Bevboy's Blog

Post 1916 - Now, That's More Like It!

2012-02-19T17:55:00.000-08:00

Slept in until so late in the morning, it was barely morning at all. And, by 2:15 or so, I had to take a nap, not getting up until after 4pm. Today was one of those days when I didn't know if there was something wrong with me, or if I was just being terminally lazy. I'd be willing to bet on the latter.

I will be taking Tuesday as a vacation day, in the Valley. It will be Shrove Tuesday. I am not Catholic, or even Anglican; but I do not ignore any excuse to check out pancakes and sausage. Turns out that there will be a Shrove Tuesday supper at the church that's an easy distance from my mother's. I will probably go there and cover this important event for Bevboy's Blog.

I am learning more and more about Halifax radio history from the FB group I am on that's called "Halifax Radio Memories". One guy, Scott Snailham, managed to save 100 or more reel to reel tapes from the dumpster when CHNS moved from its old Tobin Street offices to Barrington Street. It is so interesting, listening to these old radio shows that he managed to save. A couple are from the 1940's. It is so sad that 99.9% of this material is lost to us forever. You may not care, but those of us in the group, do. It does speak to our cultural heritage.

Have a good evening.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 1915 - Where Did The Day Go?

2012-02-18T19:18:00.000-08:00

Let's see here. I slept in until very late. I got up. I tackled the laundry all afternoon and into the evening. I cooked fish for dinner, so the house smells like a brothel on a Sunday morning. Sorry for that mental image. It's late and I can't think of anything better.

Tomorrow, when I eventually get out of bed, I will do more laundry and probably, sigh, wash the dishes. If there is a more unholy task other than washing dishes, I'd like to know what it is.

Newbie has been strangely standoffish this evening. I mean, all cats are like that. He is more standoffish than usual. He sits atop my modem and router. I think he just wants to head off to bed. I will oblige him shortly.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 1914 - Hal Sproule on Annapolis Valley Radio

2012-02-17T07:51:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my weekend, folks!

You are looking at a jpeg image of the obituary of Annapolis Valley Radio broadcaster Hal Sproule. As you can see, it is from early 1983. I would have clipped it from the paper back in the day. I recently found the obit in a scrapbook and scanned it into my computer.

I don't know much about Hal Sproule. I do recall he pronounced his last name on air so that it would rhyme with the name of his show, called "Hal's Corral". I remember that he left the air for a time only to return. Then, he died.

I have one other memory of Hal Sproule, and it is possible that I am mis-attributing it to another AVR broadcaster. Some of you older folks may remember "Kung Fu Fighting", a 1974 hit by one-hit wonder Carl Douglas. You can find the original video/song on Youtube. It is far too cheesy to run here (I do have some standards), so I will run the Cee Lo Green version below:

(How cheesy is the original version? As cheesy as the cheese on sale at Superstore the week before Christmas. Yeah. That cheesy!)

Anyway, Hal Sproule/whoever was playing "Kung Fu Fighting" one morning and back sold it when it was over. So smitten with the song was he, that he picked up the needle and dropped it again on the latter part of the song, replaying that portion of it.

I used to think it was a dumb thing to do, but if it has stayed in my brain for the better part of 40 years now, it may have been one of the smartest things I have ever heard on the radio. And, I am pretty sure it was Hal Sproule who did this, all those years ago!

I am going to link this blog post to that FB group in the hope that people reading it will have some comments to make about this veteran broadcaster, either as direct comments to the post, or on the FB group.

What are your memories of Hal Sproule?

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 1913 - The Weekend's Here!

2012-02-16T17:27:00.001-08:00

In off on Friday, which means that I have a 3 day weekend. Sleeping in! Eating. Afternoon naps. Catching up on "Supernatural". Another nap. Watching "Spartacus" before lying down for a spell.

Ah!

I can hardly wait.

See you tomorrow.

From Bevboy's BlackBerry to BevBoy's Blog!

Post 1912 - Burp!

2012-02-15T17:09:00.001-08:00

You are looking at today's lunch. Actually you are looking at the second helping of today's lunch.

I was on an Oracle overview course all day, downtown. Usually at these things, you are lucky if they give you 3 day-old sandwiches somebody found in a dumpster and dusted off and presented to you for your eating pleasure. If they have cookies, they are the kind that bakeries sell on a given day because if they don't sell them that day, then they cannot be sold at all. The coffee is the kind of coffee that you wouldn't want to ingest for fear of what it will do to your gastro-intestinal system.

When I got there this morning, they had juice. They had really good coffee and muffins and other things. I saw cereals. Cereal. Corn flakes! Count Chocula. Whatever it was, it was cereal. I don't have that stuff at home!

The lunch was served around 11:15, so that we could reconvene the session at noon sharp. In the above picture, those are cubes of roast beef. Underneath is some kind of potatoes stuffed with what may be cheese. They had steamed veggies. All manner of bread. Some kind of lobster-based side dish.

There was soup, chicken with 7 types of rice. I didn't count them all. I saw the sign next to the soup and took their word for it. Sometimes, you just have to do that. Know what I mean?

I decided to load up a second plate but only managed to eat about half of it. Eyes bigger than belly syndrome affected me.

The afternoon was all about staying awake after all those carbs and all that meat. We finished the session around 2:15 and walked to the car that would transport us to work.

The rest of the afternoon was full of regret over having eaten so much. I know other guys ate as much as I did, and probably more, but I am not responsible for them. I am only responsible for myself. I hate it when people get more food than I do.

I went to TM after work, and it was a good meeting. Of course, the day after Valentine's, there was left over candy. More damned food. Was Bev-Girl trying to kill me? What did I do to her?

Patricia and I met where I told her my car was. I got there by rolling down the hill and hanging a right on Granville and stopping when I reached the legislature. On the way here, she got something to eat at Planet Organic on Quinpool.

Frig, I can't even look at food right now, so I left Patricia upstairs and came down here while she ate her dinner. It is an hour later, and I will shortly move my bloated carcass upstairs and go to bed, sleeping off all the victuals I consumed today.

The moral of the story is, there will always be more food for another meal, so don't stuff yourself at any one sitting. Nothing good can come from it.

Oh, one final thought.

When can I go on that kind of course again? After all, tomorrow is another day.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 1911 - A Glasses Rant!

2012-02-14T18:01:00.000-08:00

First of all, Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

I ordered flowers for Patricia last week, and they arrived at her work this morning. She likes them. I just tell them every time, "Send her more of what I ordered last time", and they do. In return, this evening, she made me a grilled cheese sandwich. It was a really good sandwich, with onions and salami, and two layers!

I just had an observation about glasses, the kind you wear over your eyes to augment your vision. I have had to wear glasses since I was 6 years old, which wasn't yesterday. I have become so reliant on them that I need them for nearly everything. I need them for when I evacuate my bladder. I need them for reading. I need them for driving. When I renewed my driver's license 2 years ago, I was asked if I wanted it specified on the license that I must wear "proper visual correction". I told the clerk that she could put it on there if she wanted to, but that I was going to wear glasses whether the wording was present or not. She nodded knowingly, and didn't bother to add that phrase to my license.

This sets me up for my mini rant.

I don't get it how people who don't need glasses for everything, treat their spectacles. They place the lenses on top of their head and walk around as if they had a second pair of eyes up there. Civil rights attorney William Kuntsler did this for several decades. He'd wear his glasses on top of his head and them bring them down over his eyes like a visor when he needed them for some reason, like this:

If you can find me a picture on the internet of Kuntsler actually wearing his glasses, I'll give you a big kiss, especially if you're an attractive woman of child-bearing years on the rebound after your latest failed relationship, and about to ovulate.

Other people fold their glasses up and carry them around in their hand, getting sweat and hand grease all over them. They can never keep them clean. I don't know how they can manage when they do wear them.

And, my very favourite, something that happens in movies all the time, but never in real life, not even once. A man is having a conversation with another person. The first man makes some kind of point. The second man, wearing glasses, to emphasize his own point, snatches them off his face and says something like, "You don't say?"

Here's an example of this:

In my nearly 48 years on this planet, I have never seen the above happen. People who wear glasses all the time, need to. We don't take them off except at night when we go to bed. Why do these silly actors and screen writers get this wrong? Don't they ever wear "proper visual correction"?

In the world of 7 billion souls, hundreds of millions of us wear glasses. We don't want to, but we do. It is a curse of myopia, of our genes, of the eventual macular degeneration which will eventually make the books in my house suitable only for wiping my nose after a good sneeze. Why do people continue to make fun of us, mock us, ridicule us, for something that's not our fault? And, why do the folks who don't need glasses very much, bother wearing them in places other than in front of their eyes? Or carry them around to attract dirt and dust and grease? What the frig is wrong with these people? Makes me want to kick their ass.

As soon as I can find my glasses, that's exactly what I'll do.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 1910 - Getting There

2012-02-13T17:33:00.000-08:00

I spent my lunch hour today, and about 2 hours tonight, transcribing a blog interview I conducted more than 3 months ago. I am sorry to my client that it has taken this long. I have quite a ways to go yet. I will get there.

Some of you wonder why some of these posts are so brief. It is often because of the circumstances described in the previous paragraph. When I spend 2-3 hours a day typing my little paws off, it is hard to find the time to turn around and write some kind of decent blog post.

I am getting there, though, with the interview. It is taking nice shape. I hope to be finished it within the next 10 days or so. One audio file is 45 minutes long. It will take me a couple of days to make my way through that one.

After that, I have an interview with Julia Kirkey to crack open and transcribe. Katey Day and I talked for 90 minutes or so a few months ago and we barely scratched the surface of her fascinating life. She's met so many interesting people like Mick and Keith of the Rolling Stones. She will work at Lite 92.9 until she goes off the air on Friday, and then hightail it do a show in Moncton that evening, going on stage at 10 or so. I don't know how she maintains that kind of schedule. I'm looking forward to sharing the interview with you.

Haven't seen Patricia for a couple of hours while I have been down here typing my finger tips off. Guess I'll go see how the old gal is doing.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 1909 - Yes

2012-02-12T17:17:00.000-08:00

Yes. I am back in the city. I drove back this afternoon. I wonder: When did it become fashionable not to salt the roads or even to clear them? I had to drive along the middle part of the101 this afternoon to avoid driving in the snow.

It was no better on the side roads. Even the road my mother lives on wasn't plowed or cleared or salted or anything else'd. Once again: when did they decide that doing those things on our roads would not be a wise thing to do?

Anyway.

I got back here mid-afternoon. Patricia greeted me as only she could: She presented me with some rotted vegetation from the back of the refrigerator and "asked" me to throw it in the green bin. "Asked" in the way a woman "asks" a man to do anything. You know what I mean, guys. And you know what I mean, too, ladies. Shame on you all.

I was white-knuckled the whole time driving back to the city. I managed to get on Live 105 with a brief traffic report, which is always cool, to hear myself on the radio. But it tuckered me out, so I decided to take a short nap when I got home. Two hours later, I got up and watched the news and ate something and made my way downstairs, where I've been for the last 2 hours. Time just flies by down here in my home office.

It's the beginning of a shorter work week for me. Four day work week. I promise to think about you on Friday.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 1908 - Jump

2012-02-11T19:14:00.001-08:00

I'm back to my mother's on a stormy Saturday night. I was out most of the evening at the Al Whittle Theatre in Wolfville to see the musical Jump.

I really liked it. It was a high school show that featured tons of pop songs from the 1980's. Much of the acting was good. The singing was inconsistent but the girls seemed to be better.

The production was marred by some mistakes that were hard to overlook. More than a few times, people who were micced were cut off as they sang. Voices dropped in and out. Disappointing.

My friend Neil Spence played bass guitar as part of the production's house band. He was great. He's in the accompanying picture.

I really enjoyed Jump. I wish I had gone other years. If it's back next year, I'd like to go. Maybe I'll take you if you're nice to me.

See you tomorrow.

From Bevboy's BlackBerry to BevBoy's Blog!

Post 1907 - Oh

2012-02-10T17:10:00.001-08:00

The final Cub Carson show today was very good. I'm really gonna miss him. Wish him and his family all the best.

Judging from the Facebook page for Cub and Live 105 today, lots of other people will miss Cub as well.

Sniff!

From Bevboy's BlackBerry to BevBoy's Blog!

Post 1906 - Newbie in The Valley

2012-02-10T17:08:00.001-08:00

Welcome to my mother's. Got here about 90 minutes ago. Patricia remains in the city.

Tomorrow, I will be taking my mother shopping. That involves a multi hour expedition to the malls that will leave me exhausted but my mother wanting more. Sigh.

See? Even Newbie has no sympathy for me.

See you tomorrow.

From Bevboy's BlackBerry to BevBoy's Blog!

Post 1905 - Cub Carson: Farewell To Nova Scotia!

2012-02-09T18:02:00.000-08:00

Canadian radio folks have a website to go to when they want their radio news or to hear, officially, of a job opportunity somewhere. It is called The Milkman. I do not understand why it's called that, but here's the website.

In it, I have learned all kinds of things. Who's been hired. Who's been fired. Radio station format changes. My recent favourite story was the radio station in Calgary that decided to fire every one of its on air staff and replace them with new folks they were hoping to hire from ads in The Milkman. The new station would be called Up! 97.7. I don't think it was a very "up" day for the poor sods who lost their jobs that day. But that's the way the radio medium works. And I'm digressing again.

You can imagine my surprise when, 10 days ago, I went to The Milkman and saw that Cub Carson, who has been with Halifax's Live 105 since they went on the air in October of 2010, was going to leave that fine station and return to Ottawa, where his many fans have missed him, where much of his family is. His first day at Bob FM in Ottawa will be February 13th, a scant 4 days from now.

I wrote Cub, and he confirmed it. He was told to keep it fairly quiet until his last day at Live 105, which is Friday the 10th. I have respected that wish and not written about it until now.

Live 105's former PD, Rob Johnson, actually told Cub and Floyd that there was a guy in Halifax named Bevboy who would contact them both for an interview. Rob assured them that I was harmless and meant no ill will to them. I hereby thank Rob Johnson for paving the way for me!

When Cub and I met for lunch at The Pogue Fado in early 2011, he was friendly and gregarious and fulsome as he regaled me with his radio stories. He treated me as if we were old friends instead of the merest of acquaintances, and I will never forget his kindness to me. Most of those stories are in the published interview, which you can find easily by tracing your mouse down the right hand part of the screen and clicking on the Cub Carson label.

A few months later, Patricia and I ran into Cub and Floyd as they were cleaning windows outside Durty Nelly's in downtown Halifax. Cub was a gentleman with Patricia, and she never forgot that.

Not long after that, Brad Dryden from C100 invited me to Durty Nelly's for some appetizers as a way to thank me for something I had done for him. He promised that Cub would be there as well. They are old friends, you see, who worked together for a time in Ottawa. They posed for a couple of pictures with me. I will try to include one with this blog post.

Where was I?

Oh, yes.

Cub Carson has been the driving force behind the success of Live 105. He took a station that interested me from and for Day One, and made me come back for Day Two and Three and a whole lot of days that followed. Halifax radio won't be the same without Cub Carson. I will miss him a lot.

(Of course, Floyd and Christina and Scotty Mars and JD Desrosiers all played a strong role in getting the station off the air as well; not taking anything away from them. New hires Neil Spence (I'd kill to have a voice like his!), Morgan and Dexter have done a great job delivering the Live sound.)

I will come out and state now that, of all the private radio stations in Halifax, I listen to Live 105 the most, by a wide margin. Cub has been a big part of the reason why. Honestly, ladies and gentlemen, if you don't listen to Live 105, then give it a try. Even though Cub is leaving, it will still be around and still be terrific. His successor is my friend Jeff Cogswell, and you will love him, too. Here's the link to their website.

Cub, thank you for your service to Halifax radio over the last 15 months. You have made me laugh and cringe at some of the "Which One and Why" questions, and because of my participation in that contest last year, I won the biggest prize I have ever won on the radio. I wish you and yours all the best in your future career.

Who knows? Maybe you'll want to come back here some day. We'd all love that.

A Bevboy can always hope, can't he?

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 1904 - A Long Day

2012-02-08T18:16:00.000-08:00

Is it the weekend yet? I mean, really? Is it the weekend yet?

Been a very long day, and it's not over yet. I have to get up for work in a scant 7 hours.

I had a good TM meeting tonight. The table topics were especially fun. I will tell you about them.

We were presented with 4 envelopes. The first one contained a noun. The second, a verb. The 3rd, a colour. The final one, another noun. The sequence would produce a sentence, and we had to find a way for it to make sense. Mine was "Elvis Presley running gray hair". I likened it to a conspiracy as to how Elvis Presley could make it to the age of 42 years old without getting any gray hair. I started going gray a long time ago, long before 42. Yet, Elvis didn't get any. What's up with that?

Grabbed a slice of pizza on the way home. Got home and fed Cindy and Newbie. Watched a bit of tv. Tried to connect to work via rdp and realized I forgot some information I need to do so. Silly me.

Tomorrow is Thursday, and Patricia tells me that she will be so busy at work that she won't have time to talk to me, probably all day. I'll have to have a liquid lunch to get over this terrible repudiation. Maybe I'll have a good cry. Have a Dr. Phil tear-up-my-pictures-of-her moment. Works for me.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 1903 - That's Better

2012-02-07T16:15:00.000-08:00

It's been a funny day for me. Work meetings this afternoon when I don't go to very many meetings. Some people take them for granted. I really don't.

There's a new Chinese restaurant in our neigbhourhood, so we went there after work this evening. It's in the same spot as the previous Chinese place, which pulled up stakes and left town very suddenly. Have no idea what happened there. It had been there for years. Just as mysteriously, another Chinese place opened up in the very same location. The food is better than the old place. The prices may be a bit cheaper. At least at this place, they don't keep a big bowl of cooked rice just outside the Men's room.

We watched the second episode of the current season of Spartacus just now. The new Spartacus is not as compelling an actor as the late Andy Whitfield, but I understand why the producers wanted to carry on with the show.

Later on this evening, "The River" starts, for 2 hours. The New York Times didn't like it much. I am not sure what to expect. I figure, if I'm still awake when it's over, I at least tolerated it. If Newbie is able to convince me to turn in for the evening during the show, then I guess it wasn't meant to be. You know how convincing he can get.

Tomorrow night is Toastmasters night. We're having a special meeting. Come to think of it, all the meetings are special. But this one's extra special because of the bus strike. Patricia will be attending, something that she hasn't done in quite some time.

No. Didn't transcribe anything today. Sorry. Soon. Very soon.

Have a good evening, folks.

Bevboy

Post 1902 - A Long Monday

2012-02-06T18:08:00.000-08:00

It's the 3rd business day of the bus strike. I have to admit, traffic could be a lot worse. Even after work, when I picked up Patricia around 4:40, and a quick trip to a friend's house on the way home, we got home by 5:25, which is not that unusual.

I have done not much this evening. There were a bunch of cardboard boxes in the house that I had to break down and prepare for the recycling folks tomorrow. They make you work so hard for the privilege of taking your stuff. In the good old days, you could take those boxes and throw them out your window or something. Today, you have to break them down and lash them together with string or twine. I am surprised that they don't try to make you use string or twine of a certain colour or length.

Anyway, a bunch of those boxes will go in my recycling tomorrow. Which took a while to do. Which means I didn't have a chance, yet again, to get back to transcribing pieces of the latest Bevboy's Blog interview. Which I know you're wondering about to the point of distraction. Which makes me feel bad. Which makes me want to work on it during my lunch hour. Which means that an email I owe a friend will have to wait. Which will disappoint me for taking so long to get back to him. Which will make him not be my friend any more. Which will made me feel sad. Which will make the quality of the blog go down. Which will upset all ten of you who read it every day. Which will... oh, never mind.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 1901 - Another Sunday

2012-02-05T18:28:00.000-08:00

It is relatively late on Sunday night. I will be turning in shortly. Newbie is looking at me with that look of his. Soon, buddy. Soon.

I slept in this morning to a shameful degree. I got up and ate something. Watched a very funny SNL compilation of the best of Alec Baldwin. I hadn't seen some of those skits in 20 years and they're just as funny now as they were back then.

I finally decided to tackle the laundry, which took me into the evening. Whilst doing that, I surfed the web for a while.

Someone else wants a copy of the Ada McCallum documentary, so I made a copy thereof. I am providing these discs for educational and research purposes only. Not profiting in any way, shape, or form. Just so you know.

There is something new to learn in that documentary, every time I see it. I played back a small portion of it last night. Ada bought lots of land during her lifetime, some of it being in parts of Dartmouth. Rumour has it that she named some of the streets she had built, after some of her girls. I looked up some of those streets last night, and they're still there, out past Lake Loon. Angela Drive. Eunice Avenue. Other streets, all apparently named after hookers!

I will watch the documentary many more times. You don't care, but I do.

Back to work tomorrow. Business day 3 of the bus strike. We will leave as early as we can to avoid the heavy traffic. Wish us luck.

Newbie is looking at me again. Guess I'll call it a night.

It's a night.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 1900 - It Holds Up. And A Special Blog Announcement

2012-02-04T18:26:00.000-08:00

Welcome to post 1900, ladies and gentlemen!

Being a Saturday, we slept in until quite late. We did get up eventually, though.

I did the dishes. Of course, it took a long time. After they were over, I plunked down on the couch and watched a cooking show with Patricia. Yes, I was that bored. However, the host had such a good idea for a salad, what he called a chicken wing salad, that it inspired me to make something similar for lunch, so I did.

Rolled some cut up chicken breasts, boneless and skinless, in flour. Cooked it, adding some red pepper flakes. Let it rest. To the same frying pan, I added equal parts margarine and Frank's Hot Sauce and fried that with a bit of ketchup.

To the bowl that had the chieken, I poured on the liquid and then added lettuce and tomato and feta cheese. Mixed all of that together, and it was an excellent salad.

I know. You don't care.

Anyway, the emails started coming in requesting a copy of the Ada McCallum documentary. I made some copies of it, for research and educational purposes only of course. Late this afternoon, we watched the thing on TV. It still holds up. It is still fascinating, but at the same time, frustrating. So little is known of Ada, on the record, officially, that they had to work on speculation more than a little. It is intimated that, late in life, Ada bought and subdivided properties which ended up with street names named after some of her best girls. They showed some names. They refused to focus in on the house she lived in and ran her business from, on Windsor Street but indicated it was very close to the Jehovah's Witness Hall. I drive past there every day on my way to work. I still think it's across the street from the hall. Hard to say. Also hard to say whether this is the place where actress Ellen Page currently lives. Another viewing of the documentary will be in order. Many people who knew her, and availed themselves of her services, would not speak on the record. After all these years, I'm sure that they would still refuse to speak on the record. Cowards, all of them.

Watching the documentary is also depressing in that they show many old Halifax structures that simply no longer exist. The whorehouse at the former 51 Hollis Street, across from where the Lt. Governor lives, became a parking lot and will be part of a future development. The Morris Lodge was torn down and is now the eyesore at 1313 Barrington Street. The Dresden Hotel is history as well. They showed a picture of the old Halifax Police Headquarters, probably the one that was part of the section of the city razed to create Scotia Square and the Cogswell Interchange.

It is sad, contemplating the pieces of old Halifax that no longer exist. Which is what leads me to the following blog announcement: I am willing to discuss with anyone, any time, anywhere, aspects of the so-called "old" Halifax. If you have an anecdote to share about a building in the downtown or in the South End or something, then leave a comment on this blog and I'll be happy to publish it. Any stories of interesting old characters forgotten today? Any cool ghost stories or local legends? Send them my way. I want to know about them. Tell everyone that Bevboy wants to hear these stories and will provide a free forum for their exchange!

A couple of rules.

I'm primarily interested in the history of Halifax. I'll go as far as to include Dartmouth and the old County and the like. Also, the Annapolis Valey, where I'm from, would have many interesting stories that I'd love to publish here. Other places? Not so much. I'm sure there are Cape Breton bloggers who would love to write about the history of that fine place. I have to draw the line somewhere.

I am not interested in libellous stories. If you want to write about someone who's dead who was a child murderer or something, allegedly, then in the absence of a conviction to that effect I will not allow that publication here. I am the sole judge as to what I will and will not publish or discuss here. I'm liberal in that sense, but not willing to engage in character assassination. That's why I moderate all Blog comments here.

I am aware of other websites that discuss local history. They certainly are interesting. Most of them, however, feature a lot of pictures without much commentary. I would like to have the opposite: commentary without a lot of pictures.

Every time I run one of these stories as a comment to a blog post or whatever, I will use the "HalifaxAnecdotes" label, starting with this here post.

Well, what are you waiting for? Tell me these stories!

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 1899 - Weekend Is Here!

2012-02-03T17:36:00.000-08:00

The weekend is here. I am thrilled.

You will be pleased to know that I have successfully digitized the Ada McCallum documentary. It is a freshly-minted mp4 file that exists on the hard drive of nearly every computer I own, plus my external hard drive and a usb thumb drive. What was once considered to be close to be a "lost" documentary has now been found and can now be shared by the folks who really want to see it.

I have played back a portion of the show. It is as fascinating now as when I first saw it in 1998. If you want to see some old footage of Halifax from during the War, or some reminiscences of what Hali was like back in the day, then you really should see this documentary about Ada McCallum, Halifax madam.

Every morning, I drop off Patricia and drive to my own work. I have found it convenient to drive on Windsor Street. I am sure I drive past one of Ada's old brothels. The house is shown in the documentary, although obscured enough to make it hard to pick out. I'm told it was on the corner of Windsor and Charles Street, probably across the street from the Jehovah's Witnesses Hall, on the same side as the Sobeys. I plan to watch the documentary all the way through this weekend and see if my theory is correct. It may also be the place where actress Ellen Page lives when she's in town. I doubt very much if I will ever find corroboration for that, though. I do remember her saying when she was on the David Letterman show a couple of years ago that she lived in a house that used to be a brothel. Ada had several places in town, but I think Ellen lives in that one. Of course, I will probably never know.

It has been a long week fraught with stress and grief and other things I won't bore you about. I'm glad the weekend is here so that I can recharge my batteries and face the week again.

And so that I can learn more about Ada!

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 1898 - First Day

2012-02-02T17:18:00.000-08:00

It was the first day of the bus strike today. Hoo boy!

I just thought you would like to know that, earlier this evening, I found the Ada McCallum documentary, the one broadcast on the History Channel on March 9, 1998. It was in a box of tapes that was on the floor of a closet in my middle bedroom. I had nearly given up searching for it. In the box there was a flap covering that tape. Nearly didn't see it.

I have already dubbed the show, on vhs, to a dvd. I am looking forward to watching it again, after all these years.

I will also digitize the show to an avi file or an mp4 or something.

How many of you want to see this documentary about Ada McCallum, the notorious Halifax madam?

See you tomorrow!

Bevboy

Post 1897 - A Sick Day And A Bus Lament

2012-02-01T16:51:00.000-08:00

My migraines kicked in this morning. I took a sick day.

I pretty much slept the day away. I got up just before noon and got something to eat. 90 minutes later, I went back to bed, where I slept for another 4 hours. Finally got up at supper time and have been up ever since. It's just past 8:30. After I write this, I'll probably have a shower and go back to bed.

There will almost certainly be a bus strike in Hali starting in just over 3 hours. Traffic gridlock tomorrow will be unreal. I do not look forward to driving through that crap. At least I have a car. I have no idea what folks will do who do not have wheels or access thereto. They're usually people who don't make much money to begin with. As much as I feel for the transit workers who will be hitting the bricks, I have sympathy for the people who require transit to get around.

Growing up, my mother didn't drive. My older sister had moved out by the time I was 12 and a half. My dad was the primary breadwinner and driver for the family. The day after my 16th birthday, he asked me why I hadn't applied for my beginner's permit yet. I finally got my license that Fall, much later than Dad wanted me to.

Anyway, before that, I knew all about being stuck at home with little means to get around. We didn't live on a bus route of any kind. Cabs were too expensive. Unless Dad were home, we didn't get out much. We weren't close to our school. We found things to do around the house, in those pre-internet, pre-cable tv days.

So, trust me: I know what it's like to have to rely on someone else to get me around. I didn't like it then. I don't like it now and can't imagine that the working stiffs who will be bus-less in the morning will like it much either. I feel for the people who need a bus or a ride from a third party to get to where they need to get.

I hope the strike, if it happens, is a brief one.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 1896 - Looking For Ada

2012-01-31T17:18:00.000-08:00

I am a member of an FB group called Halifax Radio Memories. Every day, people post interesting messages to the group, fascinating pictures, even some videos and audio, from the golden age of radio in Halifax. I visit that group every day.

A recent discussion thread has been about Ada McCallum, the notorious Halifax madam of the post-war years, up until her death in 1986. Known for her discretion, and respected for it, she didn't exactly record her memoirs or anything. Much of what is known about Ada is through rumour and the tales of the older men who visited her girls back in the day. Ellen Page, the actress, when she was on the David Letterman Show a few years ago, let it slip that she lives in an old brothel. I think it was one of Ada's old places, likely the best known one on Windsor Street. I drive past it every day on my way to work.

Another one of her establishments was at 51 Hollis Street, pretty much at the corner of Hollis and Bishop, behind Government House. I don't work downtown any more and can't therefore state if that is still a parking lot, but many years ago, before and during and after the war, it was a brothel. Ada McCallum took over the brothel from another madam named Germaine Pelletier around 1946 and ran her business with aplomb for 40 years. She's buried in Lower Sackville. Say what you want about former Mayor Walter Fitzgerald. He at least had the guts to attend her funeral.

Anyway, I mentioned that not much is known about Ada McCallum, for obvious reasons. But, back in the Spring or so of 1998, there was a documentary on the History Channel which discussed her life and misadventures. We watched it back in the day and enjoyed it a great deal. I moved and packed most of my tapes away and haven't been able to lay my hands on the tape in years. I am 99% sure it is not here in my media room.

Fast forward to this evening.

On this FB group, Duane Lowe, who used to be on tv if you recall, wrote me privately to tell me that she would love to see this documentary. She is friends with Lulu Keating, the woman who wrote and directed the documentary. She did the doc for a production company that no longer exists. Lulu Keating doesn't have a copy of this show!

How many people watched the show in 1998? How many people taped it? How many then watched it, recording over it afterwards? How many others kept it all these years? Probably not very many.

All of a sudden, my search for this elusive vhs tape is becoming important to me again. If Lulu Keating doesn't have a copy, and others want to see it, and the production company is no longer among the living, then how extant is this interesting piece of Halifax history? I don't know. I do know that I wouldn't have recorded over it. We loved the show too much to do that. I just hope that I can find the tape, and that the tape is still playable. Lots of older vhs tapes don't play after a period of time.

Let's hope for the best.

Wish me luck!!

Bevboy

Post 1895 - Two In A Row!

2012-01-30T17:57:00.000-08:00

After work tonight, I did another spin class. I have the aching legs to prove it. I have the sweaty shorts and t-shirt to prove it. I have the pat on the behind from the spin class instructor, henceforth known as Nancy the Spin Nazi, to prove it.

It's funny. Well, not funny ha ha. Funny weird. When I got downtown from work for my spin class, the streets were dry. Cloudy but no precipitation I went inside and suffered the humiliations I described in the previous paragraph. I staggered out from the gym, and out into the evening. Much to my chagrin, I discovered that it had been snowing. I am not sure what time it started snowing, but it is as if God sensed what my feelings would be like after my work out and decided to match the weather. Thank you, God.

Got home. Patricia was cooking pork chops or something. I ate the rest of the salmon from last night and then had a plate of salad. I was ravenous, the kind of hungry that comes from having burned off some calories. But I still wasn't hungry enough to eat pork chops. Pigs. Cloven-footed bastards.

I plan to do a second spin class this week. Maybe not at Scotia Square, but at Park Lane. Probably Thursday night. My good friend John, a faithful blog reader, has suggested I check out "the scenery" at that gym. I think by that he means that there are a lot of windows in the place and therefore I will know instantly of changes in the weather. No more surprises when I walk out of and get confronted by inclement meteorology. Thank you, John. You've always been a good friend.

It's always nice when people look out for me.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 1894 - Tom Sawyer

2012-01-29T15:57:00.000-08:00

Have you read Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain? Or are you at least familiar with the portion about the picket fence, where Sawyer tricks people into painting it for him? Kinda like my day.

Slept in. Patricia didn't get up, so I made breakfast. The dish fairy hadn't descended from the heavens and done the dishes, so I washed them, getting a little bit of bleach all over my new fave shirt, which I can no longer wear to work. Patricia still wasn't feeling well, so she remained in bed.

I started watching some episodes of "White Collar" when maybe I should have been transcribing the latest blog interview. Patricia remained in bed.

Around 5pm, I began to hear her in the kitchen, so I went upstairs and saw her, still not feeling well, so I prepared Sunday dinner of broiled salmon and potatoes and corn and tomatoes while she lay back in the living room.

She played me, tricked me into doing all that work today. Just because she was sick.

I'll get her back. I get sick, too.

I know where she lives.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 1893 - A Quiet Saturday

2012-01-28T17:55:00.000-08:00

I have spent many hours today downstairs here at Casa Bevboy doing laundry. I only took the last load of towels out of the dryer in the last little while.

We slept in something crazy this morning, not getting up until 11. It was like we were drunk or something. Not so much. Nope. We just didn't want to get up. Our cats wouldn't hear of it, once I had fed them.

While the washing machine was doing its thing, I was in my home office, mostly playing with this computer, the one I got from a neighbor who was gonna throw it away last year until I decided to take it off her hands (don't worry; she got a box of comic books for it it in the Fall). I was running the current version of Ubuntu on it. The current version of Ubuntu is more demanding on older computers like this one than I was happy with, so I turned to my old friend Easy Peasy (version 1.6). The kernel is nearly 2 years old now, but there are plenty of updates and it works extremely well.

I backed up the stuff I wanted first. All the songs and stuff. I then blew away the Ubuntu and installed EP. A few hours later, after copying back the songs I wanted and downloading Chromium and other stuff, and installing Dropbox and syncing everything, I have the machine I want again. Nice and fast on this older machine.

Do you care? No. Of course you don't. You just care about reading a fresh blog post every day. Do you have any idea how hard it is to write something every stinkin' day? Do you think my life is so rich with incident that I can find something interesting to discuss seven days a week, 52 weeks a year? No. No, it isn't. Not by a long shot. Don't be so hard on me.

Tomorrow, it will be more of what happened today. Dishes! More laundry! Watching tv! Playing with Newbie! Calling my mother! Telling Patricia I liked what she made for dinner! Getting ready for another week of work! Fun things like that!

See you tomorrow, assuming you can handle the excitement.

Bevboy

Post 1892 - Storm? What Storm?

2012-01-27T20:25:00.000-08:00

I think I'm being punished for the tone of my Thursday post. You may recall I crowed about being off today and not having to go out in what promised to be an epic Winter storm. I wouldn't have to drive out in that crap.

Didn't turn out that way.

The storm? I swear, I seen more precipitation in my shower. The wind? I've experienced stronger winds after I drank two litres of milk in one sitting that one time before I discovered I was lactose intolerant. You catch my drift. It wasn't much of a storm today.

I was at my mother's a week ago and that was a storm. Mom and I got back to her place mid-afternoon, just as the heavy snow was commencing. I was fixing her door handle as the snow was hitting my back and swirling around me (the door had to be ajar in order for me to get a good grip on my task). Yeah. That was a storm.

Today's... weather. That wasn't a storm. Anyone who thinks that was a storm is a wimp. A wimp, I tell you.

Newbie is giving me that look. Time to turn in.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy