How Not to Communicate by Email
The average person, the MIT Communication Lab tells us, “receives ~120 emails/day and spends about 11hrs/week sorting through emails.” Matt Plummer, in a 2019 article titled, How to Spend Way…
Collingwood
Thoughts on (Re)Reading Fowler’s
I had all but forgotten how delightful it can be reading Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage. It gives me the same sort of pleasure as reading at random through…
Collingwood’s Mystery Councillor
Who is Ian MacCulloch? We were only told by the town that he’s the newly-appointed councillor, chosen this month by council to fill the seat vacated by Brandon Houston, who…
Sidewalk Ethics and Etiquette
There is a theory that a person’s moral compass may be judged by how they deal with shopping carts. Those with even a modicum sense of ethics and morality return…
Dither, Dally, and Doddle
If I were looking for a single word to succinctly describe Collingwood Council, it would not be ‘decisive.’ Nor would it be progressive, capable, innovative, or enterprising. I would not…
The Body Snatchers
I think it’s about time for another remake of the 1956 film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, this time instead of aliens taking over human bodies, we should have a…
Council Screws Collingwood Residents. Again.
Like many other residents in council chamber yesterday, I was deeply disappointed but not surprised by our council’s decision yesterday to continue with staff’s anti-resident/anti-environment plan to deforest Sixth Street…
The Very Model of Bureaucratic Inefficiency
Here is the textbook model of bureaucratic inefficiency and council sluggishness that deserves a satirical Gilbert and Sullivan song of its own: Collingwood is conducting a “speed limit survey” through…
The Litter That’s Killing Everything and Everyone
Four and a half trillion. That’s how many cigarette butts are estimated to be littered every year on our streets, sidewalks, parks, downtowns, parking lots, lawns, and everywhere else smokers…
Pro-Car Planning is Destroying Collingwood’s Environment
I warned you: Council would support the anti-resident/anti-environment/pro-vehicle attitude that pervades town hall. I warned you they would deforest Sixth Street to make it a bigger, faster speedway for vehicles.…
Traffic Calming: Not My Job Say Town Staff
No residents have been successful in three years in meeting all the town’s absurdly stringent requirements for investigation of the installation of even rudimentary traffic calming in their neighbourhoods. That’s…
The Anti-Environmentalists in Town Hall are at it Again
WTF is wrong with town hall these days? Why do they dislike trees so much? Last week town staff presented another plan to make Sixth Street even more of a…
On the Bay’s Libertarian Piffle
Less (sic) taxes is, for On the Bay‘s publisher David Loopstra, a “solution” for the problems of inflation. It’s certainly not the solution for correct grammar, where he should have…
Mayor Meets Premier: We Have Questions
In a municipal announcement, led with a screaming all-caps headline like a toddler in a toy store tantrum, the Town of Collingwood published a short statement from Mayor Hamlin about…
Higher Taxes, But Fewer Services in Collingwood
Collingwood Council is currently debating some major changes to the town’s bylaws, many of which appear to mean fewer services and less support for our residents. This council has once…
Hamlin’s Letter-Writing Debacle, Part Two
Collingwood’s mayor’s arrogant refusal to cooperate and collaborate with our regional neighbours to support the long-overdue redevelopment of the General and Marine Hospital continues to make local news and infuriate…
Opt-in Polls: Bad Data, Bad Science, and Bad Actors
I was perusing the usual collage of semi-news, trivia, and fluff on CollingwoodToday recently and noticed a poll at the bottom asking “How old are you?” It piqued my interest…
Our Arrogant Mayor is At It Again
For me, I didn’t see the need for another letter at this time. Things could change,” Mayor Yvonne Hamlin sniffily replied to CollingwoodToday in her best “Let them eat cake”…
Another Housing Debacle in Cwood
A recent story in CollingwoodToday leads me to believe Council has made yet another misstep in its fumbling and bumbling efforts to deal with affordable housing. As the story notes,…
Why Local Media Has Failed Us
The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2024, released this week, identifies the biggest short-term risk to the planet is from misinformation and disinformation, even above extreme weather events. The…