I live in a cabin on a lake in a forest (purchased back when people like me, not-rich people, could afford such things).  There are about ten permanent residences; about ten cottages owned by people who may (or may not) be there during any given weekend or week; and, now, oh the horror, about ten houses owned by absentee landlords who rent them out on a short-term basis (typically for a weekend or a week).  So in addition to the 20 or so people who live here and the familiar 20 or so people who are here occasionally, we now have up to another 100 people (because ‘Sleeps 10!’), strangers, who are here pretty much all the time from mid-spring to mid-fall.

I moved here for the beauty, the quiet, the solitude.  Paddling here used to feel like paddling in Algonquin.  It doesn’t feel that way anymore.  (‘Course, I suspect that paddling in Algonquin doesn’t even feel like paddling in Algonquin anymore.)  Now it often feels like paddling around a pond in Toronto.

A while ago I was accused of being rude.  Because I didn’t smile and wave back when I paddled past someone sitting on a dock who’d smiled and waved at me.  Excuse me?

I am not part of your cottage experience.  This is not The Truman Show.  I’m an actual, real person, and I live here.  I do not come into existence when you arrive and disappear when you leave.

You’ve been suckered by the rental ads claiming a cottage escape where you can relax and have fun.  Like many tourists, you think the people you see are part of the package.  I assure you we are not.

You may be able to relax and have fun here.  But keep in mind that you’re really just renting a house in someone else’s neighbourhood for the weekend/week.

So you’ll understand why many of us are pissed off by your jetskis that shove gasoline fumes and engine noise into every cove (and over a gallon of uncombusted fuel directly into the lake for every hour of operation), your all-day firepits that send smoke into everyone’s back yard, and your evening campfires during which due to the acoustics of the lake and your insistence on using your outdoor voices (because, hey, you’re outdoors!  up north, in the wild!) we have to listen to your inane conversations (and sometimes your gawdawful music) when we really want to listen to the loons.  (And I’m the one who’s rude?!)

So, no.  If you smile and wave at me when I pass by (and I doubt you do that to every stranger who passes by when you’re sitting on your porch at home in your own neighbourhood), I’m not going to smile and wave back.

“The replacement of journalism by rumor aggregators …”  (Zendegi, Greg Egan).  Yes.  That.  Precisely.

“Caitlin knew she was not a good negotiator, not like Annelise or Rachel.  Sicence didn’t negotiate truth; it tried to discover and prove it.” The Eleventh Gate, Nancy Kress

Ah.  The less regard for truth, the greater one’s negotiation skills.  Explains politics.  The state of the world.

“In strict economic terms, the almighty free market theoretically considers the work of women in the home to be without value, to be worthless.  It is recognized nowhere in the free market economic model” (The High Road, Terry Fallis).

Also true for the work of men in (and around) the home.

But I would not want to have to pay (via my tax dollars) other women for doing their housework.  Just as I would not want to pay men for their incessant puttering around (my god, one of my retired neighbours has, so far, built five little sheds on his property; it’s bad enough that I’ve had to hear every single cut made by his power saw, every single screw inserted with his power drill … you want me to PAY him for it as well?

The problem is that women do so much more of the work, especially if they have kids.  So the solution is for the household members to come up an equitable arrangement.  Or for the man to pay the woman to be cook and maid and childcare worker and the woman to pay the man for car repair and lawn services.  Or whatever.

NANCY MOUNT BILL PASSES IN HOUSE

Proposes “None of the Above” Be Added to Ballot

Thirty Percent of the Votes Would Trigger New Election

Excellent idea.  from Jack McDevitt’s The Long Sunset

James White’s Sector General series should be required reading for ANYONE assigned to first contact missions.  Note in the first paragraph below (from Alien Emergencies), the inclusion of specialists in communications, philosophy, and psychology.  Note the exclusion of specialists in any of the hard sciences.  And the military.  (Note also, the more effective way.)

“The Cultural contact people were the elite of the Monitor Corps, a small group of specialists in e-t communications, philosophy and psychology. Although small, the group was not, regrettably, overworked …

“… During the past twenty years,” O’Mara went on, “they have initiated First Contact procedure on three occasions, all of which resulted in the species concerned joining the Federation.  I will not bore you with the details of the number of survey operations mounted and the ships, personnel and materiel involved, or shock you with the cost of it all.  I mention the Cultural Contact group’s three successes simply to make the point that within the same time period this hospital became fully operational and also initiated First contacts, which resulted in seven new species joining the Federation.  This was accomplished not by a slow, patient buildup and widening of communications until the exchange of complex philosophical and sociological concepts became possible, but by giving medical assistance to a sick alien.”

I can’t recommend White’s work enough.  Finally, an intelligent approach to alien life.  (Because yes, pretty much every novel I’ve read, and every movie I’ve seen, to date, has been embarrassing for its UNintelligent approach to alien.  Why haven’t we discovered intelligent life out there?  Because we’re too stupid to visit.)

“Look at the world around you, David.  What do you see?  An endless theme part, with everything turned into entertainment.  Science, politics, education–they’re so many fairground rides.  Sadly, people are happy to buy their tickets and climb aboard.”  The Millennium People, J. G. Ballard

Read mention in a Lionel Shriver novel (The Motion of the Body through Space) about “white readers [the main, white, character read for audiobooks] pretending to talk like [members of] marginalized communities is ‘mimicry’ and … cultural appropriation” (p31).

But I can’t help thinking that if she were not to use an accent other than her own for those characters (members of marginalized communities), she’d be accused of ignoring said members’ reality, denying/ignoring the way they speak, accused of colonializing, homogenizing …