Glenn Kubish

  Into the books goes another week. But in case I want to read that part of the book again, here are three things from that week that left behind lines of happiness and gratitude. Three Things podcast, episode 124:                                  1. Soft rain   The news lately has been as old as it gets. Even older than crime, the want ads, the obits and the sports scores. The news here these days is elementally old. The themes in the media are the old media themselves: earth, wind, water and fire.   Forest fire season arrived early. People have fled their homes. Properties are cindered. The questions are the questions of the firefighter: Which way is the wind blowing? When will it rain? Will it ever rain?  People are jittery. I know I am on edge. A black fly outside lands on the dining room window while I am peering out and up at the brown sky and, for an instant, I feel it kn...

I asked Siri a simple question. Siri, asked I, what is the forecast for Edmonton? (I typically wait for Josh to answer the question on CTV, but, I was about to get on my bike, and needed to know. And the only entity at hand was designed in California.) Siri came back with this: Some bad weather coming up between today and December 14, 2015...down to -14 degrees Celsius. Being a child of the age of the fact-value distinction, I saw what Siri did there. I wanted a number, maybe some information about wind and snow, and what I got was a judgment. Not fair. So, while in the meteorontological mood, I asked Siri another question: why do you say cold weather is bad? Siri was evasive, offering to search. Typical. You don't think it's nice in Edmonton? I asked. No, I don't think it's particularly nice in Toronto, Glenn, Siri countered, sounding my first name like an exasperated mother figure computer program bot whatever. My point, I asked Siri next, was th...