Flit

I FOUGHT IN THE OLD REVOLUTION, ON THE SIDE OF THE GHOST AND THE KING...

Niall Ferguson is absolutely right. How much have any of us amateur pundits read into the 1920 Iraq Revolt? Not enough, anyway.

AND THANK YOU, OH THANK YOU, FOR DOING YOUR DUTY, YOU KEEPERS OF TRUTH, YOU GUARDIANS OF BEAUTY

Helene Scherrer names her price, and apparently it's half an hour hanging out in the Green Room with McLachlan and Furtado*.

...the new federal Heritage Minister has promised to punish music file sharers. ''We are going to make sure that downloading stays illegal,'' said Helene Scherrer, a rookie Quebec MP sworn in as minister last December... On April 4, Ms. Schérrèr attended the Juno Awards in Edmonton and spent much of the time in meetings with music industry officials. "Everybody was so worried," she said after the event.

*It should go without saying that would also be MY price.

OH, LENNY, LENNY

Listened to Leonard Cohen's "Coming Back to You" on the way in. Great song... the whole thing's done in an near-infrasonic mutter, so basso only one of Barbara Gowdy's elephants* could fully appreciate it. When you sing it to yourself, you have to fight the urge to do a Jennifer Warnes and inject, you know, melody in there... but no, you must resist:

There are many in your life
And many still to be
Since you are a shining light
There's many that you'll see
But I have to deal with envy
When you choose the precious few
Who've left their pride on the other side of
Coming back to you

Even in your arms I know
I'll never get it right
Even when you bend to give me
Comfort in the night
I've got to have your word on this
Or none of it is true
And all I've said was just instead of
Coming back to you

That means more to me now then it did back when. So I'm making this Leonard Cohen week on Flit. Enjoy.

*(CanLit injoke, for those of a certain age: to fully appreciate it, you must have both read Gowdy's "The White Bone" about anthropomorphized sex-obsessed pachyderms, and have seen the then-famous Imprint interview of Cohen by Gowdy, which at the time was the sexiest 10 minutes ever seen on TV Ontario, with Gowdy visibly on the prowl for the old Buddhist. I guess she figured it was public television, so no one would ever see her make a fool of herself, but it was still something to see.)

NUDE AUDUBON?

From the Fezzik-I-do-not-think-that-word-means-what-you-think-it-means Department:

"Over the years, Ms. Williams said, [Vancouver nudists'] Wreck Beach has become a main draw for naturalists from all over the world."

--Globe and Mail, today. Insert your own clever "stalking the elusive woodpecker" joke, oh, anywhere here.