WILL (SMITH)

Will may be a billionaire superstar, but if it wasn’t for his photo, I would still have to clarify, Will Smith?

As years go, this last one has been a rollar coaster. I imagine that many people remember the Oscars, and his misguided attempt to defend his wife’s honour with physical violence. I suspect the loss of a friend is the greatest of his many losses that night. After reading this book, I think the loss he feels most is the blow to his ego.

I am very sympathetic to the narcissist that celebrity must create. I suspect that any front man, with a longtime group of friends and the support of a life partner is at least grounded in many ways that keep traits from becoming a full-blown disorder. I can only imagine what a childhood full of violence can do to your psyche. Our parents have long lasting, negative, permanent effects on our personalities, even if they are not violent. “99% is zero %” is the more severe version of  “99%? What happened to the 1%?”, but they both expect the same: the impossible standard of perfection.

So it was with interest, and, with equal measure, skepticism, that I read this autobiography of Willard Smith the Second. I see that he has written other books, so maybe this is not his complete story. Still, it was the most complete picture I knew of him, and it was worth the read.

Will is about a remarkable life. It is a transformation that most of us would never dream possible. It is not a life that most of us would want, but it is a life that many do covet. 

If you look at the chapter names, you see that this is not just a ego-driven biopic of success. This is an extraordinary human’s search for meaning, and he makes it clear that the success and wealth he garnered did not make this easier than any ordinary human. That said, he is convincing as a self-reflective writer, at least at critical moments. I couldn’t say how much his co-author influences his writing, but having written raps and screenplays, it certainly has the ring of authenticity. He reads his own audiobook that has some great acting and music in it, so that sells it too!

I didn’t make many notes, but I did copy some quotes that were poignant. Some of them are quotes from others. I hope I reflect their wise words accurately. Pick up the book or listen to the audiobook, if you want to check it out.

It’s respectable to lose to the universe. It’s a tragedy to lose to yourself.

Be nice to everyone on the way up because you might meet them on the way down.

Don’t block your blessings.

Gammy

Everything Is impossible right up until it’s not. 

No paralysis by analysis. 

Master your instrument. Talent comes from God. You are born with it. Skill comes from sweat and practice and commitment. Hone your craft. 

Quincy Jones

Psychographic

Play the cards you have, not the ones that you wish you had. (but don’t )

Inattentive blindness 

Humans have two problems: we don’t know what what we want, or we know what we want, but don’t know how to get it. 

Steven Covey

The universe is not logical. It’s magical. A major aspect of the pain and mental anguish we experience as humans is that our minds seek, and, often demand, logic and order from an illogical universe. Our minds desperately want shit to add up. But the rules of logic do not apply to the laws of possibility. The universe functions under the laws of magic.

I’d rather see a sermon

I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day;

I'd rather one should walk with me than merely tell the way.

The eye's a better pupil and more willing than the ear,

Fine counsel is confusing, but example's always clear;

And the best of all the preachers are the men who live their creeds,

For to see good put in action is what everybody needs.

I soon can learn to do it if you'll let me see it done;

I can watch your hands in action, but your tongue too fast may run.

And the lecture you deliver may be very wise and true,

But I'd rather get my lessons by observing what you do;

For I might misunderstand you and the high advise you give,

But there's no misunderstanding how you act and how you live.

When I see a deed of kindness, I am eager to be kind.

When a weaker brother stumbles and a strong man stays behind

Just to see if he can help him, then the wish grows strong in me

To become as big and thoughtful as I know that friend to be.

And all travelers can witness that the best of guides today

Is not the one who tells them, but the one who shows the way.

One good man teaches many, men believe what they behold;

One deed of kindness noticed is worth forty that are told.

Who stands with men of honor learns to hold his honor dear,

For right living speaks a language which to every one is clear.

Though an able speaker charms me with his eloquence, I say,

I'd rather see a sermon than to hear one, any day.

Edgar Guest

If you ain’t helping, you hurtin’

Darrel

BOOK REPORT: WILL

It’s respectable to lose to the universe. It’s a tragedy to lose to yourself

Be nice to everyone on the way up because you might meet them on the way down.

Don’t block your blessings 

Everything is impossible right up until it’s not. No paralysis by analysis. 

Master your instrument. Talent comes from God. You are born with it. Skill comes from sweat and practice and commitment. Hone your craft. 

--Quincy Jones

Psychographic

Play the cards you have, not the ones that you wish you had (but don’t )

Inattentive blindness 

Humans have two problems: we don’t know what what we want, or we know what we want, but don’t know how to get it. 

--Stephen Covey

“The universe is not logical. It’s magical. A major aspect of the pain and mental anguish we experience as humans is that our minds seek, and, often demand, logic and order from an illogical universe. Our minds desperately want shit to add up. But the rules of logic do not apply to the laws of possibility. The universe functions under the laws of magic.”

I'd Rather See A Sermon 
I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day;
I'd rather one should walk with me than merely tell the way.
The eye's a better pupil and more willing than the ear,
Fine counsel is confusing, but example's always clear;

And the best of all the preachers are the men who live their creeds,
For to see good put in action is what everybody needs.
I soon can learn to do it if you'll let me see it done;
I can watch your hands in action, but your tongue too fast may run.

And the lecture you deliver may be very wise and true,
But I'd rather get my lessons by observing what you do;
For I might misunderstand you and the high advise you give,
But there's no misunderstanding how you act and how you live.

When I see a deed of kindness, I am eager to be kind.
When a weaker brother stumbles and a strong man stays behind
Just to see if he can help him, then the wish grows strong in me
To become as big and thoughtful as I know that friend to be.

And all travelers can witness that the best of guides today
Is not the one who tells them, but the one who shows the way.
One good man teaches many, men believe what they behold;
One deed of kindness noticed is worth forty that are told.

Who stands with men of honor learns to hold his honor dear,
For right living speaks a language which to every one is clear.
Though an able speaker charms me with his eloquence, I say,
I'd rather see a sermon than to hear one, any day.

--Poet: Edgar A. Guest 

Darrell:  If you ain’t helping, you hurtin’

EINSTEIN AND THE PHYSICAL UNIVERSE

Born in Ulm, Bavaria (where I celebrated the New Year in 1996)

Nobel Prize Physics 1901 (first ever) German Roengten for his work in eponymous rays after using Lenard’s tube experiment and noting fluorescence of a painted cardboard screen of barium platinocyanide- Roentgen rays (X-ray) with Roentgenograms (xray radiograms)

Nobel Prize 1905  Hungarian German (anti-Semitic) Phillips Lenard (after in 1905 for cathode ray tubes, 10 years after the innovation, and 4 years after Roentgen, though his work was the foundation

Nobel Prize 1921  Swiss Einstein for photoelectric effect

While a clerk at a patent office in Bern, Switzerland (Einstein renounced his German citizenship), aged 26, married to Mileva Maric worked with Michele Besso, a friend and fellow patent clerk. I think I saw the same clock that he looked at in the town square. He approved the patent that would send a signal to other local clocks to stay synched.

Think like Einstein. Create “thought experiments”.

4 papers 1 year Annales der Physik (March-Sept 1905) ANNUS MIRABILIS

PHOTOELECTRIC EFFECT: A heuristic point of view of the production and transformation of light.June 9.                                       

Light is made of not just energy(waves) but also of particles “quanta” or photons. Think of sound or wind hitting water and creating waves. Think of how paper moves with the wind. Then take sunlight, and hold up a paper. It blocks, and does not propagate the light as waves alone. This is one of two pillars of modern physics: quantum mechanics, proving the existence of molecules.

BROWNIAN MOTION: On the movement of small particles suspended in a stationary liquid, as required by the molecular-kinetic theory of heat. July 18.     

                                                                                              

The physical phenomenon of Brownian motion showed that matter is composed of atoms.Think of a sugar cube dissolving in water. The glucose molecules are pulled away, and as the sugar dissolves, the coffee thickens. Here, Einstein proved how molecules moved, using a one dimensional mathematical proof that allowed the calculation of how far a molecule (imagine pollen in water under a microscope) would travel over time, without needing the more difficult proof of predicting where the molecule would go next.

SPECIAL RELATIVITY: On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies. Sept 26.                                                                                         

The speed of light is immutable, constant, and independent of the observer’s movement. Everything, except the (missing in Newtonian physics (MOTION, GRAVITATION, ABSOLUTE TIME) constant speed of light, is relative. Clark Maxwell believed this. Lorenz transformation found this “time dilation” to be a mathematical quirk. “The faster we move though space, the slower we move through time.” Everything, including time, distance, and mass, is relative. THIS WAS THE REDEFINITION OF THE UNIVERSE.  Time cannot move at different speeds, as much as we would like it, unless…..Imagine you are watching a train pass with a rider on it when two lightening strikes 100m apart at the exact same time on either side. If light moves at the same speed, on the train, you would see the lightening strikes were asynchronous, with the one you were moving towards first, and the one you were moving away from after, but the observer would see them hit simultaneously. Time is NOT absolute, and the speed of light is constant.  was solved when it was simplified to a one dimension. This would be followed up in 1915 to include acceleration and gravity. BEFORE, the universe was explained by the laws of Newton. AFTER, the universe was by relativity and quantum mechanics.

MASS-ENERGY EQUIVALENCE

Does the inertia of a body depend on its energy content?

E=mc2

FUNNY: Criticism of his first paper. He has no footnotes! Response. He has answered a question no one has asked before!

NOT SO FUNNY: Einstein’s brilliant wife, Mileva, is uncredited in his work, despite the precedent set by Pierre Curie, who was an ally to his wife Marie, credited for her work ,(Henri Becquerel was also awarded with them) as a condition for him accepting the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903.

NB: Marie Curie would be the first sole woman to win a Nobel Prize in 1911, this time in chemistry. This makes her the only woman to win the award in two fields, to date, and only one of two winners to win in two fields, to date (Linus Pauling won both in chemistry and in peace).

NB: Newton also had an annus mirabilis in 1665-6 while self-confined to his home during the plague in Woolsthorpe, shortly after obtaining his BA from Cambridge, and while the university was closed. He used his time wisely, formulating the Law of Gravitation, Binomial theory (the basis of calculus), and Theory of Colour (light seen through prisms had three primary colours -red, yellow, and blue - that all others were derived from). According to the article by Thomas Levenson, in April 6, 2020 in the New Yorker, however, it is important not to make this a fairy tale. Newton worked on gravity before, during and after, and in his own words, he did it “by thinking on it continually”, not just as a new pass-time. He was 23.

Initially Newton thought that light was made of particles and Hook thought that light was made of waves, and Newton was “disproved”.  Over 200 years later, Einstein proved that both were right, and the idea of a wave particle was born. US scientist Millikan tried to disprove his theory, but ended up convinced that he was right. Both won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work, Einstein in 1921 and Millikan in 1923.

Based on William Isaacson Einstein: His Life and Universe, Genius Season 1 Disney, BBVAOPENMIND.com Einstein’s Miracle Year, The New Yorker The Truth about Isaac Newton’s Productive Plague.

I LIKE GEOLOGISTS

 There are a few things that Princess Pirate complains about because I mention them too often. Hexagons are one.  The thing is, she points them out to me now, so I know that they are growing on her too. I mean, it’s a perfect shape, the hexagon. Except for when a designer goes a little crazy and tries to make something new like an elongated hexagon, which is always a mistake. Spring flowers like trillium are another. There is, however, an obsession that we share, and that I never get complaints about. We both love rocks. 

So I was looking for some cool sites to explore that have local geological interest. Since we had plans to go this past weekend for the Tulip Festival, I looked for information about Ottawa. When I found this website about Ottawa Gatineau Geoheritage Day, I was very excited. It was exactly what I was looking for. It had a map, and pictures of what we would see. 

One picture that particularly caught my interest was a familiar phenomenon that I had seen at McGill’s Redpath museum when it was open (pre-COVID). Unfortunately, we did miss the Geoheritage day, packed with tours, as it had already passed a couple weeks earlier. I did, however, identify where the formation of fossilized stromatolites (only two living Cyanobacteria reefs still exist - the Bahamas and Australia) were just off the Champlain bridge, and hoped to visit with my friend. In the end, she was game, and it was just the excuse we both needed for a wander around the streets and along the river on the Quebec side. 

I had noticed that, on three occasions, rocks described on the website were in “plane sight”. I wrote a comment (my inner editor could do no less) that I thought they may be mistaking the homonym for in “plain” site, and I was please to get an immediate answer back. It was even more gratifying that the mistakes were corrected within hours, accompanied by a hilarious email apologizing for the mistake because they did not have a pilot’s license! (Full disclosure, there is a term in geology that can be used with the word plane and not refer to aviation, but in this case I was right!)

Besides giving us places to go, I found that there was a book for sale that reminded me a geologic tour that  Princess Pirate and I loved in downtown Montreal from the Redpath museum. In this case, it was based in Ottawa, and advertised for $20, which seemed a reasonable amount for a risk of possible poor quality or disinterest. I reached out to Dr. Quentin Gall by email, and with a few back and forths, we agreed to meet just beside the Tulipfest.

I suppose I should have been more specific than deciding tomeet at a busy corner of his choosing without even exchanging phone numbers. We didn’t know who the other was, but he did say he was coming by bike, and there was a biker was wearing a very red obvious red shirt that passed the intersection twice while we walking nearer.  Encyclopedia strikes again! 

Quentin was charming, and full of enthusiasm for why I was looking for his book, and what I thought of the website.  He came with change (and wouldn’t keep a tip). The book was sponsored, so what I paid for two copies was a bargain for the work that was put into it! 

He asked me if I was a scientist, and I didn’t know quite how to answer. Not really, was the first thing that came to mind, quickly followed by the thought that, yes, I kind of am. It was the first time in a long time that when I admitted that I was a physician that the conversation didn’t change. He was a doctor too, and that was that, which was lovely.

The book was of such excellent quality, and arranged in small areas perfect for walking tours. He clearly could talk for hours about the rocks in the buildings listed in the book, but he was clear that he also provided the architectural context that I am more used to recognizing as a real bonus to my joy. The book also has an extensive intro to all the terms I need to know and some excellent charts in the back that have already given me a great deal of data that I have enjoyed, sitting at a table reading it. I cannot wait until I can walk around on a nice day and use it for reference. I should be able to make some educational guesses in Montreal with the glossary until I get back to Ottawa later this summer (for Hamilton!)

I’ll also have to return to the Champlain bridge late summer when the water table is low enough to see the fossilized stromatolites, and I think that will not have to twist my friend’s arm to come with me on a geological architectural walking tour next time I can come to town. She might even check it out before I make it back!

So, for now, I have in my calendar to look for Jane’s Walk next May, and look for more geological and heritage events in future.

Here’s another lead for another day. In this case, June 4, 2022. Alas, this year I am working. Most of them are Toronto and beyond, but there is one in Ottawa, in case that’s where you are in  3 weeks time!

Ontario has a heritage site for buildings and an open door day to visit.

HANNAH ARENDT

Hannah Arendt: German Jewish Philosopher

The Human Condition
Between Past and Future

On Revolution

Men in Dark Times

Crises of the Republic

The Life of the Mind

I found this DVD at the library about a woman I had never heard of named Hannah Arendt. I grew up with a family named Arendt, but we pronounced it like one word “aren’t” . It seems the original is two syllables, like A-rend(t). 

She was an academic tenured professor and wrote about a lot of ideas, but the movie’s story was about her most controversial work called Eichmann in Jerusalem. It had the usual effect on my historical knowledge. It expanded it in a highly relatable format that I love (movie investments are short and sweet, if the writing or the acting or the cinematography is good, and great if it all comes together!) 

Like too many religious critics, her work was often reduced to controversy by word of mouth and reactions based on superficial knowledge instead of actually reading the book! Even the revised audiobook I obtained had a long preamble trying to tell me what I should think about it. It gave context that I better understood than most starting the book, because I had watched the film. Still, it bothered me so I skipped ahead to make up my own mind.

The movie director features actual footage of Eichmann on trial, which is brilliant, and manages, like many European and occasionally Quebec films, to flip back and forth between German, English, and Hebrew casually, spanning her life and languages.

I can’t say yet if the script does justice to her words, and I suspect she has a lifetime of other thoughts that I do not have knowledge of that the screenwriter, as a university professor, most likely does. I do, however, like the way she thinks, making up her own mind, no matter how the cards are laid on the table.

From what I gather, the trial, set in Israel, and made possible with Mossad agents and President Ben Gurion’s involvement skewed the public from the get-go. I have very little knowledge of international law and how it works for crimes against humanity, but (spoiler alert) Eichmann is hanged in short order. 

So far, Hannah Arendt, of the film, is not sure this is the right outcome, which to me is a brave position for a Jewish woman who was interred in France for over a year during the war to have.

Afterwards, I found that McGill library lends the audiobook, and I did errands lost in the first three chapters of her book. I have lots more to learn.

What she clarified for me was the definition of totalitarianism. I don’t think I really understood what it meant before. She defines it as being separate from “despotism, tyranny, and dictatorship”, all more easily understood concepts. This is how she made the much necessary distinction: that totalitarianism “applied terror to subjugate mass populations, not just political adversaries”. 

She is quoted as saying “Niemand hat das Recht zu gehorchen” [No one has the right to obey]. She is credited (although may have later regretted) coining the phrase “banality of evil”, which is in the subtitle of the book on Eichmann’s trial. It was really an astute observation that given the right bureaucratic pressures, we could all be capable of systemic evil. Replace evil with racism or sexism, and it’s a little easier to see.

There is a lecture she gives that I will quote here (subtitled movie English may not be the perfect translation, but with my rudimentary German skills, it seemed to track well):

“Western tradition wrongly assumes that the greatest evils of mankind arise from selfishness. But in our century, evil has proven to be more radical than was previously thought. And now we know that the truest evil, the radical evil, has nothing to do with selfishness or any such understandable sinful motives. Instead, it is based on the following phenomenon; making human beings superfluous as human beings.”

She was talking about the concentration camp system, designed to  convince the prisoners that they were unnecessary before they were murdered. Work doesn’t free you. (ARBEIT MACHT FREI). No matter what you do in that system, it doesn’t matter. The system of the concentration camp teaches you that everything you do is senseless.

In this way, “absolute evil is when it exists, whether humans are in the system, or not”. I would argue (especially in light of the Ukrainian Russian war currently) that all humans are harmed by this evil. Yes, those in it who are not the victims have it better, but they too pay a price to the evil inherent in such systems of systemic racism and dehumanization. For me, the problem I cannot wrap my head around is; how then do you dismantle such a system without too much cost to the humans already serving as cogs in the wheel?

Arendt criticized the cooperation of the Jewish leaders as well as the failure to resist. I imagine my own life at that moment would feel incredibly valuable at the train station before you board the train, even though that would be the best place to revolt, before you are herded towards the gas chamber, or worse. I am not as sure as she was that this obviously the right choice. It must be incredibly hard to risk you life now when everything is screaming  for the need to survive until later. 

What are the options between resistance (which survival instinct may make impossible) and cooperation? 

Another problem I have is that this feels familiar. With no intention to diminish the concentration camp system level of evil, it feels like so many systems in which we humans play the cogs is rigged in such a way that evil exists. It is hard to see how to change it from within. The temptation is to revolt and dismantle, but no one can do that alone. 

So what is my personal responsibility? Eichman is criticized and condemned to death for upholding the rules of a system that ultimately lead to harm for others. How do you know if you are are doing your job for an evil end? If your terrorist cell just gets the victims to the murderers, and you don’t know the murderers, are you responsible? If you follow orders, and are disconnected to the next chain of events, should you blame yourself?

My thoughts are always to the mid-COVID pandemic health care system around me, and how do I find a way to change things that fail our patients. Patients and health care workers seems to be experiencing record high amounts of moral and personal distress in a system that seem, like Eichmann’s work, leads to inherent evils by making it so difficult to do the best by the patient because it is often at cross purposes with the efficiency of the system. 

It is so easy to “just do your job” and go home so overwhelmed and exhausted that you just want not to think about it. But years later, even if it was the job that never allowed time to consider, discuss, evaluate and criticize what the outcome was, aren’t you still to blame?

Those of us who try at every interaction to keep it human can succeed for a beautiful moment. It seems clear to me, however, that these acts of humanity are like cogs, being worn down and crushed again and again under the wheel, which feels no cost to our use and wear. We have to see this, and figure out how to change the way the wheel works. We can’t accept the consumption of our humanity and energy as the price to pay for the system to work. It is clear that right now, don’t win as a rule, then, but as an exception. We need to find a way to change the system so that it spares the cogs and the wheels turn without crushing those in the very system they were designed to serve.

DURA MATER

 My autobiography title translates roughly as tough mother. It is, in part, a story of one of my favourite aspects of life; relating to my daughter. I tell her stories calling her Princess Pirate. Tonight she created a new one when she said good night. I kissed her on her head in a hug, and she said in her best teen voice, “Ugh, you are killing me with kisses!”

I told her a Princess Pirate story recently, and she thought that I was the Queen and her dad was the Pirate, when I always thought it was the other way around.

He liked (and took) the china, crystal glasses, and Waterford utensils. He stayed unemployed for long periods of his life because so many jobs he was eligible for were “beneath” him. He was content to live a tiny life, and only went along, never inspiring or creating any adventures. 

I had the drive to travel, try new things, and do knew things or at least fun things we like. I could care less about china, or crystal, although I do like the feel of well made utensil! I will do whatever it takes, because who else is going to do it if not me?

I am not sure which version bothers me more. As a queen, I have no King, but how does he get the exciting role of pirate? Because this is what male culture assumes, even to my child? It’s not based on his personality, surely?

As the pirate, I feel I am appropriately counter culture, and suits me the best in the coupling of two fantasies that created the amazing Princess Pirate!

STEWART HALL EXHIBITION

rom the permanent exhibition called Visions of Stewart Hall 1885-1963

CHRONOLOGY

1855

Pointe-Claire opens its railway station.

1885

Thomas and Alice Amelia (Armstrong) Crane acquired a parcel of land in Pointe-Claire. Gradually they bought other lots. 

1890 

Upper-class families begin to look for summer homes for fresh air and rest in the country. Charlesvoix and suburban Montreal, along the St. Lawrence becomes a popular choice.

Construction of the villa finished called the Knoll. It was a building made of wood, with turrets, a colonial roof, and a black and white upper story (half-timbered look). There was a windmill that used gravity to provide the villa with water. 

1891

The Cranes owned from Lake St. Louis to the railway, St. Jean to Sunnyview Avenue. They were travelling between Montreal and Toronto for business. They lived in major hotels like the Windsor hotel.

1898

Farm operations were productive enough to require a distribution network for milk and eggs. There were cows, chickens, and pigs. 

1900

Bourgeoisie were increasing in number by the end of the nineteenth century. Most were men from “liberal professions”, but increasingly members of the merchant class. Modern transportations were predominantly trains and steamships. Two-thirds of Canadian fortunes belonged to Montreal’s English community, and the majority of them were of Scottish origin. Most wealthy families lived in homes in the Golden Square Mile or Saint- Antoine neighbour hood (at the foot of the mountain).

1901 

Hugh Andrew Allan buys the Knoll. (Crane keeps part of the land for the Canadian Nursery).

He was the president of the Montreal Ocean Steamship Company (the official carrier of Royal Mail across the Atlantic, and whose oceanliners were the first to be equipped with turbines in 1904), and director of several other corporations (Halifax and East Railway, Grand Trunk Railway, Shipping Federation of Canada)

He was the husband of Margaret Elizabeth. Guests of the Allans would spend the day playing cricket, tennis or enjoying water sports. In the evening, lavish meals, dancing, card game, and business discussions were common. There was even a telephone line installed as soon as it was possible.

Their Montreal residence was on Stanley Street in the Golden Square Mile.

1911

Charles MacLean buys the Knoll and begins constructing a farm. He is the first to live in Pointe-Claire full time.  The farmhouse was ultramodern, made of stone, with heated marble floors, and they played classical music for the cows to get their the best quality of milk. 

This is one year after his first wife, Martha Fulford and their newborn, died. 

Charles was raised in Lachine, and joined the Canadian Army in 1904, and served overseas from 1914-1918 with the Scottish Light Dragoons.

1915-6

The Knoll is demolished to make way for living year round in Pointe-Claire.

Mull Hall is built, inspired by Fulford Place in Brockville, and named after the memory of Clan MacLean’s ancestral home on the Isle of Mull, Scotland. Locally, it was called Château MacLean.

Robert Findlay was the architect of the neoclassical architecture building, with a symmetrical facade, except for the main entrance portico adorned with columns, and a formal colonnaded veranda out back overlooking the water. The walls are made of locally quarried limestone blocks, and the roof was originally covered with cedar shingles. The facade was symmetrical, except for the main entrance portico adorned with columns. The colonnaded veranda was formal in taste.

1917

Charles marries Doris, his second wife, in London.

1919

They returned from Europe to settle at Mull Hull with their first child Ian.

They live as “gentlemen farmers”, for pleasure, with about 25 employees doing the work. 

1920

Morna MacLean was born at a rented suite at the Ritz Carlton.

1931

Muriel MacLean was born.

The children ate most meals in their nursery, on the second floor, with a dumbwaiter bringing up food from the kitchen. When Nannie had the day off, they enjoyed the solarium (located on the west side with a wrought iron frame) or winter garden, with parrots, dogs, and mischief in the fountain!

1940

The Religious of Holy Cross arrived in Montreal in 1847, and are still active internationally today. In Quebec, they founded College de Saint-Laurent, Montreal’s College Notre-Dame, Petits Chanteurs du Mont-Royal, and Les Compagnons de Saint-Laurent (theatre). Saint Brother Andre (born Alfred Bessette, and initiated the construction of Saint-Joseph’s oratory) is their congregation’s most famous member.

The priests buy Mull Hall, and turn it into a noviciate, and operate the farm. They moved from Sainte-Genevieve, and called it Saint Joseph Novitiate. 

The attic was used as a dormitory. 

The chapel was in the room next to the solarium (grand salon) with the altar facing north where the stage sits now.

The basement housed a workshop to make candles for the Oratory. 

They made no major changes except adding a statue of St. Joseph in front of the portico. 

They kept in use the volleyball and tennis courts. 

The initial price was “derisory”, and the farm fed the community with surplus eggs and milk sent to the Saint-Croix priests’ college (now Cegep St Laurent), but it became a financial burden as the student numbers dwindled.

The priests lived reclusively during the 17 years there.

1950s 

Montreal suburbs experience a boom, and farmland starts to be subdivided and sold to developers.

1957

Development Corporation buys the property, with plans to tear down the mansion and build high-rises (in 1959)

1958

The farm is destroyed in a fire, and the abandoned Mull Hall suffers serious damage during the winter.

1959

Walter Montcrieff and “May” Beatrice Stewart (born in Jamaica, trained as nurse in Edinburgh) lived as neighbours to the MacLeans for nearly a decade just east of Mull House (now Stewart Avenue). They buy the property before the demolition occurred. 

Walter was heir to the Macdonald Tobacco fortune (shared with his brother Thomas Howard, their father Sir William Macdonald). He was the sole head of the business from the 1920s to 1968.

 He met May at the Royal Victoria Hosptial, and were philanthropists, donating to  Macedonian College, McGill University and the RVH. May wanted to save the MacLean house. They bought it anonymously before it could be demolished.

On September 12, the Stewarts sell it to the City of Pointe-Claire for $1, with the understanding that it would be developed as a park, and maintained in perpetuity.

The city opened dialogue with the citizens of Pointe-Claire to decide the future use of this newly acquired building. Vi Duncanson headed the committee that proposed to use it as a cultural Center, which the city accepts. The goals were to make culture more democratic and to provide access to high quality courses and content. 

1962 

Stewart Hall Cultural Center opens, with Vi(olet) Duncanson as the administrative director. She involved Jean-Paul Morissette (director of National Art Gallery), Evan Turner (director of Montreal Museum of Fine Arts), and Winthrop Judkins (McGill University professor and art historian) in the designing of the first policies. She hired Helen Judkins and Ruth Auersperg to develop the culture programs and art gallery.

It was inaugurated in 1963 by Governor General George Vanier.

It was remodelled with a new roof, HVAC, and to house the new functions. The third floor became the Art Gallery, the second a library, and the ground floor and basement housed various associations. Because of the Cold War, the Pointe-Claire Rifle Club was among the first, with a shooting gallery set up in the basement! Other groups included Claycrafters Pottery Studio, Lakeshore Weavers Guild, Lakeshore Camera Club, and The Stewart Hall Seniors.

1967

Art Rental and Sales Service starts and continues to present day.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Archives of the Lake St. Louis Historical Society 

City of Pointe-Claire Archives

Stewart Hall Archives

Album universal, Vol.22, no.1113, pp.560-561, Sept. 2, 1905 Bibliotheque Nationale du Quebec

SALT AND IRON AND THE MILITARY MIGHT OF CHINESE HISTORY

 China has many inventions to be proud of. They include paper (Marco Polo took it to Italy), printing, gunpowder, and the compass. They used their beginning of 4000 years of written word to record their history of inventions!

The Chinese creator is Pangu, who made humans from the parasites on his body. He died but he was followed by wise rulers. Fuji domesticated animals, and invented marriage. Shennong invented medicine, agriculture, trade, the plow and hoe. Huangdi (Yellow Emperor) invented writing, bow and arrow (weaponry), the cart (transportation), and ceramics. Legend says presided over the the first war over salt. Yao passed over his unqualified son to name Shun, a modest sage, his successor. 

Salt was harvested in crystal form each summer when a Shanxi lake called Yuncheng dried up around 6000 BC. It took until 800 BC for salt production to be recorded. They boiled ocean water in  clay pots to reduce it to salt crystals. 1000 years after the Chinese account was written, the Roman Empire spread the same technique through souther Europe. 

Iron first came into use in China around 1000 BC,  so Confucius taught morality after it’s invention, but before salt was being boiled in iron pans.  The western Qin (“chin”) state had a new philosophy develop, called legalism. They attempted to oust aristocracy, and attempted to create a meritocracy system that rewarded achievement. Unfortunately, by 221 AD, Qin took the Qi policy of price-fixing, which exploited the desperate and asked of them the highest prices for salt. A monopoly on salt and iron, justified for economic stability for the state, raised the prices even further. It would also be taxed for revenue over the centuries.

The conquering Qin state was the first dynasty to be ruled by an Emperor, which would continue until 1911. The revenues from salt would fund armies and the Great Wall, in defence against the Huns. Although the monopolies would be debated the Han dynasty with discussions of the “responsibilities of good government” (“duties of grove ent ent, state profit versus private initiative, the logic and limit of military spending, the rights and limits of goverment to interfere in the economy”), recorded in the Discourse on Salt and Iron, they would remain in place until the first century AD.

During the Tang Dynasty, the salt monopoly returned, after a six century hiatus. Aristocrats would show off their salt wealth by serving pure salt at the dinner table, in a lavish, ornate saltcellar. Now we can buy it at the dollar store, and find it so cheap that I cannot imagine there is a household without a box of it in their cupboard or a shaker near their table.

There are two great rivers in Chinese history, both running from the Tibetan plateau to drain to the East coast. There is the Yangtze, which is the wider and more navigable, and the Yellow river, which is knows as “the father of all floods” and named for the silt that colours it yellow.

The golden age of ancient China was ruled by wise Emperor Yao, and it was believed he tamed nature and introduced the much appreciated concept of flood control. This became part of his mythology. By 250 BC (Punic Wars raged in the Mediterranean between Carthage and Rome over Sicily), that mythology was becoming reality. Water management skills were critical in the development of China, and hydraulic engineering skills and political leadership went hand in hand. At this time,  Li Bing was the governor of Shu, Sichuan, and he built China’s first dam called Dujiangyan that still functions in a modernized form, off a tributary of Yangtze. He placed 3 stone figures in the water as gauges. If their feet were visible, the dam’s gate’s were opened to let in water. If their shoulders were submerged, the dam’s gates were closed. It is because of this system that eastern Sichuan became an affluent agricultural center of China. It was recorded as “Land of Abundance”. Two later versions of the stone figures, carved in 168 AD were discovered, and is ascribed to be the figure of Li Bing.He is considered one of the greatest geniuses of hydraulic engineering of all time. He also discovered that natural brine did not originate where it was found, and drilled the first brine wells.

At first, the brine wells were wide, and as the drilling skills improved, the shafts got narrower. Sometimes those drilling wells were poisoned, and explosions occurred. By 100 AD, the concern for evil spirits was replaced with the utility of the invisible substance, and this was the first use of natural gas in the world. They learned to insulate bamboo tubes and pipe the gas to boiling houses, where brine was cooked into salt crystals. By 200 AD, iron pots helped the process further.  Complex webs of bamboo piping resembling rollarcoasters transported the brine throughout the Sichuan countryside. By the 11th century percussion drilling advanced things further.

Salt, for a long time, was so precious that it was stretched by using it in condiments instead. From the Mediterranean to SE Asia, fish fermented in salt was a popular condiment. In China, soybeans were added, and eventually fish was dropped. Soy sauce came first from China, but was brought to Japan by Buddhist missionaries in 6th century. By the tenth century, Japan had industrialized soya sauce and sold it around the world. 

Other notable inventions from the Chinese: fish farming, arrows, and gun powder (from saltpeter).

Mao, during his 1950s literacy campaign, simplified the language to 40,000 characters, and although the words are completely different (jiangyou and shoyu), the character was the same in Japanese and Chinese.

Fermenting soy beans was done by “lactic acid fermentation” or pickling. Fortunately, this happens at room temperature (64-71degrees). Full immersion of the vegetables prevents oxygen (by sealing or weighting down the vegetables) and around 1% of the vegetables weight in salt keeps them from rotting. 

1000 year old eggs take 100 days to make, and keep another 100 days (but better earlier on!)

SALT AND INTENTION

 FOR PRINCESS PIRATE

I am on the train today and trying to read a book for book club. As I have told you, I don’t like it and I’m not sure I will finish. It doesn’t draw me right now like Rick Riordan’s series on Jason does. So I just finished a page and a half, I am already off on a tangent based on this fact: The communist leader of China named Mao, in attempt to improve literacy, simplified the shared characters of Chinese and Japanese to a total of 40,000. This is a number that seems, to me as an English speaker, attainable. But it’s an investment of time, and it would still take a lot of time, so most of us will not learn them. Honestly most of us won’t even try.

Sometimes I think, at least I am one of the those who have tried and fail. I think this a good thing, but it is only the first step, and it’s important that I not feel too proud, because it is truly only a good thing if a keep on trying after I fail. 

The book Salt is explaining the origin of soy sauce. The Chinese salted their fish to keep longer, and this is the basis of Asian cooking. The word is Jiang. The salt and fish had soya added to it. Eventually the fish was left out of it, and it was called Jiangyu. After the Chinese, Japan started using their own soya sauce and called it Shoyu. They industrialized it so we probably got it from Japan before China. We call it soya sauce, and despite being two different words in two different languages, the character for both Chinese and Japanese is identical. 

It got me to think about the idea that it takes 10,000 times to do something well. It’s actually necessary that you do it with intention, and, therefore, improve what you are doing, but that’s another story. I started to do the math. If you or I do something every day, that’s 365 days a year. In three years that’s a thousand times. Imagine how easy it is for 3 years to go by without doing anything. It takes a tremendous amount of intention, planning, and action, but it is easily started. 30 years every day, you get to 10, 000 times. Actually, it’s 27 years, 145 years. 

The truth is, like usual, somewhere in between. Look at what you did in your first three years. Sure, you walk and run better than ever, but you were walking and talking and running and eating and laughing and learning in that short period of time, with leaps and bounds of improvement. One year of every day becomes three years, and three years of intention is a remarkable improvement. 

So, Princess Pirate, start something today. Do it again tomorrow. Plan what you want for your future and work towards it. It may take a long time, but anything is possible if you start it today!

TONIGHT I HAVE THE WORST JOB IN THE WORLD

I was just about to go to bed tonight after a nail-biting 14 hours of call. I had started to imagone a long walk tomorrow morning for a decadent coffee after a sleep-in without alarm, and time to shop for needed extra scrubs so that if I forget them at home, I have an extra pair in my car. 

It all came to a screeching halt thirty minutes ago when I got a call with no name. I answered it with hesitation, knowing where my notes are for code orange, and praying it was not a disaster that would be remembered in the minds of Montrealers for decades to come, like Dawson was.

The best of all worlds, which is why I have determined to have the worst job in the world, is the following: without any time to sleep before hand (anyone who does nights knows this is a mistake), I am called in to do the night shift. That’s my best cast scenario. On a 24 hour day of call, I get to work the worst shift, with no appreciable notice, and my tomorrow day off is written off.

You can’t pay someone enough for this to be worth it. Other work places, you are on call and called in, you stay home the next day and the hours worked overnight count. To us, it’s just additional work.

So, tonight I have the worst job in the world. My consolation seems sadistic in context, because the only way I can make this seem better to remind myself that at least I am not a patient.