Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.
Renowned Canadian historian Margaret MacMillan defines the historical moment we now find ourselves in
The Grub Street Project
A digital edition of eighteenth-century London. By mapping its print culture, literature, and trades, it aims to create both a historically accurate visualization of the city’s commerce and communications, and a record of how its authors and artists portrayed it.
Irish National Archives has a new site
Ancestry updates Australia, City Directories and Almanacs, 1845-1948
Lacking census records for Australia, directories play an important role. This collection, updated on 5 February, now has 37,480,812 records
MyHeritage France Vital Records
On 4 February MyHeritage updated:
Church Baptisms and Civil Births – 171,240,855 records
Church Burials and Civil Deaths – 162,332,111 records
Church Marriages and Civil Marriages – 140,303,613 records
I’ve Got a Little List (Poilievre Problems Edition)
(To the tune of The Mikado)
Oh, Canada is struggling, yes, we’ve all heard Pierre complain,
He’ll tell you that it’s broken, but his fix might be insane!
He rails against the taxes, and he hates the CBC,
But ask him for real answers—well, he’s got none, actually!
He loves to talk of freedom and the people he’ll defend,
But only if they all agree and follow where he bends!
And now he’s knocking on the door, but here’s what will be missed,
If Pierre becomes the PM—well, I’ve got a little list!
(Chorus)
I’ve got a little list, I’ve got a little list,
With all the things that Pierre would break—they surely would be missed!
He talks about affordability, but has no plan at all,
Just blames the Bank of Canada, like they caused housing’s fall!
He says he’ll cut the carbon tax and make life cheaper too,
But never says what else he’d do to fix what’s overdue!
He mocks the “woke elites” and how they’ve ruined all our lives,
Yet spends his days on Twitter posting rage-bait to survive!
He blames the press, the gatekeepers, and “elites” for all the grift,
But somehow, when he cashes in—it isn’t on his list!
(Chorus)
I’ve got a little list, I’ve got a little list,
And all his contradictions, well, they surely won’t be missed!
He claims he’s tough on China, yet his MPs take their cash,
And suddenly that convoy’s fine—don’t question, don’t rehash!
He hates when laws are weak on crime, but here’s the biggest quirk:
He loved it when his party slashed the cops and prison work!
And though he rails at handouts and the way that cash is spent,
His gold-plated pension stays—that’s quite convenient!
So if he wins, good luck to us, we’ll finally see the twist—
That when he runs the country, we’ll all be on his list!
Thanks to Ann Burns, Anonymous, Barbara Tose, Gail, Gail Roger, John Estaño DeRoche, Maureen Guay, Teresa, and Unknown for this week’s contributions.
Live the Poilievre piece!
I love, love, love The Grub Street Project – have used the site extensively!!
No link to the Margaret McMillan item?
Thank you everso John for the Margaret M interview with HUB on Youtube. As a public historian myself, I was appointed ((O.I.C) to be a trustee with the Ontario Heritage Foundation in the early 90’s. There I found myself with other trustees, including Margaret M. She and I and another trustee from Stratford, hit it off immediately and formed a subcommittee of 3 to try to change The Ontario Heritage Act to be more progressive. I had my first ever conference call with Margaret and the other trustee. Our efforts to change the OHA was were entirely ignored by the government of the day.
That said, I found Margaret to be as plain spoken, open, even rather humble in our meetings over beer/wine at a nearby pub, and also completely self-absorbed, given who she has now been so hugely well known. A wonderful writer, so smart and her wisdom about democracies ought to be headed.
I will be forwarding this interview to many others. Thank you again