Julia on Global TV

Julia was on Global TV tonight on a segment with Susan Hay entitled "Making a Difference". ENJOY....

Leslie Roberts ends the segment by saying "Special people helping special kids". That's our Julia. Definitely special!

My Predictions: Prime Minister Layton? The Numbers Don’t Add Up.

While it is certainly exciting news from a Canadian Federal Election perspective that there really is something different going on this time. But, what does it mean that the NDP party are now essentially tied with the Liberals for voter support?

To try and find an answer, I reverted back to math, my safe haven. From a statistical point of view, I decided to use the results of 2008 as a starting point (sounds like a reasonable beginning).

So, starting with the most contentious ridings, those won by less than 5% of the electorate, here’s what we see. Winning by less than 5% occurred in 42 ridings across the country. Simon Fraser University has a website that lists all of these ridings and who finished first and second. I took that data and populated an excel spreadsheet. Then, I sliced and diced. I then assumed that any riding where the NDP finished second, I predicted that they would win. And, considering how the party that seems to be suffering the worst from this campaign is the Liberals, outside of Quebec, I next focused on that Party. There were 15 seats where the Liberals lost by less that 5% of the vote. I predicted that these would not change. Lastly, I looked at where the Conservatives finished second and predicted that if the winner was the Liberal, those riding would be won by the Conservatives this time.

Bottom line, The Bloc will lose 1 seat, the Liberals will lose 10, and the Conservatives will gain 5, and the NDP will gain 6.

I decided that maybe I needed to take a different approach. So, this time, I looked at every seat where the NDP finished second. The total was 66 seats. WOW, now that’s exciting. But, I began to scratch deeper. Of the 66 seats where they finished second, 49 of those seats were won by the Conservatives. However, of those 49 seats, the Conservatives won 34 of them by a margin of 20 percentage points. No matter how excited the electorate is with the NDP this time, I don’t think that they can overcome a 20 point margin without a Conservative scandal that actually sticks (as far as I can tell, nothing has stuck yet). But, I do believe that all of these straws that continued to get piled on the Conservative camels' back are making a difference in the swing ridings, even if we're not seeing them in the polls.

So, if the NDP wins 15 seats from the Conservatives, and all of the rest of their second place seats, that’s another 17 seats. That’s an NDP gain of 32 seats. Not enough to topple the Conservatives, but surpassing the Liberal seat count. Further, if we focus a bit more closely on Quebec, we see that there are potentially 4 new seats that the NDP can pick up, all at the expense of the Bloc. For the sake of fun, I am going to predict that the NDP captures all of them.

Now, that you know how I got at my results, here is my prediction based on the Conservatives' not getting stuck in a scandal (and none of the straws eventually breaking the camels back), and, the NDP continuing to ride high in the polls.

Stephen Harper Kenyan Birth Certificate

Amongst the many things that make me crazy is the unwillingness of politicians to strike down nonsense. Last month, Donald Trump added his name to the birther crowd .In an interview with ABC television, Trump said he found Obama’s background and childhood mysterious and strange.

" Everybody that even gives a hint of being a birther … even a little bit of a hint, like… maybe, just maybe this much of a chance, they label them as an idiot. Let me tell you, I'm a really smart guy," Trump said. (EDITOR NOTE: I've always felt that people who have to tell you that they are really a smart guy, aren't).

Read more: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/124366/20110318/trump-obama.htm#ixzz1KHYxtUpg


I am terribly disheartened by this nonsense and so, I decided I would make sure that our Prime Minister wasn't also born in Kenya. YIKES. He was. See the attached birth certificate that I found on my printer this afternoon. Luckily for Stephen Harper, you don't have to be born in Canada to be the Prime Minister, you only have to be a citizen of the British Empire.

Nevertheless, it took me 15 minutes, MS Word, a piece of brown paper, a blank seal which I use when I give students a certificate for attending a technical training class to create this silly little fake document.

Yes, Donald, Obama has an exotic childhood. He tells us all about it in Dreams From My Father. You're a smart guy. Read the book.

By the way, anybody who would like their own Nonsense Kenya Birth Certificate, post me a comment or let me know on my Facebook page and I will send you the MS Word template. (This offer is valid in the 50 states and Canada, offer not valid for Republican Presidential candidates.)

Civil Rights: A Tale of Two Presidents and My High School History Teacher

There was a wonderful article published this past Sunday, April 3, 2011 in The New York Times Magazine, page MM40, by Adam Goodheart. The article titled How Slavery Really Ended in America can be found on line at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/magazine/mag-03CivilWar-t.html . It's fascinating. The gist of the story is that an event early on in the Civil War involving Major General Benjamin F. Butler (a career lawyer who was only 1 month into his service in the military) inevitably led to the Emancipation Proclamation. Likewise, early on in the Lyndon Johnson presidency, there was a similar event that led to the inevitable passage of the 14th amendment.

Most of us know the Lyndon Johnson was an avid Civil Rights advocate, but, as he once told Dr. Martin Luther King, you will need to put me in a position where I have to push for the 14th amendment, in order to make it happen. The killing in Selma, Alabama during a protest rally was just such an event. And, here, is the famous quote from President Johnson's We Shall Overcome speech of March 15, 1965 that so inspired the fight for Civil Rights:

At times history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man's unending search for freedom. So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago at Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma, Alabama. There, long-suffering men and women peacefully protested the denial of their rights as Americans. Many were brutally assaulted. One good man, a man of God, was killed.

There is no cause for pride in what has happened in Selma. There is no cause for self-satisfaction in the long denial of equal rights of millions of Americans. But there is cause for hope and for faith in our democracy in what is happening here tonight. For the cries of pain and the hymns and protests of oppressed people have summoned into convocation all the majesty of this great government -- the government of the greatest nation on earth. Our mission is at once the oldest and the most basic of this country: to right wrong, to do justice, to serve man.

Of course we all know that President Lincoln made some memorable speeches himself, but in 1963, as a senior in High School, I wrote a paper in my history class that made the exact point that Johnson made two years later when he explained what had to happen in order to pass the 14th amendment. I researched the various speeches that Lincoln made during his cross country campaign to become president. I showed that in the North, he often referred to slavery and the need for its abolishment, but never, never did he mention abolishment in the south. Regretfully, I was tarnishing a hero, and my teacher was not a big fan of my paper.

The same teacher, the same course, another paper. This time, I wrote a paper on how to get elected president. I had just read the Theodore White book The Making of a President (1960) based on the Kennedy/ Nixon campaign, and when I looked at the chart of votes per candidate by state, I hypothesized that very few states really counted in a presidential election. For example, New York would almost always vote democratic, and Ohio could go either way. So, I used the library to locate the popular vote count by state for past elections and predicted which states could go either way and which states don't need serious campaigning in. Again, my teacher felt that this was inappropriate, he argued that all states are up for grabs and that a proper candidate treats them all equally. Dick Morris, born in 1948 (2 years younger than me), and Karl Rove (born 1950), both knew what I was talking about.

Perhaps if my "Get Clean for Gene" volunteering in the 1968 election had turned out differently, I might have forgotten the scientist career and become a political campaign strategist.

Who knows, certainly not my High School History teacher !

Baby Jacob vs. Big Brother Benjamin vs. Uncle Evan. Mantle vs. Maris vs. The Babe, Step Aside

One of the most exciting times of my early teens was 1961 when Mantle and Maris both jumped off to such a great home run derby that by mid-May, the New York papers were listing comparisons to Babe Ruth’s home run sprint to 60 in 1927. Of course, in mid May, they thought the player who was attacking the record was the Mick. Little did they know.

Well, it turns out, we’ve got one of those barn burners going on in the grandchildren race to catch Uncle Evan. Baby Jacob just came back from his 1 month checkup today, and he’s already neck and neck with Brother Benjamin and Uncle Evan. At this rate, both nephews might reach the coveted target of Uncle Evan, that is, handsome, brilliant, tall, slim, and adored by his sisters.

Oh wait, Ben and Jacob don’t have a sister. Stephanie, pay attention here.

Still, it’s early in the race and we shall see.

We’ll keep you posted.

Is Canada Headed For a Spring 2011 Election?

For those of you living under a rock, this is the week that Japan got hit with the 4^th worst earthquake in recorded history followed by a tragically destructive Tsunami and a potential death toll approaching 20,000. Also, this is the week when the world, including Canada went to war with Moammar Gadhafi. And, this is the week that the Liberals and NDP are most likely going to bring down the government and force a spring election. Bizarre.

Granted, Harper and his parties’ arrogant, thumb your nose at the rules of parliament, law, and anything else they can find to thumb their noses at style of government is unacceptable, at least unacceptable at anytime except now. I don’t think that the electorate in Canada will see this election as anything other than navel gazing.

Politicians have a long history of not understanding the electorate. David Peterson, one of our most popular premiers, who in his last mandate in Ontario won 95 of the possible 130 legislative seats, the second largest majority in the history of Ontario also called an election when the people weren’t interested. Scratching beneath the service rhetoric, the real reason for the election is that Mr. Peterson actually thought he could do better. Well, you can fool all of the people some of the time, but this wasn’t one of those times, and the electorate voted in a very surprised and unprepared NDP Party, good at opposition, not so good at running the government. Although, despite the criticism, I am one person who thought Rae Days were a brilliant solution, and after the 2008 collapse, scratch again, and you will see, widely implemented around the globe.

So, back to the potential fall of the government. It’s a mistake, and one that might finally get the Harper Conservatives the majority that they have been denied since taking power away from the Liberals.

As is so often heard shouted in the chambers of parliament, shame, shame, shame.

Martini Time or How to Host a Perfect Party

Years ago, My Love and I discovered the vodka martini. We started traditional with a cosmopolitan, and through the years, have expanded to many other variations on a theme. And now, for your enjoyment, I am about to reveal the recipes for our Top 5 Favourite Martinis.

But first a few words on entertaining the relatives. In every family, there are one or two people who take on the responsibility of the holiday dinners. In our family, within the GTA (Greater Toronto Area), the hosts were Uncle Louie/Auntie Kaye, and the Beauty and I. With time, the Uncle Louie/Auntie Kaye torch was passed to their daughter, Cousin June.

So, with at least 20 years of family dinner party experience under our belt, we know that if you don’t want verbal fisticuffs to break out, get ‘em mellow and quickly. In other words, while they are taking off their coats, hand them a drink. For many years, that meant Margaritas, on ice (hint: frozen is not for drinkers, it’s for a Caribbean vacation).

Some ten or so years ago, we expanded to Margaritas for the under 30 crowd, and Martinis for the more sophisticated, elder statesmen types. Or, the “alter-kakers” as our peers were described last week on The Good Wife.

That’s pretty much the history of how I became an expert on Martinis, and now, what you’ve all been waiting for, my top 5 recipes.

1. Cosmopolitan

1 oz. Vodka

½ oz. Triple Sec

½ oz. Lime Cordial

½ oz. Cranberry Juice (we use the frozen stuff from the grocery store)

(hint: put some cranberries in the bottom of each glass, frozen or fresh both work)

2. Lychee Martini

1 oz. Vodka

1 oz. Lychee Liqueur (in Toronto the brand is Soho)

a dash of Lychee juice from the container that the canned lychees came in

(hint: add a lychee to the bottom of each glass)

3. French Kiss Martini

This is my creation, and wonderful. It’s a derivative of a martini that we had at The Boca Raton Resort called a Key Lime Martini. We couldn’t get the vanilla liqueur used at the Boca, but we found a brand called French Kiss. So, I improvised as follows:

1 oz. Vodka

1 oz. French Kiss(tm) Liqueur

It was a hit. So much so that it became our favourite Martini for a few months. Then, we ran out of the liqueur and when we tried to replace it, they were out of French Kiss and we settled on a “superior” brand. The problem with the superior brand was that the vanilla flavour overpowers the martini. Stick with French Kiss.

4. Ice Wine Martini

We were re-gifted a bottle of Vineland Estates Vice, a Vodka Icewine. It’s been sitting in the basement since Christmas. Last week, I cooled it and followed the instructions for drinking (pour into a martin glass with ice). GREAT. GREAT. GREAT. We thought it was great.

Now, I’ve investigated recipes on the web and came up with equal parts vodka and icewine, with a few frozen grapes in the bottle of the glass (nice touch). We haven’t tried that yet. But, if you can get it in the pre-mixed version, it is worth the investment.

5. Rumtini

This recipe is compliments of Sandals Whitehouse in Jamaica. The menu published ingredients, sort of, I took it from there.

1 oz. Rum

½ oz. Blueberry or Blackberry Liquor

2 splashes of Sprit to give it a bit of bubbly action

(hint: add a berry or two to the bottom of the glass)

Anyone with some other recipes, I’m willing to try them out and let you know my opinion.