Mall Comparisons and Early Reading Responses

Blogging is going to be lite as I am on the road this weekend for a family event in Providence.

Was amused to see my daughter so utterly surprised to see almost no hockey stuff at the sporting goods store in Providence. Montreal has trained her to expect heaps more of that stuff. I am relieved to be out of the early hockey season, if only briefly.

On the way down, I alternated between two books--Gladwell's book of essays and General (ret.) Rick Hillier's autobiography. The former starts with an essay on gadget pitchmen, especially Ron of Ron. Typical Gladwell--fascinating but still confused about the larger message. Other than the product is the star. For the latter, I have gotten as far into Hillier's career as the late 1990's--between his two missions to Bosnia. The book reads well, and he does not hide his views of the state of the Canadian Forces or the quality of leadership he observed. This is good news for the Steve and Dave project, as we made a bunch of assertions about his views based on one interview that lasted an hour and based on others' views of him.

But as I remember from the interview, Hillier is blunt about what he wants to be blunt about, but discrete about that which he wants to be discrete. So, "outspoken" within limits. Still, some fun reading on the New England roads.

and for views on Canada far more obnoxious than my own, catch up with How I Met Your Mother--one of the leads, Robin, is perhaps the most visibly out-of-the-closet Canadian characters on recent TV. Many digs at Canadians ordinarily but a very CA-specific episode, partly based at a Tim Horton's this week.