American Empress?

Image from maritime matters

She's a lovely ship, but the name sounds wrong, even un-American. That nation can lay no claim to historic empresses. Indeed, its basic identity as an egalitarian democracy means it takes pride in having no truck with aristocrats.

So why are the ships of this riverboat cruise line called queens and empresses?

It it's meant to work as subliminal advertising, it doesn't. Just sounds like an oxymoron to me.

Two days of contrast in the garden

The two pictures are of the same flowers, taken one day apart.

Top view: December 4.

Bottom view: December 5.

A lot can change in a single day.

Cloud shadows over Grouse Mountain

Vancouver has many moods. I took this one a couple of weeks ago, when the front half of Grouse was lit by sunshine, while the back was shaded by clouds.

Depression glassware?

Depression glass seems as strange description, but these kitchen items were named after the era in which they were produced. The Great Depression, a ten-year economic slump that began when the stock market crashed in 1929, was also called the Dirty Thirties in Canada, where it coincided with a devastating drought.

This dish is one of a few surviving items from my mother's kitchen, and now it's cracked. Not sure it's depression glassware, but the thought of not using it at Christmas is a bit depressing.

Reporters take their lumps in the basement of the BC Legislature

In the Legislative Press Gallery in Victoria, journalists and politicians have to take their lumps. Cartoon detail on bottom photo. Well, you know what I mean.

Inspiring words from TWS Readers at Cottage Bistro

Last night at Cottage Bistro, the SFU TWS Reading community inspired a lively audience. Left, co-host Diana Joy adjusts microphone for the featured reader, Janie Chang, whose new book, Dragon Springs Road, launches January 2017. "I want to be a fox," says her seven-year-old protagonist. "Change me into a fox."

Appearing in the order listed, the lines below are from the work of Valerie Chalker Whitfield, Erica Evelyn Simmonds, Christine Hayvice, Culleen Bryant, Angela Kenyon, Christina Myers, and Ingrid Rose.

The lines below were heard by the audience:

All bodies are welcome here.

I told her I thought she did a good job, proud of using my tact.

The wig got passed around...I had one of those styrofoam heads in my car.

God is a laughing Bedouin.

I'm constantly given indications, but I'm always unprepared.

Stand up. Find the clothes. Go downstairs. Start a load.

Left wing factions cacophonous in my ear.

Braided outdoor objet d'art in Van Dusen Gardens