Editorially speaking...
I’ll begin with this note from reader and friend Bill Irvine who commented on my reference to excavation for the new Telus building in Victoria which has alerted historians to the potential loss of artifacts from historic Kanaka Row:
“...Regarding preserving buried (alleged) artifacts in Victoria, it’s ironic that on one hand the civic electorate want to remove and destroy historical iconic statues, plaques and street names, and at the same time halt progressive construction to find some more (allegedly) historical representations.
“In the words of Dickens, ‘I think I’ll retire to Bedlam.’”
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In other news, the first new totem pole in decades has been raised on Meares Island, off Tofino on Vancouver island’s west coast. Residents of Opitsaht once had many totems but in 1792 American trader Capt. Robert Gray torched the village and its totems.
Adding insult to injury, many of the totems that were replaced were seized under the Indian Act in 1876. Until now, only two, dating as recently as 1989 and 1993, remained in Opitsaht but these have already begun to deteriorate in the harsh and wet coastal climate.
Of their predecessors, a few have been saved for posterity—but far, far from home in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.
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Pioneer journalist, politician and satirist, Bob Edwards. —Wikipedia
Blame it on the heat.
I’d set out, more than a month ago, to end these weekly ramblings with a quote or two from one of Canada’s more memorable journalists, Bob Edwards (1860-1922) whose extensive and memorable career Wikipedia has summed up in a single word, satirist.
The Scottish-born journalist and politician earned his fame while publishing the Calgary Eye Opener which became renowned, or reviled, for his humorous and incisive swipes at society and his fellow beings.
A hard drinker, as were so many of his fellow scribes of the day, Edwards had a keen eye for human frailty, including his own.
So, hot summer weather or no, here’s another attempt to end the Chronicles on a lighter note with these observation by Bob Edwards on the subject of Fame:
All the world’s a stage but few of us get the spotlight.
Any man who itches for fame will have to do a lot of scratching before he sets there.
There are lots of great men until you get close to them.
The more reputation a man has, the more disappointed other men are when they meet him.
(Excerpts from The Wit & Wisdom of Bob Edwards, Edited by Hugh Dempsey.)
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Thanks to Facebook and Google, I easily receive as many as 100 comments or emails a day, many of them one-liners and easily dealt with or deleted, but some of considerable length and depth that require my digging into my archives for answers.
Easier said than done, folks!
So, for those of you who’ve queried me recently (I always try to acknowledge receipt even if I can’t respond in detail right away), please bear with me. It is summer, after all, and, whining as a born wet-coaster, uncomfortably warm.
Don’t know about you folks, but I’m ready for Fall weather any time now...