I saw yesterday that Macdonald's (or Macdonald in Quebec) is promoting a 1967 burger. They are trying to lure us organic types with memories of the Best Year Ever. Looks like a typical burger, but maybe the beef isn't as toxic. Maybe they might sell 1967 peaches. Ones that are juicy and fresh and not mushy and gross.(What have they done to peaches this year???)
I ate hamburger raw back then in 1967. Basically. From my mother's kitchen, wonderfully spiced by her. Macdonald's hadn't made it to Quebec. I think only Kentucky Fried Chicken... or maybe that was later, too. Mike's Subs came in the early seventies, I think. In 1967, my family sometimes ordered Chinese from the House of Wong on Queen Mary Road.
A and W maybe was around back then. But I was too young to have a boyfriend and my father would never have spent money on fast food. The Orange Julep on Decarie was a popular place. I probably only went there once or twice, though.
Also, in the News. Dick Cheney is slated to come to Vancouver to give a talk to promote his book (as if he needs more money. Am I right. Didn't one of his companies make a fortune from HINI, Tamiflu vaccine. Maybe I am wrong. And then there's Haliburton.
Anyway, a Human Rights group said Cheney should be denied entry due to his war crimes, his brazen defence of waterboarding and other torture.
Is Dick Cheney our Sumida Haruzo? Sumida Haruzo was the Kempei Tai soldier who led the waterboarding at Changi Prison during the Double Tenth. He was tried and sentenced to death and his trial is, apparently, a law school classic. (I lent my copy to a scholar researching Ethel Mulvany at Changi.)
I wrote about him (and mentioned Mulvany) in my play Looking for Mrs. Peel, as my grandmother, Dorothy Nixon, was tortured in the Double Tenth Incident. I had her diary or memoirs to work with.
www.tighsolas.ca/page3.pdf.pdf.
Hmm. I saw Cheney interviewed on TV in the US and he claims that the 7 years post 9-11 where there was no attack on the US was proof everything he did was Right and GOOD. By that logic, Peace in Our Time is proof that Police States work.
Pretty scary logic. Makes Democracy seem doomed. I believe it is. TED.com is featuring a talk where a Chinese man argues that democracy is bad for economic growth. (Or does he, I just saw the promo. I didn't listen to it as I didn't want to be depressed.)
Speaking of Tamiflu, we went to see Contagion yesterday and we liked it. A grown up movie. It reminded me of another film, in tone and pace, I just couldn't think of which one. Then at the end I saw in the credits that Contagion was a Stephen Soderbergh film. I still couldn't remember which film...It kept thinking "Crash" but then I remembered crash was by that Canadian Due South guy..Haggis..So I argued this with my husband over an expensive dinner in Pointe Claire. Outside on a terrace with the St. Jean Street traffic zooming by! It was 25 degrees at 6 pm. In late September. My husband said Crash was by Cronenberg. Anyway, it's the movie Traffic I was thinking of.
Oh, and Jennifer Ehle was in Contagion, speaking American, so it took me a long time to definitively believe it was her. Some of those Pride and Prejudice acting ticks still there, though, so I worked it out by her fourth or so scene. My, she looks young! She's also in the upcoming George Clooney movie, Ides of March, which was previewed at the before the movie.
Oh, and Colin Firth is going to star in a movie the Railway Man which appears to be based on a true story about the Thai Burma Railway. He promoted some action called Democracy is not a Spectator Sport in the UK last fall, I think. It was based on a similar Matt Damon sponsored event.
Matt Damon is in Contagion. See. This blog post comes together nicely. Oh and I drank a Root beer at the movie. I generally hate POP but they had no coffee. And I like Root Beer a bit because it reminds me of A and W and 1967.
