It’s 20° C (68° F) in Tampa this morning. Some locals will consider this chilly, but having grown up in Toronto, I find this delightfully cool. I’m going to take the work laptop to the “front porch office” today.
Month: September 2021
I should get one of these. In case you’re looking, RedBubble has a version of these T-shirts for $20.
Why just get a dresser when you can get a chiffonier? And why just get a chiffonier when you can get one with the hand-painted image of Commander James Bond — original recipe Sean Connery Bond, no less — lovingly painted on the front drawers?
I have no idea how it looks up close, but it does look pretty nice in the photos. If our place wasn’t already brimming with furniture, and if it matched our color scheme, I might have bought it.
If you want it, check out its page on Facebook Marketplace and be ready to go to Temple Terrace in Tampa to pick it up. The asking price is $550, but that’s a pittance to pay for the best of all the double-0 agents.
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Just another Monday in Florida
Happy Monday, everybody!
Categories
After healing the blind…
“Which is better, my child? One or two?”
“One…?”
(Click)
“or two?”
I’ll be at the Glazer Children’s Museum’s Birthday Bash this Saturday, September 25th! (There may even be an accordion performance or two.)
What’s the Glazer Children’s Museum?
The Glazer Children’s Museum is Tampa’s children’s museum, located in downtown Tampa. It’s the home of a lot of interactive exhibits, hands-on activities, and space to run around, climb, read, and make friends.
Children’s museums are important. They provide a place to learn and explore interests through hands-on experiences and activities. When you’re young, nothing expands your mind like interactivity that engages all the senses, and that’s something that children’s museums do very, very well.
The Glazer Children’s Museum’s mission is to serve the children of Tampa Bay by providing a clean, safe, and fun outlet for imagination and discovery.
What’s the Glazer Children’s Museum’s Birthday Bash?
In September 2010, the Glazer Children’s Museum first opened its doors to children and their families, and it’s time to celebrate the Museum’s 11th birthday!
The birthday bash will take place in Curtis Hixon Park, which is right in front of the Museum this Saturday, September 25th, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.. There will be fun, play, surprises and special guests, including:
- 501st Legion (Yes, there will be Stormtroopers!)
- Arts4All
- Barrington Bolts Middle School Jazz Band
- Be the Hamster
- Bill Edwards Foundation
- Brandon Academy Rock Band
- Bucs Cheerleaders + Captain Fear
- CARD
- CBHC
- Cinco Soccer
- Clearwater Jazz Holiday Youth Band
- Coda Sounds
- Costumers With a Cause
- Crisis Center of Tampa Bay
- The Dalí Museum
- Dialed in Golf Solutions
- Ilene Lieber + Zooey
- Florida Department of Transportation
- The Gay Men’s Chorus of Tampa Bay
- Glazer Vision Foundation
- Learn & Play Tampa Bay
- Paws for Friendship
- Rooted in Play
- Tampa Bay Parenting Magazine
- Tampa Downtown Partnership
- Tampa Hackerspace
- Tampa Bay Water
- Teens in Action
- UnMonsters™
- WMNF
- Zubrick Magic Theater
There will also be a sensory-friendly birthday bash on Sunday, September 26 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.!
How can you make a reservation?
Reservations are FREE, but if you can do so, you can make a donation to help support the work that the Glazer Children’s Museum does.
Want to know more about the birthday bash? Here’s the Glazer Children’s Museum’s page for the event.
Follow these links to make reservations:
In case you didn’t know, let me say it right now: There’s a general election in Canada today.
Do you know who the current leaders of Canada and Mexico are?
Here’s what might be a trick question for Americans — but shouldn’t be, given the fact that the U.S. and Canada share the world’s longest undefended border, and the fact that the U.S. and Canada are each other’s largest trading partners:
Who is the prime minister of Canada?
While we’re at it, since we’re asking about neighboring countries:
Who is the president of Mexico? (Bonus points if you know that president’s nickname.)
How do general elections work in Canada?
Elections are managed by the federal government, and no matter where you vote, there is just one type of ballot: A paper ballot, with the names of the candidates and a circle in which to put your mark beside each name. A Canadian federal election ballot is pictured above.
Canada’s government follows the Westminster parliamentary system. You don’t directly vote for prime minister. You vote for a local MP (Member of Parliament), who belongs to one of the federal parties and represents your riding (electoral district) in the House of Commons (think of it as the parliamentary equivalent of the U.S. House of Representatives). There are 338 seats in the House of Commons.
The prime minister is the leader of the party with the most elected MPs and therefore has the most seats in the House of Commons. You could say that there’s not one — but 338 — elections happening in Canada today.
If a party wins the election with 170 or more seats out of the total 338, they have a majority government, which means that they can singlehandedly pass laws without a single vote from any of the other parties.
If a party with less than 170 seats, they have a minority government, which means they now need cooperation from other parties to pass laws. A minority government can also be unseated by failing a confidence vote, which dissolves Parliament and starts an election.
Who are the candidates and how young are they?
Here in the U.S., we had an election last November, where the two big candidates were 75 (Donald Trump) and 78 (Joe Biden). Keep in mind that the average life span of American males is 78.5 years.
The Canadian candidates are whippersnappers by comparison and considerably not as uniformly White…
Justin Trudeau is the current prime minister and the leader of the Liberal Party, which occupies 155 out of 338 seats in the House of Commons. He is 49 years old.
Erin O’Toole is the official leader of the opposition and the leader of the Conservative Party, which occupies 119 out of 338 seats in the House of Commons. He is actually one year younger than Justin Trudeau — 48.
Yves-François Blanchet is the leader of the Bloc Quebecois, which occupies 32 out of 338 seats in the House of Commons.. He’s 56.
Jagmeet Singh is the leader of the New Democratic Party, which occupies 24 out of 338 seats in the House of Commons. He’s 42.
Annamie Paul is the leader of the Green Party, which occupies 2 out of 338 seats in the House of Commons. She is 48 years old, and is the first Black Canadian and Jewish woman to lead a federal party in Canada.
Maxime Bernier is the leader of the People’s Party of Canada, which is a new group that broke away from the Conservative Party in the same manner as the People’s Front of Judea from Life of Brian. He’s the oldest of the candidates at age 58.
Where can you find out more?
- Politico: Everything you need to know about the Canadian election
- CNN: Polls open for tight election in Canada as Trudeau seeks to fend off conservative rival
- NPR: Canada Votes In Pandemic Election That Could Cost Justin Trudeau His Job
- Reuters: Explainer: In tight Canada election, another minority government is likely