Thanks be to Thansgiving

Thanksgiving is my favourite holiday. It's the only one where you get to have the whole family together for a big, celebratory meal without the added pressure of present-buying frenzies, enforced aging, religious dogmas, etc. Also, it's the only holiday with a message I really believe in.

The history of First Nation Peoples in Canada (and the U.S.) is something that I know shamefully little about, despite vague, inaccurate, Western-skewed lessons in elementary school history class. The more I learn about it as an adult, the more horrified I become about the way the Canadian government bullied and lied it's way into claiming ownership of this continent. You don't have to dig very deep to find a long list of broken promises and outright betrayals of the native people of Canada, perpetrated by John A. and the rest of the Confederate government.

In fact, if you want to be cynical, I am kind of surprised that Thanksgiving is an official, statutory holiday, since we tend to sweep most issues concerning the First Nations under the rug.

Thanksgiving is the prescribed day in which we North Americans remember the kindness of the early First Nations People to the arriving settlers on the shores of the St. Lawrence. So the story goes, kind native Canadians welcomed the pioneers, and taught them how to hunt, shelter and survive in the Canadian wilderness. We all know how we repaid their kindness.

So, I do believe Thanksgiving to be the most important celebration of the year. And I wish it wasn't relegated to just one day. This year, take the time to look around your big kitchen table and be thankful for what and who you have in your life. Even those of us with family issues, personal hardship and trauma can find something to be thankful about, if we look hard enough. After all, we are all here in this beautiful country, living peaceful and free lives.

p.s. Come celebrate with me on Saturday October 11th, at Bread & Circus in Kensington Market. I will be playing a bunch of new songs, and hosting a Thanksgiving Potluck. It's my first turkey, so come hungry!

Other Creepy Crawlies

While waiting for the GO train at Port Credit Station last weekend, I noticed a BIG spider...and then another one...and then about 50,000 of them. Seriously. Look up, next time you are there.

Mythbusting

Really, I just have a bunch of photos to post, but I will say a few words first, to debunk the myth of the slowness of snails.

I have a colony of snails living and growing in a goldfish bowl in my kitchen. It started with one snail, whom I harvested from my friend John's tank because I thought it was cute. I managed to keep it to one snail only for months (this particular kind of snail breeds asexually), ritualistically culling unwanted eggs, and watching him/her grow bigger and cuter everyday. Then one day, I guess I missed a batch of eggs, because BAM! there was like 80 of them sliming around in there. So I have given in, and continue to let them procreate to their heart's content. They are really cute.

I decided to take some pictures of them the other day. Snails are really fascinating up close, and I wanted to try to capture some of their characteristics with my macro-lens. They have little mouths that are constantly scrubbing the sides of the tank, plants and rocks. They have little eyes, which aren't, contrary to popular depiction, at the end of their "feelers", but are on their faces. The "feelers" are just "feelers", as far as I can tell. Hmm...what's the technical term for a "feeler"? It's not quite an antennae...not really a horn...somewhere in between. And they have beautiful, one-of-a-kind patterns on their shells, which grow with them, over the months. They start of about as big as a pin head, and the largest I have seen gets to be about the size of a blueberry.

However, I was entirely unsuccessful in my attempts to photograph them. The little mofos refused to sit still. In fact, come to think of it, I have never, EVER seen a stationary snail. I think, like sharks, they never stop moving. Or maybe mine are just really high strung.

...And the little s.o.b.s are FAST! You know how everyone sterotypes snails for being slow--"inching along like a snail"; "going at a snail's pace" etc? Well it's not true! Snails are speedy. I bet if you did some kind of comparative analysis on snails-- speed vs. size vs. distance covered-- you'd discover they're nearly as fast as humans. Maybe not, like, Usain Bolt fast, but definitely mall-walking-granny fast. Or faster. I was duly impressed, and so should you be.

So excuse the blurry photos. What can I say? They were just too damn fast!