Here I was, happily cruising through the summer months, listening to lots and lots of CBC radio (have you heard “Wire Tap” by Jonathan Goldstein? a wonderfully quirky listening experience that I highly recommend)and WHAM-O, (not like the frizbee making company of the 1970’s, but more like the “holy-flying monkees, Batman” kind of Wham-o!) the CBC lock-out shut me out as well.

I’m with the CMG (Canadian Media Guild) on this one. The CBC isn’t playing fair. Over the last few years the CBC has made it increasingly difficult for new talent to find reasons to stick around…they’ve been stringing people along in temporary positions with promises of permanent positions and some-day benefits. These people want to stick it out, they want to be part of the CBC’s entrance into the techno-savvy 21st century, but they also want to have families, maternity leaves, job security and a future.
For the latest on the negotiations, (and a link to tell your MP how you feel about the lock-out) check out the CMG’s web page:
CMG Lock-Out Update

As someone who has done her fair share of freelance work for CBC radio, I owe the CMG a big smooch and ‘thank-you’. Because the CMG has negotiated the terms and conditions for freelancers in the past, I’ve always gotten a fair wage for my work. (And they are going to bat for freelancers yet again in these current negotiations by putting issues such as “ownership of intellectual property and compensation for re-use” on the table.)

For the love of _od, let’s hope the CBC gets it right soon…Evan Solomon really needs a shave.

This week’s CBC scedule in the Globe and Mail looked something like this:
8:00 am Two-bit weather reports from across Canada
8:01 am Crap
9:01 am Stuff I heard last month
10:01 am More Crap
11:01 am Stuff I heard last year
noon Crappy music
1:01 pm Stay tuned for more crap (you get the idea)

Speaking of crap…

Ian Brown, columnist for the Globe and Mail (and host of CBC radio’s Talking Books)
has waxed knowledgeable (and even profound) on such topics as summer holidays by the sea and the enduring charm of the bowtie. A couple of weeks ago he lent his pen to the rarely chartered waters (or lack thereof) of the cottage country potty.

1. The Outhouse
2. The Beds/Holding Tanks
3. The Incinerating Toilet (a.k.a. the Incinolet) and last but not least

4. The Composting Toilet

The hot technology, beloved of islanders, literary types and the ecologically concerned.

My writing studio, my dear little perch, is in the loft of a gable roofed barn we built on our property a couple of years ago. It was during my first winter of ‘commuting’ to the barn that I realized how far a hike it was to trudge through the snow back to the house whenever I felt ‘the need’. The solution….a composting toilet, of course. It is an elegant (and odourless – I swear) alternative to the water/electric hungry thrones most people have in their homes.
Governor General Adrienne Clarkson and hubby/writer John Ralston Saul have one at their cottage. Margaret Atwood has one as well.

Perched high on a composting toilet, you feel like you’re doing your business on a homecoming float riding down Main Street.But you feel so righteous, you deserve to be in a parade anyway. – Ian Brown

Indeed.
I feel giddy, and little smug.
Take that, Suzie Sweetheart – you 1986 lip-glossed hussy of a highschool homecoming queen!