StopTouchingYourPhone

Hi. I've been reading posts and comments in this community for just a little under a month, and every time I visit, I think of this piece, so I'd like to share it:

I’m looking out over my whole human family
And I’m raising my glass in a toast
Here's to our last drink of fossil fuels
May we vow... to get off... of this... sauce...
Shoo away the swarms of commuter planes
Find that train ticket we lost
'Cause once upon a time, the line followed the river
And peeked into all the backyards
And the laundry was waving
And the graffiti was teasing us
From brick walls and bridges
We were rolling over ridges
Through valleys
Under stars
I dream of touring like Duke Ellington
In my own railroad car
I dream of waiting on the tall blonde wooden benches
In a grand station aglow with grace
And then standing out on the platform
And feeling the air on my face

Give back the night its distant whistle
Give the darkness back its soul
Give the big oil companies the finger, finally
And relearn how to rock-n-roll

Ani DiFranco wrote the 9 minute spoken word piece, Self Evident while on tour in 2001-2002 USA. It's about being in Manhattan during the terrorist attack on 9/11, Operation Enduring Freedom, historical context and more. This section in praise of train travel starts at 5:00.

Fun fact: Chuck D's group, Impossebulls, covered this song.

snips from the news bit:

Total of 1,484 residential homes will be built on a former commuter parking lot

The development will include 444 condos and a mix of one- to three-bedroom rental homes that will be available to residents of various income levels.

Green said the four-block community that will be created will include a childcare centre, community space, retail space and public park.

In a news release on Tuesday, the city said crews have already begun to remove parking infrastructure to prepare the site for development. Construction is set to begin in the spring, with occupancy expected in early 2029.

Someone who owned 2 cafés in Montreal's Jewish General Hospital decided the best place to live their Nazi dream was at a pro-Palestinian protest outside Concordia U last week. She was filmed doing the Nazi salute and throwing out antisemitic remarks.

Second Cup immediately closed down the franchisee's 2 cafés, saying they have "Zero tolerance for hate speech."

The company said it will retain the staff and continue paying them until the locations at the hospital reopen under new management.

the piece's spiral shape resembles the poop emoji more than what was intended: a type of sea snail called a periwinkle.

"This was an intentional sculpture," Ford told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. "[But] spirals occur in nature, right? So it can be interpreted as another thing."

Ontario grocery stores — particularly smaller, independent shops — say new bottle return requirements that were sprung on them a week before they're set to take effect may make it impossible to participate in Premier Doug Ford's expansion of alcohol sales. [...]

Grocery stores [...] that sell alcohol will also have to accept empties.

Having the smell of stale beer mingling with the smell of fresh food — and having to put not-quite-entirely-empty bottles that become fruit-fly magnets near produce sections — would not be good for business, they said.

But with new and detailed requirements communicated to them this week by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario just days before they begin, retailers say they don't know how they will make it work, and some are planning to hand back their licences.

Closed work permits are part of Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker program, empowering exploitative bosses across the country. This story focuses on one franchise owner, but juxtaposes one worker who was able to get an open permit with another who's stuck in his precarious situation.

On Jan. 6, 2021, an angry mob of Donald Trump supporters swarmed a CBC News crew working near Capitol Hill. Nearly four years later, reporter Katie Nicholson tracked down one of the people who surrounded her that day to find out what she’s thinking heading into another volatile U.S. presidential election.

Was worth the watch for the emotional contortions the supporter twists herself into when confronted by one of the people she threatened, her Democrat-voting husband dealing with it all, and that messed up Trump paraphernalia store.