Glasstry news

The obituaries in December 2017 included Ernest Revell , retired University of Toronto professor of Near Eastern Studies and published watercolour artist . He is memorable to me as a child of Edith Sheppard, an early Canadian woman lawyer (called to the bar 1925) who practised for several years with the prominent Toronto firm of McCarthy & McCarthy, and whom we "discovered" during my research in the history of that firm, as noted in the 2005  history of McCarthy Tetrault . A biography of Edith Sheppard which was commissioned by the Dictionary of Canadian Biography  -- but which the DCB has   so far declined to publish -- has long lain among my own archives of lost projects. For those who may be interested, I have included the unedited text below the jump: Sheppard, Edith Mary Peckham , lawyer; born 3 August 1900 at Brul� Lake, Ontario, daughter of Charles Henry Sheppard and Ellen Frances Stocking; married 14 June 1929 at Bombay, India, to Captain Alfred John Revell of...

The recent election in the Spanish state of Catalonia returned a pro-independence government. But most voters favoured continued union with Spain. Is this one of those first-past-the-post anomalies much decried by "fair vote" supporters of proportional representation? Actually, no. Catalonia uses proportional representation, as Fruits and Votes (an electoral-systems site that is generally pro-PR) observes : "the pro-union parties won more votes, but the way the separate parties� votes were translated into seats by electoral system resulted in a pro-independence assembly majority. The voting result between the blocs was not even very close, those opposed to independence winning by about 4.6 percentage points. This sort of thing should not happen under PR" In fact, it is not that infrequent . Update, December 30:   Tom Morton offers a link to a Washington Post op-ed that expands on this issue .  Oddly, it is paywalled when I go to it, but not when Tom does, so try y...

All my plans for a seasonal wrap up and review seemed to get swallowed up in a swirl of eggnog and reindeer, or something.  For a little Christmas history to tide you over, I recommend Cayley Bower's at once charming and erudite t houghts on the history of seasonal baking in Canada , recently posted at Active History . All the best for the holidays.  Maybe that pre-Christmas wrap up can become a year end review.

A Canadian woman and her American sister are each striken with breast cancer . Happily both get essential treatments and survive.  But the costs.... And she had to contend with American-style billing. �Just as I was getting ready to head to the operating room, a tall man in a nice suit came in and told us he had to have a cheque before they would go ahead. �It�s our new policy because people aren�t paying their bills.� We paid him, of course, but it seemed absolutely outrageous � especially when you�re frightened and sick.� The story is in the United Church Observer , and it's by Catherine Wilson.

Acadiensis ( the blog one, I mean) recently offered an essay connecting the Halifax Explosion to climate change . "What, then, does the story of the Halifax Explosion tell us about our contemporary moment of climate disaster?" Absolutely nothing, one is tempted to respond -- except maybe the author has a project underway on climate history. But in fact, author Jacob Remes, a student of disaster response, has quite a few interesting and ingenious comparisons and analogies to offer. Meanwhile, at  Borealia  Jerry Bannister has advice on how to get that bogged down thesis started .  For one thing, he says, you can take Christmas off. If you�re like 94.7% of the academic world, you will get precious little work done once the holidays are upon us. You can fight it and make yourself unproductive and miserable, or give into seasonal reality and be unproductive yet happy. Not from the east but:   Active History offers pointed and thoughtful public policy advice from a...

Where's the ball?  Right where it ought to be!