Anna Nicole and McLellan Fen
conan_o came to the saffron office today and he, Gil and I walked down the busy street that is Calgary Trail to Machine Gun Noodle for lunch.
"Has Amandi left yet?" Conan asked. He said, literally, "Has Amandi left yet?" I wasn't sure if he was humouring me, or if he'd misspoken. Because Amandi Khera's name isn't 'Amandi' in real life, just in this weblog. In either case, I explained that she hasn't left Alberta yet for her new job in Toronto working for the World Wildlife Fund. That'll happen in September.
My life is a shit-storm. And unlike Billy Bob Thornton in Primary Colors, I'm not feeling especially professional about it. Indeed, I feel shitty. The latest is ING Financial deciding that they will not renew my homeowners insurance without 'professional proof' that the foundation isn't in danger of collapsing. The brick foundation beneath the 1912 is 93 years old this year, and insurance companies in Edmonton have stopped renewing homeowners policies on houses with such foundations. Whilst on the phone with an inspection engineer this afternoon, we came to the conclusion that Edmonton's flooding rains in the past two years must have triggered a wave of claims by policy holders with brick foundations leading to a new risk-management policy. Shitty.
The New Jersey gubernatorial elections have suddenly become a topic of interest. A reporter from the North New Jersey newspaper, The Bergen Record called to talk about Senator Jon Corzine. Senator Corzine is running on an environmental platform, opposes drilling in the Alaska wildlife refuge, and has been endorsed by the Sierra Club and other major US environmental groups. He's also a major shareholder in UTS Energy which is developing the old TrueNorth Energy oil sands lease and will strip mine half of an irreplaceable fen-type wetland and probably drain the other half. The first thing I thought about the interview was, "Cool! Maybe Alan theantipoet will see my name in his local newspaper!"
McClelland Lake Fen in the UTS oil sands lease
The second thing I thought was how getting American press coverage for our case in Federal Court of Appeals in the matter of the UTS environmental approval would be good for the effort. We're arguing that the Federal Ministers of Environment and Fisheries and Oceans erred in law when they applied the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act to the UTS lease and the approval should be quashed. American news coverage might not actually help, but that last time I corresponded to an American newspaper on a file, the project got shelved. The fact that it was the same project as this one only adds to my superstitious attitude.
Thirdly, this file is probably the most entertaining one I've ever had. When the lease was held by TrueNorth Energy, I e-mailed Anna Nicole Smith asking her to use her influence, such as it was, over the Koch Industries shareholders to save the McClelland Fen. She didn't e-mail a reply.
I commented to The Bergen Record that Senator Corzine should do the likewise with UTS.
Save McClelland Fen, Anna Nicooooooe!
"Senator Cordrazine," I said to Gil. "That's that drug Dr. McCoy injected himself with in The City on the Edge of Forever."
"I can't believe that in the 23rd century you can still accidently overdose with a hypospray," Gil replied. "Why can't they invent some safety device to prevent that from happening?"
"Has Amandi left yet?" Conan asked. He said, literally, "Has Amandi left yet?" I wasn't sure if he was humouring me, or if he'd misspoken. Because Amandi Khera's name isn't 'Amandi' in real life, just in this weblog. In either case, I explained that she hasn't left Alberta yet for her new job in Toronto working for the World Wildlife Fund. That'll happen in September.
My life is a shit-storm. And unlike Billy Bob Thornton in Primary Colors, I'm not feeling especially professional about it. Indeed, I feel shitty. The latest is ING Financial deciding that they will not renew my homeowners insurance without 'professional proof' that the foundation isn't in danger of collapsing. The brick foundation beneath the 1912 is 93 years old this year, and insurance companies in Edmonton have stopped renewing homeowners policies on houses with such foundations. Whilst on the phone with an inspection engineer this afternoon, we came to the conclusion that Edmonton's flooding rains in the past two years must have triggered a wave of claims by policy holders with brick foundations leading to a new risk-management policy. Shitty.
The New Jersey gubernatorial elections have suddenly become a topic of interest. A reporter from the North New Jersey newspaper, The Bergen Record called to talk about Senator Jon Corzine. Senator Corzine is running on an environmental platform, opposes drilling in the Alaska wildlife refuge, and has been endorsed by the Sierra Club and other major US environmental groups. He's also a major shareholder in UTS Energy which is developing the old TrueNorth Energy oil sands lease and will strip mine half of an irreplaceable fen-type wetland and probably drain the other half. The first thing I thought about the interview was, "Cool! Maybe Alan theantipoet will see my name in his local newspaper!"
McClelland Lake Fen in the UTS oil sands lease
The second thing I thought was how getting American press coverage for our case in Federal Court of Appeals in the matter of the UTS environmental approval would be good for the effort. We're arguing that the Federal Ministers of Environment and Fisheries and Oceans erred in law when they applied the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act to the UTS lease and the approval should be quashed. American news coverage might not actually help, but that last time I corresponded to an American newspaper on a file, the project got shelved. The fact that it was the same project as this one only adds to my superstitious attitude.
Thirdly, this file is probably the most entertaining one I've ever had. When the lease was held by TrueNorth Energy, I e-mailed Anna Nicole Smith asking her to use her influence, such as it was, over the Koch Industries shareholders to save the McClelland Fen. She didn't e-mail a reply.
I commented to The Bergen Record that Senator Corzine should do the likewise with UTS.
Save McClelland Fen, Anna Nicooooooe!
"Senator Cordrazine," I said to Gil. "That's that drug Dr. McCoy injected himself with in The City on the Edge of Forever."
"I can't believe that in the 23rd century you can still accidently overdose with a hypospray," Gil replied. "Why can't they invent some safety device to prevent that from happening?"