paper stories

Front page story in the Star yesterday, about a half-Japanese half-American CEO called Jonathan Schwartz, who resigned from his position as CEO of a vast Japanese computer company by tweeting a haiku. His poem:

Financial crisis

Stalled too many customers

CEO no more

I was going to say, as nicely as possible, Please don't quit your day job, Jonathan, but he already has. And he will receive 12 million dollars in severance. Should fund quite a few creative writing and poetry classes.

And in the Globe, my friend and student Liz Clarke had another of her wonderfully sharp letters to the Editor published. (Liz is making a career, not of haiku, but of Letters to the Editor, including a long one in Vanity Fair last year.) The letter she actually wrote, about Harper's demand that, following his three month extremely unpopular proroguing of Parliament, now the MPs must give up March Break with their families, is as follows:

To the Editor:

Twenty years ago I was forced to abandon a family vacation because my boss guilted me into it. From the moment my husband and daughters boarded the plane to this day, I have regretted the decision. I never had to be reminded again that family comes first. Now, just weeks after our Prime Minister comes down from the hill in Davos, where he declared women and children first, he's putting our parliamentarians in the same position I was in for no other reason than political gamesmanship. It's a pathetic strategy that reveals, yet again, his true nature. The man has no scruples. God forbid he should get a majority.

In the printed version, the Globe cut:

comes down from the hill in Davos,

It's a pathetic strategy

The man has no scruples. God forbid he should get a majority.

They published the nice version. It's good to know that our national newspaper is so solicitous of the Prime Minister's feelings. Thanks for telling it like it is, Liz. (That rhymes. I will turn it forthwith into a haiku.)

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Yesterday I rented an AutoShare car and drove across town, to the wilderness of the far west, on a mission of mercy - delivering the heavy Christmas presents she received in December to my daughter, who with her roommates has just moved to a new address. And very nice it is too; from her front window she has a distant view of Lake Ontario. It's so easy to forget, because the city has done such a good job of hiding it, that Toronto is built on a lake.

We bought a huge load of groceries, heavy things for both her and me, and then picked up her brother, who also lives in the far west, had lunch together, and then I drove home. It is a fine thing to be able to pick up a car when needed and then leave it behind. Like being a grandparent, I should think - lack of ultimate responsibility. Welcome contact, and then peace.