"Greek wildfires kill 74, the deadliest blaze in decades"
Derek Gatopoulos and Elena Becatoros
This is the title of a big article in Torontos' Star, and they even credit Greek reporters.
"Wildfires raged throught seaside resorts near the Greek capital of Athens,
torching homes, cars and forests as they killed at least 74 people, authorities said Tuesday.
Twenty-six of the dead were found huddled together in a compound,
while a few bodies were recovered from the sea where they fled to escape the flames and smoke.
Greece endures wildfires every summer but the first that broke out Monday were the deadliest..."
Right beside it, with a big, 6" by 5" photo of the only survivor of a group by the sea,
was another big article about him and his narration of events.
I'm not surprised that the Greek people here in Ontario are getting special treatment.
It was a saying in the seventies, for bands touring around northern Ontario.
Half the restaurants and gas stations were owned by Greeks.
That was more about having your own little kingdom, always a big property.
A restaurant, gas bar, a store, maybe rooms, with a big house set far back from the road.
You didn't see a sick looking bear in a cage on the side of the parking lot in those places.
That's my impression of the difference between Greek ownership and everyone else.
That's true, seeing more bears in cages at gas stations than in zoos.
The province had to pass a law about private zoos and bears in cages. I saw quite a few.
Talking about culture clash can also be culture crash.
Clinton, a very northern city where radar dishes were made during the last world war,
was famous for the one restaurant that was open after midnight.
It was owned by Ukrainians and for a Chinese dish they had egg rolls.
The egg rolls were fried eggs with peas in them, rolled up and served with a packet of soy sauce.
I had to order some to believe it, and I ate them, that's for sure. I used ketchup instead.
Please don't think we didn't get along. You have to respect anyone who survived the Holomodor.
When I think of global climate change, I think this illustrates the difference in our climate.
Edmond Hillary climbed Mount Everest in hiking clothes and didn't have his own oxygen.
When you think of everything that the United States is doing as war to get the oil,
to make the plastic and the energy to keep propagating their world wide web,
and it's getting stickier all the time,
look what 7-Eleven is doing as a new customer promotion.
This is a card the clerk can swipe so you get shopping rewards,
with a smaller version to carry on your keychain.
I know some people with as many swipe cards as they have keys.
I tried to size the scan so everyone can see and look for themselves.
All this, for a store that is open all the time, for smaller cities,
the only store that's open after eleven at night, and it's about munchies.
Most do have a gas bar, the only gas bar open all the time,
but the now big stores are just high-priced late night food for stoners.
If I'm not tired and don't feel like doing anything or getting out on my bike,
I like to get a Super Big Gulp, now having lemonade and a fruit drink, not just pop,
and sit on the curb and watch everybody else coming and going.
The 7-Eleven in Port Colborne is known for the unusual, uh, costumes people wear,
a highly sexual stream of customers.
When I first heard about this I was surprised it popped up in Port Colborne.
There's a big neighbourhood watch and citizen patrol with police walkie-talkies.
Coming back from a long, more than over-night bike hike, walking along Lake Erie,
instead of staying outside of the city on the recreational trail,
I decided to go inland and see the 7-Eleven after one at night, and it's true.
The first customer I saw parked by the gas pumps, and a woman in a short skirt came out,
the rest of her clothes looking country and western. She was very good-looking.
As she walked to the store and saw me, she went back to open her front door,
and bent over to look inside, and I'm thinking she doesn't have any underwear on.
She was looking straight at me as she was walking into the store,
and as she came out, so I went over to talk with her.
She said she was from Welland and was working a bar at a party and was going home.
Don't forget, I'm an old man with white hair in bike-hike clothes,
probably having a little pine or spruce tar in my hair, pushing my bike through swamps and forests.
And I was sitting outside on the curb, and I wasn't singing "After Midnight".
It seemed to be a continuous parade of semi-costumed, sexualized people, sitting for over an hour.
okay... okay... when Billy Idol sang about his angel getting up off the floor,
to go to 7-Eleven for a pack of cigarettes, I got off on that.
That's in "Rebel Yell". You can imagine what I did when I sang that in a band...
no no... not Double Big Gulps, just a single Super Big Gulp.
I never did dance by myself.
If I was a descendant of any of the big corporate families around the world,
the weight of manufacturing that pollutes our planet would weigh too heavy on me.
But despite the intervention of Scottish clans to prevent the worst excesses of European colonization,
and the inventions that have been given to the world,
Clan Watt never manufactured, seeing a life that's free in front of me.
That's living "scot-free", now just a poorly defined word in the Canadian dictionary.
