[color=orange][size=16]Could it be that time already? Why yes, pilgrim. It's:[/size][/color]
[color=blue][size=36]Best of babble 2011[/size][/color]
2011 was a long year. Please make it last by reposting your most brilliant witticisms from the last eleven months. And other people's, if you insist. For inspiration, check out BOB 2010.
Some hits:
Karl-Marx-Allee, Friedrichshain
We were among the first to skewer the CBC's Vote Compass skewered results, analysis that almost earned rabble.ca an interview with our national broadcaster to critique the "tool."
I agree with the general sentiment that this survey is useless. For instance, why do they even ask the party and leadership questions, when the point of the test is to determine, based on your answers to the 'issues' questions, who you should vote for? As a joke, I re-calibrated my answers and pretended to be in favour of Quebec getting more power, essentially making it look like I was a separatist, and it still told me I should vote Green.
They have compound questions in the survey - that is, questions with more than one question in them, but that you have to answer with only one answer.Example: "The government should fund daycare instead of giving money directly to parents." That's actually two statements, not one, and should be separate questions: "The government should fund daycare" and "The government should not give money directly to parents." Because if you believe the government should fund daycare AND give money directly to parents, there is no way to answer this question. And if you believe the government should not fund daycare AND they should not give money directly to parents, there is also no way to answer it.
I agree - it was right at putting Conservative furthest away but I was identified with Green Party - I would think I would have been NDP or Liberal ... not Green for sure.Someone tweeted yesterday that if you answer no opinion/don't know to all questions you turn out Liberal ...
An unhappy, but touching number of posts came after Jack Layton passed away this August. babblers offered their generous, mournful thoughts on his death: Remembering Jack Layton: our thoughts
The NDP rolled out its brilliant French language television ads featuring Jack. During the campaign, the hip Radio-Canada Sunday night tv talk show Tout le Monde en Parle invited him twice onto its platform, where Jack charmed a viewing audience of a couple of million. In the leaders debate, Jack turned the tables on Gilles Duceppe, who claimed to have stopped Stephen Harper. Jack fixed his gaze on Duceppe: “He is still there, he is still there! ”
I first met Jack while working on his mayoral campaign as a volunteer. I was not only impressed by his energy, and his willingness to engage people (especially those working for him), but I was impressed and moved by the people who worked so hard for him and were so committed to his campaign. That kind of loyalty is not for sale.
One of my favourite personal anecdotes about Jack was from sharing a taxi with him from the airport a few years ago (after he was leader of the NDP though). After talking about politics, somehow we started talking about food and where to buy groceries and he suddenly got very animated in telling me about one fruit and vegetable store in Kensington Market that sold over a dozen different types of bananas! He was so visibly excited about the idea that in an era where factory farming and biotechnology has killed off so much biodiversity and we usually think that there is just one type of banana we could eat - here was one store that had TWELVE types of bananas - each a different shape and colour and taste and each had different uses for different recipes!
Too many good ones to list here.
We also had some of the best #occupy coverage in Canada, with on-the-ground reports from Halifax, Montreal, Toronto (part two here), London, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver (with exceptional coverage from epaulo13!).
And finally, a not-safe-for-yuletide thread:babble gets its swear on. (And not like Pat Martin).
Anyone else have any favourites? Funnies? Pithies? Transformatives? Infinitives?
In the spirit of remembrance, I'd like to enjoin you all again that:
N.B. The hope here is for the good kind of nostalgia, not the bad kind. Don't start fights!
So, what do you remember fondly from this past year?
