Glasstry news

I've caught several episodes of CBC-TV's brief summer series Back in Time for Dinner . There is food history on TV. Okay, it's food history with a fair amount of cheese. This is a pretty soft presentation, very much for entertainment. The series immerses a Canadian family of five in the decor, clothing, technology, fads, and above all the food of six decades one after another, 1940s to 1990s, and it has to move fast and funny. But time and again I was struck by how the program actually did achieve a certain time depth. The horror of the modern family obliged to follow the wartime forties' reliance on organ meats like kidneys ("All I smell is urine!") and other economical (and unprocessed) foods is striking, just as their disgusted amazement at the fifties' enthusiasm for jellied salads is entertaining. But a sense of foreignness is effectively created. Back in Time for Dinner nicely notes how, when  kids went out for snacks and sociability in the fifties ...

I've meaning to draw attention to -- well, I've been meaning to watch -- the new Heritage Minute on LGBTQ history.  Well, now I have and there it is above, if you have not yet. Nice. But I cannot help but note again that during the Harper government years, Historica's Heritage Minutes tended to be about hockey or war, or hockey AND war. Under the Trudeau government, they tend to be about Chanie Wenjack, refugees, multiculturalism, and gay rights.  Well, I prefer the greater diversity of the recent ones, for sure. But the Minutes are principally funded by the federal government nowadays, and it's troubling to see how closely the Minutes' editorial choices track the political priorities of the parties in power. What happened to the arm's length principle? Can't help thinking the minute-makers had more freedom of expression years ago, when the money came from the Bronfman Foundation. Government direction of popular media treatments of history: "Another p...

Visions of the North , the blog of Franklin scholar Russell Potter, recently noted its one-millionth visitor, and credited at least some of the uptick to interest generated by the AMC television drama "The Terror."  ("The Terror" doesn't appear to be on any channel we subscribe to). But Potter offers a list of the principal documentaries of the Franklin expedition, many of which are available in one format or another. Visions also notes with approval  the commitment "The Terror"' has made to actually having Inuit played by Inuit, and not just "generic" Inuit, but specific named actors. In other roles are an A list crowd of Brits: Jared Harris (Captain Crozier), Ciaran Hinds (Franklin), Tobias Menzies (James Fitzjames)