Tag Archives: daily gumboot

1,000 Ideas from Everywhere (and counting)

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Happy Friday, good readers of The Daily Gumboot. John here. Editor-in-Chief of Vancouver’s coolest new community-based blog that my parents read sometimes. So, over the last three days I have been fortunate enough to experience some very awesome and supercool and edutaining things. And, as you know, when things come together in such a beautiful and meaningful way, well, one can’t help but feel lucky to be a part of the community – or communities – in which they find themselves. So, here’s what happened:

1. Sir Ken Robinson spoke to a few thousand students, staff and faculty at UBC’s Chan Centre. If you haven’t seen it already, check out Sir Ken’s TED Talk about why “schools kill creativity” – it will certainly make you think. For example, when I was about eight years old one of my mom’s friends asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I told her that I wanted to be a fire truck. She said, you mean a fireman? I repeated myself, flabbergasted that she would think I’d settle for being a fireman when I could be the bright, loud, screaming truck that carried around several firemen. No, I want to be a fire truck, I said. And my mom just smiled. And she let – nay, encouraged – me use my imagination and be creative for years to come. Sir Ken’s talk was filled with stories fairly similar to this one (one actually involved a fireman and another involved his wife and Elvis). In any case, I have a new hero (don’t worry, Steve Nash, I can have many heroes), and his name is Sir Ken Robinson.

Sir Ken is hilarious, insightful and brilliant

Sir Ken is hilarious, insightful and brilliant

Some of the highlights of the talk included, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Imagination is the bedrock of the human condition; it is what makes us unique.
  • Creativity is the practical application of imagination.
  • He gave a shout-out to historians, saying that any good historian will tell you that there are multiple paths; ergo, there are multiple futures before us – just ask Jim Clifford and the Active History team.
  • We need to think differently about human ability and talent; communities, after all, depend on a multiplicity of passions, abilities, skills, and emotional capabilities.
  • “When writing a PhD in the Arts people must be stopped!” – this statement came in a response to Sir Ken chatting with a fellow who had just written a 385,000 word dissertation (the maximum for the project was 80,000 words…).
  • He spoke of the aesthetic beauty in mathematical problems; my friend Natalie, a math goddess in her own right, will echo Sir Ken’s belief that a new idea in math is judged by two things: whether it breaks new ground and whether it is aesthetically beautiful (as math is the purest form of communicating the natural world, and given that the natural world is beautiful, a math problem must be beautiful).
  • There is beauty and creativity in sciences and objectivity and truth in arts.
  • We need to transform, not reform, education.
  • Education should be organic, not linear | life is organic, not linear.
  • We need to break apart the industrialized, standardized model of education.
  • “Seeds of possibility emerge when the growing conditions are right. So how do we create the right conditions?”
  • “Students spread their dreams beneath our feet, and we need to tread softly.”
  • We need to look for happiness internally, not externally.
  • And this one’s my favourite: “your element (ie. what you do) exists at the intersection of talent and passion.”

Think about it, folks. Where does your talent and passion intersect? For me, it’s writing, education and community.

2. Margaret Atwood’s “Reading” of The Year of the Flood. Speaking of community, let’s chat briefly about Canada’s favourite literary figure (sorry, Elizabeth Hay

I'd put Ms. Atwood up against pretty much any stand up comedian out there; I'm just sayin...

I'd put Ms. Atwood up against pretty much any stand up comedian out there; I'm just sayin...

and Timothy Findley). On Thursday, my Special Lady and I took in Ms. Atwood’s “reading” of her new novel, The Year of the Flood. I use the term “reading” loosely, as, really, it was a beautiful and collaborative performance that became quite interactive towards the end. There was singing, acting, dancing, stand-up-comedy, education, preaching, and, yes, reading. Thousands of us crammed into the pews of St. Andrew Wesley United Church to take in a smattering of readings and hymns from The Year of the Flood. The energy was amazing. Dry, witty, dead-pan, sneaky, and amazing. Maggie Wood shared the stage with the performers and even bobbed her head along to the absolutely outstanding display of song by the trio delivering the God’s Gardeners Hymns throughout the reading. The show was unpretentious, local, globally thoughtful, and incredibly community-focused. To learn just how creative Ms. Atwood’s book tour really is, check out her blog, some articles and a wonderful post from one of The Gumboot’s Correspondents. If Sir Ken Robinson is a thinker and a talker about change, well, Margaret Atwood is a bit of a doer.

3. The Daily Gumboot just passed 1,000 unique page views. Speaking of doing amazing things, it turns out this blog has become semi-popular! Now, I don’t really know what “unique page views” means, but that’s not my job, so I’m okay with it. What our Operations Manager and Technological Evangelist, Mike Boronowski, tells us is that The Daily Gumboot received over 1,000 hits from different computers around the world last month. And, well, if you count the hits the blog receives from the editorial staff’s parents, man, we get more web traffic than the New York Times, baby!

Needless to say, it’s been a heck of a ride over the last month-and-a-bit. And I think we’ve lived up to our mantra of collecting ideas from everywhere and using them to build community. BUt, more importantly, what do you think? I mean, our correspondents truly run the gamut of sensation: from the tragi-comic-ironically-narcissistic (ie. Johnism) to the architecturally healthy (ie. affordable housing with social purpose) to the ridiculous (ie. the good thing that is the HST, social conservatives and alientating Toronto). It is an honour and a privilege to be that Captain of this pirate ship and, since Joel Plasket tells me that good things come in threes, I just wanted to end this note about the third amazing thing that happened to me in three days with a list of my three favourite things about The Daily Gumboot. Here we go:

WHat does this say? 1,000?!

WHat does this say? 1,000?!

1. Kurt Heinrich. This blog operates on a daily – not weekly – basis because of Kurt.  The guy is a worker and perhaps the most down to Earth, nicest person ever born in 1981 but actually from the 1950s. His passion for order, rules and collaboration within a neo-liberal political, social and economic system helps to create an excellent dialogue on the blog, as the Editor-in-Chief’s anarchy-meets-libertarian-sprinkled-with-pirates persona wouldn’t stand out like it does without him. The Joker wouldn’t be the Joker without Batman, right?

2. Get to Know Your Community. We’re so happy with this segment! There are so many amazing people doing so many amazing things all around the world. It has been exciting and interesting getting to know all of you in a fresh, positive and superfun way.  As we move forward, please let us know who we should be talking to and kick some names and locations of world-changers our way so we can share their stories with at least 1,000 other people.

3. The readers. In the last week or so, commentary and chatter about our posts has taken off and reached new levels. The comments have been meaningful, thought-provoking and hilarious. Truly, there are some great ideas being collected by The Gumboot. We (the editorial staff) will use such ideas to make our communities better places. And we hope you do too!

So what’s next? Well, that’s easy. 10,000. We shall increase collaboration tenfold. But no great thing in the history of Earth has even been done independently and without collaboration from several people in many communities. So, I challenge you to tell 10 friends about The Daily Gumboot and give them three reasons to read it. We also embrace ideas from everywhere (it’s kind of our thing), so if you have a few and want to share ‘em, we are always looking for special guest correspondents.

Thanks again so much for your collective and collaborative awesomeness, readers. And thanks especially for the memories.

Let’s keep reaching for those rainbows together!

- JCH

From Weekly to Daily Gumboots

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“And so with love in their hearts, anxiety in their heads and girding in and around their loins, Vancouver’s coolest and multi/inter-dimensionally-qualified twitbloggers of the interscape take their community building project to the next level. These folks are world changers; and you should use their ideas from everywhere to build community today.”

- Barack Obama, 2009

Okay. So maybe Barack Obama didn’t really endorse the transition of the Weekly to Daily Gumboot. But, hey, embrace the creative world of magical realism, suspend belief and accept the fact that 81.2% of our facts and findings are made up. After all, we embrace it! The trick is figuring out what side of the 19.8% your interpretation of our data, sources and “research” you think is made up. Hey, at least we’re honest about our subjectivity!

gumboot copyMoving on…

Though, we really did get a glowing endorsement about our “employing” Mike Boronowski to backstop a much sexier version of The Gumboot while Kurt Heinrich and I motivate our contributors to provide daily content or suffer the consequences of punishment by catapult. And here it is:

“Kid, just because it comes out every day and because you have your own website – or whatever you just said it was – doesn’t mean it’s not bullshit.”

- My Grandma, Betty, last night on the phone

Well said, Betty. Media consumers need to be mindful of what they take-in. And, hey, there’s a lot of information out there. We here at The Gumboot think it’s important for you, the reader, to know where your information – and our ideas – come from. So, since you might not be 100% familiar with The Gumboot (weekly or daily versions)? Allow me to provide a bit of a synopsis on how we got here:

The Historical Time Line of The Daily Gumboot

5000 BC – Year 0: Egypt and Mesopotamia build communities around beer (a form of currency and central component of many herbal remedies) and either the biggest non-French example of public works projects by employees of the state or, well, slavery.

600 – 1000 AD: Romans combine entrepreneurship, militarism, butter, salt, and ham to create a variety of cheeses and proscuittos that Kurt Heinrich strives to re-create in his kitchen each and every weekend. He also defends himself and his cheese if necessary.

1491 AD: People around the world who aren’t from Europe get this really weird feeling and start to wonder whether or not it’s a good thing that their communities exist in such beautiful places chalked full of delicious natural resources.

1500 – 1650 AD: Shakespeare and some other dudes make writing cool; first blog is published in 1603 to passively-aggressively commemorate/mock King James I’s ascent to the throne.

1650 – 1724 AD: The Golden Age of Piracy provides many ideas and concepts (health, democracy, gender equality, education, environmental stewardship, business, fashion, multi-culturalism) that continue to drive our society today.

1725 AD: University of Glasgow Professor, Francis Hutcheson, creates a mathematical formula for benevolence. The very same formula we here at The Gumboot apply to each and every one of our articles.

1729 AD: Jonathan Swift writes about eating children as an effective way to deal with poor communities and a lot of people take it the wrong way. For the record, people still take it the wrong way.

1812 AD: The British musket-and-cannon their way to a draw with America, yet somehow this “war” is remembered as the one time Canada beat the US at something; our national communities have been dealing with the ramifications ever since.

1848 AD: Soccer (based on supercool Chinese foot-to-ball techniques) as we know it is invented; things get a little ridiculous in all communities but the ones north of Mexico and east/west of everywhere else.

1861: The community of Merville, BC is founded by Sir George “Gumboot” Merville, who, incidentally, got lost with his crew on their way to Cape Horn with a delivery of sheep for the Falkland Islands. Friends of sheep and people who don’t ask questions, they inserted themselves into the landscape quite nicely and built a small, but vibrant, community based on the wild mushrooms that grew in the muddy middle-region of present day Vancouver Island. In the 1920s some re-settled First World War veterans arrived and invented a bit of a different story about Merville. Still, to this day it’s referred to as “the gumboot capital of Canada” for a darn good reason. Somewhere, George is smiling.

1880 – 1987 AD: The fusion of warfare, industry and government makes killing people and destroying things pretty darn efficient. Yet, somehow, the vast majority of people on Earth found time to dance, sing, create, love, give directions to misguided tourists, and not kill each other. In fact, there are a lot of songs, poems and paintings about such things. Technology and human innovation, it turns out, are viciously and beautifully double-edged.

1988 AD: Al Gore collaborates with a Soviet spy named Sputnik, the British Post Office, some nerds at UCLA, and a supercomputer named “Dennis” to invent the Internet. Seriously.

2003 AD: John and Kurt graduate from Bishop’s University with meager writing skills, a penchant for Egyptian beer and a blossoming friendship based on history, pirates and ideas from everywhere. After their proposed Fox sitcom fails spectacularly, they go their separate ways.

2005 AD: The environment – Gaia, I think her name is – demonstrates her/its anger and fury. To quote Paul Hawken on why this might be significant, “When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse.”

2005 – 2008 AD: Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart coin hilarious phrases like “truthiness” and “twitblogging the interscape,” while Rick Mercer and George Stroumboulopoulos combine razor wit with Canadian humility to lampoon every region of this country from Dildo, Newfoundland to Yak, British Columbia. All master the world of Web 2 before their time (maybe even its time).

December 2008 AD – the present: A descendant of Otto von Bismarck asks John what his family has ever done for the annals of history. John starts on a story of his great, great, great grandmother’s service to soldiers during the Boer War but is quickly interrupted. The question is re-framed and answered and the point is taken. After a few Egyptian beers, a game of soccer and a spirited discussion of whether or not cleeted gumboots would be good for West Coast soccer and/or the First World War, The Weekly Gumboot was born.

So that’s how we arrived at where we are today. Pretty simple. Pretty straightforward. All of it steeped in truthiness and histortical findings. Speaking of honesty, we also have a few values and ideas that define The Daily Gumboot’s mandate:

  • Keep it positive: building communities is hard when we throw stones at each other, or when/if you get hit by them (this metaphor works when it’s not a metaphor, too); focusing on what we have in common as well as finding the humour in our differences is a refreshing change from fear-mongering and finger pointing.
  • Collect ideas from everywhere: everyone and every idea deserves a voice and a venue; so, we strive to find stories about communities from all around the world – ones that are tucked away into the most obscure and unknown and distant places of this planet…like Calgary!
  • Make ideas actionable: it’s one thing to have a good idea, but it’s an entirely different thing to deliver on it; in our Five Ways to Build Community segment – as well as our interviews with community builders from around the world (or the West Coast if our funding falls gumbootsthrough) – we will provide useful tips on what you can do to build community in your, um, community.
  • Be educational edutaining: recent findings show that people learn more when they’re having fun; we hope you have fun with it as you explore our understatedly educational blog.
  • Make it fresh, snappy and sexy: this is where the “publishing witty and provocative ideas every day or almost every day comes in” part comes into play; again, Mike Boronowski gets credit for our new, sexy look.

So there it is. Thanks for taking the time to visit The Daily Gumboot. And, hey, just because we might not post a fresh twitblog each day doesn’t mean you shouldn’t stop by for a visit each day! Some of my posts might even take you a day or two to consume and digest…

Stay classy. Keep it positive. And, most importantly, have fun with it!

Your pal,

John

Editor-in-Chief

The Gumboot is Under Construction

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under construction

Good day, community-minded readers of The Weekly Gumboot. Over the next few days/weeks, your favourite blog will be undergoing some changes so that, forever more, we can provide some sexier and more cutting edge service to you, the people. We’re making this happen with a two-fold strategy. First, our Correspondents will be attending a two week long “community twitblogging for the interscape” and team-building retreat in Prince Rupert; they will return better than ever and with a thirst for community-building. Second, we’re making The Gumboot prettier from the back-end (not sure exactly what what means, but the guy we “hired” won’t stop talking about it).

Keep your eyes open for our new direction. And thanks, as always, for your support, comments and, most importantly, the memories.

Stay classy. And keep reaching for those rainbows.

Your pal always,

John Horn
Editor-in-Chief

John’s Great Idea for 2009!

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Hi there friends.

A few points of reference before things get started. First, some of you (ie. Stewart) know that this is not necessarily a “new” idea of mine. I’ve been espousing it for at least six months, but, well, now that I live in Vancouver it just seems that, with the people and resources around me, we can actually make it happen. Second, the idea was inspired by one of my former students at Camosun College, Jordan Stout, so if it takes off I just want to say that he deserves the credit. And if you think it’s stupid, I just want to say that he deserves the credit…

Here’s the idea:

We’ve all seen and, perhaps, used exercise bikes. Usually in gyms. Sometimes at home. And some of us have witnessed the BC Clettes perform to music powered by one of their members pedaling away on a stationary bike. And that’s the idea. Power-generating stationary bicycles.

And it gets better. Bigger, even. The idea is to place hundreds – maybe even thousands – of these stationary bikes all around the Lower Mainland and connect them to the power grid. By riding the bikes, people would be able to produce clean energy for their communities. And they will also get exercise as well as promote healthy living by being “on the street” role models for physical fitness. Here’s the kicker: after pedaling for a certain amount of time, the bike shoots out a loonie or toonie! Whether you’re a homeless person, investment banker high on caffeine who doesn’t want to break a hundred dollar bill, or a kid needing some cash for a bus-ride home, could make money by producing power for the city of Vancouver. Finally, think about the tourist buy-in! Many globetrotters will get their photos taking pedaling away on a bike that provides energy for one of the world’s most unique – and greenest – cities.

So there it is. A great idea for 2009. But, Gumboot enthusiasts, I can’t do it alone. Here is what I will need from you:

An engineer: I’m an historian and a piratologist who can’t do math. I imagine that linking stationary bicycles to the city’s power grid will involve some math and, perhaps, also science.

Political buy-in: Gregor? Geoff? Andrea? Are you there? Look, Gregor, I know you like riding your bike because of the above-mentioned environmental and health reasons. Now. Just imagine if everyone in Vancouver got a chance to be as active as you while literally powering our city forward. It’s a beautiful, um, vision…

Funding: Preliminary “findings” show that this might be, in the short-term, a rather costly project. So, if anyone is interested in brainstorming some fundraising ideas (bake sale, ponzi scheme, dodgeball tournament), please let me know. In the long term, though, I think that it will be affordable to manage. So, let’s set up a few bikes in the downtown area, hook up some fuel cells to store the engery and power some street lights!

Word of mouth: The most important part of any good idea. Spreading the word, generating interest and transforming the concept of power-producing exercise bikes strategically placed around the Lower Mainland from, well, one person’s idea to a meaningful collaborative project that will change the world for the better. C’mon. It’s amazing and hilarious in its simplicity.

And that’s my idea. What’s yours?

- JCH

Vancouver drivers – honk if you want to build community!

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Vancouver’s drivers are an agreeable and, on the whole, competent lot. After years dodging cars on Toronto’s streets, jay walking in Vancouver is a treat, free from peril and ill will. Where else can you gingerly venture out onto a big downtown street like Robson or Denman and discover that not just cars, but even cabs immeditately slow to a halt and wave you merrily across? If I tried a stunt like that in Munich, Paris let alone Montreal or Ottawa, I’d have been road kill long ago. Experiences such as these are unique to a big city like Vancouver and to me they are a positive indicator that a convivial, community oriented spirit is alive and well in this fair city.

Nonetheless, just like any metropolis, our motorists are plagued by high levels of incompetence, recklessness and needlessly uncouth behaviour. Most of this is rooted in road rage. However sorely tempted, I will avoid raging about the incompetent, erratic and downright scary drivers at the wheels of luxury vehicles all over Vancouver and the threat they pose to the safety of our urban community. As Gumboot contributor, John Horn, aptly points out, when these nifty cars become stranded in two inches of snow, an opportunity for creating community emerges and fellow citizens can throw their weight behind fancy bumpers, building community in the process. But, I digress –

After travelling in Peru for the past three weeks, I have come upon a simple solution, to chipping away at road rage and resurrecting community on the road. Let’s use the car horn differently.

Aside from weddings, North Americans only resort to the horn in moments of emotionally-driven need – honking to express anger, impatience or fear. Peruvian drivers use their horns liberally and cheerfully and so they become the harmonious language of the street. Traffic rules, traffic lights and traffic headaches are strangely absent while honking creates a healthy atmosphere of give and take to each intersection.

Vancouver’s eight lane intersections are replete with complicated traffic light systems where motorists “get the rage”. A similar intersection in Lima has a simple turning circle and that’s it. Peruvian drivers enter at will, give a merry honk, receive a merry honk in response from those in the circle and potential fender benders are avoided. Cab drivers even individualize their horns so that some taxis emit a jolly, three-note hooting while others give a little whistle. Annoying? Not really. The sound just becomes part of the music of the street and the aural evidence of a community of drivers which knows how to get along.

Should Vancouver scrap its traffic lights and institute a honking free for all in the name of reducing road rage and building community? No. This would backfire. But still, can’t we at least take a leaf out of Peru’s book? In doing so, I believe we could build better on-road communties. How about giving a little “beep, beep” when someone is a slow poke, or a cyclist doesn’t see you, rather than resorting to a sketchy, right lane passing manoeuvre, or to a full-on horn lean? I for one am in the market for a car horn that gets my message across via the tune of a merry jig – that Lima taxi man has one, why shouldn’t I?

The "Good" News: In Defense of (shudder) the Media (the old fashioned kind) and it's Contribution to Community.

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Yesterday, I opened the Thursday edition of the Vancouver Sun. I’m happy to report that my eyes landed on two articles, one big, one small, each facing each other, that sounded like conversation starters: green thinking with a community angle. The stuff we gumboot-wearing bloggers love.

In a special to the “Sun”, Nicholas Read wrote about “Green Graves.” It’s the newest rage in cemetery circles, laying to rest in a biodegradable bag among the trees, sans-embalming. Read points out that this burial process has been practiced by BC First Nations for centuries. Now, cemetery directors and a few government officials are starting to adopt the idea to the land designated for the deceased.
Opposite the green graves story was an article about cobblers and their rise in popularity. According to the article, more and more people are opting to bring their old shoes in for repair rather than buy new ones. I can attest to this errand. Just a few weeks ago, I brought two pairs of shoes in to my local cobbler and probably got another couple of years out them. Score!
On the next page over, there was an article about Vancouver’s classic east-side butcher, Save-On-Meats. I don’t know whether you’ve heard or not, but it could shut down as early as March.  The owner is ready to retire and hoping to sell the business. So far, there are no bidders. It’s a classic, sad story: a Vancouver landmark shutting down for good. But it also appeals to the Vancouverite in me: a lover of all things “local.” And it serves my point: that amid the “doom and gloom” of our economic situation and the “dramatic” vocabulary of Canada’s news wire, you’ll find there’s “good” news out there – in every sense of the word.
So I challenge you to challenge your news. The stories your paper produces should be stimulating water-cooler, nay, Brita-filter conversation, at least if they want to survive Web 2.0 without losing out completely to citizen journalism and everything else available for reading on the web.

The Gumboot Community (begrudgingly) Expands

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Hi there readers!*

It’s my pleasure to introduce you to a couple of new contributors to The Weekly Gumboot.

The first, really, needs no introduction. Her name is Ms. Theodora Lamb (or ‘Theo’, if she likes you). Holding the editorial staff to task (again, my most sincere and profound apologies for not mentioning the positive contributions of people who stand around – or direct traffic – as we push cars towards community) and being generally and wonderfully dramatic, are only a few of the saucy attributes that our red-headed friend brings to the staff at The Weekly Gumboot. Theo even owns gumboots, and has been wearing ‘em proudly way, way, way before they were cool enough to be sold in Kits.

Second on the list is Stewart Burgess. He needs an introduction, as I’m not clever enough to do him justice. “Stewart Burgess” might even be an alias. So, I’ll let him do the talking. Or, better yet, writing. Below is a totally out-of-context excerpt from Stew’s reply following my invitation for him to join the Gumboot‘s writing and ideas team. As you will undoubtedly see, there’s no one-dimensional, dogmatic, top-down editorial line here at Vancouver’s coolest up-and-coming blog. No, my friends. There are at least two sides of this story.

Enjoy!

“I’d love to contribute the occasional article to your on-line publication.

However, I am not entirely supportive of the merville-centric nature of your efforts (got to have a little hometown pride; perhaps it could be called ‘Coffins or Kids?’ or ‘One homeless man’s guide to warm-air grates’ as I am from Victoria). At the same time I do appreciate the plurality inherent to ‘the gumboot’. Equally at home on the farm or the club –at least in Vancouver–these versatile devices have garnered much attention recently (witness the plethora of gumboot-only stores on 4th and Broadway!). I myself own a handsome pair of blue and white yatching boots, which I am told are a cut above the common gumboot, despite the seemingly exact similarities in construction technique and material choice. They are now at your service. Well, the owner is as I am not sure you’d want to share in the intimacies of my various foot fungi/sweat patterns.

Let me know what I need to do.”

Stew. You just need to keep being awesome. We’re lucky to have you aboard and look forward to further anti-Merville, pro-community and lukewarm-gumboot espousals and commentary. Thanks for the memories.

A tres bientot.

- JCH

*(my overly-supportive parents and my friend “The Professor”* who lives at the Commercial/Broadway Sky Train station and yells angrily at people who are checking their email at Blenz or browsing their blackberry in the B-Line bus line up until they let him skim the most recent Gumboot entry).

Welcome to the Weekly Gumboot!

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“John Horn and Vancouver Team: telling it like it is, and calling it as they see it since December 1, 2008 (the soft launch). These kids are world-changers. And you heard it here first.“

– Confucius, 442 BC

Merville, British Columbia is the undisputed* Gumboot Capital of Canada. As your host at this stop on your social media journey, I should tell you that I not only hail from Merville, but my upbringing in the tiny Vancouver Island hamlet has done much to shape my worldview. For example, if you have an unhealthy addiction to plaid and think that bears are naturally peaceful, well, you love Merville. Together with a team of unmatched** contributors from around the world, I will do my best to lead an ongoing series of engaging discussions about life, the universe and everything for all co-producers (ie. you, the interactive and collaborative visitor) to enjoy.

I’m also going to mention pirates a fair bit because of their spectacular historical, cultural, political, economical, and grammatical relevance to our ever flattening global village. Stay tuned, there’s much more to come…

Ladies and gentlemen: welcome to gumboot country! Have fun with it.

*may or may not be disputed by several competing gumboot enthusiasts…

**might possibly be matched…