Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Postcard: Billings Estate Museum,
Friday, October 08, 2010
Ottawa’s Chinatown Gateway
Friday, February 27, 2009
Ottawa: The Unknown City
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Saturday, February 21, 2009
Ottawa: The Unknown City
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Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Ottawa: The Unknown City
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One part of the Igor Gouzenko story that most miss is the fact that, when he tried to defect, no Canadian government officials actually seemed to care, including then-Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. It took Canadian spy and Winnipeg native William Stephenson, called "Intrepid" by Sir Winston Churchill during the Second World War (yes, that "Intrepid"), to see the importance of immediately securing Gouzenko and his family, and setting him up in safe locations around the country with a new identity. Known for originally setting up the infamous Camp X training centre for spies on the shores of Lake Ontario, William Stephenson was also the model for Ian Fleming's 007 spy, James Bond (they ended up being neighbours in Jamaica, after Stephenson had retired).
According to a recent book, Amy Knight's How the Cold War Began: The Gouzenko Affair and the Hunt for Soviet Spies (2005), Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King even tried to ignore Igor Gouzenko's defection (naively presuming Stalin couldn’t have known about or been involved in this intricate spy network), hoping for a quiet diplomatic solution instead, before eventually taking credit for his own bravery and quick thinking after the whole mess had been resolved. Unfortunately, all this did on the Soviet end was make them rethink their entire espionage network, therefore making them stronger, and more effective.
http://unknownottawa.com/
Friday, February 13, 2009
Ottawa: The Unknown City
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Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Ottawa: The Unknown City
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Friday, February 06, 2009
Ottawa: The Unknown City
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Ottawa: The Unknown City
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Thursday, February 21, 2008
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Ottawa may be our capital city but it's also a place of contradictions―the official version offers numerous, beneficent historic sites, institutions, museums, and galleries, but there are other stories to be told. In this latest edition of Arsenal's Unknown City series of alternative city guides for both locals and tourists, Ottawa comes alive as a diverse, quirky town that may look like a government city on the surface but boasts a small-town charm. The book charts a course through the city's hidden landmarks, shopping, dining, and nightlife hot spots, as well as secret histories that will come as a surprise even to life-long locals.
Among the Unknown facts about Ottawa:
- A rumour persists that Queen Victoria chose Ottawa as Canada’s capital by playing pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey with a map of Canada
- When Oscar Wilde visited Ottawa in 1882, he met a young portrait painter named Frances Richards; she later moved to Europe and painted Wilde's portrait which allegedly became the inspiration for his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray
- In 1945, a clerk at the Soviet embassy in Ottawa defected, bringing along with him hard evidence of a Soviet spy ring in North America, making him a prime target for the KGB; his story became the basis of the 1948 film The Iron Curtain
- The Rideau Canal was officially named the "longest skating rink in the world" by the Guinness Book of World Records in 2005Witty and urbane, this Unknown City book takes readers on a beguiling journey through Ottawa's past, present, and future, warts and all.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Very little blogging lately, since I’m full-time finishing Ottawa: The Unknown City for Arsenal Pulp Press [see my previous post on such here]; the book is scheduled for fall 2007, so I actually have to be finishing the thing in January or February. Anything you might know out there that I should be putting in?
Saw the coolest documentary last night, "the real intrepid,"about the Winnipeg native (yes!) who became the most important spy between Britain, Canada and the United States, working during the Second World War (Churchill code-named him "Intrepid"), saving Igor Gouzenko when no one else would, and finally retiring to the Bahamas, where his neighbour Ian Fleming used him as the basis and influence for the James Bond novels. What the hell? A guy from Winnipeg? Also saw our regular routine, my mother & I, of watching Jay Thomas knock (or try to; Dave actually got it this year) the meat ball off the Eiffel Tower at the top of David Letterman’s Christmas tree (after the Lone Ranger story & Paul’s bad Cher impression). It’s been at least five years now, watching that with my mother. This is probably the first year I remembered in advance.
I recently found my copy of the certificate from The Ottawa Citizen, proof that I survived the record snow-fall in Ottawa (etcetera) on March 21, 1971 (I was a year & a week old at the time). Apparely my mother’s father got a stack of them for us, since he was celebrating his 25th year as a line type operator & mechanic at the paper around then. I don’t remember the snow (but I do remember the ice we had a few years later for Christmas: 1974, maybe?), but I’ve had this thing around (obviously) for years (& haven’t even lost it yet). Working to find out more information from the newspaper on such; was there an equivalent from the ice storm? Also, apparently, my book needs more "wierd murders"and other such that you’d never find in newspapers or other more polite city-related materials; something the other books have that mine so far lacks. Suggestions?
I’m not entirely sure why Sina Queyras is talking about shutting down her blog, but I feel a loss at the idea. I would not like her to stop it; one of the few I read regularly & get plenty out of. But how to respond otherwise? & did you see this neat bit that a rawlings wrote, responding to a poem of mine?
Today dropped some copies of Clare’s novel at Second Time Around Books in Alexandria; hopefully we can get some sold that way. Apparently they’ve been selling a few of my poetry books since I was there last! What the?
Stephen Brockwell recently gave me a cd of a pile of photographs from our various trips over the past couple of years (I'll post some soon, when I'm not on my father's eastern Ontario dial-up), including of some of our (more polite, ahem) adventures in New York City with Clare Latremouille launching groundswell: the best of above/ground press 1993-2003 (why only the one photo from such?) [see my post from such here], Toronto in 2004 (the second of two combined ECW/Talon launches we were involved in), England & Wales in August/September of this year, & Prince George in early November. Why are so many of them blurry? I would be terrible at filming porn with this unsteady hand...
Before I left Ottawa, a visit briefly with Priscila Uppal & Chris Doda (Toronto); when I get back, Kate Van Dusen (Toronto) & possibly even Jason Wiens (Calgary). Hopefully back to regularly scheduled programming in a couple of weeks; going through the new Dennis Cooley, for example...
& then at the end of the day today, Kate & I saved Christmas again.