L.E. Modesitt, Jr. and his wife, Carol Ann adding class to the Tor party (photo by Nina Munteanu)

4. Marie Simonne jokes with Larry Niven at the Tor party ... before the bathroom incident (photo by Nina Munteanu)

5. Aurora Award winning author Michele LaFramboise shows Toulouse her cool books (photo by Nina Munteanu)

6. Cory Doctorow wears his tux to the Hugo Award ceremony. You should do it more often, Cory! (photo by Nina Munteanu)

7. you guessed it, the Tor party crowd...before the bathroom incident (photo by Nina Munteanu)

8. those Romanian rascals take Nina to Old Montreal for food and cider: from left to right are Calin Giurgiu, Elena Rusu, Vali Gurgu, Costi Gurgu and Nina Munteanu

Evoking Hitler

2009-08-21T17:22:00.000-07:00

In a recent NewsWeek article (August 24, 2009) entitled "Hitler and Health Care Don't Mix" Jon Meacham suggested that "playing the Nazi card is a bipartisan sin." Citing Churchill, Chicago Mayor Daley and Gloria Steinem, Meacham warns that "deploying Nazi imagery as a matter of course diminishes one of humankind's most potent lessons of its meaning and its power." He suggests that "we are in danger of turning evil itself into a triviality when we draw on the images of Hitler's Germany to make political points in debates that are in no way comparable to the terrors of Nazism." But how does one determine what political points are or are not comparable? With the subject of President Obama's health-care plan being openly compared to Hitler's Fascist policies (see Rush Limbaugh's particular vivid diatribe), Meacham suggests that "it seems reasonable to suggest a moratorium on the deployment of Third Reich imagery and language in domestic political conflicts that, while important, fall immesurably short of Hitler's territorial ambitions and his Final Solution."

I strongly disagree. Evoking such imagery in reference to a mild, even a seemingly banal event or action does not minimize it; rather, it projects the potential seed in the germ. It warns us where such "innocuous" beginnings may lead and where they may end. Such examples give us context for discussion and permit us to exercise preventative measures when they count. To wait for the germination of evil before acting is to wait until it's too late.

Meacham references this 1982 quote by Gloria Steinem: "A return to a strong family life, women's primary identity as mothers, tax penalties for remaining single, loans for young married couples and subsidies for childbearing, prohibition of prostitution, homosexuality, contraception and abortion: all these were issues that the Roman Catholic Church...and the Nazi Party could agree on." While her juxtaposition is potentially over-simplified and certainly unfair to many Catholics, it does point out that this attitude is precisely where the Nazi Party began when an economically hurting German population embraced its platform. Did Steinem trivialize what Hitler and the Nazi's did? No. She merely pointed out the danger of where such thinking could lead (read her entire article for context).

Meacham admits that the events of the Second World War have become more and more remote, particularly to our younger generations who feel no connection to it or its lessons, and who readily commit to the archives of a dull relic history "the rise of National Socialism, the persistence of American isolationism, the cynicism of the Soviet Union, and the appeasement chic of the British upper classes." But, as Meacham also admits, all these "relics" are alive and well today. And, I submit, precursors to what could become at any time. Let's not forget that Hitler was a charismatic politician (and soldier) whose compelling dissertations about a new life and a new world order seduced the entire German population, including the Deutche hausfrau, long before a war was declared.

Minimalist Golf: A New Face on an Old Line

2009-08-11T22:30:00.000-07:00

I prefer a man with rugged good looks; you know… the firm jaw, confident sensual mouth, twinkling eyes creased with laugh lines, thick animated brows, and a tanned face sprouting a day-old beard. A man more concerned with what he does than how his hair is combed. A cross between Hugh Jackman and George Clooney, I guess.

What does this have to do with golf, you might ask? LOL! Well, something cool is happening to golf course design these days. Golfers are enjoying a new breed of golf course. I’m talking about unmanicured, rugged and ungroomed courses with roughed up links. Designers are purposely leaving in creased and crinkly surfaces that lead to unexpected bounces and rolls and even seeding their fairways— and greens— to fescues rather than the common blue and bent grasses. These natural courses need less water and fertilization and play more firmly. I’m told that high handicappers delight in the way their balls go farther and that water hazards are close to nonexistent; and better players are challenged by strategic considerations and unexpected bounces. And everyone appreciates the more natural setting over trudging in a “suburban park”. In fact, carts are usually banned or at least discouraged in these courses.

This minimalist trend is only a decade old and currently concentrated in the western states of the U.S. according to Jim Sutherland of Westworld Magazine (Summer, 2009). For example, Tetherow Golf Course in Bend, Oregon (about 300 km southeast of Portland) opened in July 2008, and was named by Travel & Leisure Golf the fifth best course to open worldwide in 2008. Tetherow joins several other minimalist courses on the west coast of U.S. and Canada (like Bandon Dunes also in Oregon; Chambers Bay in Tacoma, Washington; Sagebrush Golf and Sporting Club near Merritt, B.C.) that are considered “the hottest thing to hit golf since Sansabelt slacks,” according to Sutherland.

Graced with a mosaic of undulating sand dunes, pockets of natural sagebrush and tree stands, Tetherow is one of 50 courses worldwide named as an Audubon International Certified Signature Sanctuary in recognition of its sustainability and habitat-preserving initiatives. Minimalist golf courses are without a doubt the hottest new courses, according to Sutherland. They are “beautiful, challenging, inspiring tracks that are making all the Top 100, ‘Best New’ and ‘Play Before You Die’ lists, and for all the right reasons,” says Sutherland. “They’re more fun to play and easier on the environment.”

Tetherow is the creation of David McLay Kidd, the young Scottish designer responsible for Bandon Dunes, considered by many the most influential course of the late 20th Century. He is working on a course in … well—yes, Margaret—Fernie, British Columbia. Avid golfers will enjoy the avant-garde challenges in this type of course, like Toronto native club pro Martin Chuck found out recently—driving through back trees, watching his approach shots bounce wildly astray or catch gusts of wind, ball landing in scary bunkers and gnarly rough. Minimalist golf compensates its general lack of water hazards with rough-edged hazards “so aesthetically appealing they seem to follow from the Japanese concept of wabi sabi or finding beauty in imperfection,” says Sutherland.

Sutherland goes on to describe Bandon’s “postcard-beautiful” course with something akin to ardor: “holes unfurl across a pastoral landscape that already featured open meadow, stands of picturesque trees and even clumps of gorse.”

The strength of these rolling natural courses lies in achieving a fun-quotient while reducing their eco-footprint. Minimalist golf courses protect wildlife habitats, improve water quality of nearby waterways and rehabilitate degraded landscapes.

Traditional golf courses have a bad reputation for being environmentally unfriendly. Between their high water demand, potential contamination of nearby water courses (e.g., through fertilizers and herbicides), deforestation and mono-cropping, golf courses have been a bad scene for environmentalists. In the Okanagan, a rich fruit growing mecca located in a desert-like ecosystem of British Columbia, golf courses are currently outcompeting the agriculture sector by taking the lion’s share of water in the region. The forty-five golf courses “use about the same amount of water as all the grape-growing areas in the basin,” says Hans Schreier, professor at the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia.

Minimalist golf courses are part of a new wave, heralding in a smarter future, guided by nature and our appreciation of the natural beauty of our planet. They celebrate a healthy ecosystem, provide a smaller ecological footprint, and conserve water. As a golfer, you can join the wave and promote more sustainable golf at your favored course by letting them know that you don’t mind clover or other weeds mixed in with the grass and that you prefer fairways firm and fast—and not overwatered. You do, don’t you? (big alien grin).

Find out more about minimalist golf and the new wave in golf at http://www.golfclubatlas.com/. Here’s a list of some minimalist golf courses to check out:

Shuksan, Bellingham, Washington, U.S.A.

King’s Links, Ladner, B.C., Canada

Wolf Creek and Blackhawk, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Dakota Dunes, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Arthur Vernon Macan courses (Vancouver, Chilliwack, Nanaimo, the Okanagan, B.C.), Canada

Stanley Thompson & Donald Ross courses (Banff, Jasper, Waterloo, Waskesiu, West Vancouver, Winnipeg) Canada

Photos:

Photo 1: Tetherow Golf Course, Oregon

Photo 2: Bandon Dunes Golf Course, Oregon

Photo 3: Chambers Bay Golf Course, Washington

Photo 4: Sagebrush Golf and Country Club, British Columbia

Prepare Yourself: “Shocking Weather Has Just Begun”…

2009-08-03T01:13:00.000-07:00

That was the clever headline the Vancouver Sun chose for its front page Monday, July 27th final edition after a spectacular lightning storm held our attention practically all night and almost stole the show at the annual summer Vancouver fireworks. I don’t normally read the newspaper (shocking?), preferring to let the REAL news percolate to my attention via alternate, often more reliable and objective means. But the headline picture of a lightning strike that spanned the entire horizon of Vancouver’s night sky caught my attention and took me back to last Saturday.
According to Vancouver Sun’s Rebecca Tebrake, Environment Canada recorded over 1,000 lightning strikes last Saturday in British Columbia’s lower mainland. The storm failed to prevent Vancouver’s summer fireworks show from happening, though. In fact, the storm enhanced the show according to some who participated.

I was having supper with a friend from Ontario during an atypically muggy day when the storm blew in. We both laughed at the same thought: it was like we were back home where we grew up (I’m from Quebec on the eastern part of Canada), where the sudden drama of thunder and lightning are a common occurrence. Storms in the northeast, where I’m from, take on similar characteristics and patterns as the Midwest, only less frequently and severely. Thunderstorms are not that common here on the west coast of Canada and the United States. When they do occur, they are usually mild and don’t come close to the dangerous thunderstorms that frequent the United States, particularly in the Midwest and the southern states, where they can rouse up a pelting hail and powerful tornado.

This atypical thunderstorm swept in as part of a strong heat front pushing in from the eastern Interior instead of the typical moderate weather that comes from the west over the ocean. It sent several people to hospital from lightning strikes and caused over 100 forest fires in B.C. Usually, lightning storms from the east fizzle out by the time they get to the coast, says meteorologist Mark Madryga. But this one didn’t, marking it as a one-in-three year storm, according to Madryga. Well, I haven’t seen such a storm in the over 20 years I’ve lived in the lower mainland. It was impressive.

In the wake of the storm, “more weather-related chaos is in store,” warned Tebrake, “with temperatures expected to soar to 35ºC (95ºF) later in the week in Metro Vancouver.” That’s exactly what happened as temperatures rose to a blistering 40ºC (104 ºF) in parts of British Columbia and reaching their hottest ever recorded in Vancouver. “We’re looking at a once-in-a-lifetime heat wave,” Environment Canada meteorologist David Jones said “Five consecutive days with temperatures over 32 ºC (89.6 ºF)…That’s only happened three times since 1880.” The heat wave impacted human health, water and air quality, and caused a bazillion forest fires.
Now, I know you folks in the south-eastern and western states (where it can easily spike past 100 ºF—Pheonix Arizona experienced a scorching 112 ºF on Monday) and other countries like Saudi Arabia (where it climbs to 50 ºC or 122 ºF!) are going to chuckle at our cringing hearts and sweating brows, but Vancouverites just aren’t used to this! We’re melting! Meantime, to compensate for stealing Ontario’s and Quebec’s weather (muggy heat and lightning storms), we’ve given eastern Canada OUR weather of rain rain rain…flood…rain rain rain…
I’d love to hear your stories of freaky atypical weather over the years, particularly in recent years.

By the way, weather and climate are related; local weather over time defines climate. “Weather can change from minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour, day-to-day, and season-to-season. Climate, however, is the average of weather over time and space. An easy way to remember the difference is that climate is what you expect, like a very hot summer, and weather is what you get, like a hot day with pop-up thunderstorms,” says NASA. “When we talk about climate change, we talk about changes in long-term averages of daily weather. Today, children hear stories from their parents and grandparents about how snow was always piled up to their waists as they trudged off to school. Children today in most areas of the country haven't experienced those kinds of snow-packed winters, except for the Northeastern U.S. in January 2005. The change in recent winter snows indicate that the climate has changed since their parents were young. If summers seem hotter lately, then the recent climate may have changed. In various parts of the world, some people have even noticed that springtime comes earlier now than it did 30 years ago. An earlier springtime is indicative of a possible change in the climate.”

Anatomy of Thunderstorms and Related Stuff

All thunderstorms go through three stages: the cumulus stage, the mature stage, and the dissipation stage. Depending on atmospheric conditions, these three stages can take anywhere from 20 minutes to several hours to occur.

There are four main types of thunderstorms: single cell, multicell, squall line (also called multicell line) and supercell. Which type you get depends on the instability and relative wind conditions in the atmosphere’s different layers (called "wind shear"). Single cell storms are the typical summer thunderstorm we experience in temperate locales. They typically move, being a function of a local atmospheric instability.

Multi cell storms can form clusters or “squall lines” (organized line of storms). They tend to form from convective updrafts in or near mountain ranges and linear weather boundaries, usually strong cold fronts or troughs of low pressure. Multicell line storms can span hundreds of miles. They move swiftly, and are preceded by a gust front. Heavy rain, hail, lightning, very strong winds and even isolated tornadoes can occur in a squall line. I recall the stunning sight from the air of one of these as I flew home from New York recently. The plane skirted alongside the booming line of clouds that towered like giant columns of black smoke – only to flicker and light up like Japanese lanterns.

Canadians define a severe thunderstorm as either having tornadoes, wind gusts of 90 km/h or greater, hail of 2 centimetres in diameter or greater, a rainfall rate greater than 50 millimetres in 1 hour or 75 millimetres in 3 hours.

Western Canadians and western Americans are definitely nubies when it comes to severe thunderstorms. We just don’t hold a candle to the folks used to severe storms, hailstorms, tornadoes and hurricanes out east and in the south. So…in preparation for changes to come, I consulted the experts from a state I know is weather-prepared (because I drove through it several times and experienced a few severe storms there too!): Kentucky. Here’s what the experts at the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management and Kentucky Weather Preparedness Committee say about storms, lightning and being prepared:

Weather experts normally consider March through June as the Severe Weather season, especially in the mid-west. But as recent history has shown , severe weather (including tornados) can happen at any time of the year and at any time of the day or night. Preparedness and an emergency plan is the key to survival.

Flash Flooding Safety Rules

Flash floods and floods are the #1 storm related killer in Kentucky and across the United States.
If driving, DO NOT DRIVE THROUGH FLOODED AREAS! Even if it looks shallow enough to cross. The majority of deaths due to flooding are due to people driving through flooded areas. Water only one foot deep can displace 1,500 pounds! Two feet of water can easily carry most vehicles. Roadways concealed by floodwaters may not be intact.

If caught outside, go to higher ground immediately! Avoid small rivers or streams, low spots, culverts, or ravines. Do not try to walk through flowing water more than ankle deep, as it only takes six inches of water to knock you off your feet. Do not allow children to play around streams, drainage ditches, or viaducts, storm drains, or other flooded areas.
If ordered to evacuate or if rising water is threatening, leave immediately and get to higher ground.

Lightning Safety Rules

Lightning is the number two storm related killer. In Kentucky, more people are killed by lightning in an average year than tornadoes. Although severe thunderstorm warnings are NOT issued for lightning, you should move to shelter when thunder is heard as lightning can strike 10 to 15 miles away from where the rain is falling.

If outside, go to a safe shelter immediately, such as inside a sturdy building. A hard top automobile with the windows up can also offer fair protection.
If you are boating or swimming, get out of the water immediately and move to a safe shelter away from the water!

If you are in the wooded area, seek shelter under a thick growth of relatively small trees.
If you feel your hair standing on end, squat with your head between your knees. Do not lie flat!
Avoid: Isolated trees or other tall objects, bodies of water, sheds, fences, convertible automobiles, tractors, and motorcycles.
If inside, avoid using the telephone (except for emergencies) or other electrical appliances.
Do not take a bath or shower during a thunderstorm.

“See Dick and Jane Screen” by Danny Bloom and Nina Munteanu

2009-07-27T01:42:00.000-07:00

When my journalist friend Danny Bloom told me about the new term he’d invented to describe reading on the computer screen, I had to take it to the next level and here is what came of our collaboration (a new paradigm and a new book for your kids to learn the ABC’s of English (out soon on Amazon.com... LOL!):

See Jane screen. Jane is screening. Jane likes to screen.
See Dick screen. Dick is screening, too. Dick likes to screen.
See Dick and Jane screening. They are screening because they like to screen.
Screen, screen screen!
Screening is fun.
Hey, Mom and Dad, do you want to screen with us?
We are having fun screening.
Screening is so much fun.
We can screen all our books online now. We love to screen.
See Jane screen. Jane is screening. Jane likes to screen.
See Dick screen. Dick is screening, too. Dick likes to screen.
See Dick and Jane screening. They are screening because they like to screen.
Screen, screen screen!
Screening is fun.
Jane said: "Dick, Dick! Can you do this?"
"See Jane screen!" said Dick.
"See Jane screen on her new computer!"
"Jane is screening an old Dick and Jane book on her Kindle!" said Dick.
"See Jane screen!"

Dan, being who he is (see my post on his Polar Cities concept regarding Climate Change or go to his site) took it further (as in to the New York Times and the Blogosphere!). I am currently preparing for my next lecture at Scribblers (on St. Simon’s Island, GA, August 14-17, 2009) on “the Hero’s Journey”. If I was using Dan as an example, I’d assign him the archetype of HERALD: catalyst, subversive instigator or just plain **** disturber (you’d know that this is a true compliment, Dan, if you attended my lecture ... )

Well, not to stop a rolling stone or “random blooming”, Dan stumbled on Bill Hill’s site entitled “The Future of Reading”. Hill was a professional newspaper writer in Scotland for close to 20 years and saw the oncoming wave of desktop publishing in the 1980s. After helping set up the European operations of Aldus Corporation (Pagemaker) he worked for the Typography group at Microsoft. When he first started talking about reading on screen, people thought he was crazy. In May of this year Hill left Microsoft (I get the feeling it was a mutual parting) and he has recently applied his skills in typography and layout to a multi-column blog. You can see it here. More on this in a few paragraphs…

Dan and Bill had a most interesting discussion on the merits of using a new term for reading on screen. This prompted a blog response from Bill entitled “Why Creating A New Word for Reading On Screen Is a Terrible Idea.” (Well, it’s obvious what Bill thought of it from the title!)

“Creating a new term for reading onscreen is not only unnecessary, but actually counter-productive,” says Bill. “The term ‘screening’ is like admitting defeat—that somehow ‘reading on screen’ is different to ‘reading on paper’.” Well, it IS…at least right now. And it certainly is perceived as different, which is where Dan is coming from and addressing: our perceptions; and, in his activist style, changing them. Bill admits that “reading on screen is not as comfortable as reading from paper.”

“Screening” will not likely achieve that wonderful touchy-feely sensation of the smell and texture of paper, of cracking open a book and smelling those pages (I love that smell!). But, let’s look at the ways that screening being different is a good thing: web-based reading offers many things that orinary paper cannot. Depth. Choices. Links. Sound. Motion. Etc. Etc. The stuff that is bringing people, youth particularly, back to reading. That’s not to say that “smart” paper won’t do some of these things. The upshot is that our whole paradigm of writing and reading is changing and the internet plays a major role.

Consider this:

Reading and writing remain the primary means of human communication (check out your kid’s main choice for cell phone communication: texting

Primary sources for information gathering has moved from paper and paper establishments (e.g., physical libraries) to digital sources (e.g., google, online libraries) for various reasons, including saving storage costs, rent and not to mention the trees

Despite this major move, reading onscreen is still inferior to reading on paper

Hill claims that a multi-column layout is much more suited to the screen than single-column (because of the way human vision works). It needs pagination though and, with many different sizes and shapes of screen, information has to be paginated “on the fly” for each device, which requires adaptive layout. You can see examples of this in the New York Times Reader. But no one’s done it on the Web yet.

“I happen to believe that the first Web browser to do this properly will leave others sitting in the dust, wondering just where their market share disappeared to.” (Bill Hill)

Check out Bill’s multicolumn layout here and tell me what you think. Says Bill: “Fixing reading on screen is vitally important for the human race. You can instantly create the Library of Congress in a village in West Africa. Digital information can be easily translated into minority languages. Books will cost less. Information can be kept up to date. And so on.”

So, to borrow from yet another literary quote, “to screen or not to screen, that is the question…whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageously boring script or to design layout against a sea of scribbles…and by opposing end them? Perchance to dream…for in that sleep what dreams may come…”

In a recent issue of "The Cord Weekly" Wilfred Laurier University's paper, Allie Maxted lamented on the copious grammatical errors in the winning poetry submissions. "It's up to people to take control of their own language use and in doing so, take control of meaning."

Using words impeccably resonates with me, given the power of language and its importance in defining our cultures, in forming our thoughts, and directing the evolution of our species in a changing world. Language forms our very “way of life”. Think of it. Think of how you speak to your children, to your peers, to your leaders. Think of the great orators and the not so great ones. Our choice of words—or lack of attention to them—says a lot about our heritage, our philosophy, our education, our beliefs and our morality and ethics. Use of vernacular. Use of vulgarity or profanity. Use of multi-syllable words. Use of words that describe beauty vs. ugliness or positive vs. negativity. Use of passive vs. active verbs. All these identify us and define us. Perhaps most importantly, our language projects where we are going. Language, like art, reflects our humanity and affirms our life choices. Where are YOU going?

The Napa River Inn & Mumm’s Sparkling Pinot Noir

2009-07-21T00:11:00.000-07:00

Neither Margaret nor I was terribly keen on joining the kids for the day at 6 Flags outside San Francisco. So we made our own plans… more sophisticated plans...plans that included quality touring and sightseeing...oh, and drinking, of course…

The town of Napa, with its newly renovated Old Town along the Napa River, lies fifty miles north of San Francisco in the heart of legendary Napa Valley—our first stop.

As we aimlessly wandered along the Old Town Napa River waterfront, we stumbled upon the former Napa Mill, an old brick building that currently houses a quaint stretch of stores, galleries and the historically preserved hotel, the Napa River Inn.

Margaret slid into a comfortable seat in the hotel’s lobby to plan our day on the wine trail, while I wandered—well, more like followed Toulouse—and found him seated by the stone fireplace with the Concierge, Renee Chaney, an intelligent woman with a weakness for wily French cats with pink necklaces. Renee described the history of the building to us: the building was constructed in 1884 as a grain mill by Captain Albert Hatt, after he purchased the land for a dollar. Hatt used the first floor as a US Government bonded warehouse with iron shutters at the doors and windows to store his wine and spirits; it was later used to bag grain milled and sifted on the second floor. The second floor, called Hatt Hall, was used as a meeting place for secret societies. Silo’s Jazz and Wine Bar, featuring local musicians and vintners, was added in 1934 and the Hay Barn—later to become the General Store— was constructed in 1959.

The hotel currently features a yacht cabin theme of cherry wood, porthole mirror, wainscoting and coffered paneling.

Sweety Pies, the café and bakery located adjacent to the hotel, offered a splendid array of gourmet pies and cakes in a funky original brick-walled timber beam setting, complete with the remaining original bagging machine for grain gravity fed from being milled on the second floor. Look up at the large wooden beams. Off one of them, widower Albert Jr. Hatt took his own life at the age of 46 on April 1, 1912, out of desperation from failing health and business troubles.

While Margaret bought coffee, I stood mesmerized in front of the eye-catching pastries and cakes in the show window. Highlights included a Chambord cheesecake, a creamy cheesecake with Chambord liqueur baked and topped with fresh raspberries; and the Tres Leches Cake, a light sponge cake soaked with 3 milks filled with Chantilly cream, fresh mango and strawberries, all covered in butter cream. These were all served with a surprisingly good espresso that satisfied Margaret’s thirst for a jump-start from her long drive.

The Vintage Sweet Shoppe features fine-label chocolate wine bottles (Toulouse’s favorite), and Pinot Noir truffles (my favorite! Oh my, they were good!) We also checked out the Napa General Store, which included a wine tasting section, a café, gallery and spa.

On May 22, 2004, the Mill turned 120 years old. Locals celebrated by bringing items to be stored in a time capsule, which is to be opened on May 22, 2104. Hope there weren’t any crumpled sheets with cryptic numbers and names place in there by a disturbed young girl… (hint: re the film, “Knowing”).

We then drove along a charming winding road through a verdant vista of rolling hills covered in green rows of grapes. We made it to the Mumm Napa Winery a little too late for the tour and would have to wait an hour for the next one. My eyes sparkled as Toulouse pointed out the obvious: the tasting room and patio. We would taste wine as we waited (we never did make the tour although we did some exploring on our own after. LOL!). I started with a 2007 Pinot Noir with black currant tones and berry taste. I then moved on to a sparkling Pinot Noir with ripe plum taste and a touch of cinnamon. I was enthralled. And very happy, to say the least. Andrew, our tasting attendant, decided to make me more happy by giving us a sample of Santana Brut (named after Carlos Santana, who designed the label, with proceeds benefitting the Milagro Foundation, Santana’s organization for the underprivileged children around the world). Did you know, for instance, that a second fermentation process is used to create the sparkle in the sparkling wine? I was startled to discover that this second fermentation is done in individual bottles and the consequential sedimentation extraction is through a very creative process. This is done by tipping the bottle and letting the sediment form in the neck, freezing to form a sediment “plug” then handily removing. So easy.

Historic Hotels of America

The National Trust established Historic Hotels of America in 1989 to identify quality hotels that have faithfully maintained their historic integrity, architecture and ambience. To be accepted into Historic Hotels of America, hotels must be located in a building that is at least 50 years old.

Architecture of Dreams & the Salk Institute

2009-07-12T23:30:00.000-07:00

Hope lies in dreams, in imagination, and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality—Jonas Salk

Prize-winning biologist Jonas Salk was certain that the inspiration that led to his development of the polio vaccine in the 1950s came from the contemplative setting of Assisi, Italy. Salk’s progress had been slow in his basement laboratory in Pittsburg, so he decided to travel to Assisi, Italy, to clear his head. Amid his ambles within the cloistered courtyards and elegant columns of a 13th Century monastery, Salk was struck with fresh insights, including the one that led to his successful polio vaccine.

Convinced that architectural environments influenced the mind, Salk later teamed up with accomplished artist and architect Louis Kahn to build the spacious Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, in 1965. It remains one of the world’s boldest structures and is now designated a historical site. The research institute fulfills Salk’s vision of a facility where open, unobstructed laboratory interiors set in a dramatic location inspire creativity among its researchers. Indeed, this “jewel of biomedical research” has attracted and spawned the creativity of close to a dozen Nobel Prize winners and promoted the unbridled spirit of its scientists and students whose almost unrivaled scientific talent has regularly placed the Salk Institute in the world’s top three biomedical research organizations in publications and faculty accomplishments.

The institute overlooks the coastal bluffs of La Jolla, California, 350 feet above the Pacific Ocean on a 27-acre site donated by the City of San Diego. Salk entrusted Kahn with specific design requests to fulfill: first that the structure be adaptable to the ever-changing needs of science; that the facility weather the effects of time with minimal maintenance cost; and that the laboratory environments meet the researcher’s functional, humanistic and aesthetic needs. Salk challenged Kahn to: “Create a facility worthy of a visit by Pablo Picasso.”

Kahn’s creation is an elegant and powerful two mirror-image of rectangular buildings that flank a sweeping courtyard made entirely of imported travertine marble. Flowing through its centre is the “river of life”, which cascades down several step pools toward the sea. The buildings and courtyard consist of open elegance and simple lines, inspiring open-mindedness, imaginative thought and creativity.

When I had the opportunity to take a tour of the Salk Institute while in San Diego for the NEA Expo, I seized it.

I registered in advance online for a scheduled architecture tour and prepared mentally for a lifetime experience. I was then informed that the place was closed that day (for Independence Day) and the tour was booked up the current day but that the campus was still open and I could wander around until 5pm. Disappointed but determined to see the campus, I arranged for my friend Margaret to pick me up early from the conference so we could squeeze in an hour before the campus closed.

When we arrived, I had to stop and soak up the powerful energy that seemed to emanate from the place. I’d seen pictures of the institute; I’d researched and written about it and knew a great deal about Salk’s vision. I was still enthralled when I saw and felt it for the first time. My body sang with a kinetic energy as I wandered, dreamlike, taking pictures and writing notes about the grounds and buildings. I’d entered a dream.

As we left the courtyard—my mind still singing with inspiration—I made a dashing leap over the concrete barrier and went—splat— OOPS! I…well…missed—like the place was reluctant to let me go. I bruised my leg but more my ego as strangers rushed forward with urgent cries, “Are you all right, ma’m?” I sprang up and retorted, “I'm fine!” Though, according to Margaret, I more rolled than sprang. But what does she know? She’s almost as old as I am and needs her eyes checked.

As we prepared to leave, we stopped by the reception area—I was looking for a bookstore or a place that had some material on the place—where I lamented to the receptionist about missing the tour and how I felt about the place. Well, guess what? The administrator, who was standing there, decided to give us a personal tour. She hadn’t even seen my little “oof” outside either... or had she? Anyway, I felt blessed by the opportunity because I know that Betsy, my personal tour guide, told me and showed me things I wouldn’t have seen in the regular tour.

The tour began with a stroll past the lime tree grove into the inner courtyard. Part of the clean design is the lack of any signage, which serves to promote communication among workers and visitors. To find your way you need to ask someone; indeed, this is exactly what we had to do. Labs are also comingled, Betsy told us, to foster cooperation among the various disciplines. The lime grove combines living green with sturdy rock. “Stone and fruit is paradise,” said Salk according to Betsy. She also pointed out the chalk boards placed on the outside supports for those spontaneous moments of creativity and discussion.

Betsy explained how each building is six stories tall (three working laboratory levels and three interstitial levels housing the utilities.) By confining the electrical lines, piping and ventilation systems to these areas, Kahn kept the laboratories completely open and unobstructed and permit researchers to re-configure their laboratories as scientific needs change. In addition, the large glass panel walls of each open laboratory can be removed for easy re-configuring. Twenty-nine separate structures join together to form the Institute. Understanding the importance of light, Kahn flooded each building unit with daylight; airy work environments are assured through the use of large double-strength crystal glass panes for all outer walls of labs. Kahn included 25-foot deep and 40-foot long light wells to bring in daylight to the two underground levels.

Kahn chose concrete, teak, lead glass and A242 steel to build the facility. The waterproof qualities and warm, pinkish glow of “pozzolonic” concrete (used in Roman times) was left in its raw state (not grinded or filled or painted). Similarly, no stain was applied to the teak, which was left to weather to a natural gray over time, and the steel was left untreated to create a dense adherent oxide that prevents further corrosion.

Behavioral scientists are continually discovering ways to design spaces that promote creativity, keep students focused and alert, and lead to social intimacy. In an earlier post of mine (about the circular campus of UVic), I explored the idea of the “circle” in architectural design and how it may positively affect people’s social interaction and intellectual performance. A Harvard Medical School study showed that people gravitated to rounded edges and that the amygdala (the part of our brain that registers fear) was more active when people looked at sharp-edged objects. In a later post I discussed findings that determined the role of ceiling height on whether a person focused more on concepts or on details. Shapes, textures, tone, height and color all play a role in determining how mind, heart and spirit function in the creative process. For instance, red tones and low ceilings promote detailed thinking and socialization while blue tones and high ceilings promote creative, imaginative and more relaxed thought. In the post previous to this one I showcased the San Diego Conference Centre, designed by Canadian architect Arthur Erickson (who had also designed the stately Anthropology Museum at the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University, Burnaby) whose innovative and unique designs have been featured in several motion pictures and TV shows, including Battlestar Galactica.

Architecture is both art and science that expresses who and what we are and where we are going. The Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA) in San Diego is currently the only organization in the world that is devoted to bridging neuroscience with architecture. It is an exciting example of where the marriage of art and science can determine our future.

The Salk Institute inspired me to soar with immeasurable creative joy and energetic muse. I could probably write a novel there in three weeks. Perhaps I’ll return and do just that (just don’t tell my publisher or she’ll hold me to it!)

Biology at the Salk Institute:

The Salk Institute is a premier independent, non-profit, scientific research facility that consistently ranks among the leading research institutions in the world in objective measures of the contributions of faculty and the impact of their findings. The institute continues to rank among the top institutions in the US in terms of research output and quality in the life sciences. In 2004, the Times Higher Education Supplement ranked Salk as the world's top biomedicine research institute in 2004, and in 2009 it was ranked number one globally by ScienceWatch in the neuroscience and behavior areas. The Salk Institute conducts its biological research under the guidance of 57 faculty investigators, employing a scientific staff of more than 850, including visiting scientists, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students.

Major areas of study focus within three areas: Molecular Biology and Genetics; Neurosciences; and Plant Biology. Knowledge acquired in Salk laboratories provides new understanding and potential new therapies and treatments for a range of diseases-from cancer to AIDS, from Alzheimer's disease to cardiovascular disorders, from anomalies of the brain to birth defects. Studies in plant biology at the Salk may one day help improve the quality and quantity of the world's food supply.

The Institute has trained more than 2,000 scientists, many of whom have gone on to positions of leadership in other prominent research centers worldwide. Five scientists trained at the Institute have won Nobel Prizes, and four current resident faculty members are Nobel Laureates.

Jonas Salk was a strong promoter of creative arts alongside scientific pursuit to create a more balanced creative environment. Salk’s second wife, Francoise Gilot, painter and author and the longtime companion of Pablo Picasso. Her works have been exhibited in the institute’s gallery, in addition to works by local artists. The institute also hosts various symposia and community outreach programs.

The Symphony at Salk, an annual fund raising show featuring the San Diego Symphony orchestra and, this year, Tony Award winning entertainer Bernadette Peters provides an evening of music in the Theodore Gildred Court. Proceeds from this concert under the stars directly benefit the groundbreaking biological research at the Institute and its community programs such as the Salk Mobile Science Lab and the High School Science Day. You can learn more about sponsorships and get tickets here.

More institute information can be obtained at: http://www.salk.edu and the bioinformatics center is at http://bioinformatics.salk.edu. See you there!

Biography of Jonas Salk:

Jonas Salk is one of the United States's best known microbiologists, chiefly celebrated for his discovery of the polio vaccine. His greatest contribution to immunology was the insight that a "killed virus" is capable of serving as an antigen, prompting the body's immune system to produce antibodies that will attack invading organisms. This realization enabled Salk to develop a polio vaccine composed of killed polio viruses, producing the necessary antibodies to help the body to ward off the disease without itself inducing polio.

The eldest son of Orthodox Jewish-Polish immigrants, Jonas Edward Salk was born in East Harlem, New York, on 28 October 1914. His father, Daniel B. Salk, was a garment worker, who designed lace collars and cuffs and enjoyed sketching in his spare time. He and his wife, Dora Press, encouraged their son's academic talents, sending him to Townsend Harris High School for the gifted. There, young Salk was both highly motivated and high achieving, graduating at the age of fifteen and proceeding to enroll in the legal faculty of the City College of New York. Jonas Salk first married Donna Lindsay with whom he had three children. Following a divorce in 1968 he remarried artist Francoise Gilot, a Sorbonne student and long time companion of Pablo Picasso. She survived him when he died of heart failure in 1995. Jonas Salk’s brother, Dr. Lee Salk, is a distinguished specialist in neuromuscular diseases.

Asked who owned the patent on his vaccine, Jonas Salk replied "The people, I suppose. Could you patent the sun?"

NEA Expo in the San Diego Convention Centre

2009-07-07T23:00:00.000-07:00

I recently attended the NEA Expo in San Diego, California, where my book, The Fiction Writer, was being showcased. It had just been showcased at Book Expo America in New York and was one of the first books to be available through Lightning’s Espresso Book Machine.

Over a hundred exhibitors participated in the NEA expo, attended by over 15,000 delegates from as far away as Georgia and New York. Highlights (for delegates, anyway) were the steel water bottle giveaway by Target, which generated snaking lines all the way to the Starbucks outside the Exhibit Hall and the NEA Expo tote bags, whose line up I unintentionally stumbled into and emerged with a blue bag. I must confess that my very own Fiction Writer pens became a hot item with teachers, eager to take notes with their new green pen that sported the Pixl Alien logo of the Alien Guidebook series.

During the three day drive from Vancouver to San Diego with friend, Margaret, we weathered 105 degree heat and Interstate 5 boredom through frequent Starbuck’s stops (for wireless, sustenance and to cool off), chowing down cool meals at Applebee’s (they are everywhere!) and bedding down at Motel 6s.

In San Diego, we treated ourselves to a stay in the luxurious Sofia Hotel, a Neo Gothic building and one of America’s Historic Hotels, where Margaret’s two teenage kids joined us to sightsee while I attended the Expo. Architect Wilber Peugh designed the downtown hotel and terminal in 1926 with a crenellated roofline and terra cotta and plaster embellishments. Formerly known as the Pickwick Hotel, the Sofia was part of the “Pickwick Stages”, one of the three major stage lines in the United States established by Charles Wesley Grise in 1911 as the “limited San Diego and Imperial Valley Stage.” It later merged with Greyhound in 1929. In 1986 the hotel was refurbished into a boutique-hotel by its new owners with the help of talented interior designer Anjun Razvi and became the Sofia Hotel. The Sofia Hotel was featured prominently in Dashiell Hammett’s popular mystery novel, The Maltese Falcon.

After a great sleep and breakfast in the hotel’s bistro, Toulouse and I wandered to the Convention Centre to attend the NEA Expo. Designed by Canadian architect Arthur Erikson, the San Diego Convention Centre was named one of the top ten convention centres in the world by a panel of respected international architects and covers about six football fields of exhibit space with a 40,000 square foot ballroom.

From angled rooflines to circular elevators, the theme of circle, tube and wave pervade the centre. Blue-green tinted glass and sea-colored carpets blend shape with color to celebrate the aesthetic power of the sea. Circles within triangles, triangles within circles in a symmetry of elegant geometric form. Rings of curving barrel-vaulted glass and Teflon-coated fiberglass “sails” reflect San Diego’s maritime history. Waterfront terraces overlook San Diego and provide expansive views of marinas and the bustling sea shore.

In an earlier post I talked about how our environment shaped how our minds worked, enhancing or detracting from our creativity and imagination. I mentioned the story of Jonas Salk, whose experience in Assisi convinced him that architecture and environment could promote creativity and imaginative thought (more on this on a later post).

While Toulouse looked for mischievous things to do at the NEA Expo, I talked to a lot of teachers from all over the States, gave some free writing consultations in my "outside office" and gave away bazillions of promotional copies of The Fiction Writer. The San Diego Convention Centre is located in the heart of downtown SD at the foot of its Victorian-era Gaslamp district, which boasts over fifty restaurants, cafes, bistros and bars (most of them along Fifth Avenue). Toulouse and I started there and worked our way up Fifth, restaurant by restaurant.

We started with Lou & Mickey’s, a charming upscale beach style restaurant, located on the corner of Fifth Avenue and the tram/railway facing the Convention Centre. We gorged on French fried Calamari and romaine lettuce served with Roquefort dressing followed by a main course of battered tilapia and French fries. This was all washed down with a roguish Duckhorn Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc from Napa Valley, kindly suggested to us by Heather, our knowledgeable waitress.

The next eatery we chose was La Fiesta, an authentic Mexican restaurant and bistro that served the best Margaritas this side of Palm Springs according to one of the NEA teachers. I ordered the “Purple Haze”, an exotic marriage of Margaritaville Silver Tequila, Chambord raspberry liqueur, Cointreau, and sweet & sour. (BTW, she was right). Margaret selected the “Mexican Seafood Platter”, sizzling hot in its own lava dish (pictured here) while I ordered the “Carnitas Uruapan”, tender chunks of pork slowly cooked in Mexico’s traditional style served with flour tortillas refried beans and rice and salsa fresco with cilantro and lime. Even the coffee was good here! The meal was awesome! Mind you, after a few Purple Hazes, I would have enjoyed anything.

San Diego is home to a diversity of engaging attractions for the sightseer. My companions and I caught several of these, including the San Diego Zoo and the Coronado Hotel (where the 1959 movie Some Like it Hot with Tony Curtis, Jack Lemon and Marilyn Munroe was filmed).

I was eager to see the Salk Institute, a bio-medical research facility architecturally designed by Louis Kahn to encourage creativity among its members. Located in La Jolla, next to Scripps (and about 30 minutes from Downtown San Diego), the institute is a historic site worth seeing. Check out my next post on Jonas Salk’s vision and the significance of the institute’s architectural design.

Historic Hotels of America

The Sofia Hotel belongs to a group of heritage hotels established by the National Trust in 1989, which identifies quality hotels that have faithfully maintained their historic integrity, architecture and ambience. To be accepted into Historic Hotels of America, hotels must be located in a building that is at least 50 years old.

Photos:
1. The NEA Expo at the San Diego Convention Centre.
2. The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now! showcased at the NEA Expo.
3. The back side of the convention centre, overlooking San Diego Bay.
4. Circular elevator servicing the front of the convention centre.
5. The Exhibit Hall beneath the sails
6. The vaulted “ceiling” of vines along an outside walkway of the convention centre.

7. Toulouse lounges next to my Acer netbook (which attracted as many teachers to my makeshift office as my book!)

8. My favorite shop on Fifth Avenue.

9. Mexican sea food platter at La Fiesta.

10. The Coronado Hotel.

11. The Salk Institute.

I Love NY: The Spirit of New York & Andrée Putnam’s Design of the Morgans Hotel

2009-07-03T16:10:00.000-07:00

New York is the Paris of America—Nina Munteanu

Toulouse and I began our New York experience with Manhattan and Morgans Hotel. I’d booked us there for an incredible deal—rooms typically go for $600+/night (I won’t tell you what I got mine for! LOL!)

Morgans Hotel is often described as the first boutique-hotel. Designed by Andrée Putnam in 1983, the hotel flaunts a retro-contemporary-modernism that truly defies definition. I was first struck by the lobby’s elegant “3-D” design carpet, and the Spartan somewhat oriental-style furniture and reception desk. Andrée Putnam’s avant-garde style provides travelers with a “retro-contemporary/faux-industrial” visual and tactile experience.

My room celebrated a harmony of minimalist luxury and comfort (the grey/black checked blanket and soft Paris sheets were a delicious treat) that extended to everything from metal clock and Ipod player at my bedside to the designer chair by Robert Mallet-Stevens and lamp by Felix Aublet and Mariano Fortuny. A black and white photograph of flower pistils hung on the wall. It was only when Toulouse discovered the bathroom—the most elaborate example of avant-garde artistic expression and practical utility—that I realized I’d entered Putnam’s world of French subversive design. I recognized the influence of Sainte Germaine de Pres (where she lived for some time) in its sophisticated and daring simplicity; something only Parisians seem to understand. Says Putnam, “To not dare is to have already lost. We should seek out ambitious, even unrealistic projects…because things only happen when we dream.”

While Putnam insisted that her renowned black and white checkerboard ceramic tile pattern of the bathroom was simply the fortuitous result of a tight budget, others have pondered on the irony of her legendary use of black and white as the unconscious revenge of the abandoned keyboard (she rejected her mother’s imposed choice for a career as a pianist, after many years of studying music.)

Morgans Hotel lies in the heart of Manhattan, on Madison Avenue with a view of the Empire State Building and blocks away from New York icons like Saks Fifth Avenue, Grand Central Station, Times Square, Broadway and 42nd Street, Rockerfeller Centre, Radio City & Carnegie Hall, The United Nations, and Avenue of the Americas—where every agent and editor I ever wanted to meet conducts his or her business.

As I walked the streets I’d seen on TV and the movies since I was five, I realized that I’d parachuted into the very heart of America’s artistic centre. This was the literary capital of North America. Where Ray Bradbury came over sixty years ago to sell his first short story collection. Where countless writers and other artists made their important debut.

New York bustles with an intense mercurial energy. New Yorkers are a multi-cultural melting pot of genuine, forthright people on the move. You need to move to keep up. They bluntly let you know if you’re being stupid and lose patience with you if you lack the confidence and direction that they have come to accept as a given in this city of the self-made man and woman. But, if you earn their respect by demonstrating genuine motivation and intent, they will go to great lengths to help you. I loved their clean honesty and straightforwardness. You get what you see in New York. And what you see is pretty grand.

Toulouse and I entered the Empire State Building, whose tiered Egyptian-like Art Deco structure reminded me of Fritz Lang’s“Metropololis”. Towering 1,250 feet, the Empire State Building was the tallest building in North America when it was built in 1931 and is now again the tallest building in NYC. The spire at the top of the building was designed as a mooring mast for dirigibles (anyone remember the cool scene in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow?)

We wandered the streets, rather aimlessly—catching sites wherever we turned. Toulouse lured me into the Hard Rock Café located in the heart of Times Square. As I talked with the cool staff, Toulouse wandered off, as usual, looking for a free ride into the dining area with two girls who thought he was cute. I had to bribe the girls with a pin to get him back!

New York serves up like a delicious feast with too many desserts. There was so much to take in, I knew I would just have to come back another time. For all I did and saw in those few days I was there, I missed, among other things: the salute to Isreal parade on May 31st in Central Park; Prince Harry’s charity polo game on Governors Island; and President Obama’s visit (although, thanks to Toulouse, I did meet some of his security network!)

On that day we’d wandered over to the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue to see the exhibit “Between Collaboration and Resistance: French Literary Life Under Nazi Occupation”. After taking some pictures outside the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, I entered to find a stately interior complete with art deco-style receptionist (with sculpted hair). At some point while attending the exhibit, I realized that Toulouse was not with me. I burst out of the building and collided into a mass of New York’s finest in blue, loitering by the library. They were serving as security for Obama’s cavalcade. A quick glance revealed that Toulouse was not where I’d left him. Why did I think he would be? I finally found him among the men and women in blue; he’d befriended Officer Montalvo, a smart cop with a penchant for small animals.

Yes, New York suited Toulouse.

Tribute to Andrée Putnam:

Andrée Putnam had been a student of aesthetics since childhood when she gutted her bedroom of everything but her bed. Putnam drew from her roots in Paris, melding French eccentric elegance with North American utility; she created architectural and interior designs that flowed with fluid precision. Her style was new and based on “discipline, harmony, fantasy, contrasts and surprise” according to Stéphane Gerschel in his book, “Putman Style”. Avant-garde in her day, her designs endure as a monument of elegant comfort, transcending ephemeral trends with timeless creative boldness. Besides The Morgans Hotel, examples of her designs include the Concorde, the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, the Villa Turque, the Lagerfeld Gallery, Yves Saint Laurent boutiques, the Guggenheim Museum—just to name a few of her many accomplishments.

Designer Francois Russo said of Putnam, “I remember Andrée’s smile, like a sign telling you at each new meeting that anything is possible, that the moment was unique like a window opening onto a new kind of chemistry; a promise of happiness…She uncovers your forgotten memories, and makes you see what until that moment had been highly improbable.”

“To not dare is to have already lost. We should seek out ambitious, even unrealistic projects…because things only happen when we dream.”—Andrée Putnam

Photos by Nina Munteanu:

1. Lobby of Morgans Hotel

2. Bathroom of Morgans Hotel

3. Empire State Building

4. Times Square

5. Hard Rock Cafe, Times Square

6. Bryant Park and the Grill

7. Officer Montalvo & Toulouse

I Love New York: BEA and Lightning’s Espresso Book Machine

2009-06-24T22:44:00.000-07:00

I came to NYC recently to promote my new writing guidebook The Fiction Writer, at Book Expo America (BEA), North America’s largest book fair. The Fiction Writer was showcased along with other new books for 2009 at the BEA, which was held at New York’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Centre, located in the heart of Manhattan with a view of the Hudson River.

The fair was huge and I was enthralled, if not slightly overwhelmed. I’ve been to several World Science Fiction and Fantasy Conventions; but this trade fair was ... well… HUGER (is that a word?). Over 1,500 publishing houses, retailers, printers and associated industry people displayed exhibits at the book fair. Upcoming titles (like my own!) in all kinds of formats and genres were showcased. As I entered the Javits Centre, feeling like a character in one of my SF books, the floor buzzed with the frantic energy of industry representatives. I surfed a moving sea of forced smiles and sweaty hands clutching advanced reading copies and galleys of the latest summer and fall releases.

The fair kicked off with a one-day writer’s conference where my friend, super literary agent Donald Maass (author of The Career Novelist) gave a workshop.

The fair was jam-packed with great panels on publishing and writing given by CEOs, editors, publishers, marketing managers and designers. Some of them included Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired and bestselling author of The Long Tail; Jared Friedman, co-founder and chief technology officer of Scribd; Nick Bilton, design integration editor of the New York Times and Mark Rotella, senior reviews editor of Publishers Weekly, among a list that read like the Who’s Who of the literary world (well, I was in New York!). A common thread ran through the talks and panels devoted to the “new wave” in internet marketing, POD publishing and online access to everything to do with publishing. Many compared the coming changes in the publishing industry with the recent (and unnecessary) devastation in the music industry as a result of changes in the music consumer-producer relationship. Panels addressed how—in the age of Google, YouTube, iPhones, Blackberries and social networks—publishers and authors can position themselves to successfully surf—rather than be swept under by—the Internet wave. Here are some choice things—if not totally new—that I gleaned from talks with titles like “Twitter for Dummies”, “Stupid Things Booksellers and Publishers Do”, “How Publishers Can Succeed Online Where Others Failed” and “Wired and Receptive: Reaching Boomer Book Buyers Online”:

“Books” are going to change to accommodate the multiplex crowd of new portable-wearable technology, and readily dispensable and disposable entertainment. This will include what books look like, how they “behave”, and how they are accessed and purchased (see my reference below to Lightning’s new Espresso Machine). Publishers are actively looking for ways to accommodate our youth’s—not to mention our own—new love affair with the cell phone-iphone-netbook

Authors need to promote themselves by connecting with their audience in a genuine way. Readers want to know YOU. Get out there on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace. Do cheesy YouTube videos of you doing anything. Start a blog. LOL! (read my guidebook on blogging).

I met my publisher at Starfire at the BEA and she took me aside to catch Lightning Source’s debut of its “Espresso Machine” (how did she know I really needed a coffee?). She found me eagerly devouring the last of a quiche from Grazies at the food court downstairs. I was a culinary island of focus amidst the agile whispering of people closing deals over rubens and cheap beer. I’m familiar with this ironically clandestine activity in a wide open social setting, though in the places I’ve seen it—and taken part in—it’s usually been in a bar.

“Come on!” my publisher urged me. “I have something to show you.”

When we got there, I realized that the Espresso Book Machine (EBM) didn’t make coffee. It’s actually the fastest and most agile book-to-market distribution channel, according to Lightning Source staff, who smugly demonstrated their miniature printing machine/computer to an excited audience. The EBM, which was named by TIME Magazine in 2007 the "Invention of the Year," is essentially an ATM for books. It automatically prints, binds, and trims perfect bound paperback books on-demand, at point of sale. I saw the thing in action and thought it was slick. So, it didn’t give me coffee; it gave me the next best thing—a printed book in four minutes! The Fiction Writer will be one of the first titles offered by the Espresso Machine, which will eventually be found in major retail bookstores and libraries throughout North America and abroad. Besides Starfire, other participating publishers currently include John Wiley & Sons, Hachette Book Group, McGraw-Hill, Simon & Schuster, Clements Publishing, Cosimo, E-Reads, Bibliolife, Information Age Publishing, Macmillan, University of California Press, and W.W. Norton. The list is getting bigger as I speak.

Back in April Publishers Weekly reported five Espresso machines in the U.S. (with 10 others in locations throughout Canada and the U.K.). Dane Neller, CEO of On Demand, said that "within a relatively short period that number will be increasing dramatically.” In April, the first Espresso Book Machine was installed at the InfoShop at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., which loaded 200 of its titles online for the three-month test period. Two additional Espressos will be installed at the New York Public Library and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, in Egypt, in September.
If you have a chance to see one, go check it out and surf the wave.

The wave of the future.

Mildred Huie Wilcox—Portrait of an Artist As a Georgian Lady

2009-06-15T00:16:00.000-07:00

I’ve got Georgia on my mind… That isn’t just a line in a song. It’s a lingering sentiment that haunts anyone who has spent any time there, I think. When I attended the Scribblers’ Retreat Writers’ Conference on Saint Simon’s Island in Georgia a few weeks ago, I was treated to its renowned homespun hospitality and had the fortune to meet one of Saint Simon’s Island’s most venerated citizens: Mildred Huie Wilcox, Community Arts Advocate, Humanitarian, and International Art Scholar.

Mildred opened The Left Bank Art Gallery on Saint Simons in 1964 and later the Mildred Huie Museum at Mediterranean House. A former international model and fashion designer (she modeled in Rome, Paris and New York), this elegant and very classy lady showcases an eclectic collection of European and local art in her gallery; art guaranteed to delight your senses and promote enchanting stories from the gallery owner herself (every painting has a story). She also writes a monthly art column in the local paper, Coastal Illustrated, has written several books on Georgian history, and frequently speaks to art and writers groups.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Mildred spotted me as I made a clumsy late entrance at the conference and waved me on to join her table, where participants were already engaged in feasting. As I took my seat next to her, I found myself entranced with her Georgian gentility flavored with the international patina of the well-travelled dilettante. As I surmised from her vibrant elegance, Mildred was not only full of stories—she was a story herself.

Mildred invited me to her elegant home, situated at the end of a winding road lined in white oleander and beneath an archway of live oaks. Her place was an old plantation house on La Ferme Sainte Simone, and whose walls were lined with original art from as far away as Russia and Paris. She treated me to a glass of champagne and delightful stories of her days in Paris, Rome and New York. She’d known the artists Picasso and Cocteau during her modeling days. “It sounds glamorous,” she said in her lilting alto Georgian accent, “but not when you work in a place from 8am to 1pm and then 3pm to 7pm.” About meeting these famous artists, who, she informed me, kept their paintings in the trunk of their car (because the paintings weren’t insured), Mildred said almost pithily, “When you’re that old (in her middle-twenties) you’re not that impressed with others—more with yourself!” Then she laughed and looked suddenly like the young energetic girl who’d played touch football with the locals in Rome.

After some sleuthing at one of the bars on the island, I learned that “The Red Barn” was one of the hot spots to eat, so Toulouse and I invited Mildred there for supper and a lively interro—er … discussion. As we entered the place, Mildred requested the staff to seat us at her usual table. As we made our way to our seats, she introduced me to several of the Barn’s patrons. Once we took our seats, she turned to me rather conspiratorially and informed me that they “sang the menu” to their astonished customers. They did! And in key.

Mildred fed me wonderful stories about her modeling days over an exquisite meal of broiled spotted sea trout, wilted salad (a Georgian specialty) and baked potatoes. She still recalls her first gig in Rome. Just like in the movies, she’d had to suddenly replace a head model who’d taken ill. The first outfit she presented was a forest green chiffon strapless evening gown; she wore a live parrot chained on her arm. And she was scared of parrots!

As the evening continued, I sipped my Ferrari Carano (2006) Merlot with growing rapture. It is a soft, velvety wine with rich concentrated fruit and supple tannins. Described as a rich complex wine with a chocolate silky finish that is beautifully balanced, it sent me into a dreamy stupor that had me cursing my illegible notes after. Luckily for me, Mildred seemed to sense my less than admirable ability as a journalist and paused several times for me to scrawl my impressions (Toulouse was useless—he was busy eyeing the desert at the table next to us; besides, he’s worse at spelling than I am).

Born in Albany, Georgia (also the home of Ray Charles) Mildred went to college in Bristol, Virginia, then attended the University of Georgia (UGA) where she majored in English Literature. She served as a bank teller for a while before embarking on her varied international career of art and design.

I most enjoyed her tales of France in her capacity as an art dealer and artist's representative. She shared a story about her visit to one of her artists (Leon Gambier). Mildred didn’t know French that well and Gambier didn’t speak English. “So we relied on body language,” and got along just fine, according to Mildred. Gambier’s wife wore a hat during the whole sitting at mealtime. “She was a real club lady,” quipped Mildred with a playful smile. We talked well into the night and I stopped writing somewhere between my first and third glass of wine, entranced by Mildred’s enchanting stories of impressionistic art, international design, Paris fashion and Georgian history.

Mildred confided in me that one of her favorite art periods and styles is Fauvism, after the Impressionists. Her Left Bank Gallery holds a Salon D’Automne Exhibition each October, dedicated to this group and style. “At the 1905 Salon D’Automne in Paris,” says Mildred, “a group of painters under the leadership of Henri Matisse shocked the art world with their paintings characterized by brilliant color, expressive brushwork, and flat composition. The art critic Louis Vauxcelles, on visiting the show, called the painters the ‘Wild Beasts’ or ‘Les Fauves’; the pejorative remark was exploited by hostile critics, and the name stuck.”

When I return to Saint Simon's Island this August, I will visit the Left Bank Gallery again and continue where we'd left off.

Images:

Mildred Huie Wilcox and me at the Left Bank Art Gallery

Near the Sea Palms Resort (location of Scribblers) on Saint Simon's Island

Saint Simon's Island

Pierre Auguste Renoir's Le Moulin de la Galette

Pecheurs au chalut by Leon Gambier

Darwin and Lincoln: Revolution to Evolution

2009-06-06T04:30:00.000-07:00

Two hundred years ago, on February 12, 1809, Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born within hours of each other in opposite worlds: Darwin in a comfortable home in the English countryside of Shrewsbury; and Lincoln in a log cabin in the Kentucky woods.

Their shared birthday is more than intriguing coincidence; it marks their shared legacy in shaping the modern world. A legacy that is far more intermingled than one might first think. It both starts and ends with one word: evolution.

The common belief in 1809 was that life was fixed in place since the beginning of a terrestrial time that went back a few thousand years at most. The “truth” held in 1809 lay in a “vertical” organization of life, a kind of established hierarchy of species on earth, descending from humans downward with a divine judge above. Focusing on the example of the terror in France, people also believed that societies generally required inherited order and a strong immutable structure to keep them from dissolving into anarchy or tyranny. The notion of democracy was a fringe ideal held by a handful of radicals. In America, where “democracy” was embraced through the revolution, the persistence of slavery tainted its ideal with ill notions of prejudice and fixed social order. Yet, the tide of change and evolution was stirring in the hearts and minds of these two men of humility and grace.

Robert McHenry of the Encyclopedia Britannica Blog, says: “Lincoln’s humility is to be read in almost his every utterance and writing. No one of such humble beginnings could be other than painfully conscious of the great distance he traveled with none of the usual requirements of birth, breeding, education, or fortune. He stands as Exhibit Number One in the argument for democracy, a great man whom no one could possibly have suspected of being one until he was one. With Darwin the case is different. He had the advantages that Lincoln lacked, and yet he did not, as so many so often do, take that fact as evidence of his superiority. He undertook arduous work in the interest of learning, and he submitted his findings and his theorizing to an often hostile world for examination.”

Both men believed in the honorable spirit of and equality of humanity. Both men freed humanity from the shackles of certain attitudes borne of fear and ignorance. Lincoln embodied the spirit of racial progress and emancipation. In their book Darwin’s Sacred Cause Adrian Desmond and James Moore concluded that Darwin’s interest in evolution could be traced to his hatred of slavery. Darwin “was disheartened to see advocates of slavery justifying their position by saying that white European humans and black African humans were not the same species,” writes author Thomas Hayden in one of a series of articles in the February 2009 issue of the Smithsonian devoted to these two men. “One of the animating thoughts in the young Darwin’s mind as he set out to understand the world was his conviction that all humans were one.”

Both men challenged established mores. Each forged a new rhetoric and evolving paradigm of thought and action. “They shared logic as a form of eloquence, argument as a style of virtue, close reasoning as a form of uplift,” writes New Yorker author Adam Gopnik in the February 2009 issue of the Smithsonion. Lincoln “managed, somewhere along the way, to turn himself into one of the best prose writers America has produced. Lincoln united the North behind him with an eloquence so timeless that his words remain fresh no matter how many times you read them,” writes Malcolm Jones of Newsweek (July 2008). Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (wherein he assured that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth") remains one of the most quoted and is considered one of the greatest speeches in American history. With his first 29 words, Lincoln accomplished what he had come to Gettysburg to do—he defined the purpose of the war for the Union: "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." In 272 words, he defined the national principle so thoroughly that today no one would think of arguing otherwise, writes Jones.

Today, Darwin’s Origin of Species “ranks among the most important books ever published, and perhaps alone among scientific works, it remains scientifically relevant 150 years after its debut,” writes Hayden.

Darwin “started out as an amateur naturalist,” writes Jones. He was “… a 22-year-old rich-kid dilettante who, after flirting with the idea of being first a physician and then a preacher, was allowed to ship out with the Beagle as someone who might supply good conversation at the captain's table.” Darwin returned “in the grip of an idea so subversive that he would keep it under wraps for another two decades,” says Jones. “ Darwin may have been independently wealthy, but in terms of his vocation, he was a self-made man.”

“Lincoln was self-made in the more conventional sense,” Jones continues. “A walking, talking embodiment of the frontier myth made good. Like Darwin, Lincoln was not a quick study. Both men worked slowly to master a subject. But both had restless, hungry minds. After about a year of schooling as a boy—and that spread out in dribs and drabs of three months here and four months there—Lincoln taught himself. He mastered trigonometry (for work as a surveyor), he read Blackstone on his own to become a lawyer. He memorized swaths of the Bible and Shakespeare. At the age of 40, after he had already served a term in the U.S. House of Representatives, he undertook Euclidean geometry as a mental exercise.”

Capping his eloquent tribute to these two men, McHenry ends his blog article with this thought: “Is it too trite, in this so sophisticated age of doubt and irony, to note simply that each man did the work he found himself called to, and did it with unequalled grace? Can we set aside the suspicion that we, most of us, are not up to their example and instead rejoice that they were of our species?”

Scribblers Retreat Writers’ Conference

2009-05-27T00:11:00.000-07:00

I recently came back from Georgia, where I participated in the May session of Scribblers’ Retreat Writers’ Conference. I gave one-on-one lunch consultations on writing and publishing in the conference hotel’s bar—er—restaurant. Let me put it this way: my sessions were well attended! (Smug grin)…The conference took place at Sea Palms Resort on Saint Simon’s Island, and proved to be a refreshing treat in southern warmth and gentile hospitality. I was just one of the conference’s participating authors but they made me feel like I was the guest of honor.

The May conference is one of a series of four conferences held throughout the year (I’ll be giving a session in the SF stream in August, alongside Jack McDevitt—after World Con in Montreal). The May conference was about writing “How to” books; Dr. William Rawlings gave the keynote, setting the pace for a great conference.

I was late, as usual (my close friends who know me from another dimension understand “Nina time” and nod slowly with quiet understanding) and made an unwitting “entrance” to the opening ceremony. A distinguished and impeccably dressed lady waved me enthusiastically to her table and I concluded that she must be the conference coordinator—she wasn’t; she was one of the island’s icons and most respected citizens. I was too ignorant to be suitably flattered at the moment and cheerfully took my seat, eying the fresh salad and the chocolate cheesecake that had already been placed at each place as a tantalizing prelude to delicious things to come. For some reason, art gallery owner and international socialite Mildred Huie Wilcox decided I was interesting (or was it my goofy lost puppy-dog smile that caught her compassion): she later invited me to her plantation house for some champagne and a tour of her incredible place. Mildred owns the Left Bank Art Gallery, Saint Simon’s first gallery that features dramatic coastal landscapes and scenes from around the world. More on this fascinating lady and her art in a subsequent post!

Saint Simons Island is a golden gem along the southern Georgia coast, about half an hour from the Florida border. Upon crossing the causeway across a wide expanse of coastal marsh that links Saint Simons to the Georgia mainland, I descended into history. Called San Simone by 16th Century Spanish explorers, the island is the year-round destination for visitors who want to sail, fish and walk along its miles of beaches. The island is dotted with old plantation ruins, reminders of its historic plantation days, when “tabby” mansions of antebellum cotton and indigo plantations dominated.

I drove along roads beneath rising arches of majestic Live Oak trees (Quercus virginiana), Georgia’s state tree. These are huge trees, with crowns that can reach 150 feet across. Trails of irish moss hung like green tinsel off their sturdy noble limbs. The moss swayed in the warm sea breeze that brought with it the intoxicating scent of white oleander.

On the first evening I was there, the conference organizers invited us over to one of their houses for a home-cooked meal. I was treated to some original southern comfort including pecan smoked BBQ pork, butter beans and collard greens, potato salad and deviled eggs (OH! They were good!), cornmeal bread, biscuits and gravy, and North Carolina pound cake.

I found the Georgians on Saint Simons Island to be some of the nicest people I’ve met. They exude genuine warmth, with a relaxed uncomplicated and open attitude that lacked any cynicism. I found them joyful and ready to see the best in you. Most of all, I was struck by their elegant and rustic charm. This would seem to incorporate an oxymoron, a paradox; but most things worthwhile do just that, don’t you think? Take their attractive lilting accent, for instance. It combines refined elegance and “homespun” country life in a speech that flows like a languid river meandering through an ancient valley. It is slow and measured, with its Rs remaining soft—almost non-existent—and broad vowels that yawn like the open marshes of the Georgian coast. The Georgian accent reflects the natural cadence of the bucolic landscape, the flow and ebb of its vast coastal marsh and a sensual connection to their environment. Here are some great examples of “Georgia Speak”: “theyu” for there; “griyuts” for grits; “piactuh” for picture; “ruhhnin” for running; “fanger” for finger; “down the road apiece” for a little ways down the road; and “Yalls is fixin’ fer sum trouble” for you’re in trouble now!

Photos:

1. Georgian mansion

2. Sea Palms Resort, Saint Simons Island

3. Dr. William Rawlings and yours truly

4. Frederica Road, Saint Simons Island

5. Marcia, owner of Hattie's Books, showing off The Fiction Writer and Darwin's Paradox

Piet Voute—Blending Vision with Craft

2009-05-17T19:17:00.000-07:00

Well…It’s been a while since I took anyone up on Vinny, my ship, for an interroga—er—interview. And Harry, my robot, was getting bored. So, I thought I’d interview my neighbor (since I AM the Alien Next Door), who happens to be a crack animator. He’s a high school student, his name is Piet Voute, and he taught himself how to use the super-cool free animation software, Blender.

Just like all his predecessors, Piet took to the crystal transporter with style and no ill effects…unlike yours truly, who emerged from the transported onboard Vinnie rather pale and weak and desperately needing a drink. My robot Harry gave Piet a Doctor Pepper then handed me an orange juice (not what I had in mind, but I didn’t complain.) We settled into some plush seats in the aft lounge and I began my interroga—er, interview.

“So, Piet, what IS Blender?”
“It’s a free 3-D modeling program/application used for animation and some games.”
“How did you find out about Blender?”
“From a friend at school. I’d seen a 3-D animation course at school on the course selection sheet. I’ve been interested in animation for quite a while and was looking for a program to use.”
“You just download it?”
“Yup.”
“Cool.” He’s a young man of few words. “What’s it do?”
“It allows you to model and pretty much sculpt any shape, then render into a beautiful piece of art.”
“Is it easy to use?”
“Extremely … are you talking about the render or actually using the program?”
“Both.” I don’t have a clue what I’m talking about but I’m not about to admit it to a fifteen year old!
“Rendering is very easy to use. Like pressing a button. The program is fairly difficult to know but once you learn the basics it’s easy to make something quick.”
“So, what kind of stuff do you do?”
“Mostly games.”
“Like what?”
“I’ve made a couple of racing games and a side scroller jumping game.”
“A what?”
“A game like Mario.”
“Ok. Ok.” I wave my hand nonchalantly. “So, you’re saying that this thing is free and pretty much easy to learn… how come not everybody is doing it?”
“Because of more professional applications like Maya…”
“Maya? You mean like in South America?”
“Maya is a program much like Blender but made by Autodesk.”
“And Blender has a bad rep by being free? People would prefer to pay for their program…?”
“Yeah… it’s a common misconception. Because it’s free, and changeable it gets more like the user and designer wants it to be.”
“That’s pretty cool.”
“Maya is more professional and it can do more things. But it has a couple of major problems. One of them is that you can’t change how the user interface—the actual screen— looks. The other problem is that it doesn’t have a built in rendering engine.”
“Ok, you’ve mentioned rendering before. What is it?”
“Rendering is the process of the CPU calculating how the light moves around in the scene and it ‘renders’ the image and takes the data of where the object is and determines how it’s going to look.”
“How old are you?”
“Fifteen.”
“What do you want to be when you grow up? An artist?”
“Nope.”
“How come? No money in it?”
“I’d rather work on making games in a professional studio like EA.”
“Are they here?”
“They do have a location in Vancouver.”
“What kind of games would you make?”
“Any, really.”
“Cool. So, if they wanted you to make a game about an alien who comes to earth to spy on humankind and get rid of country music, would you do it?”
“Well, it would be very easy to do the plot because I’m talking to the plot right now.”
Much laughter.
“So…. Are you using Blender in school now?”
“Yes.”
“What are you making?”
“Currently… I have no idea.”
“Really?.....” I’m thinking that this dude is either really good or… well, he must be an alien…like me…. “So, you are doing stuff on Blender at school but you don’t know what you’re doing…”
“Well, we make whatever the teacher asks us to make… but I finish it before everyone else so I have to wait…”
“Oh…!” The dawning of understanding hits me like a brick. “So, you’re in wait mode right now…”
“Yeah.”
“If you had a million dollars to spend on 3-d animation stuff what would you purchase?”
“Food.”
“HUH?” The dawning of understanding vanishes as quickly as it came.
“Why spend money on 3-d animation studios when there are such great ones that come free.”

OMG! He’s a walking commercial for shareware! “Okay….. what kind of food?”
“Pizza.”
He really IS an alien!

So, you might have been wondering what the big wave is all about. What’s it got to do with our young animator?... It’s the wave of the future, of course! Metaphor! {big silly grin}.

Photo credits:
Wave shots by Clark Little
Animations by Piet Voute

Love’s Labor Lost: Those Who Prey on Love

2009-05-11T23:44:00.000-07:00

Oh, brave new world that has such people in it!—Miranda in “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare

Many of us, particularly in North American and European cultures have decided to bring a friendly animal into our lives and households: either a dog or cat or other furry creature that draws out our affections and unconditionally provides us with so much more back. There is a catch, though. And a cost.

I’ve shared my home with a cat (or two) since the late 1980s…not the same one; each has passed on and a new one has come into my life, filling my heart with joy. My previous two cats lived 19 and 18 years before passing on. My current cat is a healthy eight years old. When my son and I brought him home from the adoption centre, we had tacitly agreed to take responsibility for his welfare. We fed him, took him to the vet for his annual check-up and provided him with our unconditional love. He loved to go outside and we let him, knowing full well that there were dangers from predators (e.g., coyotes and eagles hunted near our place) other cats and accidents with cars etc. My philosophy behind this was to respect my cat, who deserved to live the life he was born to live. If it was cut short by some accident, so be it, I thought; he’d lived it to his fullest. I refused to “clip his wings”. However, I did insist on keeping him inside at night, which reduced his chances of finding mischief.

He still managed one time to find his way inside the hood of a car and almost got himself shredded to death. Luckily, somehow, he got out with just a few injuries. I took him to the vet right away, who him stitched up. I didn’t have to think about the decision to have a vet intervene. My love was enough. I paid the fee and my cat came home, a better and hopefully wiser cat.

How much are we willing to pay? And how much are others willing to take? What is the price of love? And what is the cost of abuse?

Today, my good friend’s cat died. The cat died in her arms on the way to an animal hospital.

Previously, my friend had taken this same cat to the local vet because the cat had become listless, had stopped eating and had grown weak. The vet referred her to an animal hospital, which charged a “bed” fee of over $1,000 per day. This is, apparently, quite normal for an animal hospital.

I came along for compassionate support. When we entered the hospital, I was struck how fancy it was. It reminded me of a lawyer’s office. Original artwork lined the walls of the clean high-ceilinged reception area. Large plants decorated the waiting area and a coffee machine brewed on the side. Our reception, though, was coldly calculated and lacked any compassion; without a glance at the sick cat, the receptionist inundated us with additional forms to be filled out in triplicate regarding items they already knew from the documents from the vet clinic (“We just want to hear your version,” was the explanation.) The doctor treated us like children.

Then, it came to me that the place’s similarity to a lawyer’s office wasn’t coincidental; this establishment was obsessed with liability. The forms were clearly and deliberately aimed to protect them from any kind of law suit. It was all part of an elaborate “machine brain” of efficiency. But where was the heart?

The hospital kept the cat there for several days as they subjected her to tests. Then, without prior consent, they decided that exploratory surgery was in order and proceeded without telling my friend until after; although they were quick to charge her. The exploratory surgery turned out to have negative results. But, they weren’t finished; they amended their prognosis and wanted to continue with other tests. But my friend had had enough; she had to fight to get her cat back (they wouldn’t release the cat until she had paid the full amount). She’d paid them thousands of dollars for basically nothing; except additional trauma to the cat and to the owner. And all this without apology or compassion.

I was appalled. By all rights, this should be one of the most compassionate professions and pursuits in our society: helping the animals who cannot speak for themselves and for whom we have accepted responsibility by taking them into our own environments.

Instead, I see an entire industry devoted to taking advantage of someone else’s heartache and love. This is brutality and deception of the meanest sort. And its casualties are the truly innocent: animals and those who love them. I feel like my humanity is betrayed. Surely we are more than this…

Ironically, one of the plaques that stood on the counter of the reception area read: “Be the kind of person your dog thinks you are.”