Hair of the dog

Friends, I did it! After many years of missing out on Canal ice skating fun (some climate induced, others self-inflicted), I skated the full length yesterday. The soreness after yesterday could only—so I told myself—be helped by going again today, giving me a good few hours skating this weekend. So I’m pleasantly tuckered out, heading into what’ll be a much fuller month than the last.

This will-it-won’t-it-trade-war week, I felt some odd parallels to the early pandemic: waiting to see when and which leaders would take it seriously, and how, though not knowing myself how to act our way out of it; feeling a bit silly and self-conscious while, then, stocking up on household essentials and keeping distance and so on, and, now, checking the labels of items for made-in-Canada and so on. “The only lasting truth / Is Change.”

Okay, onto some links:

• Jen Wang’s story of a parent-teacher association turned mutual-aid effort is full of the hard work, big and small, worth doing to help others. (via Mita Williams)
• Legal privilege and cyber breaches, including tricky balances to strike in disclosing information to the public and (potentially) affected individuals.
• Abe Newman, on Musk’s rampage through the U.S. government (via Jason Kottke), notes that “the plumbing is political”. When digital government folks emphasize the importance of good delivery, this is it: delivery is what enables policy, and stopping delivery can shut down policy, even if that policy remains in place. Dan Hon explored this from another angle.
• This discussion of food system resiliency (summarizing and responding to the UK National Preparedness Commission’s Just in Case: 7 steps to narrow the UK civil food resilience gap), combined with the proposed American and Canadian tariff lists, have had me thinking a lot more about food security.
• Toronto’s University Health Network is building housing, for both its patients and its staff.
• E.B. White, via Maria Popova, on nationalism.

For the rest of the weekend, I’ll be either cooking, woodworking, admiring beautiful chairs, playing video games, chuckling at clever posters, or watching Star Trek: Lower Decks. I hope yours is equally as restful—all the best for the week ahead!

Lucas

P.S. If you’re in Ottawa and would like to go for a skate, send me a note!