caroljane

Daunce: This is great news. In all seriousness, what lesson--if any--did you learn during this trial? I have said a few times recently that I want to learn enough about how to live so that it will not take a serious health scare to teach me what's important about life. Daunce: This is great news. In all seriousness, what lesson--if any--did you learn during this trial? I have said a few times recently that I want to learn enough about how to live so that it will not take a serious health scare to teach me what's important about life. PDS, in equal seriousness I have not learned anything new that Idid not know or think about before..or maybe, wish for. Obviously I learned a lot about our health system which I had casually prejudged as pretty good. now I think, at least at the TO East General, that it is better than that.But in this new life I seem to have been given I hope to learn more. Oh yes,Idid learn that no matter how much you hint, you do not get a free bosom lift as an extra with thoracic surgery. As of now anyway. Still, no harm in asking!

Lol dear Bill. I do not actually know our activist Albertan friend's views on the efficacy of surgery. it certainly relieves symptoms and has obvious preventive value. I would dislike it however if he described me as having "beaten" cancer since I have barely confronted it much less fought it. What I did was escape it, via the efforts of others (Carmine Simone, rockstar and Real Deal, take a bow). the only actions I took throughout were in descending order of difficulty (1) telling family (2) telling friends. (3) doing tests...staying still in contorted positions for scans and biopsies for longer than ten mins is quite hard, as is resisting the urge to cough.. Making a decision, usually hard for me on trivial things, between surgery or noninvasive treatments was the easiest. My gratitude and blessings on the sacred head of Tommy Douglas, for the excellence and empathy I found everywhere at the TEGH and the sheer thoroughness and accuracy of the technology that so reassures me,... You perhaps understand better than most other Oers.

Also for those who are not familiar a with the Twain quip I should tell it ...he remarked on being tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail, "If it wasn't for the honour of the thing, I'd just as soon have walked." One of my ancestors actually received this honour courtesy of enlightened American patriots and I like to imagine he could have been so wry about it.

Thank you. As I brought it it up,I should also mention that I am pretty much recovered and have had the best possible luck in that I need no further treatment and am already graduated to 5-year follow up. Also the whole process seems in retrospect incredibly fast. Having spent my whole life expecting to probably get lung cancer (yes I know you would not say it, moralist, but sure as a smoker I deserved it) I only knew I had it for a matter of weeks really, and now I don't have it anymore.

Not that funny? jeez , it must be hard to make you laugh. Me, I am recovering from the same surgery that Rand had, and a chief therapeutic bonus has been my reflection that if it hadn't been for the honour of the thing, I'd just as soon have passed on it...and then laughing again at how brilliantly hilarious was Twain's original. I have my problems with Mr C, but none concern mark T. not bringing the funny.

Neither am I a fan of SGs. I am not really a fan of genre assignment either, and I am not much of a Dickens fan, but I take your point about David Copperfield. (Emma btw was a pretty good mystery as well as a good romance) But as you know some novels arejust so good that they are great, however their original marketers cram them into niches. I particularly detest the. "If you loved Author X you will love Author Y" complete with extorted testimonial from Author X.

Daddy...try Sonny! Even worse. on Orwell I will invoke the Century Rule of Greatness and he hasn't been dead long enough. I have read his other novels and certainly Keep the Aspidistra Flying was hardly Ulysses. but 1984 has such a spare humanity and pitiless truth , I think it will remain a classic.

What's with the libertarian Canadians? Fantasy Island!!!! (Marc and Jules excepted)

Sure she wasn't, but I grant you yours. From curiosity, what other novelists do you consider great? (Warning I cannot read Portuguese!)

Not to say worship....Er, respect maybe. We Anglicans are never rude about Other Faiths.

PS. That version of She is not Canucki dialect (that would be Her) but my homage attempt to redefine the female pronoun to reflect Rand's utterly singular redefinition of the essence of femaleness. I can't find out how I produced it though, this IPad is the work of Satan.

Is "šhe" Canadian for "she"? You and Rand are opposite sides of the same coin. She liked plot, you like other stuff. Both of you think that what you like is the true nature of literature, and the other stuff is garbage.J No, Jonathan, no I am not the obverse of Rand in this. Just because I have my own subjective set of artistic responses, and a certain confidence in my own assessments of literature, does not mean that I judge what I don't enjoy to be garbage. "Great literature" like great music or art is determined by collective subjectivism, by continued rediscovery and love of consumers and critics long after the artist's "brief candle" has guttered out, and by history's quirks and passions. Good literature, enjoyable literature, interesting and unique literature, can be appreciated on its own merits. And yes, there are technical standards which when unmet render a novel to be garbage. This need not stop any readers from enjoying any book, and never has stopped them. Rand was not a great novelist, and her novels were not garbage either. it is no use for you to attribute to me a value-swooning hierarchy of aesthetic judgments. Not even when you're wearing your Sunday-best sun bonnet and Stanley Cup goalie gloves.

Do not pay any attention to Adam and his silly long memory , Manhattan Mike. Respectable Widows do not flirt as he well knows, especially not on Objectivist websites where proof exists that you can contrary to popular belief, take it with you. I am still in the dark if Rand expressed any self analysis of her achievements as a novelist. Ellen? if anyone has any recollections, she might!

My pleasure Pen! I am not aware that Rand ever did evaluate herself as a novelist, do you have more info on this? very intriguing!

Adam means I am the socialist,certainly not Rand! Rand was primarily a philosopher and storyteller in Near Aesopian mode. Šhe was a cinematic writer, with little regard for literary convention or the novel form itself, except for the primacy of plot, plot, plot. She employed a limited vocabulary to create startling two dimensional characters in a bold, near-surreal world dominated by her unique philosophy. Her novels are as unique as she was, but they are not great literature.

Hi and welcome. Any friend of Marc, etc! I am interested in your recollection of deciding that you had read the greatest of world literature in Rand?... Obviously as a book dealer you have read more than a a dozen novels by now ... Do you still consider her a great novelist? I am not convinced that she so considered herself.

I would also add that raising two boys seems also simpler than raising two girls. Brothers fight, true, but the brother relationship does seem more straightforward than the sister one. From what I observe anyway.

Deanna: lol could not agree more. I have had one of each. Two different wives. So, essentially, both were raised as only children, which, you obviously understand. I was an only child also. In terms of raising a girl, I am virtually certain that the key factor is the unity between the parents in terms of parenting decisions, e.g., discipline, reinforcement, loving, consistent, etc. That also applies to raising a boy, however, boys are, as you noted, simpler. A... Amen!!!

Incidentally I hope you are on board with the anti ford grassroots democratic Shirtless movement. This is an excellent nonviolent way to participate in civic life,especially for young guys, sports team members, trainee firefighters , lifeguards etc.

Oh Marc, Marc, my fellow townsman in adversity! It is pretty humbling when even Marion Barry scorns your political achievements, Maybe your post should go in Canadian Boring thread, where Robo is mentioned for being a lying idiot long before we knew he had any drug problems. Maybe it should be renamed....Canadian Politics Believe it or Not?

Adam And PDS, you flatter me to bits but I am happy in the nooks and crevices I already haunt. The Corners of Insight are scholarly abodes and as Brant notes, workstations. I am more of a toils-not-neither- does-she-spin type myself.

Ahem, Canada was as much America as Hiispaniola was. And Leif gave it the old Viking try at colonizing...just was not as successful at enslaving the natives as the Spaniards. Genoese. whatever.

Um, aren't we all?

Hunh? Me, burst out?...Wha'...I gotta post in French now? OK,OK...just let me get my meds heh heh....

Columbus discovered southern North America, Four centuries after Erikson discovered northern North America.