WVM2008-25
Sept 8 AGENDA
Calendar to Sept 15
by Carolanne Reynolds, Editor
www.WestVan.org

 That was the summer that was -- bring on Indian summer before brilliant fall.......
IN THIS ISSUE:                            
Main Items Sept 8: DELEGATION: Vancouver Coastal Health, regarding Active North Shore; PRESENTATION from Metro Vancouver regarding Financial Challenges Facing the Region; REPORTS: Greater Vancouver Regional Emergency Planning Service Establishing Bylaw; Canadian Red Cross Society Auxiliary Role Project; Community Centre Quarterly Update - Volume VIII - Sept 2, 2008; Trade Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA); Lots of Correspondence!
=  Vive le Canada; from the EDITOR'S DESK; ANIMALWATCH (a tortoise; frogs); JIBJAB, Political Satire; UPDATES (E-Policing; Sockeye return after nearly a century!); CULTUREWATCH
=  CALENDAR to Sept 15th (check for changes/updates); WEBWATCH
=  DWV Salaries 2007
=  THEATREWATCH; TEAWATCH; NEWSWATCH; BOOKWATCH (Interview then NYT Bringing Peace to Israel); WEBWATCH (China/Keeping trees -- harken DWV Parks!)
=  Some Highlights of Ccl July 28th (quasi-transcript in last issue): Rodgers Crk PH; Wetmore; ChildCare WG plan; Finance Cmte recommendations; PQP (Rodgers Crk, Wetmore, RoyalTea-by-the-Sea); mini-mtg July 30th
=  Sept 8th Ccl Mtg AGENDA (copy and pasted from DWV's new website)
=  List of WVMs to date this year, 1 - 24; Obituary/Funeral Mahmoud Darwish;
=  Computer Corner -- who's on first?; Haiku/Senryu; Quotations (books and back to school)

=== Vive le Canada === http://www.departmentofpeace.ca/
The very agonies of war and the dark night of suffering that has lasted for centuries are awakening civilization to a new understanding: the peoples of the Earth have a sacred right to peace.
- Senator Douglas Roche, a prominent supporter of the Canadian Department of Peace Initiative
..... from the EDITOR'S DESK
***  See letter 38 in Correspondence Sept 8 agenda -- my campaign to have impervious/impermeable surfaces included in site coverage.
***  FWIW my preference is our parliamentary system and NOT fixed election dates.  If the govt can fall at any time, more motivation to do their best all along b/c never know when called to account by the electorate.  Rather than plurality, refer 1-2-3 voting to get over 50%.
===   ANIMALWATCH   === Tortoise and Frogs
***  TORTOISE
August 20, 2008-A ten-year-old tortoise with paralyzed hind legs has been fitted with wheels at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo-and her "love life" is picking up speed.
2008 National Geographic (AP) http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/08/080820-tortoise-video-ap.html
***  FROGS
From poisonous hoppers to screaming frogs
By Rebecca Morelle, Science reporter, BBC News, Costa Rica
        Page last updated at 10:15 GMT, Thursday, 4 September 2008 11:15 UK
The glass frog is one of many species found at the research centre
Trekking through the dense forestation of the Costa Rican Amphibian Research Center is like stepping back in time.
More than 50 species of amphibians of just about every variety of shape, size and colour that you can imagine thrive within the 112 acres (45 hectares) of pristine rainforest.
Brian Kubicki, who set up the centre in 2002, says: "In a lot of other highland areas, species have really declined."
The herpetologist has spent years turning his patch of land into an amphibian haven - and the site now has the highest concentration of amphibians anywhere in Costa Rica.
A team from Manchester University and Chester Zoo, who are being followed by the BBC, visited the rainforest during daylight and after nightfall.
Here are some of the incredible amphibians that live in this mist-shrouded forest.
Continued at:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7597701.stm
[It is the year of the frog and they are cute; the videoclips are from the BBC so you can see them hopping but you have to put up with a few seconds of a CBC commercial first alas.)

===  JIBJAB -- POLITICAL SATIRE ===
If you don't know them, here's an intro; nothing's sacred and both sides skewered.  See: <http://www.peteyandpetunia.com/VoteHere/VoteHere.htm>
 
===   UPDATES   ===
***  New DWV website launched Aug 26 -- I see some improvements but some things removed and still finding out what can and cannot be done; will keep you posted.  Pretty though.  Miss the list of mtgs/events beside the Calendar.  Links may have changed too.
*** What is E-Policing?  E-Policing is our way of bringing community policing to the Internet. The E-Policing program enables West Vancouver Police to e-mail newsletters, crime trends and other important information to you.  Read more... www.wvpd.ca
 ***  Great news! SOCKEYE RETURN TO COQUITLAM RESERVOIR AFTER NEARLY A CENTURY
After nearly a 100-year absence, sockeye salmon are once again gliding through the cool waters of the Coquitlam Reservoir.
In 1914, Coquitlam Lake was enlarged by the construction of a dam on the Coquitlam River. The dam prevented salmon from returning to their spawning and rearing habitat in the Coquitlam Watershed. Sockeye salmon, which are indigenous to Coquitlam Lake, had been a part of the historic food fishery for the Kwikwetlem First Nation, whose territory the lake lies within.
After construction of the dam, all sockeye in the reservoir were landlocked and over time became kokanee or land locked sockeye. Three years ago, as a result of a multi-stakeholder consultative committee known as the Kwikwetlem Salmon Restoration Program (KSRP), BC Hydro agreed to release water annually from the dam's low level outlet at times when kokanee smolts might act on long-held sockeye instincts to head downstream to the ocean.  Find out what then happened: http://www.bchydro.com/powersmart/news/article57843.html
***  Eagle Island Operational Study
Work is underway to develop a 20-year plan. More info at: http://www.westvancouver.ca/article.asp?a=5828&c=880
=== CULTUREWATCH ===
Some of the summer culture delights....
=  Aug 10 to the Britannia Mine to hear the Men of the Deeps, here in BC for the 150th anniversary.  There were even three founders from 1966 there.  Varied songs, stirring, uplifting -- they've been to China, Kosovo, etc, and will be in Las Vegas in September.  They were in China in the 70s and were told they cd not sing hymns or about booze or love.  They wondered what else there was!  Anyway they got to sing over 20 of the 30+ songs and said the Chinese ppl were wonderful, connecting with the workers (hm wasn't Communism the workers' paradise???).
=  Transfixed at the rare opportunity to listen to ancient Chinese music "nanguan" (pipa) Aug 12 at the Playhouse.
=  Then Thurs Aug 14th to the joint Festival Vancouver and Early Music Vancouver concert at the Chan -- another lucky chance to hear French Baroque -- Rameau's Pygmalion.

===  CALENDAR to Sept 15th  === [at Hall unless otherwise noted; pls confirm to make sure no changes]
Farmers' Markets: Dundarave Saturdays, Ambleside Sundays
== Thurs Sept 4 ~ 4:30pm ~ Design Review Cmte CANCELLED
*** COHO FESTIVAL SUNDAY SEPT 7th in Ambleside Park from 9am - 6pm! ***  
The festival honours Coho Salmon returning to the rivers and streams of the North Shore. 14 K run, live music, lots of kids' activities, and a salmon BBQ. Coho Walk in the Capilano River Regional Park from 10am-2pm. Info: 926-6956, www.cohosociety.com.
== Mon Sept 8 ~ noon ~ HWG
== Tues Sept 9 ~ 1pm ~ CEC in Ccl Ofc Mtg Room
== Wed Sept 10
~ Info on Cmnty Heritage Register in Ccl Chamber: First Session 3:30 - 4:30; Second 6:30 to 8pm
~ 7pm ~ Cmnty Sport WG
== Thurs Sept 11 ~ 5pm ~ Finance Cmte
==  Friday Sept 12  Nature At Night in Lighthouse Park
The Lighthouse Park Preservation Society is sponsoring a free family event.  From 7:30pm to 9pm, join Robyn Worcester, Wildlife Ecologist, from the Stanley Park Ecology Centre.  Robyn will take you on a night time walk and share her knowledge of the special adaptations of nocturnal animals.  Program begins in the Sk'iwitsut Hut at the foot of Beacon Trail.  Please bring a flashlight and dress for the weather.  To register for this popular program, call Elaine at 604 925 1071.
== Sat Sept 13 ~ 9am to noon ~ Ivy Pull at Lighthouse Park
==  Sun Sept 14   North Shore Natural Gardens Tour
This self-guided journey showcases five intriguing landscapes which are maintained using natural gardening techniques including: educational points of interest, hands-on demonstration, free resource materials, master gardeners, garden owners, and various experts.  Info: 984 9730, www.naturalgardenstour.com -- Gardens in West and North Vancouver

+++  WV MEMORIAL LIBRARY +++ 
*  Thurs Sept 4 ~ 6pm ~ The film "Like Water for Chocolate", based on the novel by Laura Esquivel.  Just stay for the movie or join us in a discussion of the movie, the book or both.
*  Let's Speak English!  Join the group, make new friends and practise your English conversation skills at the Library every Friday in September from 10:30am -12noon.  No registration required.  For more information call 604 925-7402.

+++  FERRY BUILDING GALLERY  +++  Sept 2 - 14
* The Language of the Landscape
        mixed media: Lucy Collings, Christine Collison, Joan Fraser, Brian Mitchell
        Opening Reception:  6 - 8pm Tues Sept. 2;  Artists' Talk: 2pm Sat Sept 6
* NB: entry adjudication for Christmas Great Stuff sale on Saturday Sept 14; call 925 7290 for info.

+++ SILK PURSE +++  (1570 Argyle) www.silkpurse.ca
September 9 - 21, 2008  --  "Integral Vision"
This mixed media exhibit features acrylic, mixed media and mirrors to create a magical wall of visual perception. Join artists Marina Ganen, Francine Renaud, and Forooz Shamloo as they guide us through an artist's complex, comprehensive and multidimensional view of art.
                Opening: TUESDAY September 9th from 6 - 8pm

+++  WV MUSEUM +++  Visit: http://www.westvanmuseum.blogspot.com/
Selwyn Pullan -- Position the New -- Photographs from 1945 -1975 [CLOSES Sept 20]
This retrospective demonstrates the photographer's intimate connection to the development of modernism on the West Coast of Canada and highlights the social, economic, and cultural forces that changed the face of Vancouver and the region during the post-war boom.

+++ KAY MEEK CENTRE +++
To see the electronic newsletter, the address is http://kaymeekcentre.weebly.com.  Getting onto the mail list: the simplest method is to call the box office (604 913 3634) or email tickets@kaymeekcentre.com.

===  WEBWATCH: University Gym and Trees  ===
Photos:  http://en.beijing2008.cn/photo/
See http://en.beijing2008.cn/cptvenues/venues/pkg/headlines/n214215095.shtml
Peking University Gymnasium 'yields' to 100 year old ancient tree
http://en.beijing2008.cn/cptvenues/venues/pkg/headlines/n214215095.shtml
Peking University Gymnasium 'yields' to 100 year old ancient tree
(BEIJING, Dec. 9) -- The Peking University Gymnasium, PKG, located on the east side of the university's campus, was shifted east in order to preserve Zhibeizi Yuan and 6 ancient trees. Now, a modern building juxtaposed with a traditional garden provides a comfortable outdoor environment for visitors to enjoy the peaceful and elegantly styled campus.
During the initial stage of the gymnasium's construction, there was a preserved courtyard building located to the west of the construction site -- Zhibeizi Yuan, a royal garden built during the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty. On the southern side of the garden, six ancient trees grew their roots. To preserve this heritage, the PKG has shifted its location east, in order to avoid the garden and the trees. The underground pipelines have also moved with the venue. As a result, a unique "ancient-modern" landscape was formed. The north and south sides of the PKG are designed as the main evacuation channels.

===  DWV SALARIES 2007  === [add ~3% for 2008?] {retyped, check against original}
First, Council: (Taxable benefits include medical and life insurance)
NamePositionRemunerationTaxable BenefitsExpenses
Goldsmith-Jones, PamelaMayor$ 62,582.40$ 1,643.76$ 6,158.03
plus her car allowance
$ 3,916.00
Clark, JohnCouncillor22,989.58763.9223.59
Day, RodneyCouncillor22,989.581,152.00410.00
Ferguson, JeanCouncillor22,989.58115.92662.47
Smith, MichaelCouncillor22,989.581,411.92--
Soprovich, WilliamCouncillor22,989.581,152.00517.00
Vaughan, VivianCouncillor22,989.58115.921,162.00

TOTALS: $ 200,519.88 + $ 3,916.00 + $ 6,355.44 + $ 8,933.09 = $ 219,624.41

Then DWV staff:
 Pls note that remuneration may mean more than the salary (overtime, for example); the ~30% benefits may or may not be included or a portion may be. (Wish they'd make it simple.) In any case this is a good basis, guideline. The Police Dept cannot be listed and I have not included all Hall staff (and I have omitted names just indicating positions -- but the list provided is in alphabetical order wch is why this will look random). Go to http://www.westvancouver.ca/uploadedFiles/Your_Government/Agendas_and_Minutes/2008/April/08apr14-7.pdf to see the whole report.
PositionRemunerationExpenses
Director of Engineering & Transportation$ 141,884.78$ 2,288.02
Business Manager, Engineering & Transportation104,622.361,608.00
Director of Administrative Services137,467.503,199.59
Manager, Community Planning116,810.732,291.61
Superintendent of Maintenance, Transit104,181.30838.19
Deputy Director, Parks & Community Services119,984.342,426.37
Facilities Maintenance Manager89,603.492,034.79
Equipment Superintendent91,983.981,346.03
Transit Manager112,368.84--
Assistant Manager, Operations Support78,779.493,650.05
Supervisor, Utilities (Water)79,874.74860.00
Manager, Roads & Transportation115,475.685,489.97
Health, Safety, & Human Resources Adviser86,713.662,998.58
Records/Information & Privacy Officer76,782.693,682.10
Recreation Services Manager89,998.72504.51
Manager, Utilities115,763.885,047.85
Assistant Fire Chief, Operations102,030.63174.91
Director of Library Services129,604.933,614.45
Risk Management Adviser78,150.432,951.18
Manager, Purchase & Risk Management106,220.962,733.25
Manager, Information Technology99,347.826,068.16
Library Operations Manager75,422.732,041.84
Manager of Bylaw Services & [Licensing] Services91,289.364,012.15
Deputy Director, Human Resources & Payroll98,137.962.83
Utilities Superintendent, Sewer90,412.044,182.43
Manager, Environment & Sustainability96,854.45392.57
Community Recreation Supervisor75,608.462,769.10
Assistant Fire Chief, Training107,627.851,321.54
Recreation Services Manager86,557.441,769.20
Director of Finance150,482.776,783.02
Manager, Park Services103,035.971,520.32
Utilities Superintendent, Water97,681.984,113.49
Communications Manager83,148.723,366.96
Human Resources Adviser76,717.79188.62
Project Engineer85,090.613,743.83
Supervisor, Inspections78,591.911,401.61
Cultural Services Coordinator83,126.151,333.43
Deputy Chief119,326.851,262.35
Senior Community Planner, Development87,437.581,053.06
Park Operations Manager, Horticulture88,552.131,465.46
Social Services Manager91,901.621,791.50
Transit Operations Supervisor76,093.28--
Assistant Manager, Building Construction & Contracts93,792.88735.00
Director of Human Resources & Payroll Services129,579.622,298.12
Director of Planning, Lands, & Permits145,676.74446.86
Fire Chief146,195.592,391.30
Manager, Permits & Inspections113,568.751,087.58
Senior Community Planner, Urban Design79,289.242,103.17
Director of Parks & Community Services145,484.851,566.35
Bus Operator80,083.49--
Supervisor, Utilities (Sewer)87,080.78156.00
Superintendent of Operations, Transit88,463.40503.08
Manager of Legislative Services/Municipal Clerk106,518.212,439.73
Chief Administrative Officer203,005.776,332.38
Land Development Engineer89,932.96419.00
Roads Superintendent96,437.01394.53
Assistant Fire Chief, Administration101,989.58--
Manager, Revenue & Collections99,363.981,040.71
Manager, Financial Reporting & Accounting99,954.535,758.57
Utility worker95,515.47628.75
TOTAL for Employees over $75,000
(excluding Police)		11,510,741.37 137,602.73
TOTAL for Employees under $75,000
(excluding Police) 		27,680,719.18 160,072.47
TOTAL for Police 8,256,789.16 58,495.28
TOTAL for All Employees 47,658,941.03 365,103.57
GRAND TOTAL OF REMUNERATION AND EXPENSES 48,243,669.01

The Finance Cmte has stated its goal is consistent and clear information.  Too much to hope for it for 2009?
Now a new website note, This info was on the DWV website at: http://www.westvancouver.ca/upload/documents/council_agendas/2008/april/apr14/7.pdf
but that has been removed so it seems all the URLs given in the past won't work.  The URL for this info now is: http://www.westvancouver.ca/uploadedFiles/Your_Government/Agendas_and_Minutes/2008/April/08apr14-7.pdf
===   THEATREWATCH   ===
TUTs is over but Bard continues till Sept 27.  The Tempest is sold out (you cd hope for a cancellation or no show! -- it is fantastic); the amusing Twelfth Night is 90% sold out; Titus Andronicus (more than gore) and the unusual King Lear selling too.  Go to www.bardonthebeach.org to check on ticket availability or phone 739 0559.  Peter Birnie's comments on all four are a good guide (VSun Aug 14 pD7 see: http://digital.vancouversun.com/epaper/viewer.aspx).
===   TEAWATCH   ===
When I saw the report on BBC Aug 20 on tea being grown in the UK, I googled.  Seems some had been grown in Yorkshire but this item was about tea in Cornwall.  First below is the clip I saw, and below that is an earlier story from the Washington Post.
FIRST:  Susannah Streeter of the BBC reports:  The UK is exporting its own tea, made in Cornwall, after years of importing crops for the British cuppa.
Here's a short clip: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7571542.stm
SECOND:  Just Their Cup of Tea: British Cultivate Their Own
After Importing for Centuries, Brew-Loving Nation Grows Its First Commercial Crop by Mary Jordan
Washington Post Foreign Service  Sunday, October 23, 2005; Page A16
TRURO, England -- Beyond the four-mile-long driveway, and the shaded path named "Lady's Walk" and the soft fields of purple rhododendron and grazing Holstein cows, Jonathan Jones walked among waist-high rows of rich green plants. With loving precision, he plucked off two perfect green leaves and a bud and held them proudly in his hand.
"English tea should be grown on English soil," he said, running his fingers over what he called a victory for horticulture and also for British culture: the first commercial crop of tea ever grown in this tea-mad nation.
Since the days of the British Empire, traders have been bringing tea home from India, China, and other faraway lands where climate and labor costs allowed cultivation to thrive. The average person here still drinks at least two cups a day. But now, on a 670-year-old estate in southwest England, Jones and an aristocrat who counts Earl Grey as an ancestor are opening a new era in British tea production.  The rest: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/22/AR2005102201200_2.html
===   NEWSWATCH   ===
***  Zimbabwe's inflation Aug 20 was at 11 million per cent with unemployment at 80%.
***  VSun Aug 21 pA15; column by Craig McInnes
... Status was important to first nations, with society stratified into aristocrats, commoners, and people who until recently would have been slaves.  In an interview, as part of the BC 150 series in The Vancouver Sun, Wilson tells how his grandfather, who died when he was six, owned slaves as befit his status.
===   BOOKWATCH   ===
***  More on Palestinian Walks
Interview with Raja Shehadeh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDMPt0Bn-T0&feature=related
***  THE HEBREW REPUBLIC
How Secular Democracy and Global Enterprise Will Bring Israel Peace at Last.
by Bernard Avishai
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/books/review/LeBor-t.html?8bu&emc=bua2
[Review of above book:]  Israel's Identity Crisis  by ADAM LeBOR; published: June 29, 2008
What would Theodor Herzl, the father of modern political Zionism, make of today's Israel? He would find not one Jewish state but a multiplicity, Bernard Avishai suggests. First, Israel the international actor, a member of the United Nations, signatory to peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan. Then the Zionist state-within-a-state. It predates Israel's independence in 1948, but lives on in the Jewish Agency, which deals with Jewish immigration, and in the Jewish National
Fund, which owns substantial amounts of land in the name of the Jewish people.
Avishai also mentions the Haredi communities, an Orthodox quasi state with its publicly financed education system and network of yeshivot adult religious seminaries. Finally, there is the settler state of hardliners who appropriate Palestinian land across the 1967 border and build, with government funds and support, their separate networks of roads, water and electricity supplies.
Can Israel be both a Jewish state and a democracy? At first glance the answer is yes. Governments are chosen by universal franchise, including perhaps one and a quarter million Israeli Arabs, who have their own non- or anti-Zionist political parties. Israel has an independent judiciary, an aggressive free press and a robust civil society. But non-Jews do not enjoy equal civil rights, mainly because of the Zionist, Haredi and settler states-within-a-state. As Avishai writes, "the institutions designed to advance the heroic Zionist state have become unworkable for the democratic one."
It is almost impossible for non-Jews to buy land owned by the state or the Jewish National Fund. There is no secular marriage in Israel. Orthodox rabbis control the process of conversion, deciding who is a Jew and thus, often, who is a citizen. Mixed couples cannot be buried together in a state-funded Jewish cemetery. Even more absurd, Israel is probably the only country in the world that does not recognize its own nationality. Israelis cannot be inscribed as Israelis in the state population register, but must be recorded according to their religious or ethnic origin. Every request by Israelis - Jewish and Arab - to be listed simply as Israeli has so far been rejected. The government argues that this would undermine the principle of Israel as a Jewish state.
Meanwhile, "unrecognized" Arab villages languish for decades without municipal services, while governments of both left and right have spent $15 billion on settlements beyond the 1967 border. Here are the makings of a social explosion waiting to happen, Avishai says. Exclusion breeds an equal reaction. Arab citizens of Israel are using its freedoms, not to become more Israeli, but to articulate a growing Arab national consciousness. Recently, the Adalah advocacy center proposed a new draft constitution for Israel. It would abolish the law of return, which awards immediate citizenship to Jewish immigrants; it would require coequal and separate education systems and new, inclusive, national symbols.
The answer, Avishai says, in this brilliantly argued book, is not to tinker with symbols but to develop a national consciousness and identity based not on religion, but simply on being Israeli - to remove all privileges accorded to Jews and make Israel a modern, egalitarian democracy. If all Israeli citizens were simply Israelis, rather than Jews, Muslims or Christians, there would be no "demographic threat" to the state's continuation. At the same time, this new Israel would demand a civic loyalty from its Arab population, who, if they did not serve in the army, would at least perform some kind of national service. This new identity would be predicated not on religion, but on a shared Hebrew language; culture, economic and business ties; and simply living on the same strip of land.
To some extent this is already happening. Sayed Kashua is a talented Israeli-Arab journalist and novelist who writes in Hebrew. On the one hand, Kashua says, Hebrew is "the language of the enemy, the conqueror." But at the same time, "there are things I can write about in Hebrew that I cannot write about in Arabic. ... I need Hebrew to write about freedom."
In his enthusiasm for an Israeliness that is not predicated on being Jewish, Avishai perhaps underestimates the importance of ethnic identities, especially in an active war zone. When a Qassam rocket kills civilians in Sderot, Gazans applaud and hand out sweets celebrating the deaths of Jews. Even in the European Union, with its open borders and free trade, simmering disputes still sour relations between, for example, Germany and Poland, or Hungary and Slovakia. But Avishai, a former professor of business and public policy at Duke University, firmly believes in the potential role of business as a catalyst for peace.
In the endless discussions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, trade is rarely mentioned. Avishai argues that a new elite of globalized businessmen and -women is helping to remake the Israeli economy. He notes, correctly, that "Israeli elites cannot hope to have an economy like Singapore's and a nationalities war like Serbia's." After a peace settlement, he hopes, Israel's knowledge economy and high-tech start-ups would flourish across the Middle East, with Palestinian entrepreneurs as go-betweens. It's an engaging, optimistic vision. Perhaps too optimistic - but a century ago Herzl was also dismissed as a fantasist. In this wise, humane and important book, Avishai is taking on the role of a Herzl for the modern age.
Adam LeBor is the author of "City of Oranges: An Intimate History of Arabs and Jews in Jaffa."

===  SUMMARY of Ccl Capers July 28  === 
[was sent out a few hours after the end of the mtg -- goes to subscribers only, and then the transcript was in WVM2008-24; here are some highlights]
= RODGERS CRK DEVT PH -- slam-dunk! -- wd guess decided during Ccl's closed mtg that started at 4:30pm (don't you love openness?).  PH closed and three readings passed later during the reg mtg with the amendment Mulgrave asked for...  Everyone pretty well agreed that the diversity and variety of housing was good as were green, trails, paths -- and that's why it irked me that eyes were off the prize.  Best analysis of Uplift and Cmnty Benefits was from G Pajari (speaker 11); interesting about disappearing creeks from V Abramson (14); among my remarks (19) was urging that there be a policy of one tenth of the CB amt go into each of three funds: environment, arts and culture, and heritage.  It mystifies me that they cd have so many different calculations about Uplift and not necessarily obtain the goal of 2/3 or 3/4 the usual share (elsewhere, of course) of increased land value for the cmnty, esp when DWV needs funds and is even borrowing for the new cmnty ctr!  and not defer at least that part to verify so understanding. Watch for higher taxes than cd hv bn -- and the fifth firehall has to be taken into consideration.
= Before the start of ccl mtg, Mayor recognized Rick Beauchamp (Dir/Admin Services) and Jeff Oates (Fire Chief) as this was their last ccl mtg (leaving before Ccl resumes in Sept).
= Third readings for Amb Town Ctr and 445 - 13th: passed but looked as if Sop and VV opposed to both.
= Rodgers Crk: third reading opposed by VV.  CBs are part of the Phased Devt Agreement (PDA) -- and with amendment was provided ON TABLE at this mtg!  Who cd hv read it to give it the review and consideration millions of dollars deserves?  Keep in mind even initially, before this, that the CB package (and fiscal and traffic studies) came after the WG had stopped meeting so all those protestations of support for the Rodgers Crk devt were for the layout and design (without any review of the financial implications or cmnty's share).  That was pretty well a given, the praise no surprise.  How many of you, Dear Readers, know what the difference between the value of the permitted zoning (probably about 309 units, a figure mentioned) and the value with the new zoning (736 units) is?  That's Uplift.  Then we shd talk about what cmnty gets in return.  The reports given had different figures and ways of calculating.  Not only that, there was a report with an amendment that arrived on table at July 28th mtg, so how many of the public got to see what was recommended for the cmnty's share of this increased density/upzoning?  Quite apart from the confusing reports, what happened to the principle of widespread public input to decide wch/what cmnty benefits/amenities residents prefer in return as partial compensation for giving increased land value and the use of facilities they've already paid for and provided?
Tidbit of info: staff told WG current zoning allowed 375, as a result of queries BPP was asked and they dutifully gave their correct figure, 308.   Funny so many were oblivious or missed this in their evaluation and comparisons.....
Can't decide wch makes me more upset.  Powers that be treating the public as apathetic and uninformed (if not stupid), or their being proved right so they can take advantage.
THE GOOD NEWS: all agree that Rodgers Crk is much more environmentally sensitive than previous BPP devts -- one can be content that this devt came about as a result of unprecedented cooperation and input with the owners (BPP was major but others were involved), staff, public, and Ccl.
{Uplift/CBs excepted -- but there the success is that it's even part of the equation now!  Thanks to God for small mercies. And this Ccl.  It is a watershed and significant step forward that now at least we are discussing Uplift and CBs when previously it was mostly dismissed or called 'hypothetical'.}
= ChildCare at 9:38 -- excellent report, staff to work on bylaws.
= Wetmore site at 9:50 with arguments about to sell or not to sell, but in the end established that calling for proposals still leaves Ccl with choices (I comment at PQP).
= Finance Cmte Updates and Recommendations at 10:10 (good, and my compliments in PQP)...
= At PQP I clarify a bit of my comments on Rodgers and Wetmore b/c of some ccl comments that sounded as if misunderstood or misinterpreted, compliment Finance Cmte, and then invite everyone to RoyalTea-by-the-Sea on Saturday.

==  SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING NOTES --  WEDNESDAY, JULY 30  9am
1. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
BYLAW ADOPTED
2.         Fees and Charges Bylaw No. 4414, 2005, Amendment Bylaw No. 4564, 2008
        This bylaw received third reading at the July 28, 2008 Special Meeting of Council.
3.  PUBLIC QUESTIONS/COMMENTS (none)  4.  ADJOURNMENT {The mtg lasted under 15 minutes!}

===  COUNCIL AGENDA Sept 8  ===
1. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
2. ADOPTION OF MINUTES of July 21, 28, and 30
DELEGATION
3. K. Romses, Vancouver Coastal Health, regarding Active North Shore Network
PRESENTATION
4. J. Carline, Chief Administrative Officer, and J. Rusnak, Manager of Finance, Metro Vancouver, regarding Financial Challenges Facing the Region
REPORTS
5. Greater Vancouver Regional Emergency Planning Service Establishing Bylaw No. 1079, 2008(File: 2720-02-01)
RECOMMENDED: THAT it be recommended to Metro Vancouver that consideration of the Memorandum of Understanding and this bylaw be deferred pending a further report on possible alternative funding mechanisms.
6. Canadian Red Cross Society Auxiliary Role Project (File: 0055-20-CRCR1)
RECOMMENDED: THAT Council expresses [sic] its support for the Canadian Red Cross Auxiliary Role Project and in particular the renewal of the framework for cooperation between public authorities and the Canadian Red Cross to better address the humanitarian challenges of the 21st century by:
a) working to reinforce the status and roles of the Canadian Red Cross as auxiliary to public arteries in the humanitarian field; and
b) reviewing existing measures, arrangements and instruments supporting the relationship.
7. Community Centre Quarterly Update -Volume VIII -Sept 2, 2008 (File: 3002-04)
RECOMMENDED: THAT the report dated September 2, 2008 from the Deputy Director, Parks & Community Services titled Quarterly Report - Community Centre Construction Volume VIII be received for information.
CONSENT AGENDAITEMS
8. Consent Agenda Items -Reports and Correspondence
REPORTS FOR CONSENT AGENDA
9. Trade Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) (File:  0175-01/0055-UBCM1)
RECOMMENDED: THAT the letter from D. Lidstone of Lidstone, Young, Anderson regarding "Accord Reached on the Trade Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA)" dated July 28, 2008 be received for information.
10. Development Applications Status List (File: 1010-01) received for information.
CORRESPONDENCE LIST FOR CONSENT AGENDA
11. Correspondence List (File:  0120-24)
>>> Correspondence received up to July 25, 2008
Requests for Delegation -- No items presented.
Action Required
(1) July 24, 2008, regarding Maintenance of Playground at Corner of Ashfeild Road and Sprucefeild Road
        Referred to Director of Parks and Community Services for consideration and response.
No Action Required (receipt only)
(2) July 24, 2008, regarding Stop Signs at Duchess Avenue and 14th Street
(3) July 25, 2008, regarding Housing in West Vancouver
(4) R. Strong, Capilano Community Services Society, July 24, 2008, regarding Thanks for Financial Support
(5) July 20, 2008, regarding Spirit Trail and Bicycle Paths
(6) July 20, 2008, regarding Spirit Trail
(7) July 19, 2008, regarding Artificial Turf and Hugo Ray Park
(8) July 18, 2008, regarding Bicycle Trails in West Vancouver
Responses to Correspondence -- No items presented.
Responses to Questions in Question Period -- No items presented.
>>> Correspondence received up to August 1, 2008
Requests for Delegation -- No items presented.
Action Required
(9) A. Rees, Habitat for Humanity Greater Vancouver, July 28, 2008, regarding Affordable Housing Partnership
        Referred to Director of Planning, Lands and Permits for consideration and response.
No Action Required (receipt only)
(10) Committee and Board Meeting Minutes
        (a) West Vancouver Memorial Library Board -June 18, 2008
(11) B. Liddle, North Shore Volunteers for Seniors, July 24, 2008, regarding Social Services and Community Services Grant 2008
(12) July 31, 2008, regarding Investigation of Parcels
(13) August 4, 2008, regarding Child Injured at Craft Booth during Harmony Arts Festival
(14) May 27, 2008, regarding Turf Field at Hugo Ray Park
Responses to Correspondence -- No items presented.
Responses to Questions in Question Period -- No items presented.
>>>  Correspondence received up to August 8, 2008
Requests for Delegation -- No items presented.
Action Required -- No items presented.
No Action Required (receipt only)
        (15) Committee and Board Meeting Minutes
                (a) Design Review Committee -June 12, 2008
(16) July 30, 2008, regarding Spirit Trail
(17) T. Bowen, Metro Vancouver, July 31, 2008, regarding Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Fraser Port Authority Engagement Framework
Responses to Correspondence -- No items presented.
Responses to Questions in Question Period -- No items presented.
>>>  Correspondence received up to August 18, 2008
Requests for Delegation -- No items presented.
Action Required
(18) M. Candido, TransLink Ride-Share Week Consultant, August 12, 2008, regarding Ride-Share Week 2008 Proclamation Request
        Referred to Municipal Clerk for response.
No Action Required (receipt only)
(19) August 12, 2008, regarding Horseshoe Bay Firehall Site
(20) August 14, 2008, regarding Neighbourhood Character
(21) August 12, 2008, regarding Proposed Park Exchange (Martin Corporation - Caulfeild Plateau)
(22) August 8, 2008, regarding Appreciation for a Job Well Done (Hollyburn Creek Bridge)
(23) S. Clark, Union of BC Municipalities, August 5, 2008, regarding 2005 Emergency Planning Grant Completion
(24) M. Delinelle, Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Aug 18, regarding Call for Applications - Water Projects
(25) S. E. Dowey, City of North Vancouver, regarding Spirit Trail -Concept and Implementation
        Attachments available for viewing in Legislative Services Department.
Responses to Correspondence
(26) B. A. Dozzi, Manager, Roads and Transportation, Aug 12, regarding Request for Four-Way Stop Signs
Responses to Questions in Question Period -- No items presented.
>>>  Correspondence received up to August 25, 2008
Requests for Delegation -- No items presented.
Action Required
(27) August 21, 2008, regarding Sidewalk Conditions on 15th Street between Duchess Avenue and Clyde Avenue
        Referred to Director of Engineering and Transportation for consideration and response.
(28) 7 residents, August 11, 2008, regarding Traffic Concerns at 2400 Block on Lower Bellevue
        Referred to Director of Engineering and Transportation for consideration and response.
(29) July 31, 2008, regarding Hugo Ray Park and Artificial Turf
        Referred to Director of Parks and Community Services for consideration and response.
No Action Required (receipt only)
(30) July 16, 2008, regarding The Ambleside Town Centre Strategy -1800 Block of West Vancouver
(31) August 19, 2008, regarding Bicycle Lanes in West Vancouver
(32) L. E. Jackson, Metro Vancouver Board, July 17, 2008, regarding the Use and Disposal of Plastic Grocery Bags
(33) D. Lang, Aug 1, regarding Lang Motors Request to Make a Presentation to the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM)
        Attachments available for viewing in Legislative Services Department.
(34) D. Lang, August 8, 2008, regarding Low-Speed Electric Vehicles
Responses to Correspondence -- No items presented.
Responses to Questions in Question Period -- No items presented.
>>>  Correspondence received up to August 29, 2008
Requests for Delegation -- No items presented.
Action Required
(35) C. Dragan, Quigg Property Devt Group, August 29, regarding Concerns around the Upper Whitby Estates Area
        Referred to Director of Parks and Community Services for consideration and response.
(36) August 26, 2008, regarding Marine Drive Gateway -Bicycle Lane Missing
        Referred to Director of Engineering and Transportation for consideration and response.
(37) August 26, 2008, regarding Dog Bylaws
        Referred to Director of Parks and Community Services for consideration and response.
No Action Required (receipt only)
(38) C. Reynolds, West Van Matters, August 26, 2008, regarding Impermeable/Impervious Surfaces
        {no action?  I'll ask if there will or can be!}
(39) C. Gauthier, Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Assn, Aug 27, regarding Invitation to Membership Luncheon
(40) Hollyburn Heritage Society, August 29, 2008, regarding Invitation to 16th Annual Pioneer Skiers' Reunion
(41) D. Back, District of North Vancouver, August 26, 2008, regarding Anti-Graffiti Symposium - Grant Request
(42) District of North Vancouver, August 29, 2008, Notice regarding Spirit Trail Workshop
(43) D. Desjardin, Burrard Inlet Environmental Action Program, August 15, 2008, regarding Shoreline Development Guidelines
(44) G. Barlee, Western Canada Wilderness Committee, August 22, 2008, regarding Endangered Species Legislation
        Attachments Available For Viewing in Legislative Services Department.
(45) 102 Signatures, August 29, 2008, regarding Boat Launching Ramp at the Foot of 14th Street
(46) Honourable J. Karygiannis, Member of Parliament, August 2008, regarding Bill C-568 -An Act to amend the Motor Vehicle Safety Act (speed limiters)
(47) S. Clark, Local Govt Program Services, August 19, regarding 2006 Emergency Planning Grant Completion
(48) S. Clark, Local Govt Program Services, August 19, 2008, regarding 2008 Emergency Planning Grant Application
Responses to Correspondence -- No items presented.
Responses to Questions in Question Period -- No items presented.
12.  REPORTS from MAYOR/COUNCILLORS 13.  PUBLIC QUESTIONS/COMMENTS  14. ADJOURNMENT

=======  NEWSLETTER TOPICS/TITLES West Van Matters 2008: 1 - 24  =======

2008-1
   2008 Jan 7th Ccl Mtg AGENDA; Calendar to Jan 16th
   Newsletter Topics List WVM2007:1-41 * Updates and Heritage Matters
2008-2
   2008 Jan 7th Ccl Mtg NOTES; Jan 14th AGENDA; Calendar to January 25th
   Chamber Cleared Mid-Debate * Shd taxpayers donate $36,400+ to skiing event?
2008-3
   2008 Jan 14th NOTES; Jan 21st AGENDA; CALENDAR to Jan 31st +
   NO Letters and NO List! * CSB/NV * Unfair Utility Rates * Budget
2008-4
   2008 Jan 21st Ccl Mtg NOTES; Feb 4th AGENDA; Calendar to Feb 13th
   Dog Strategies * Envtal Awards * Resurrection of F&A and Correspondence?
2008-5
   2008 Feb 4th Ccl NOTES; AGENDA Feb 11th; Calendar to Feb 22nd
   Budget 2008 * To Receive or not to receive * Behind-closed-doors decisions!
2008-6R
   2008 Feb 11th BUDGET Input NOTES; AGENDA Feb 18th; Cal to Feb 29th
   BUDGET 2008 * ADRA AGM Newsletter * HERITAGE AWARDS/WEEK
2008-7
   2008 Feb 18th Ccl Mtg NOTES; Mar 3rd AGENDA; Calendar to Mar 13th
   HERITAGE Awards * Ccl Pay * Gleneagles Golf/Great Hall * Cmnty Ctr
2008-8
   2008 Feb 3rd Ccl NOTES * Mar 10th AGENDA * Calendar to Mar 20th
   Fire & Rescue * Wetmore? * Five-Yr Capital Budget * H Quiz Answers
2008-9
   2008 Mar 10th Ccl Mtg NOTES; Mar 17th AGENDA; Calendar to Apr 7th
   OPERATING BUDGET 2008 * Information Technology Dept INFObit
2008-10
   2008 Mar 17th Ccl Mtg NOTES; Calendar to April 16th
   BUDGET 2008 * Wetlands * Heritage * Rodgers Crk * Lake Water
2008-11
   2008 Mar 17th Ccl Tidbits; Ccl AGENDA Apr 7th; Calendar to Apr 19th
   Marine Dr Gateway * ADRA Newsletter * Rodgers Crk * Streamkeepers 2008
2008-12
   2008 Apr 7th Ccl NOTES; Apr 14th AGENDA; Calendar to Apr 27th
   BUDGET 2008 DEBATE * Rodgers Crk Devt Plans * Ev Dr Devt Permits

2008-13
   2008 Apr 14th Ccl Mtg NOTES; Apr 21st PH/Mtg AGENDAs; Calendar to April 30th
   Rodgers Crk Devt * Fire WG * 2007 Salaries * CBs/Tendering * 2008 BUDGET
2008-14
   2008 Apr 21st/May 1st Ccl NOTES; May 5th AGENDA; Calendar to May 15th
   Uplift/Windfall * Pat's Restaurant site at 13th PH * TransLink --> SCBCTA
2008-15
   2008 May 5th Ccl NOTES; Ccl AGENDA MAY 12th; Calendar to May 29th
   RODGERS CRK DEVT * Dog Walking Regs * Housing Dialogue
2008-16R
   2008 May 12th Ccl NOTES; May 26th AGENDA; Calendar to June 8th
   HERITAGE REGISTER * Youth Awards * Rodgers Crk Devt UPLIFT CALCULATIONS
2008-17
   2008 May 26th/28th Ccl NOTES; Agenda June 2nd; Calendar to June 18th
   MORE on UPLIFT * Finance Cmte * Wentworth/Collingwood Parking Lot
2008-18
   2008 June 2nd Ccl Mtg NOTES; June 9th AGENDA; Calendar to June 22nd
   Hugo Ray Park Merry-Go-Round * Heritage Register * Cmnty Engagement
2008-19
   2008 June 9th Ccl Mtg NOTES; June 16th AGENDAs; Calendar to June 30th [+ July]
   Staff Power? * HUGO RAY PARK PLANS * Heritage Register
2008-20
   2008 June 16th Ccl Mtg Notes; July 7th AGENDA; Calendar to July 16th
   Cmnty Ctr Report * Firehall Site Rezoning * Staff or Ccl Approach?
2008-21
   2008 July 7th MTG NOTES; July 14th AGENDA; Calendar to July 25th
   PHs: Bylaws for Ambleside & Rodgers Creek * Social Action Plan * CEC Status
2008-22
   2008 July 14th Ccl NOTES; July 21st AGENDA; Calendar to July 31st
   Housing Status Report * Cmnty Ctr Society * Climate Action Charter
2008-23
   2008 July 21st Ccl NOTES; July 28th AGENDAS; Calendar to Aug 5th+
   Ambleside Town Ctr PH/Bylaws * Park Exchange Caulfeild * Cmnty Ctr Loan
2008-24
   2008 July 28 Ccl Mtg NOTES; Calendar to Aug 31 +
   RODGERS Crk Bylaws/PH * Wetmore Options * ChildCare * New Budget Process

===  Poet Mahmoud Darwish
*  Obituary  Aug 21st 2008  From The Economist print edition
Mahmoud Darwish, the voice of Palestine, died on August 9th, aged 67
POETRY exercises a special power for Arabs. To a people of desert origins, it takes the partial place of icons and cathedrals, stage drama and political oratory. Yet the Arab canon extends far wider, linking the tribal bards of pre-Islamic Arabia to Sufi mystics, bawdy medieval jesters, and angst-ridden modernists. Poetry also carries a special meaning for exiles, who must sustain themselves with what they can carry, their lightest but most precious burdens being memory and language.
Exile was certainly personal to Mahmoud Darwish. His first forced flight came in 1948, when he was seven. Fearing the advance of Israeli forces, his family abandoned their ancestral wheatfields in Western Galilee and walked, destitute, to the apple orchards of Lebanon. Sneaking back across the border later, they found their village razed to make way for Jewish settlement. His father became a labourer; his family, having missed a census, were classed as "present-absent aliens".
But exile was also an experience that Mr Darwish shared with his entire people, the Palestinians. Sixty years after the creation of Israel, more than half of them remain in physical exile from their homeland, while the rest, partitioned into enclaves under various forms of Israeli control, remain exiled from each other and from the wider Arab world. Mr Darwish was their voice and their consciousness.
It was a role that often bothered him. Rightly, he felt it belittled his devotion to the poetic craft and made him over-solemn. He sometimes berated his huge audiences when they clamoured for nationalist odes rather than the subtler, metaphysical verse of his later years. He fretted that some would recall only lines such as "Go! You will not be buried among us," and forget those praising a Jewish lover or commiserating with an enemy soldier.
Yet it was inescapable that he should be lauded as Palestine's poet laureate, and not merely because his words were made into popular songs and splashed as headlines to sell newspapers. His own life was entwined with the tragic Palestinian national narrative. When he was barely in his teens, the village schoolmaster tasked him with writing a speech to mark Israel's independence day. He wrote it as a letter to a Jewish boy, explaining that he could not be happy on this day until he was given the same things that the Jewish boy enjoyed. This earned him a summons before the Israeli military governor, who warned him that such behaviour could get his father's pass revoked, making him unable to work.
A few years later Mr Darwish took the bus to a poetry festival in Nazareth, the largest Arab town in Israel. He read one long poem, and was asked to recite more. All he had was a crumpled paper on which he had jotted some rough verse inspired by a visit to the Israeli police, to renew his travel pass. The poem included these lines:
Write down!
I am an Arab
You have stolen the orchards of my ancestors
And the land which I cultivated
Along with my children
And you left nothing for us
Except for these rocks=8A
The result was electric. The crowd demanded three encores, and Mr Darwish's fame was born. By the mid-1980s, his 20 volumes of verse had sold well over a million copies.
For all that time he had no country of his own. Though a citizen of Israel, he was too often jailed there for his activism, and eventually had his citizenship revoked. He tried living in Moscow, then Cairo, then Beirut, where Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organisation had been allowed to build a proto-state in exile. When Israel invaded in 1982, Mr Darwish sailed for Tunis and later lived in Paris. Not until 1996, after the Oslo peace agreement made it possible, did he return to Palestine.
But Palestine was a shambles. Arafat's dictatorial style repulsed him; the drift towards the second intifada of 2000, and the vicious schisms that followed, reduced him to despair. Much of his later verse avoided overtly political themes. After a heart attack in 1998, he wrote:
One day I shall become what I want.
One day I shall become a thought,
Which no sword will carry
To the wasteland, nor no book;
as if it were rain falling on a mountain
split by a burgeoning blade of grass, where neither has power won
nor fugitive justice.
One day I shall become a bird,
And wrest my being from my non-being.
The longer my wings will burn,
The closer I am to the truth,
Risen from the ashes.
Yet he could never fully escape the duty to help his people sustain their sense of destiny. In his last poem, Mr Darwish described Palestinians and Israelis as two men trapped in a hole:
He said: Will you bargain with me now?
I said: For what would you bargain
In this grave?
He said: Over my share and your share of this common grave
I said: Of what use is that?
Time has passed us by,
Our fate is an exception to the rule
Here lie a killer and the killed, asleep in one hole
And it remains for another poet to write the end of the script.
from: http://www.economist.com/obituary/displayStory.cfm?story_id=11959317&fsrc=nwlehfree
*  Inside the funeral of Mahmoud Darwish
13.08.08 - 14:30  Kristen Ess - I have a small handful of rose petals given to me from inside the funeral of Mahmoud Darwish. They were covering a table in white silk laid in front of his coffin as he was carried in by members of the Presidential Guard dressed in the palest brown of uniforms.
Rest at: http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3347&Itemid=34

===  COMPUTER CORNER  ===  who's on first?
You have to be old enough to remember Abbott and Costello to fully appreciate this. For those of us who sometimes get flustered by our computers, please read on...  If Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were alive today, their infamous sketch, 'Who's on First?' might have turned out something like this:
        COSTELLO CALLS TO BUY A COMPUTER FROM ABBOTT
ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?
COSTELLO: Thanks. I'm setting up an office in my den and I'm thinking about buying a computer.
ABBOTT: Mac?
COSTELLO: No, the name's Lou.
ABBOTT: Your computer?
COSTELLO: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one.
ABBOTT: Mac?
COSTELLO: I told you, my name's Lou.
ABBOTT: What about Windows?
COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here?
ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with Windows?
COSTELLO: I don't know. What will I see when I look at the windows?
ABBOTT: Wallpaper.
COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.
ABBOTT: Software for Windows?
0ACOSTELLO: No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write proposals, track expenses and run my business. What do you have?
ABBOTT: Office.
COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?
ABBOTT: I just did.
COSTELLO: You just did what?
ABBOTT: Recommend something.
COSTELLO: You recommended something?
ABBOTT: Yes.
COSTELLO: For my office?
ABBOTT: Yes.
COSTELLO: OK, what did you recommend for my office?
ABBOTT: Office.
COSTELLO: Yes, for my office!
ABBOTT: I recommend Office with Windows.
COSTELLO: I already have an office with windows! OK, let's just say I'm sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need?
ABBOTT: Word.
COSTELLO: What word?
ABBOTT: Word in Office.
COSTELLO: The only word in office is office.
ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.
COSTELLO: Which word in office for windows?
ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue 'W'.
COSTELLO: I'm going to click your blue 'w' if you don't start with some straight answers. What about financial bookkeeping? You have anything I can track my money with?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: That's right. What do you have?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: I need money to track my money?
ABBOTT: It comes bundled with your computer.
COSTELLO: What's bundled with my computer?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: Money comes with my computer?
ABBOTT: Yes. No extra charge.
COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer? How much?
ABBOTT: One copy.
COSTELLO: Isn't it illegal to copy money?
ABBOTT: Microsoft gave us a licence to copy Money.
COSTELLO: They can give you a licence to copy money?
ABBOTT: Why not? THEY OWN IT!
(A few days later)
ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?
COSTELLO: How do I turn my computer off?
ABBOTT: Click on 'START'.............

===  HAIKU/MAIKU/SENRYU  ===  2008 July 3/4

        getting older, come to terms
                        with what we are    not
                                          what we'd like to be
===  QUOTATIONS  ===
BOOKS and BACK TO SCHOOL:
o  Mark Van Doren, US poet (1894 - 1972): The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.
o  William Arthur Ward (1921 - 1974):  The mediocre teacher tells.  The good teacher explains.  The superior teacher inspires.
o  Virginia Woolf (1882 - 1941):  I ransack public libraries, and find them full of sunken treasure.
o  Franz Kafka (1883 - 1924): A book must be like an ice-axe to break the frozen sea within us.
o  Fidel Castro: Ideas are more powerful than nuclear weapons.
o  Ludwig von Feuerbach (1804 - 1872): Word makes men free. Whoever cannot express himself is a slave.
o  History is a vast early warning system.   -- Norman Cousins, editor and author (1915 - 1990)
o  History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.
                        -- Alexis de Tocqueville, French political thinker (1806 - 1859)
o  A society that gets rid of all its troublemakers goes downhill.
                        -- Robert A. Heinlein, science-fiction author (1907-1988)
o  You are responsible for what you have done and the people whom you have influenced.
                        -- Margaret Bourke-White, US photojournalist (1904 - 1971)