history

My dad's discharge papers. Note the date of enlistment: 12th December, 1941. He was born in 1926 (which you can half see in the ripped part at the top below the word ARMY.) Do the math... he was 15. He lied about his age. On August 19, 1942, at 16 years old, he was at Dieppe. After that he was in North Africa and Italy. They found out, the age at the time of his discharge in 1945 on the form, 19, is correct.

Last week I was on Bad Vibes on CFRO. This is the set-list from that show. My bit starts with The Vampire Club by Voltaire, and you can listen to it here. From that point on Marc Godfrey and I were picking from a list of music that I brought with me depending on how the conversation went. I came armed with almost three hours of music for a one hour interview, with everything picked for a reason. What I want to do for the next little while is run through those choices, including the ones that we didn't get to, and talk about why I picked them. 

An article for the "Women's Realm" section of the Daily Colonist out of Victoria, British Columbia, published March 8, 1916 about New York City sweat-shop workers organizing:

A Women's Strike

Women have reason to be proud of the result of a strike which recentl took place in the city of New York. It has been conducted without disorder and was successful in gaining for those who took part in it shorter hours, better conditions of working, and higher wages. 

It bugs me when Chinese New Year is called "Lunar New Year" (as the City of Vancouver is wont to do). Areas with large populations of Chinese ex-pats follow lock-step with the timing as it applies to the Chinese time zone, so calling it "Chinese New Year" is wholly appropriate. In the smattering of countries that officially use the exact mechanism of Chinese calendar outside of China occasionally the day for the beginning of the year is different because local time causes the first new moon after the winter solstice to fall on a different day.

#dailycolonist1915 #WWI - The news out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago.

I am, at last, caught up to exactly 100 years ago. The beginning of November 1915 has the British using gas for the first time, fighting in Bulgaria, King George V recovering from an accident at the front, the defeat of women's suffrage in the United States, new innovations in aerial warfare, and a new Japanese emperor, among other news.

#dailycolonist1915 #WWI - The news our of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago:

In this update: Zeppelins, conspiracy theory (1915 style), propaganda, genocide, fall fashions, exploration and discovery in the far north, a major allied offensive on the western front and more.

#dailycolonist1915 #WWI - The news out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago:

In an effort to catch up to being exactly one hundred years ago, this update covers just over a month. There is a lot in this update even though I restricted myself to just one article per day.

#dailycolonist1915 #WWI - The news out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago. 

German savagery and terrorism, the anniversary of the British Empire declaring war, fall of Warsaw, American occupation of Haiti, and the creation of the Revelstoke internment camp. [I planned to cover more days in this installment, but the Internet Archive is down for maintenance today.]

#dailycolonist1915 - The news out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago.

Honours for the Canadian Prime Minister, genocide in Syria, new and horrible war technologies, a famous electric chair execution, legal haggling over Kits Point, progress on the world's largest telescope, news of a good whaling season, Victoria man's body killed in the sinking of the Lusitania recovered in Ireland, and amazing entertainment at the Pantages.  

#dailycolonist1915 - The news out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago.

A big update as I try to catch up, ending on the anniversary of the event the started the war.