Lifestyle

Saturday March 11, 2023

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday March 11, 2023

Ask not what your city can do for you…

February 15, 2020

As we sit here surrounded by mounds of snow waiting for the next dump, it’s time to address the infuriating issue of unshovelled sidewalks. Every pedestrian who traverses our city, be it for transportation, exercise, or leisure, knows that the state of our sidewalks in winter is a complete disaster, especially in residential areas. While most property owners diligently shovel their portion of the walkway, there are always a few self-righteous, able-bodied laggards who refuse to do their civic duty.

It’s mind-boggling that some folks have the audacity to claim they don’t use the sidewalks, so why bother clearing them? What kind of backwards thinking is that? Everyone who owns property or works on behalf of someone who does has a collective responsibility to optimize public safety, including keeping sidewalks safe and accessible for everyone. We have an aging population, we’re supposed to be walking more and relying on cars less, and walking is essential for our mental and physical well-being. Yet, these lazy snow shovelling scofflaws obstruct us from taking full advantage of the benefits of walking.

March 11, 2008

Sure, we can rely on local government to enforce the law and issue bills to those who refuse to shovel their sidewalks. However, it’s not that simple. Cities have started ticketing these snow-shovelling delinquents, but the process is slow and ineffective, and the repeat offenders continue to pose a hazard to pedestrians. It’s high time we streamline the complaint process, implement stricter penalties, and make sure these lazybones realize that their actions have consequences.

Furthermore, let’s not forget that lack of physical ability or being away are not legitimate excuses for failing to shovel one’s portion of the sidewalk. There are always ways to get it done, even if it means hiring someone to do it or asking a neighbour for help. It’s time for these able-bodied laggards to stop making excuses and start taking responsibility for their property.

In conclusion, let’s make it clear that ensuring safe and accessible sidewalks is not just a seasonal complaint, it’s a fundamental aspect of public safety, accessibility, and quality of life for all members of the community. We need to hold these lazy, righteous able-bodied laggards accountable and remind them that their inaction has real consequences for the rest of us. So grab a shovel, roll up your sleeves, and let’s clear those sidewalks! (AI)

March 9, 2023 cartoon

Letter to the Editor, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday March 16, 2023

MacKay on the money

We loved Graeme MacKay’s Saturday cartoon depicting the home with lots of proactive political lawn signs but a sidewalk that is piled with snow, blocking the passage of an elderly pedestrian. It’s easy to have high standards on social justice if one doesn’t have to do anything real like shovelling your sidewalk!

Gretchen Harris, Hamilton

 

 

 

Friday December 23, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday December 23, 2022

Winter storm in US and Canada causes power outages for over a million

The storm has brought damaging winds and freezing temperatures that can quickly lead to frostbite.

December 24, 2013

Much of Canada and the US are under winter weather alerts that stretch from coast-to-coast and as far south as the US-Mexico border.

Major airports have cancelled thousands of flights as the storm intensifies.

As of Friday morning, more than 1,130,000 people from Texas to Maine were left in the dark, as the intense winds brought damage to power lines across the eastern US.

Power outages have also been reported in Canada, affecting 260,000 people in the provinces of Quebec and Ontario.

January 31, 2019

The US National Weather Service said that over 200 million people – or roughly 60% of the US population – are under some form of winter weather advisory.

Much of Canada, from British Columbia to Newfoundland, is also under extreme cold and winter storm warnings.

Several school boards in Ontario, including Toronto, have cancelled classes. The airline WestJet has also cancelled flights on Friday due to “prolonged and extreme weather events” across Canada.

This storm is set to bring the iciest Christmas in decades, say forecasters, even affecting the sunshine state of Florida. (BBC) 

From sketch to finish, in 30 seconds, see the current way Graeme completes an editorial cartoon using an iPencil, the Procreate app, and a couple of cheats on an iPad Pro … These sped up clips are posted to encourage others to be creative, to take advantage of the technology many of us already have and to use it to produce satire. Comfort the afflicted. Afflict the comforted.

 

Friday December 9, 2022

December 9, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday December 9, 2022

Inflation is changing how Canadians do Christmas

A new poll by the Angus Reid Institute says more than half of Canadians – 56 per cent – say they will be spending less on Christmas, including presents and entertaining.

September 29, 2022

“When you look at the Atlantic Canadian data, among the highest numbers in the country in Nova Scotia, 57 per cent, say they’re worse off now,” said Dave Korzinski, the research director with Angus Reid Institute.

“In Newfoundland and Labrador, 54 per cent, in New Brunswick 53 per cent, all of those are higher than the national average of 50 per cent,” Korzinski said.

This is the first time the non-profit’s data has shown that more than 50 per cent of Canadians say they are financially worse off this year than this time last year.

“Seeing food banks across the country who are dealing with essentially budgets that are smaller and demand that is larger, which is a really tough recipe when you’re trying to keep your programs going,” Korzinski said.

“When it’s more expensive for your household, imagine buying it for 1,400 households,” said Alex Boyd,  the executive director Greener Village Food Bank in Fredericton.

May 10, 2022

“So, that’s what we do with milk and eggs, those are very seldom donated items,” Boyd said.

Charitable giving is also already down this holiday season, according to the poll.

“To see 37 per cent of Canadians say they’re cutting back on donations, including more than two-in-five who are older, who are 55+ who tend to be the most generous and the most consistent givers, has been really challenging for a lot of charities,” Korzinski said.

“It’s always a concern that we watch for, especially being an organization that relies heavily on November and December giving to make up for the leaner months earlier in the year,” Boyd said.

Eighty-seven per cent of Canadians say they have cut back on spending in some way recently – up from 80 per cent in August. (CTV) 

 

Wednesday December 7, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday December 7, 2022

Get’em while you can: Hamilton Christmas tree hunters scrambling amid shortage

Don’t dally, Christmas tree hunters: some local farms are already out of seasonal evergreens amid a chronic shortage exacerbated by inflation and extreme weather.

December 4, 2021

In the Hamilton area, several tree farms are warning their fields could be bare by next weekend — while a few are already sold out or not opening at all.

Jim Watson is selling only pre-cut evergreens this year — and only on weekends — because a series of “terrible, dry summers” wiped out fields of trees that might otherwise be open for the U-cut crowd.

But that didn’t stop eager tree hunters from flooding his Mount Hope farm the day it opened Nov. 26. “People are really trying to get a tree early,” Watson said, adding he would be surprised if he has enough pre-cut fir, spruce and pine to stay open beyond the Dec. 10 weekend.

Tuesday November 1, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday November 1, 2022

U.S. Headlines Expressing Anger, Fear, Disgust, and Sadness Increased Hugely Since 2000

About 42 percent of Americans now actively avoid news coverage, according to the Reuters Institute’s 2022 Digital News Report. That’s up from 38 percent in 2017. Nearly half of Americans who’ve turned away from the news say that they are doing so because it has a negative effect on their mood. As it happens, a new study in the journal PLoS One tracking the headlines in 47 publications popular in the United States reports that they have trended decidedly negative over the past two decades. 

Coincidence?

June 12, 2019

In their study, the team of New Zealand-based media researchers used a language model trained to categorize as positive or negative the sentiments of 23 million headlines between 2000 and 2019. In addition, the model was finetuned to identify Ekman’s six basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, surprise), plus neutral, to label the headlines automatically. Using the 2019 Allsides Media Bias Chart, the publications were ideologically categorized as left, right, or center. For example, The New Yorker, the New York Times Opinion, and Mother Jones were identified as left; National Review, Fox News Opinion, and The New York Post as right; and A.P., Reuters, and The Wall Street Journal as center. (Reason was pegged as right-leaning.)

After turning their language model loose on the millions of headlines, the researchers found “an increase of sentiment negativity in headlines across written news media since the year 2000.”

June 5, 2012

Overall, the researchers find that the prevalence of headlines denoting anger since the year 2000 increased by 104 percent. The prevalence of headlines denoting fear rose 150 percent; disgust by 29 percent; and sadness by 54 percent. The joy emotional category had its up and downs, rising until 2010 and falling after that. Headlines denoting neutral emotion declined by 30 percent since the year 2000. Breaking these down by ideology, headlines from right-leaning news media have been, on average, consistently more negative than headlines from left-leaning outlets.

Why are negative headlines becoming more prevalent? “If it bleeds, it leads” is a hoary journalistic aphorism summarizing the well-known fact that dramatic, even gory, stories engage the attention of news consumers. In other words, journalists are supplying news consumers with what they want. Given the global reach of modern news media, there is always some attention-grabbing horror that occurred somewhere that can be highlighted between weather and sports on your local TV news.

November 4, 2020

Journalistic catering to people’s negativity bias ends up misleading a lot of their audiences into thinking that the state of the world is getting worse and worse. However, looking at long term trends, the opposite is the case. Yes, yes, there are wars in Ukraine, Ethiopia, and Yemen and, of course, a global pandemic during the past two years has killed around 6.5 million people so far. “For reasons I have never understood, people like to hear that the world is going to hell, and become huffy and scornful when some idiotic optimist intrudes on their pleasure,” wrote economist Deidre McCloskey. “Yet pessimism has consistently been a poor guide to the modern economic world.” (Continued: Reason)