For the first time in over a year, Babel-on-the-Bay skipped posting for one day last week. Readership plummeted. There was a technical problem. It was solved with the purchase of a new monitor. It seems those things die after eight or nine years. A computer nerd was also enticed (with money) to come and clean up the computer. It needed a grease job. This did not mean we had nothing to do but it did cause some introspection. We thought some more about what the hell we are doing here.
This blog has become a demanding hobby. It is still fun. It is only a personal penchant for good spelling, grammar and clarity that we spend the time we do. There are also some wonderful readers who delight in pointing out any errors.
But one reader got to your writer last week: “Why are you so angry?” she wanted to know. That was serious. Here we are having fun and we are told that we are coming across as angry. She is also getting bored with bitumen. She likes it when we are funny.
If you felt as lonely as we have felt in discussing bitumen, you would understand. Only in the past week have the mainstream media in Eastern Canada started to realize the dangers of having bitumen slurry piped through eastern cities on its way to seaports. The Toronto Star had its first alarmist headline just the other day. Previously it had restricted the coverage on the reversal of Enbridge’s Line 9B to puff pieces in the business section.
It is nice to know that others are as appalled as you at the prospect of a disaster in Toronto’s Yonge Street Subway or to our fresh drinking water. We sent our concerns to the National Energy Board in Calgary in August but we have no Google Analytics on that posting to tell us if anyone is reading it. You have to realize that there are hundreds of millions of dollars (and the resources of the federal government) behind the push to get that Alberta bitumen to seaports and one lousy little blog is not much of a finger in that dike.
Mind you, we are very pleased with our readership for Babel-on-the-Bay. Out of hundreds of millions of blogs on the world-wide web, only a very few are knowledgeable, readable, erudite or worthy of a few minutes of your time. We are honoured you chose to visit us. Thank you.
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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry
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