Date: Fri, 08 Jan 1999 22:44:52 -0700
From: Ranald Gault <gaultr@cadvision.com>
To: baidarka@lists.intelenet.net
Subject: Re: baidarka Re[2]: Inuit Cosmology
Gene Smith wrote:
>
> Ouch! I certainly feel chastened...
Gene! Buddy! Don't go away mad. I should tell you that
I've always enjoyed your writing, but really I've just got
to stand up for anybody who speaks well of good old CBC
radio. I spend an inexcusable amount of my time plugged
into the 'Ministry of Truth'; life would be a good deal
poorer without it. If you do want to listen in from time to
time, check out their website as Doug Ingram suggested. I
think you'll find that much of the programming is
web-accessable with a Real Audio link.
I heard the radio interview with the author MacDonald, and
it did sound like his book offered some valuable insight
into Inuit culture. I've been trying to read up on these
and other ethnology topics for some time, but I hadn't found
anything before on Inuit interpretations of constellations
so I look forward to seeing his book.
We all have good intentions, and we each get exercised over
some things that arise in discussions here -- like the time
I blew a gasket over that damned People Magazine poll about
banning 'personal watercraft'. Imagine my embarrassment
when last week I found there was actually a magazine with
that as the title, referring specifically to jet skis. I
thought that such a generic term referred to all and any of
the little poor man's yachts that I might ever hope to sail
or paddle. Now I'll have to look back through the archives
to figure out who I have to apologise to for calling to our
attention a question that I condemned as 'simply stupid' ...
blush! Vern Doucette's intentions are good too. As someone
who has had some enviable experience in the north and worked
closely with ethnographers, he has acquired a circumspect
approach to discussions on northern cultures that leads him
to call an occasional off-side. It won't harm discussions
here to have someone come out in the open with criticism.
Ranald Gault
- 'frezzing' as well in Calgary, and NOT loving it.
(Sorry Doug, some of us frost backs are just weather
weenies!)