West Wing Wednesday Night #38 – 29 June

CANCELLED!
Between a sick household (felled by the last school virus of the season!) and now a sick house (leaking from the ceiling – not caused by a virus, but equally impactful on our ability to function), we reached a decision to CANCEL tomorrow’s merry session. Sorry folks, and looking forwards to the next time!

To quote Eric Woodward , “It is simply impossible to keep up with the morons“. True he said it in reference to a different story, but I think it applies to many areas including the pathetic situation downtown last night (see four pictures worth a thousand words below – thanks to Rob Attwell for sending it along). I will let you decide how this is relevant to the situation of the Alberta medical school dean who decided last week to plagiarize his entire Convocation speech and is now hoping that an apology will save him…  Still on that tangent and speaking of the world going sideways, here is an entertaining perspective on “what if”, read more:  Fake news about the world gone sane.

I had promised you a discussion on economic/market issues, but reuniting the right experts this month is proving a logistical challenge. No worries, folks, the world does not leave us sur notre appetit in terms of discussion topics – from prompt conservative government action on union disputes to stupendous belt tightening in Greece to building cars for the blind. Then let’s fast forward to an interesting new project by Time Magazine called Time Frames – their current choice of themes is interesting in and of itself: Environment, Politics, War, Religion, China and the Millennials. Some other themes can be (in no particular order): How do you define happiness? How do you define success? Why is no one really looking into what Latin America is doing? Is Obama a great president? Is the Internet the biggest polluter? How can we really influence change or is it a question of nudging people along? If we can pay with a cell phone, will we still need a wallet or even banks for that matter? Who is writing today’s science fiction that anticipates our futures? What great books have you lined up as your summer reads?

A few noteworthy events in town:

• this Saturday June 18^th 9am to 11:15 am, Stockwell Day is in town for the Action Canada Summit, where even more importanly will present a friend of our salons – Tiara Letourneau – an Action Canada Fellow – topic: Advancing Canada’s Economic and Business Interests: What Innovations in Public Policy Does Canada Need? 
• next week, Mayor Sam Sullivan’ Global Civic launches the AMAZING greeting fluency program  – the Greeting Fluency Initiative encourages people to seven phrases of greeting in the languages of their neighbours – that is all it takes to make another person comfortable and enhance our level of community/civility!!
• Rick Peterson’s Burgundy Luncheon Club – Friday June 24^th  with an awesome line up of three fascinating speakers
• on wed june 29^th Shauna Sylvester will be hosting the Vision Vancouver Women’s event (yes, sorry – can’t be two places at the same time, although as that potluck dinner starts at 6pm – you can make it there AND be on time for the salon 😉 – contact me if interested and I will connect you.

Come to think, discuss, be inspired, and exchange ideas and insights, all you of interested, interesting, informed and informative folks in town. If you want to introduce a new potential like minded member for the salon – we would be delighted, but do let us know ahead of time to see if we can accommodate them on this occasion.