97/16 February 28 2019

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Two Rivers Gallery What it takes to make it a successful community accessible facility Prince George’s weekly news Thursday, february 28, 2019

Nasti Weather blows through P.G. frank peebles 97/16 staff

The region is in for some Nasti Weather. Isn’t that great?

A musical front is forecast to blow in from the Lower Mainland and cover a lot of the Prince George region next month.

Nasti Weather can’t be predicted by meteorologists or television weather anchors. It’s the creative outlet of Anastasia Schlechtleitner, a self-described “garage jazz” chanteuse who is as unique as she is new to the B.C. music scene.

To be clear, she has for many years been a promoter of music shows. She has collaborated with names like Blackberry Wood, Red Haven, High Society, and Noah Walker, but it was only about five years ago that she forced herself out into the spotlight as her own act.

Now she is earning praise and rave reviews for her husky vocal purr and the comely clang of her banjo. There’s a gypsy wind to her compositions, and an intimate speakeasy air as well. There’s a fragile elegance, a shy beauty to it.

It’s the sound of someone enjoying the way people can stand in a close circle, each with a different instrument in their hands, and work together on a single purpose made up of all their individual parts.

She has a multitude of artistic interests, and for years they wrestled with each other for primacy. The inner singer-songwriter finally won out, but that active mind is still evident in what comes out on stage.

“I like to play with my hands, I like to create,” she said. “I found a word for it: multi-potentialize. I have always dabbled in things. That is part of why it was so hard for me to commit to music, and I feel like I have. It’s an exciting move for me to feel like I’m actually sticking with something.”

With some of northern B.C.’s favourite musicians like Saltwater Hank and Danny Bell, Nasti Weather has a whole tour of the region set to go in March. Bell, in fact, reached out to her based on some

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Anastasia Schlechtleitner, whose stage name is Nasti Weather, will perform throughout the Central Interior beginning in March. live performances he’d seen. He offered to arrange the bookings and also arrange the musicians she would need, which is

still a surreal feeling for the old soul with the new musicianship.

“It took me quite a few shows before

they (the other players who agreed to collaborate with her at the start of her career) were like ‘Ana, we don’t play with you out of pity, we play with you because we love your music’ and it took me a long time to believe I was worthy of the musicians who were choosing to play with me. I’m still not a great banjo player, but it’s not necessarily about that,” she said.

Music – amongst musicians and also for fans – is about connection. The players who share a stage are looking for a mechanical synergy that feeds the spirit, and the fans in the audience are looking for a sharing and emotional spark that again feeds the spirit.

Schlechtleitner took the fan chemistry seriously, since she was one of those herself for so long before committing to learning an instrument and opening her voice. She was having a hard enough time with confidence, so she pored over old poetry she’d written, journals she had kept, pulling years worth of material to shape and glaze with new thoughts and concepts fresh in her mind.

“We make songs (we hear) about ourselves, and I love that,” she said. “You don’t know my story behind that song, sometimes I don’t necessarily know exactly what I’ve written a song about, but I know that it’s true, and it reveals itself to me over time, but I can see the look (in fans’) eyes and I know they get the feeling of what the song is about. It’s not about the story, it is about the feeling. It’s how we relate.”

If Nasti Weather songs could only relate one thing, it would be the resonance of mental health. The songs are not odes to afflictions of the mind, but they all have electrical cords that wind back into the chords they strike in Schlechtleitner’s creative process. Art is about conveying bigger concepts, she said, and few concepts are more important than the stigmas and misconceptions that cost opportunities and life itself for the many who catch those sorts of maladies. She is one of them.

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97/16 photo by Anastasia Schlechtleitner

Nasti Weather, also known as Anastasia Schletchtleitner, will perform in Prince George at the Legion at 9 p.m. on March 23.

Her music is more than pretty melodies Continued from page 1

“I know I’ve struggled with depression and anxiety on and off for most of my life, although I didn’t know that’s what was happening,” she said. She even visited dentists thinking the pain in her jaws were due to incoming wisdom teeth, or respiratory specialists because her breathing was so laboured. It turned out, these were physical reactions to the signals of her brain.

“For the longest time I kept trying to figure out the solution to the problem, and that was a problem in itself,” she explained. “I still experience anxiety and I made the choice to medicate and that has helped a lot.”

She does not recommend people suffering with mental health issues ignore their dark emotions, or pretend these super-strength emotions aren’t real, but she does urge an enjoyment of life. That might well mean seeking medical help,

and it certainly means letting yourself feel good sometimes.

“The more I’ve reached out and the more I’ve continued with this project of sharing these feelings openly, the more people have come to me saying ‘yes, I’ve been feeling that too’,” she said. “I was feeling alone, and it is very healing for me to know that I am not alone and for me and other people to see that where I always thought I’d be a burden for sharing the pain I was going through, I’m finding I’m able to help other people move through that sense of alienation.

When we all do that together, that can be so powerful.”

The power of musical sharing whips up some Nasti Weather on March 20 (Williams Lake at the Central Cariboo Arts Centre), March 21 (Quesnel at The Occidental), March 22 (Wells at the Wells Hotel) and March 23 in Prince George at The Legion. Tickets are $10 at the door, with showtime at 9 p.m.

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One man’s vision turns into Camp Trapping Seniors’ Scene Kathy Nadalin

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ruce Hawkenson was inducted into the Prince George Sports Hall of Fame in 2001. Over the years he won medals at almost every level of canoe racing including a gold medal at the first ever Senior World Championship in 1985.

Bruce was born in Regina, Sask. in 1941. The family moved many times over the years and when Bruce was nine years old his mother worked as a substitute teacher in Prince George.

He eventually returned to Caronport, Sask. where he graduated from Briercrest high school.

He went to college in Vancouver where he met his future wife Jeanette Kline.

Jeanette was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1941. Her father, a Baptist minister in Everett, Wa., agreed to send her to a Bible school in Vancouver.

Jeanette said, “I met this handsome Canadian in 1959. We were like minded, we fell in love and we got married in 1962. I was happy to become a Canadian.”

They moved to St. Paul, Minnesota where Bruce earned his bachelor of theology degree in 1961 and his bachelor of arts degree from the Bethel College and Seminary of Minnesota in 1965.

Over the years he returned to Prince George and worked for the Fichtner Lumber company to help pay for his education.

It was through this work relationship that Bruce got a temporary interim pastor’s position at the Fort George Baptist Church.

Bruce said, “I enjoyed serving as the minister but eventually I came to realize that it wasn’t a good fit for me. I wanted to emphasize principles over religion.

I successfully applied for a job with the attorney general’s department as a probation officer. I took the four-month training program and for the next three years I worked as a probation officer.

“I met a lot of basically good kids that were in trouble because of a lack of a support foundation. Jeanette and I first took them in as foster children hoping to stabilize their lives.

“By this time, I was in my late 20s and I envisioned a program based on therapeutic principles. We then decided to set up a training program at Trapping Lake similar to an outward-bound program that I was familiar with. I felt the need to work with these unique juveniles by keeping them busy doing something constructive. I started out with eight teenagers who had been in trouble with the law.

“In order to attend they had to choose to change the direction of their personal

97/16 photo by Brent Braaten

Jeanette and Bruce Hawkenson are seen here in their home on the Fraser River. Bruce is the creator of Camp Trapping that helped countless youth get on the right track in life. lives and Camp Trapping was going to help them do this. They would live in a tent, attend inspirational sessions and enter a rigorous physical training program which included learning to master a canoe on the lake.

“As the program developed my boys proudly became the Canadian Junior Canoe Racing Champions back in the early 70s. Through this and many other successful achievements during their stay in the program, they learned that they were somebody.

“The program was a success and soon I had from eight to 10 boys in the program. I believed in the program. Jeanette supported the program all the way from being camp cook (on a wood stove) to being the bookkeeper.

“We needed seed money so we agreed that I would cash in my superannuation of $1,000 and use $500 to buy an old truck and the 12x20 foot cabin on the property at Trapping Lake.

“The attendees had to rough it and they had to work. We had little funding and government assistance was minimal; regardless the program was working.

We taught them how to work and when goals were met more goals were set and they succeeded again and again.

“The Forest service gave us tree planting contracts to facilitate our work program. We measured the youths’ growth as they improved their bodies and minds and they became proud individuals.

“Based upon my former planting experience I partnered up with two others to form a reforestation company, Tawa Enterprises. The company grew to the point where we had up to 500 employees during a season. Most were university students and very hard-working people.

“A legal society was formed under the name of Cariboo Action Society (CATS) and Camp Trapping officially came into being. It was not long before we had as many as 20 boys in the camp at any one time. Sadly, some of the boys had nothing to go home to so some stayed on as junior counselors’ in order to hang on to their new life at the camp.

“Human resources now funded the program, Prince George businesses committed to help out and the community was in favour of it.

“Students throughout British Columbia attended Camp Trapping as a means of fulfilling their court obligations while simultaneously developing the skills necessary to create a positive life when they returned to their community or

re-entered the public-school system upon their graduation from Camp Trapping.

“After many years I found that I was worn out from the long hours. The camp was well established and I knew it was time to move on.

“We formed Folklore Contracting Ltd. and during that time I invented and patented the Hawk Power Scalper which is a hand-held machine powered by a chain saw motor. To this day it is used for cross country trail making, fire suppression and site preparation for planting trees.

“In 1994 our son took over ownership of the company and I retired at the age of 55. Now I could go back to my love for canoeing, I could build a home on the Fraser River, travel and enjoy my master’s basketball team the Silver Bullets.”

Bruce and Jeanette have two sons; Kurt and Lonnie (Caroline) who in turn gave them five grandchildren.

Jeannette’s joy is her music. She volunteered as a ten-year director for the Sweet Adeline’s. The group grew to a membership of 42 and did consistently well in many competitions and local productions.

Her new music love is strumming and singing along with the ukulele group at the Elder Citizens’ Recreation Centre.

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Accessibility is key for Two Rivers Gallery christine hinzmann 97/16 staff

Two Rivers Gallery wants to showcase their accessibility and barrier-free facility.

“For me the gallery is not so much about the building but it’s about engaging with art, creativity and expressing yourself,” Carolyn Holmes, managing director, said. “Sometimes this place can be the gateway to those experiences. I want people to know that we’re a really welcoming place, that everybody can come here. Sometimes there are barriers associated with galleries and we want to erase all that and encourage people to come and try us out.”

Holmes, who’s been working at the gallery for the last 20 years, said staff often support other events in the community and work with other organizations so that they can reach people that way.

George Harris, curator and artistic director, has been with the gallery for 18 years but first he was with the Prince George Art Gallery for two and a half years, then spent five years with the Yukon Art Centre in Whitehorse before he returned to Prince George to join the team at the current gallery.

“One of the things I love about the gallery and what it is that we do here is that it provides a window on so many different experiences, so many different worlds, so many different ways of seeing yourself in relationship to the world in relationship to other people,” Harris said. “As we move forward and address the changing world, the one thing that’s going to be a tremendous boon to us is our ability to respond creatively to the challenges that are put in front of us.”

Twyla Exner, director of public programs, has been at the gallery for the last two years. She has a strong background in education and is also a visual artist who actually participated in a group show at Two Rivers many years ago and then in 2012 she had a solo show in the gallery. So there’s a long history here.

“I believe galleries are public institutions and are here to serve the public as well as serve artists,” Exner said. “We are a means to share artists and artwork with the community.”

It takes the management team of three to make the Two Rivers Gallery a success.

“We work as a management team,” said Holmes.

They oversee the public programs and the art exhibits.

“So Twyla, as well as interpreting the exhibitions her department puts on the

97/16 photo by Brent Braaten

The team that runs Two Rivers Gallery from left is Carolyn Holmes, George Harris and Twyla Exner. Together they offer something unique to the community through gallery programs, exhibits and events. events like Kids Art Days, all the studio programs, maker lab and those are the ways we connect with our local community,” Holmes said. “As a working artist I think Twyla understands both what happens in the exhibition spaces and what the artists are trying to say and also she can really relate to the people - she has an education background so she knows how galleries work. She fits in well with our team. And I think, like George and I, she cares about this place, art and the things that really drive us.”

Carolyn has held other positions at the gallery and comes from an educational programming background.

“Carolyn has been here a while and seen the gallery change and been an integral part of the evolution of this place,” Harris said. “Carolyn is a passionate believer in making connections between people and the arts and it’s definitely an idea we all share. I think it’s

fantastic to have somebody who has that sense of commitment, enthusiasm and a strong sense of belief in this institution and helping make it into the best possible place it can conceivably be.”

Exner has an interesting perspective on Harris and his role at the gallery as she sees him through not only a coworker’s eyes but from that of an experienced artist.

“George is a well-respected curator in the arts community,” Exner said. “He’s been in this position for a long time and he’s made really meaningful connections with a lot of artists. Artists that I know talk really positively about their experiences here and how much they enjoyed working with George. He’s a great story teller so he’s always paying great attention to every little detail in the exhibitions and the work that he does at the gallery.”

Altogether there is eight full-time staff at the Two Rivers, eight part-time staff and five summer students. There are also 121 volunteers who are a big part of its success.

“It’s a huge team and we get along well because we care about the team, we care about the gallery and we all enjoy what we do,” Holmes said.

The Two Rivers most notable accomplishments include making entry into the gallery free for anyone who self-identifies as Indigenous to make it more accessible and further remove barriers.

The gallery is in the process of developing an exhibition exploring the theme of reconciliation.

“We’re looking forward to having an exhibition that presents a diverse range of experiences and voices,” Harris said.

He included artists from B.C. who are survivors of residential schools, affected by the consequences of the Indian Act, and those healing who have found a

way to resolve the injustices of the past.

The art exhibit will take place July 18 to Oct. 6.

The increasingly popular MakerLab has been at the gallery for the last five years.

MakerLab is a multi-disciplinary community space stocked with tools, technology, materials and has mentors there to guide participants. Tools include a Tinkerine 3D printer, Epilog laser cutter/engraver, silversmithing tools, sewing machine, as well as an ever-growing variety of general purpose tools.

“It is an uncommon pairing (between MakerLab and gallery) and in the last few years I feel like we’ve really been defining how the MakerLab fits into the gallery and how it connects with artists and the community and how it is integrated into our programs,” Exner said.

The program was recognized with awards from the B.C. Museum Association and the Canadian Museum Association and for the past couple of years Two Rivers has presented the MakerLab at conferences across Canada to show an innovative way to connect with community.

Other programs include Art Heals that has been presented at the University Hospital of Northern B.C. for the last 16 years for those struggling with mental health and addictions issues. Every summer Kidz Art Dayz is a multi-day event presented inside the gallery that spills out into the Canada Games Plaza where thousands of children explore art in unique ways, including a community mural, a splatter paint zone, and there’s even a rocket launcher.

“Our strategic goals have a lot to do with reaching out and engaging the community and inspiring the community, as well,” Holmes said.

For more information about the gallery visit www.tworiversgallery.ca.

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Thursday, February 28, 2019 | 5

Taking accountability is global movement Lessons in learning Gerry Chidiac

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he Dalai Lama recently stated, “I feel optimistic about the future because humanity seems to be growing more mature.”

He specifically mentions the increasing importance of inner values, the study of the mind and emotions, as well as the desire for peace, and concern for the environment.

What signs are there that the Dalai Lama is correct in his observations?

A very important piece of growing in maturity is accepting accountability for one’s actions, especially one’s mistakes, and even the mistakes of one’s ancestors.

A mature attitude allows one to look objectively at the world and its problems, and ask, “What can I do to make this situation better?”

It is significant to note that many countries are taking responsibility for the horrendous crimes they committed over the last centuries.

Germany, of course, has taken full responsibility for the Holocaust and has made reparations. They have not stopped there, however. They have also accepted complicity for their role in the Armenian Genocide, which happened with their military advisors present in the Ottoman Empire. Germany is also currently in talks with its former colony of Namibia over the genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples, and it is plausible that

97/16 news service photo by Ashwini Bhatia

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama touches to his forehead a book of Buddhist text offered to him at Tsuglakhang temple in Dharmsala, India last week where people gathered to pray on the 15th day of the Tibetan new year.

Germany will apologize to other victims of its colonial policies in the not-so-distant future.

Denmark has apologized to Ghana for its role in the slave trade and has gone as far as accepting responsibility for the role its Vikings played in pillaging Ireland.

Though this may seem insignificant to many, the Danes have clearly established a global precedent.

Norway, Sweden, Finland and Greenland have taken accountability and begun making reparations for their treatment of Indigenous peoples.

A number of other countries, most notably New Zealand, Australia and Canada, have also apologized to their

Indigenous peoples for their efforts to assimilate and even destroy their populations. Though all have stopped short of referring to their crimes as genocidal, they are clearly moving in the right direction.

There is something to be said about accepting accountability, even though one is not personally responsible for the crimes committed. It lifts a veil of secrecy and allows a space for open and honest dialogue. We move away from finger pointing and welcome transparency. Acknowledging that wrong has been done makes it easier to forgive, and forgiveness is a powerful step in the long walk to healing.

As a Canadian educator in a school with a significant Indigenous population, I play an important role in the healing process. I have never been made to feel blame for the residential school system, but I am deeply saddened by it.

I see the impact of intergenerational trauma every day, knowing that this is the result from years of abuse toward past generations.

A mature attitude does not judge, but tries to understand and asks how things can be improved. One is also able to embrace compassion, have patience, celebrate small victories and acknowledge the need for continual growth in knowledge and wisdom.

It is clear that I must embrace humility and gratitude as I walk forward with and learn from the Indigenous people I live and work with.

Taking a step back from our small piece of the planet, we see that we are not alone and there is indeed reason to be optimistic. There is much to do, and we have so much to learn from each other, but we are moving forward.

The standard has been established.

As we become more enlightened, it will become impossible to ignore the crimes of our ancestors, or even the impact of our own negative attitudes. It becomes clear that healing our world and healing ourselves are one in the same.

There truly is reason to feel optimistic about the future of humanity, but that future depends on us.

Gerry Chidiac is a champion for social enlightenment, inspiring others to find their greatness in making the world a better place. For more of his writings, go to www.gerrychidiac.com.

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wood, fire flavour aged spirits m. carrie allan 97/16 wire service

Carried to this distillery by a hybrid vehicle, having mapped my way here via satellite technology, and holding a device on which I can access vast stores of the world’s wisdom and idiocy, I find myself considering the humble wooden barrel, a piece of old-school tech that’s been connecting the world for centuries.

Barrels tower overhead in the storage area of One Eight Distilling in Washington. Most of them are new white oak, but others are darker with age and use, each labeled to denote what liquid – sherry, muscat wine, rum – it used to hold.

What’s quietly happening here and at distilleries around the world is the aging of spirits. For a harsh corn whiskey caterpillar to become a caramelly bourbon butterfly, it has to metamorphose by cocooning up in wood.

The technique likely started by accident. For centuries, the wooden barrel was a chief means for moving goods over distances. Well before forklifts, it allowed people to move massive weights by rolling the barrels, container and wheel all in one.

It’s unclear exactly when people began charring barrel interiors, but they probably did it to get rid of flavours from whatever the barrel last held. At some point, they noticed that wines at the end of their journey tasted better than at the beginning.

Centuries later, barrel aging is an art and a science that wine and spirits makers invest money and time into getting right. The influence of wood is even stronger in spirits, whose higher proof makes them extract more of the botanicals they rub up against. Estimates vary, but anywhere from 40 to 70 per cent of the flavour of an aged spirit is thought to come from the wood.

Globally, several species of European and American white oak remain the preferred material.

“They’re able to breathe, so oxygen can pass in and out of the barrel – which is a key component of maturation – and they taste good,” says Jason Stout, vice president of marketing and business development at Independent Stave, an international cooperage company founded in 1912 and headquartered in Missouri.

The main difference between a barrel the company would create for, say, a bourbon and one for wine is that a bourbon barrel will be charred inside rather than gently toasted.

97/16 news service photo by Tadd Myers

A barrel being charred at Kentucky Cooperage, a subsidiary of Independent Stave in Lebanon, Kentucky.

What happens to a spirit during its years in a barrel is multifold: Unappealing flavours get filtered out by that layer of char. New flavours get put in as the alcohol penetrates into the so-called red layer underneath the char and extracts its chemical components.

As temperature and humidity levels change around the porous barrel, it “breathes,” causing evaporation and oxidation inside: Some of the liquid disappears into thin air while the spirit is maturing (the fabled “angel’s share”), but the interaction between wood, spirit and air also impacts the development of flavours.

“Wood is made of certain building blocks... and heat transforms those big building blocks into smaller compounds that are then extracted,” says Stout. Understanding how to get those flavors out is part of the cooper’s art. You might be trying to get at, for example, an aldehyde called vanillin.

“How do we toast that barrel in order to... get the maximum amount of vanillin?” says Stout. “Or how do we create a little bit of that sweet smoke character, without going a little too far and starting to get into that kind of burnt smoke character?”

Distillers can do plenty of experimenting, but what they can release under particular designations is another story. In the immortal words of Walter Sobchak, there are rules, man.

American “straight bourbon whiskey,” for example, must be stored in charred new oak containers for no less than two years. Irish whiskey regulations specify the length of time in barrel, but not the type of wood. Cognac regulations specify the type of oak and the time the spirit must stay in it.

While those few oak species continue to dominate globally, they aren’t the only ones used. In Brazil, makers of cachaça have experimented with native woods, and their exploration has been influ-

ential. The culture of Scotch whisky is known for its devotion to tradition. When the country’s whisky regulations were rewritten a while back, Bill Lumsden, director of distilling for Glenmorangie, a distillery founded in the Scottish Highlands in 1843, knew he was part of the reason.

Intrigued by the work cachaça makers were doing, “I had some barrels made of Brazilian cherry wood, and somehow the Scotch Whisky Association found out about this and called me into their offices and told me I was a naughty boy,” he recalls.

The regulations at the time were a bit unclear, he says; they were soon tightened to specify that oak, and only oak, could be used in the aging of Scotch.

While Lumsden plans to continue to experiment with other woods, he won’t be allowed to call any of it Scotch. And he’s okay with that.

“I have to say, the results of the cherry wood experiment were truly terrible.”

What a spirit will glean from a barrel isn’t always just from wood. Remember those darker, used barrels in the One Eight warehouse?

A spirit that goes into a barrel that previously held something else will get less from the wood (the first liquid has already sucked some of those flavors out), but will get flavour from the previous contents.

This is one of many differences between bourbon and Scotch: Where bourbon has to be aged in new charred oak, the Scots generally reuse barrels that have held wine or other spirits, so the wood typically has a more subtle impact. (It’s sometimes too subtle for John Glaser, founder of Compass Box Whisky, which focuses on striking blends.

“The quality of the cask is paramount to making great whisky,” he told me via email. Some other Scotch producers, he says, use casks that have been used four or five times.

“They’ll be devoid of much in the way of flavour compounds at that stage.)

In the craft world here in the States, small distillers are doing all sorts of interesting things with cask finishing.

Regulations give plenty of flexibility in how you may “finish” a spirit in wood, and if you don’t care about releasing a spirit under a recognizable category (bourbon, for example), you have room to play around from the start.

On Iterations 3 and 4 of its Untitled Whiskey series, each of which is different in blend and barreling, One Eight loaned ex-bourbon barrels to Vigilante Coffee; the company stored roasted and unroasted coffee beans in them; later, One Eight took back the barrels for finishing whiskey. It has done a similar experiment with chocolatier Harper Macaw.

In partnerships with makers, breweries, cideries and rum makers, “we both end up with wonderful products,” says co-founder and head distiller Alex Laufer, because their partners end up making something with the ingredients they’ve stored in One Eight’s barrels.

Even with so much now known about what happens to spirits during the aging process, so much science behind it, some of the pleasure is in the remaining mysteries.

“We did a collaborative whiskey with the Whiskey Library,” says One Eight CEO and co-founder Sandy Wood. “It’s just two small rye barrels. Same mash, same distillation, they were kept side by side and have been for two years. And they are very different both in proof and flavor. It’s all about the differences in the oak.”

Whatever you love in aged spirits – the creativity and surprises that come out of craft barrels, the iconic bottlings from famous distillers, the cocktails you can make from them – wood is part of the pleasure.

Consider it one more reason to hug a tree.

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Thursday, February 28, 2019 | 7

Society’s rich tapestry explored in Africa sidebars to history

willow arune

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or decades, the popular conception of Africa has been of a continent populated by primitive natives still living in the Stone Age. Indeed, the scramble for Africa (the colonization of almost all of the continent) was based on this premise.

The theory was that the civilized world had a duty to bring enlightenment to the continent (not to mention too loudly the plundering of Africa’s resources) and its uneducated masses.

Scholarship in the 20th century saw interest in African history grow rapidly. From its discovery by Europeans in the late 1800s, various archeologists explored amazing ruins that dotted the continent. Some advanced the theory that many of these had to be built by unknown Europeans as no Africans could possibly build such remarkable cities and buildings.

That theory was proven wrong.

A growing number of Black historians discovered a rich tapestry of very advanced societies that generations had overlooked or denigrated. At long last, the kingdoms of Africa were recognized for their role in trade and commerce with Europe, India, and China, their arts and crafts, and their sophisticated buildings and cities.

An outstanding example of an ad-

97/16 news service photo by Jan Derk

This photo was taken in 1997 inside of the Great Enclosure which is part of the Greater Zimbabwe ruins. vanced African society is the city of Greater Zimbabwe, located in the country formerly known as Rhodesia and now once again Zimbabwe.

The city covered an area of almost 1,800 acres divided into three districts – the Hill Complex, the Valley Complex and the Great Enclosure. Built of stone,

the city is thought to have had a population of between 10,000 and 18,000.

Amazingly, the stone structures, the tallest reaching 22 metres, are built without any use of mortar; the walls reach a height of 10 metres.

The stones are fashioned to fit together without the need for mortar. Built

between 1100 to 1600 AD, the time of construction fits into the Medieval Age in Europe.

As in the Americas, trade routes crisscrossed the continent with products of one kingdom exchanged for those of another. Greater Zimbabwe was known for its cattle and crops but the real source of its power came from the gold trade.

Gold found in southern Africa came to the city and was then taken to the nearby coast for trade.

It was the hub of many trading routes.

As with the Mayan cities of America, the reason for the decay and abandonment of Greater Zimbabwe remains a mystery.

Some have suggested a series of droughts caused the residents to seek out new places to live. If so, a further mystery is why these former residents did not use the skills they had to build another stone city.

Perhaps they did and the new city remains undiscovered.

One feature of Zimbabwe art is a number of delicately carved stone birds.

While looted in the past, these remarkable creations attest to the skill of Zimbabwe artisans. These carvings have been a national symbol from the days of colonialism to the present.

Greater Zimbabwe is only one of the many marvels left behind by the African kingdoms.

Far from being the primitive savages so long depicted in popular works, these cities attest to the sophisticated and advanced societies that all but disappeared during the colonial period.

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Condiments as a food group Some foods legitimately taste like garbage without the right sauce.

Home Again Megan kuklIs

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hen my son was around three years old and my daughter was around one, I went to my brother’s house to visit and have lunch.

Knowing my brother, I made sure that I brought food for the children because as a bachelor, his fridge rarely had toddlerfriendly food options.

As a parent, you try to make sure that you are feeding your children healthy food choices however, sometimes, you just need something quick that they will eat without complaining. I brought a box of Kraft Dinner and cooked it for the kids only to realize that I forgot something.

“Do you have ketchup?” I ask my brother, hopefully.

“No,” he replied.

The resulting commotion of a threeyear-old having a tantrum about not having ketchup for his “ronis” was memorable enough that my brother now ensures that he always has ketchup, just in case. My son is still suspicious and a little disappointed every time we go to my brother’s house because my son does not understand how you can live with only a jar of sauerkraut and some carrots in your fridge. The resulting ketchup trauma is renewed every time he asks his

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Sometimes there really is no substitute for your favourie condiment. uncle for a snack.

There are three condiments that are always in fresh supply at our house: ketchup, plum sauce and sour cream.

It drives my husband bananas.

Doesn’t work to say ‘trust us’ when it comes to leadership

V

oter apathy is frequently cited as a concern for democracy.

Apathy is seen as a concern in many different social or educational organizations, because the leaders know that participant engagement is required for success.

I posit that at least part of the blame lies with the leadership, either elected, appointed or volunteered.

“Because I said so” doesn’t work very well. Parents know this better than anyone, because we have all said it and got unsatisfactory results.

Silence and resentment, blowback and stomping off, or whatever other ways our frustrated children use to express their displeasure at being shut out of the rationale for the decisions that directly affect their lives.

Parents say “because I said so” when we are tired and don’t want to take the time to explain ourselves, or just don’t have the words, or occasionally because there are reasons the child cannot understand due to their limited understanding of the issues surrounding the decision.

However, as adults, it is reasonable and fundamental to our way of life, to expect an explanation and truth from those we elect and hire to run our organizations.

When the public is told to “trust us” or “we can’t tell you because of FOIPPA” someone often did something wrong, poorly, or completely neglected their duty, and they are really hoping the questions will just stop.

Thinking aloud Trudy klassen

They want to cover for someone’s bad behaviour, or continue building their career and find the pesky media and/or member of the public they are supposed to serve, just too much bother.

Sometimes it seems as if the jobs or careers the organizations provide are the reason for the organization, rather than its stated and public goals.

In the case of our parents, most of us realize later in life that when they couldn’t explain why, at least their hearts were in the right place and there was a valid reason for their decision.

Whether it is the cover-ups for sexual abuse scandals rampant in nearly every organization that caters to minors, decisions that negatively affect children in the school system, abuse-of-power scandals like the ones in our governments that are in the news right now, the stonewalling in nearly every investigation into the actions of those trusted to act in the public interest, or even simply to explain the rationale for a decision, the initial response to a questioning public is nearly always the same: “Trust me, I have your best interests at heart” which is basically saying “because I said so.”

He insists that the food tastes the same whether or not you have the sauce to accompany it but I disagree. Some foods legitimately taste like garbage without the right sauce. Kraft Dinner needs

ketchup, chicken nuggets need sweet and sour sauce and perogies (and cabbage rolls) need sour cream. There are replacement condiments that will do in a pinch but the meal is far less satisfying.

Ranch dressing can substitute for sour cream but I will be grumpy while eating.

Plum sauce can stand in for sweet and sour sauce but there is no true substitute for ketchup.

This strange condiment conversation came up again because I came home from work this week to proudly let my husband know that my co-workers had lunch envy over my delicious cabbage roll lunch. I then told my husband that I even ate my cabbage rolls without sour cream.

It was a remarkably similar conversation that we would have with our kids when they announce that they finished their whole lunch and ask if they could please have a treat. Sometimes, the weird food issues that you develop as a child can follow you right up until you are a thirtysomething-adult woman.

Yes I would like some perogies but only if there is sour cream otherwise I’m not hungry.

Some foods are just a vehicle for sauce and I am okay with that.

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World Para Nordic Games

97/16 photos by James Doyle

The World Para Nordic Skiing Championships wrapped up Sunday at Otway. The athletes, coaches, organizers and spectators gathered at the lodge for a group photo Saturday, top.

Canada’s Mark Arendz paces himself on an uphill section while competing in the men’s cross-country 20 km Standing CT on Sunday afternoon, above left. Above right, Canada’s Brian McKeever, foreground, and Dmytro Suiarko of the Ukraine make their way around the course in the men’s cross-country 20 km Visually Impaired CT on Sunday. Vilde Nilsen of Norway competes in the cross-country open relay Saturday morning, right. Prince GeorgeMackenzie MLA Mike Morris places the silver medal for the cross-country mixed relay on Team Canada’s Natalie Wilkie during the medal ceremony Saturday at the Civic Centre.

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GAMING HELPS CENTRE NFL STAR 97/16 wire service

The 23-year-old wearing a sweatshirt and funky jogger pants could almost be mistaken for any other young man engaging in lighthearted banter while playing video games on a Tuesday morning. But after an MVP award in his second NFL season, Patrick Mahomes II tends to stick out, even when engaging in everyday activities like gaming.

Though so much has changed in Mahomes’ life after he laid waste to NFL secondaries with more than 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns, he still reverts back to a ritual that dates back to his middle school days: hourslong offseason video gaming sessions.

“It’s been something that I’ve taken with me all the day since I was that young,” Mahomes said during a promotional event for new in-game content for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 at Treyarch’s offices.

Video games, especially shooters like Call of Duty, have served as a way for Mahomes to escape the pressures of his life on the field while still flexing his competitive muscles. The practice has endured from his time as a multisport high school star in Texas, then to Texas Tech, and now as one of the NFL’s youngest MVPs. Gaming has aided him in even more ways than stress relief at the pro level, helping him build chemistry and cohesion with his teammates on the Chiefs.

“I have a great group of guys on my team who are also young and so we all get on, we play, and kinda get lost in it

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Patrick Mahomes and Brittany Matthews arrive at Shaq’s Fun House at Live! at the Battery Atlanta on Feb. 1. for a while,” Mahomes said of his teammates, who comprise one of the youngest rosters in the league. Gaming online has also helped him keep in touch with his friends from high school, he said, which

helps keeps him grounded as his star continues to rise.

Despite his profession, his habit does not extend to Madden NFL, a game he finds too close to his real world. Instead,

Mahomes prefers shooter games, like Call of Duty and Fortnite even if the latter title presented him with an odd moment in which his character was killed by a player wearing Mahomes’ own jersey in the game.

Mahomes said the team has no issues with his gaming and, while he will bring his PlayStation with him on the road, he’ll only play for an hour or two on Mondays and Fridays during the season, when the Chiefs aren’t playing or practicing. In the offseason, his sessions will stretch closer to three or four hours.

While the Chiefs have no problem with his gaming, and certainly prefer it to him playing basketball, not all parties in Mahomes’ circle are as thrilled.

“My girlfriend gets a little mad at me sometimes because I’m in the game room playing for three or four hours,” he said.

Playing with several journalists at the Treyarch studios, Mahomes demonstrated how his gaming experience can manifest on the field. During matches played with some men more than twice his age, he emerged as the clear leader of the group, barking out commands to his teammates while making split-second decisions. He adapted his strategies based on the game’s maps, called out the locations of opposing players and, just as he did this past fall, displayed a bias for aggressiveness.

When the game concluded, he had earned player of the game honors. His secret?

“I was getting a lot of kills and not dying a lot,” Mahomes said.

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Guerrero Jr. must-see in spring training This Blue Jays baseball player will likely be their best hitter from having to pitch to him, of course) is through the lens of baseball’s antiquated, repressive service-time rules – which, unfortunately, is how much of the greater DUNEDIN, Fla. — It is difficult to baseball community is experiencing describe the breathtaking majesty of Guerrero these days. the blast off the bat of Vladimir GuerAs fans in Toronto and far beyond rero Jr. just before 1 p.m. Thursday on a backfield at the Toronto Blue Jays’ spring know by now, the Blue Jays failed to bring Guerrero to the majors in 2018, training facility. even after he hit .402 with a 1.120 OPS But it was into a steady wind, to for Class AA New Hampshire, then went straightaway center field, seemingly to Class AAA Buffalo and hit .336 with a still rising as it struck near the top of .978 OPS. the black, mesh “batter’s eye” above the And despite the fact he would likely wall, some 30 or so feet off the ground. be the Blue Jays’ best hitter from the If 20 people witnessed it, then 20 people first day of the 2019 season – Fangraph’s simultaneously formed the word “wow” Steamer projection algorithm has him with their mouths.

If that doesn’t do it justice, perhaps this being worth 4.7 wins above replacement (WAR) this year, one spot below will: A Blue Jays employee happened to be aiming a radar-tracking device toward Nolan Arenado and one above Aaron Judge – they will almost certainly return the plate and holding a monitor displayhim to Buffalo at the end of spring and ing exit velocities during this batting keep him there for somewhere around practice session. And when the session 15 days. ended, that employee relayed the speed Why 15 days? Because that is how off the bat of that particular blast: 118 long, by rule, the Blue Jays must keep mph.

Guerrero in the minors to delay his free And if that still doesn’t drive home the agency by a full year – essentially guarpoint, perhaps this will: In the entire anteeing themselves a seventh year of his 2018 Major League Baseball regular seabig league services. The rule is unfair to son, only two home runs, both of them Guerrero and every Blue by the New York Yankees’ Giancarlo Stanton, At batting practice Jays player and fan.

It’s also unfair, in a were struck at a higher Thursday, the sense, to Ross Atkins, the exit velocity than the ball Jays general manGuerrero hit Thursday younger Guerrero Blue ager, who must stand off a batting-practice wore a in front of cameras and pitcher lobbing 60-mph invent reasons it might fastballs. semi-permanent be prudent to start The singular talent of smile below his Guerrero back in the Vladimir Guerrero Jr. minors – when Guerrero to hit baseballs harder signature has already dominated and more consistently blond-tipped hair. there – while, in truth, than practically any given the rules that are in human being currently place, it would amount to walking the earth – with malpractice, as the top baseball executive the possible exception of his father and of a mid-revenues team, for him to bring namesake, the Hall of Fame outfielder – is best experienced up close, from behind Guerrero to the majors on Opening Day and cost the Blue Jays the extra year of a batting cage on a warm spring day in his services.

Florida.

“We want to make sure he’s the best That talent is the reason Guerrero is, possible third baseman [and] best posless than a month shy of his 20th birthsible hitter he can be,” Atkins told reportday, the consensus top prospect in baseers in a news conference at the start of ball – a third baseman with “the ceiling of a perennial MVP candidate,” according camp.

In the present labour atmosphere – to MLB Pipeline. which, owing largely to the stagnation “The hype,” said Blue Jays shortstop of the last two free agent markets, is as prospect Bo Bichette, another consensus acrimonious as at any point since the top-20 prospect, who has come through 1994-95 players’ strike – the manipulathe minor leagues with Guerrero and thus has perhaps seen more of his profes- tion of service time, to essentially delay a player’s free agency, is just one more sional at-bats than anyone, “is real.”

Your first time seeing Guerrero hit typi- flash point. It isn’t only the Blue Jays.

In recent years, the Chicago Cubs did it cally gets seared into your memory. with Kris Bryant, and the Atlanta Braves “I remember it,” Blue Jays center with Ronald Acuna Jr. fielder Kevin Pillar said. “Last spring, he “Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and other great gets brought up for a game in Bradenton young talents around baseball have (against the Pittsburgh Pirates). He’s earned the right to play on the field for probably hitting sixth or seventh in the a major league team,” the union said in lineup.

“The pitcher was kind of carving us up. a statement. “The decision not to bring him up is a business decision, not a baseBut he hits this low line drive off the left field wall. It was loud. It was just the way ball decision. It’s bad for the Blue Jays, it’s bad for fans, it’s bad for players and he was able to watch the hitters before, it’s bad for the industry.” kind of diagnose what the pitcher was Atkins acknowledged the tense labour doing. It just seems like, for his age, he’s atmosphere “no doubt influences the a little more mature as far as his apway fans are thinking about the decisionproach, and the way he’s able to watch a making and how the players are thinking game and make adjustments from pitch about the decision-making.” to pitch.”

Guerrero has publicly brushed off the But if the best way to experience Guerconcerns, telling reporters through a rero is up close, the worst way (aside dave sheinin 97/16 wire service

97/16 news service photos by Nathan Denette

Toronto Blue Jays infielder Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hits at batting practice during baseball spring training in Dunedin, Fla., last week. translator, “That’s their decision and my only job is to come here, get better, work hard and be ready.”

The Blue Jays have already built a strong support system around their budding superstar.

His locker this spring sits in a row of older Latin players, anchored by veteran designated hitter Kendrys Morales, who played with Vladimir Sr. in Anaheim.

The Blue Jays’ rookie manager, Charlie Montoyo, mentored the elder Guerrero when they played together in the Montreal Expos’ farm system.

When asked who was the best young player, aside from Guerrero Jr., that he’d ever been around, Montoyo, 53, replied, “His dad.”

At batting practice Thursday, the younger Guerrero wore a semi-permanent smile below his signature blondtipped hair. Otherwise, he would not have stood out – he is listed at 6-foot-1, 200 pounds, but a Blue Jays official said he is closer to 240 – until he stepped into the batter’s box.

“What jumps out at you,” Atkins said, “is how consistently he hits the ball square, at just the right point of his swing.”

It was one of those squared-up swings, at just the right point, that produced the line drive off the batter’s eye, the home run that would have been the third-hardest-hit in baseball in 2018.

The Guerrero Era is coming – circle April 12, the 16th day of the major league season, on your calendar – and when it does, it’s going to be something to behold.

Toronto Blue Jays infielder Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (27) makes a throw to first base in a drill during baseball spring training in Dunedin, Fla. last week.

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A Sobering story of recovery alexander rockey fleming 97/16 wire service

In addiction phraseology, it’s often called “rock bottom.”

It’s a state of mind known as the nadir of suffering, an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness. Sometimes it’s a jumpoff point at which misery is traded for normalcy and meaning, where one life ends and another begins.

Ryan Hess’s rock bottom came during a drizzly December in Ohio. He was high yet again on heroin, and he had been that way for more hours than he could remember.

The 33-year-old lay on a filthy sweatshirt beneath a piece – just a small piece – of tent, stolen from a stranger’s garden shed. His socks and shoes were wet, his breath and body reeked.

“I was hungry and very lonely,” he says. “I broke down weeping like a baby.

I needed help and 48 hours later I finally accepted it.”

Hess entered rehab and completed four-plus months of inpatient and outpatient treatment, committing himself to sobriety after some 15 years of what he calls “horrible” substance abuse that had included two overdoses.

Eight years into sobriety, he continues to vigorously work the 12-step recovery program with his sponsor, detaching from “anything that creates unmanageability in my life” and regularly meeting with a group of sober men he has dubbed his Fab Five, “who call me on my bull,” he says. “If someone would have told

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Ryan Hess and son Eli polish his 1953 Oldsmobile Rocket at home in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, on Jan. 26. me that night that I would get my family back, have a job I love, own a home and be a dependable member of society, I would have told that person they were insane,” he says. “But look – I’m doing it.

It’s hard work and it takes dedication and sacrifice, but today life is amazing.”

Hess is one of about 22 million Americans in recovery from drugs and alcohol, according to a 2017 study from the Recovery Research Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School.

Just as all substance use disorders

are unique to the individual, so are the methods by which people achieve their sobriety – and then hold on to it.

Some attain it via formal supports and professional interventions, including medications that help manage cravings.

Others beat addiction by paving their own road, reaching their goals without structured care, sometimes fortified by an intensified passion based on parenting, spirituality, creativity or activism that lends structure to their lives.

Whatever the route, extended abstinence – meaning at least several years – is predictive of sustained recovery.

“Reaching the three- to five-year mark seems to be a major milestone,” says Robert Ashford, recovery scientist at Philadelphia’s University of the Sciences Substance Use Disorders Institute and a person in recovery for six years.

“That benchmark can signal a reduced risk of returning to substance use because the person with addiction has had the time to develop effective coping skills, social connections and a renewed sense of self, among other healthy attributes. It doesn’t mean your recovery is finished, but it is a reason to breathe a little easier and be proud of yourself.”

Ashford says access to education, gainful employment and safe housing are important, but that finding an increased sense of purpose and meaning in life can be key.

“For some, this means giving back to others in recovery, such as being a mentor. For others, it may mean just doing the next right thing time and time again.”

Recovery is not ‘a one size fits all’ What is the first step you took to get sober? What would you suggest for me?

Good question; unfortunately though, as with any chronic medical disease (such as addiction or diabetes), additional details are required.

The problem with addiction is the (false) belief that one size fits all. Evidence shows that gender, age, length of use, lifestyle, drug of choice and past attempts at recovery, all play a role in management of the disease. With diabetics, we would never say to them, without knowing their history, “just take insulin shots.” However with addiction we do; people often give/try the two word, ‘one size fits all approach’ of “just stop.”

This is misguided, unhelpful and wrong. If we could “just stop” there wouldn’t be a problem. Remember, addiction means we can NOT “just stop.”

As you may or may not recall, I am an addict/alcoholic but also an academic.

I work in the field. I have professional relationships with alcoholics, addicts, teenagers, families and mental health clients (comorbidity is common). I draw from vast personal and professional experience, a combination which I think is unique.

I can offer suggestions in a general way but please know I am able to access a wide range of resources and people (addiction professionals and those in recovery). If you need assistance, Prince George has great services. When someone asks for help, quick action is vital. Too much time to think often leads to more time to drink.

Ask an Addict

If you have a doctor you trust, start there for guidance and support.

Addiction is chronic, progressive, relapsing and remitting. I cannot stress this enough. As mentioned in earlier columns, I believed that if I “just stopped,” all my problems would be solved. They were not. Due to not adequately treating my disease, I frequently relapsed.

A good recovery program should be tailored to fit. Many rehabs use confrontational models which for women, often don’t work. Trauma is prevalent, shame is rampant. Beating someone up (in other words, confronting with anger) is often counterproductive.

I also do not believe in cutting all ties but do disagree with enabling. When my entire family left, except for one brother, I then had nothing; my lifeline was gone. My brother did not agree with my use, but he did let me know he was there for me when I chose to change.

There are many options out there.

Based on the many questions about help, I will write in my next column about twelve step programs. There are so many misconceptions about 12 steps which I wish to address. In the meantime, if you are looking for help, please email the editor, with specific details about your particular situation.

He will keep you anonymous.

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T h u r s d a y , F e b r u a r y 2 8 , 2 0 1 9 | 13

see solution on page 20

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Thursday, February 28, 2019

Health

How to fall and get up again daphne miller 97/16 wire service

One minute, I was trotting peacefully along a rutted hillside path. The next, I lay in a heap on my left side, so wracked with pain it was hard to breathe. A longtime runner, I traded pavement for trails a couple years ago, and since then I’ve taken a few tumbles. But never had I fallen so fast and so hard. Moaning, I inventoried what might be broken.

Then panic set in as I considered some horrifying statistics: An estimated one in three women will break a hip, and, for patients older than 60, the one-year mortality rate after a hip fracture can be as high as 58 percent. Though still in my early 50s, I thought of hardy patients I’d cared for over the years who had swiftly declined after one bad fall.

I was lucky. I had no major fractures or head trauma, and my bones, on X-ray, seemed reasonably strong. But I hobbled around for weeks, my left side turning from purple to yellow, my arm in a sling. Once I was finally back on the trail, I could not shake the fear that my next fall (and there certainly would be one) could be far worse. This anxiety quickly extended to any sport involving a hard surface, including street jogging, cycling, skating, and skiing. I was suffering from a well-described “syndrome”: fear of falling or FOF, which is especially common in the over-50 crowd. Research shows that people with FOF, regardless of whether they have experienced a bad fall, are more likely to become deconditioned, depressed and socially isolated.

At this point, my options seemed clear: confine all sports to a squishy mat, or learn how to fall safely.

But what is the best way to fall, and how do we master this?

I often discuss fall prevention with my older patients, but I feel unequipped to tell them how to fall well. A PubMed search unearthed hundreds of studies evaluating exercise programs, assistive devices and physical environment modifications (shower bars, handrails, rug pads, etc.) to keep people from taking a spill. But there has been very little research about the safest way to fall.

One synthesis of 13 small studies (mostly performed on young athletes) suggests that going into a squat when falling backward, flexing elbows when pitching forward, and rolling over one shoulder if headed sideways are all good strategies. But the article gave little information about how to put this information into practice or whether these strategies work if you are no longer in your 20s.

I decided to seek out some experts in the art (and science) of falling safely.

On YouTube, I discovered Stephen Jepson, 77, a retired ceramics professor who teaches people how to stay nimble and upright or, should gravity prevail, how to avoid getting hurt. In one video, he runs around doing all sorts of tricks, including tightrope walking and jumping hurdles. Jepson says the key to avoiding fall injuries is to maintain quick hands

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Learning how to fall may prevent catastrophic injury and make a person feel more confident. and feet by constantly learning new physical skills. At 73, he taught himself to juggle clubs while standing on a balancing board, and, recently, he mastered the one-wheel hoverboard (imagine a skateboard with one large wheel in the middle). For me, he suggested these steps: Level 1. Balance on one foot. Start by doing it near a doorway or chair so there is something to grab for support.

Level 2. Use your non-dominant hand to stir a pot.

Level 3. Use your non-dominant hand to stir a pot while standing on one foot.

Unsurprisingly, Jepson does his share of falling.

“If you are going to fall, the best way to do it is to bend a knee and roll at an angle over one shoulder to protect your hip and your noggin,” he said.

Next, I contacted a doctor whose patients fall for a living. Ken Akizuki, team orthopedist for the San Francisco Giants, describes sliding into a base as a form of controlled falling. Akizuki can easily list players who fall well and those who don’t. Pitcher Madison Bumgarner is “incredibly athletic,” he said, while with onetime pitcher Shawn Estes, “you just watched and hoped he didn’t get hurt.”

Akizuki echoed Jepson’s advice about the best falling technique: “Tuck your head, use your strength to direct your fall, and roll so that you take most of the impact on your backside, the upper back and/or gluts being the most resistant parts of your body.”

Akizuki said that, rather than keeping me safe, my newfound fear of falling could increase my chances of injury. “[S]he who hesitates gets hurt,” he cautioned, and recommended I learn

aikido to master this falling business.

I signed up for an introductory aikido class. The sensei, a powerful-looking, 50-something woman, explained that this Japanese martial art is about not fighting but converting violent movements from an aggressor into something that is safe and harmonious. After learning to bow and stand, we moved on to ukemi – or the “art of falling.” I began to sweat as I watched her effortlessly tuck one leg under, become a human ball, and roll backward or forward unharmed. I looked around and noticed that some of my youngish classmates seemed to share my terror. Apparently FOF is not necessarily an age-related thing. I took a deep breath and threw myself earthward, glad that there was a thick mat to protect me from my mistakes.

After class, I called Adam Tenforde, sports medicine doctor and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.

Although he studies the biomechanics of running and how to avoid falling, he was open to discussing the art (and science) of falling safely.

Tenforde described how his young children naturally explored their surroundings, using fingers and toes with equal dexterity and moving from upright to rolling and back again.

He thinks we quickly lose this ease because almost everything in our lives, including chairs, desks, beds, cars and even cushioned shoes, is designed to create distance between us and the ground.

He recommends we counteract this, especially with our footwear.

According to Tenforde, information we get from the bottoms of our feet (the technical term is plantar neurosensory input) helps us maintain balance. This

input, coupled with muscle strength and agility, is essential for generating a “good correctional movement” should we fall.

He refers his fall-prone patients to physical therapists who take an integrated, whole-body approach to rehabilitation and don’t focus on just a couple of muscle groups.

During my conversation with Tenforde, I realized that the same skills that keep me upright could also make me a better faller. Maybe it was not just luck that protected me from major injury that day on the trail! Maybe all that mud sliding and rock hopping over the past couple years had trained me to tumble well. Immediately, my FOF begin to disappear.

The next day, I put on shoes with paper-thin soles and hit the trail. While studies of how these shoes affect balance are contradictory, I appreciated how they improved my gait and made me feel more grounded. (Note: the transition to minimal shoes should be gradual to avoid injury.) Gone was that feeling of impending doom. I welcomed the uneven terrain and slippery stream crossings as a chance to build stability and fall resilience.

I had asked Tenforde if there is a specific age after which he advises patients to stop having an active lifestyle. He answers: “I take your age and subtract it from 100, whatever number I get is the number of years I’m going to help you keep doing what you love to do.”

In my case, that’s 47. So, I will continue to practice ukemi and stir my soup with my left hand while standing on one foot.

And once I master this, I’ll try learning some new tricks.

Miller is a family physician and author of Farmacology and The Jungle Effect.

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Neonatal ICU can take a toll on parents amialya durairaj 97/16 wire service

For the casual visitor, the most striking thing about a hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit is the noise. An orchestra of alarms beeps incessantly. The lights are dim, the shades are drawn, and the air inside the NICU’s sterile environment is thick with parental anxiety.

When babies are born prematurely or sick, they are separated from parents, hooked up to tubes and wires, and cared for in transparent incubators. To understand what is happening to their children, family members must learn a strange new medical vernacular while they await discharge. It is frequently an emotionally exhausting roller-coaster ride and it can have a lasting toll on the families.

“Miracles happen there, and the worst things in the world happen there. And it can go from one of those to the other in a matter of hours,” New York mother Kayleigh Lentz says. After a routine pregnancy and delivery in June 2018, Lentz was shocked to learn that her son had a congenital abnormality that required the removal of his small intestine.

“I was scared every day in the hospital that he was going to die. I was scared to bond with him,” she says.

Parents of newborns who have been hospitalized tend to have higher rates of depression,anxiety and acute or posttraumatic stress disorders. Some studies of parents of preterm babies report postpartum depression rates as high as 40 per cent, well above the 10 to 15 per

cent reported for women generally after childbirth.

In June 2016, Maryland parents Robert Pergament and Emily Turek found themselves in the NICU after Turek’s appendix ruptured, necessitating an emergency Caesarean delivery when she was 30 weeks pregnant. Her recovery was complicated by life-threatening sepsis due to infection from her ruptured appendix, which led to being separated from her newborn for 11 days. When mother and daughter were finally reunited, Turek had difficulties forming an attachment.

“I didn’t feel like I was needed at all.” she says. “When the baby is in the NICU, they don’t rely on you. The nurses were there to keep her alive.”

New father Pergament also found the experience extremely stressful. “Every 30 seconds another alarm is going off. The nurses may grab your baby from you to get her to start breathing,” he says. “It’s just relentless.”

Turek and Pergament’s daughter spent nine weeks in the NICU. After discharge, Turek continued to struggle to bond with her baby and Pergament began to experience anxiety symptoms. Initially, the couple tried to hide their feelings from each other. “He didn’t want to tell me about his anxiety,” Turek says. “And there was so much I couldn’t share with him because I already felt guilty enough that I didn’t have the feelings I was supposed to have.”

“Parents who have any mental health issues, whether they be depression, anxiety or stress may have difficulty interacting with their baby, not only in the

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Kayleigh Lentz spends time with her son in the NICU ward.

NICU but also after discharge. And the way parents interact during infancy often determines how the baby will do long term,” says Karel O’Brien, a neonatologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, and an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Toronto faculty of medicine.

In addition to the stressors of the NICU and challenges of caring for a medically fragile child at home, parents often experience financial pressures, marital strain and social isolation, all of which can exacerbate mental health issues. A parent’s psychological distress, if unaddressed, may negatively influence a child’s development until their teen years, according to a 2014 series in Lancet.

The disruption in the attachment process can add to the psychological distress of parents, according to Susan Niermeyer, a neonatologist at Children’s Hospital of Colorado and a professor at the University of Colorado.

“If bonding is disrupted, it doesn’t mean parents and babies will never build attachment relationships. It just means that extra work may be required,” says Linda Franck, a professor at the University of California at San Francisco and co-principal investigator of the UCSF California Preterm Birth Initiative, a research project that aims to improve maternal and newborn health outcomes and reduce racial barriers in preterm birth.

“Over time, with close contact and guidance from the health-care team, parents can reestablish a strong emotional connection with their baby,” she says.

One well-studied avenue to aid in attachment is through promoting more physical closeness between parents and newborns.

“There is magic in that touch right at birth,” Niermeyer says. “That contact correlates with much greater attachment and lower depression.” She advocates that perinatal clinicians find creative ways to physically connect newborns with their parents immediately after birth, even after emergency deliveries.

Practicing kangaroo mother care in the NICU did not foster Turek’s attachment to her infant. But several months after discharge, with effort and outside mental health treatment, she was able to bond with her daughter, who is now two-and-a-half years old. Strong evi-

dence shows that engaging parents in the caregiving process during hospitalization can also improve family well-being. In a recently published study, O’Brien and her collaborators found that involving parents by encouraging them to participate in medical rounds involving their child and performing routine tasks, such as bathing and changing diapers, led to improvements in newborn weight gain, higher breast-feeding rates, and lower parental stress and anxiety.

It can be difficult, however, for many parents to spend significant time in the hospital because of work demands and limited parental leave, the need to care for siblings, or transportation problems.

“Our whole societal and family structure in the United States poses challenges to letting families really engage with their babies, who may be hospitalized for a long time. It’s difficult for people to spend six or eight hours a day with their child,” Niermeyer says.

Peer support programs for parents of preterm babies can boost parents’ moods and facilitate a safer home environment by improving their sensitivity to their child’s needs and confidence in caring for a tiny and often medically fragile baby.

Interacting with others who are going through the same struggles can curb some of the social isolation parents feel, as well.

In some cases, a parent’s psychological stresses may persist, or even show up, after discharge. “I didn’t start experiencing the physical symptoms of anxiety until a year or more after she was born,” Pergament says. Timely diagnosis and treatment helped curb his anxiety, but he says he still struggles with the urge to be an overprotective father.

In Lentz’s case, her son was discharged from the hospital two months after his birth requiring complex ongoing care.

Eight months later, “we’re still reeling with the reality of having a child with a chronic medical condition,” Lentz says.

“I am definitely struggling with posttraumatic stress and anxiety issues. My son was readmitted to the hospital last October for several weeks, and it took a really big toll on me.”

Given that parent mental health is so important to a child’s long-term outcomes, many experts say parents of NICU babies should be routinely offered mental-health screening and help.

seniors

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a new look for retirement marjorie brimley 97/16 wire service

The other day, I was getting ready to leave work and I ran into a former student of mine. He’s a quieter kid but was always kind and thoughtful in my class. He was with his grandma, whom I also know. I asked him how the year was going for him, and he gave me a brief answer. His grandma added, “you know, he’s been playing a lot of baseball. He’s very good at baseball.”

Her grandson looked away, his cheeks turning red. It was clear that his grandma was very proud of him.

“I know I’m embarrassing him a little bit,” she said with a laugh, touching his shoulder. He looked up at her and smiled. It was clear they were very close.

We talked more about their lives, and then I told them about mine.

“My dad is living with us,” I said, “so I’m doing OK. Now that I’m a single mom, he’s decided to move in.”

“Oh that’s so wonderful!” the grandma said. She knew that my husband had died a year prior and it had been difficult for me. She looked at me kindly. “You know, I live with my grandkids,” she said.

I told her I didn’t realize that.

“Oh yes,” she said, “we moved in when the kids were really little.”

We talked for a while about what it is like to live in a three-generation household. I told her how grateful I am to have my dad around.

“To be honest, it’s wonderful to live with my grandkids,” the grandma told me, “and I bet your father gets a lot out of living with you too.”

At that moment, her grandson looked up.

“You know,” he said, “it’s pretty great for the kids, too.”

The grandma paused. Then she looked at him and said, “well, sometimes I think now that they are all in high school, it’s probably time for us to move out.”

The boy looked at his grandma.

“No, you can’t do that,” he said. He smiled after he said it. He knew she wasn’t moving out.

The grandma turned to me.

“Well, I’m happy to hear your dad is with you,” she said. I told her I am happy about it too. We chatted a bit more and then parted.

I thought about my dad, a 71-year-old widower who had retired a few years earlier to play golf and read all the books he’d set aside during his busy career. But family is family, and when I needed help, he came. Now he is spending his days making breakfasts, organizing backpacks and hearing about the intricacies of second-grade basketball.

I left school and came home to a dozen kids playing tag in my house. My father was in the kitchen, making a snack for my four-year-old as the other kids joyfully screamed all around him. On the table was a piece of paper showing different angles.

“What’s this?” I asked my dad.

He told me that my daughter had drawn it for him.

“She’s learning about line segments in school.”

My daughter ran up right then.

“I was showing Grandpa about math!” she said, and then ran off with her friends.

He smiled. “She’s really very good at math,” he said as he showed me what she knew.

We talked a bit more about his day.

97/16 news service photo by Marjorie Brimley

Marjorie Brimley’s son Tommy, and father, Tom, are playing with Legos.

He’d taken a walk and read a book about Napoleon. Then he’d picked up the kids at school and walked them home, collecting a few other friends along the way.

Everything was chaotic at home, and his book on Napoleon had been flung onto the floor.

We started to cook dinner together.

My boys got into a fight in the middle of it, and I heard my dad shout, “hey, cut that out!” at them. The older kids set the table, and I signed all the papers from their school while my dad helped my youngest in the bathroom. Other parents and neighbours came in and out of the house, picking up their children and just stopping by to say hello.

Eventually, we sat down to eat. We all talked about our days, and the kids each had a story about what happened to them at school. After they finished, my daughter said, “What about you, Grandpa?”

“I had a great day,” he said. “I got to read a lot and then I took a walk and then I picked up all of you.”

She smiled at him.

“Sounds good!” she said.

I sat back at that moment and looked at my kids. My daughter was chattering about the details of fourth grade recess and her brother was laughing at something she was saying. My youngest was so close to my dad he was almost in his lap. My father was sitting there, just taking in the moment and listening to my kids with a slight smile on his face.

Just over a year ago, it would have been my husband across the table. He would have comforted my kids and laughed at their jokes and smiled at me across the table. I long every day for a dinner like the ones we had so recently.

But I can’t bring my husband back and I can’t change the fact that my children only have one parent.

So I was surprised at my own emotions that night around the dinner table.

When I finally paused to take a breath, I realized that for the first time in many months, I was conscious that I was living in a happy moment. I also realized that the happy moment I was feeling was due, in large part, to the role that my dad now plays in my house.

“Grandpa” is not the same as “Dad,” and my kids know that. But they also

know that their Grandpa loves them so much that he is there for them every day. He makes their lunches and he finds their socks and he laughs at their stories.

What he does on a daily basis is not anything special. But neither is anything I do. What we both do is show up for three little kids through the happy times and the sick times and the bike-riding times and the homework times.

Because showing up is everything.

That night, I thought about the grandma I’d run into earlier that day, the one who talked about living with her grandkids.

“To be honest, it’s really great for me,” she had said.

Then I thought about what her grandson had said back.

“It’s pretty great for the kids, too.”

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Healthy-crusted chicken pot pie Ellie Krieger 97/16 wire service

The best thing and the worst thing about chicken pot pie could be the crust.

It’s the best because that’s what turns a prosaic chicken stew into a glorious pie, rendering each bite a pastry-adorned indulgence. But from a nutritional point of view, it’s primarily the crust that makes traditional, double-crust potpie unhealthful, adding loads of refined flour and butter or shortening.

This recipe solves that conundrum by rethinking the crust so it offers a tender, flaky pie experience without the downsides. The crust here is made with wholegrain pastry flour, olive oil and just a bit of butter, and it is approached almost like you would a graham cracker crust, so there is no rolling involved.

First, you whisk the oil with milk, which yields an emulsified, thickened mixture. That gets poured into the flour, which has had a little butter worked into it, and the mixture is stirred with a fork until it is moistened and crumbly. Fresh thyme adds a savory, floral element.

At this stage the dough is easily shaped, is hand-flattened and then torn into flakes. They top individual baking dishes filled with the chicken stew, so it resembles a crumble topping. That stew, incidentally, is better for you as well, because it is made with heaps of vegetables and low-fat milk rather than cream.

The result is the best of both worlds – an unexpectedly sumptuous take on chicken pot pie with a fabulous flaky crust.

Chicken pot pies with crumble crust

Servings: 4 You’ll need individual ramekins or baking dishes that can hold 1 1/2 to 2 cups each.

Ingredients For the filling 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more as needed 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into half-inch chunks 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1 small onion, diced 2 ribs celery, diced 5 ounces (about 10) small button mushrooms, stemmed and cut into quarters 8 ounces green beans, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth 1 1/2 cups cold low-fat milk (1 percent) 1/3 cup whole-grain pastry flour 3/4 cup fresh or frozen green peas 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme (may substitute 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme) For the crust 2/3 cup whole-grain pastry flour, plus more as needed 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt 1 tablespoon cold low-fat milk (1 percent)

97/16 news service photo by Tom McCorkle

Chicken pot pies with crumble crust is a healthier option than the traditional version.

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (see headnote) 1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme (may substitute 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme) Steps For the filling: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Use a little oil to grease the inside of the ramekins or baking dishes and place them on a baking sheet. Season the chicken with 1/4 teaspoon each of the salt and pepper.

Heat one tablespoon of the oil in a large, high-sided skillet over mediumhigh heat. Once the oil shimmers, add the chicken and cook for about five minutes, stirring once or twice, until it is nicely browned. Transfer the chicken to a plate.

Add another tablespoon of oil to the skillet, then add the onion, celery and mushrooms; cook for about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms have released their moisture and it has evaporated.

Add the green beans, the garlic, the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon of pepper; cook for 1 minute more.

Pour in the broth; increase the heat to high. Pour the milk into a liquid measuring cup, then stir in the flour until it has dissolved.

Pour the mixture into the pan; cook, stirring, until the mixture comes just to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low;

cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally, the return the chicken to the pan along with the peas, parsley and thyme. Stir until evenly distributed. This is your potpie filling; divide it among the ramekins or baking dishes.

For the crust: Whisk together the whole-grain pastry flour and the salt in a medium bowl.

Whisk the milk into the oil in a small bowl until it is well integrated. Add the butter to the flour mixture and work it in with your fingers or with a pastry cutter until the butter is the size of small pebbles.

Drizzle with the oil mixture, then add the thyme. Combine with a fork until crumbly, then use your fingers to bring it together so all the flour is evenly moistened.

Lightly flour a work surface. Shape the dough mixture into four small rounds.

Place them on the work surface, then use the heel of your hand to flatten each round as thin as possible. Tear flakelike pieces of the flattened dough, using one round per dish, and arrange on top of each potpie to make a rustic, crumbly topping that covers the filling.

Transfer the baking sheet to the oven; bake (upper rack) for about 20 minutes, or until the mixture is bubbling and the crust is golden brown.

Cool slightly before serving.

Nutrition per serving: 530 calories, 38 g protein, 40 g carbohydrates, 25 g fat, 5 g saturated fat, 95 mg cholesterol, 430 mg sodium, 7 g dietary fiber, 11 g sugar

Snake discovered in woman’s dryer SAFETY HARBOR, Fla. — A Florida woman says she “about had a near death experience” when she opened her dryer and saw a snake curled up in her laundry.

Tampa’s Fox 13 News reports Amanda Wise was almost finished unloading the dryer in her garage on Sunday when she saw what appeared to be a corn snake.

She described the startling discovery in a Facebook post.

She says her husband used a broom

to coax the snake out of the dryer and outside.

Wise told the TV station the dryer vent cover on the side of the house has fallen off and they believe that’s how it got inside the dryer.

Corn snakes eat rodents and are generally considered harmless.

They are sometimes mistaken for copperheads.

Safety Harbor is near St. Petersburg.

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Scene

Theatre, and tea, beads and bannock Miracle Theatre

languages, knowledge, cultures and histories.

Everyone is welcome to participate, share, dance, learn or observe.

For more information email khastandrummers@gmail.com or visit www. ominecaartscentre.com.

Until Wednesday, March 20 at 8 p.m. with 2 p.m. matinees on March 3, 10 and 17 at ArtSpace, above Books & Co., 1685 Third Ave., Halfway There is a professional theatre production with actors hired from across Canada. This comedy is about friends for life and the surprises that arise when a new doctor comes to town. This year’s beneficiary is the Community Foundation and all net proceeds will start the new Children of Prince George Fund. Tickets are $33 at Books & Co. or call 250-563-6637.

International Women’s Day Breakfast Friday from 7 to 9 a.m. at The Ramada Plaza, 444 George St., this year’s theme is Celebrating Women Who Make a Difference during the 2019 International Women’s Day Breakfast & Inspirational Stories.

Hosted by Hon. Shirley Bond, MLA for Prince George-Valemount, in partnership with The Ramada Plaza Prince George.

Tickets are $30 and available at The Ramada Plaza sales office. Doors open at 7 a.m. with breakfast starting at 7:30 a.m. sharp.

For more information call The Ramada at 250-561-5685. Proceeds will support community programs.

CNC Film Festival

Friday to Sunday at the PG Playhouse, 2833 Recreation Place, the 23rd annual Cinema CNC Film Festival brings eight great Canadian films to the big screen at the Prince George Playhouse.

As well, there will be a bunch of short films, the cheapest snacks in British Columbia, a silent auction, prizes, and a whole lot of fun.

Passes are at Books & Co., CNC Bookstore, and UNBC Bookstore. Single tickets are $8 and available at the door or from www.centralinteriortickets.com in advance.

Festival pass is $48 for all eight films.

Friday pass is $14 for two films, Saturday pass is $21 for three films, Sunday pass is $21 for three films.

For details visit the 23rd annual Cinema CNC Film Festival Facebook page.

Wheelchair Basketball

97/16 Kingsway handout

Colleen Rennison, left, Jillian Fargey, Camille Sullivan and Gabrielle Rose have it out in Kingsway, which will be shown March 3 at the P.G. Playhouse as part of the CNC Film Festival.

Roman Kozlowski Live

Friday from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Oakroom Grill, 104-1023 Central St. W., Roman Kozlowski will perform a mix of favourite covers, as well as new original music.

Come out for some great food and good live music. For more information call 250-277-1882 or email oakroomgrill@ hotmail.com.

Central Interior Heritage Expo Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Prince George Public Library, Bob Harkins Branch 888 Canada Games Way, the P.G. Heritage Commission, P.G. Public Library and UNBC Continuing Studies department are coordinating a free Heritage Expo where exhibitors, local history organizations, authors and individuals with a local history story will display their information.

For more information call 250-9605982 or email rob.bryce@unbc.ca.

Indoor Garage Sale

Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Kinsmen Community Complex, 777 Kinsmen Pl., the PG Kinsmen are hosting an indoor garage sale featuring a variety of items. Stop in and enjoy a hot dog or some baking from the concession. For more information call 250-562-8767 or email kinsmenclub@gmail.com.

Taste of India 2019

Saturday at 6 p.m. at the P.G. Civic Centre, 808 Canada Games Way, the Taste of India event features cuisine and entertainment by Delhi 2 Dublin.

For tickets visit www.theatrenorthwest. com/tickets or pick up tickets at Books & Company, 1685 Third Ave. For more information call 250-5636969 ext. 305 or email gm@theatrenorthwest.com.

Seedy Saturday

Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Knox United Church, 1448 Fifth Ave., there will be a seed swap, seed sale and displays featuring information and presentations, including grow great garlic at 10:30 a.m., winemaking 101 at 11:30 a.m., garden soil at 12:30, and at 1:30 learn how to increase tomato production by 50 per cent.

Lunch concession featuring Sassafras Savouries.

Admission is by donation. For more information call 250-964-2982 or visit dbotgarden.bc.ca.

Open Drum Circle

Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. at Omineca Arts Centre, 369 Victoria St, there is an Open Drum Circle to build community.

This is an inclusive activity exploring drum ceremony as we use it to learn and promote Indigenous and Dakelh

Every Monday until April 15 from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at Northern Sports Centre (NSC), 3333 University Way, P.G. LumberJacks wheelchair basketball is a Rec North drop-in program at the Northern Sports Centre.

No experience is necessary and all equipment including sports wheelchairs is available. Everyone welcome. Free for NSC members and youth under 13 yrs or $6 drop-in rate for non-members.

Call 250-613-5187 or email pgwheelchairbball@gmail.com.

Wheelchair Rugby

Every Tuesday until May 28 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the College of New Caledonia , 3330 22 Ave., PG Wheelchair Rugby program runs weekly.

No experience is necessary and all equipment including sports wheelchairs are available.

Everyone welcome. BC Wheelchair Sports annual membership is $10. In this full-contact sport, athletes play in tanklike wheelchairs and hit each others’ chairs in an attempt to carry a ball across the line. For more information call 250649-9501 or email Northern@bcwheelchairsports.com.

Tea n’ Beads n’ Bannock

Wednesday from 7 to 10 p.m. at Omineca Arts Centre, 369 Victoria St., there is a community beading circle hosted by Lynette LA Fontaine, a Metis artist who blends traditional art and teachings with contemporary flair in the form of acrylic paintings and beadwork. Learn by watching, asking and doing.

This is not a class, but a place to bring beading projects and sit together to inspire, connect and learn from one another. Anyone with an interest is welcome. Admission is by donation.

For more information visit www.ominecaartscentre.com.

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Winter classic for a snowy day michael dirda 97/16 wire service

The Worst Journey in the World: Antarctic 1910-1913 by Apsley Cherry-Garrard A few years ago, National Geographic magazine compiled a list of the 100 greatest works of nonfiction adventure.

Ranked No. 1 – it could really be no other place – was The Worst Journey in the World, Apsley Cherry-Garrard’s memoir of the 1910-1913 Terra Nova expedition to Antarctica under the leadership of Robert Falcon Scott.

Eager to plant the English flag at the South Pole, 8,000 men applied to join Scott’s expedition, with just 33 chosen for the actual land contingent. Partly through friendship with chief scientist Edward Wilson, the 24-year-old CherryGarrard was taken on as “an adaptable helper,” though he had no experience of polar exploration and was extremely nearsighted. Nonetheless, Cherry, as he was called, would end up sledging more than anyone else, some 3,000 miles.

At times he and his comrades endured what few of us can imagine: temperatures close to 70 degrees below zero and hurricane-force winds; sleeping bags and clothes frozen into solid blocks; a diet consisting mainly of biscuits, seal meat and penguin; constant fatigue. At one point, extraordinary cold made Cherry’s teeth crack. Literally. If you inadvertently touched a piece of metal without wearing gloves, your hands immediately developed frostbite blisters. Sled dogs fell into crevasses and Mongolian ponies, trapped on floes of broken ice, had to be killed with a pickax to spare them the agony of being eaten alive by killer whales.

Worse still, good men died.

Who doesn’t know the story? Late in 1911 Scott and four companions made a final push for the pole, only to discover that the Norwegian Roald Amundsen had reached it a month before. On the journey back, the weather grew extreme

and nothing went right. Edgar Evans died near the Beardmore Glacier. Soon afterward, Capt. Lawrence Oates found himself limping painfully because of an old Boer War injury, exacerbated by scurvy. Realizing that his rapidly deteriorating condition was endangering the lives of his comrades, Oates simply left the tent one morning and hobbled away into a blizzard. His last words still bring me – and many others – to tears: “I am just going outside and may be some time.”

Alas, his sacrifice came too late. Scott and Cherry’s two closest friends, Wilson and H.R. Bowers, pushed on a bit farther until, exhausted and weak from hunger, they pitched their tent for the last time just 11 miles from the depot where Cherry waited with the supplies that would have saved them. He couldn’t have known that Scott and the others were so close, but in years to come he would suffer unassuageable remorse for not having left his post and gone out searching for them.

In 1922, a full decade later, Cherry brought out The Worst Journey in the World, weaving in numerous extracts from his friends’ letters and diaries. Surprisingly, though, his book’s title doesn’t actually refer to Scott’s ill-fated return from the pole but to an earlier expedition, one with a happier ending.

On his first visit to Antarctica in 19011904, Wilson had discovered that Cape Crozier provided a rookery for emperor penguins. Because of the birds’ mating habits, the only time to acquire their eggs – which Wilson believed might supply important evolutionary information – was during the unending dark of a polar winter (our summer). An extended trek at that season had never been attempted.

Cherry dryly remarks “I advise explorers to be content with imagining it in the future.”

On June 27, 1911, Wilson, Bowers and Cherry left their base camp, dragging two nine-foot long sledges loaded with 757 pounds of supplies and equipment.

97/16 news service photo by Penguin Classics

The Worst Journey in the World: Antarctic 1910-1913 book cover.

They would be gone for five weeks.

Much of the time they could barely see the ground at their feet. One day they only managed to travel 1 1/2 miles. By the time the trio reached the penguin rookery, Cherry writes that he would have given five years of his life for just one night in a warm bed.

The real ordeal, however, had only begun. The men constructed a hut next to their tent, just before a three-day blizzard struck. Its ferocious winds first blew away the tent and then shredded the hut’s canvas roof. Exposed to the elements, Cherry and his companions

burrowed into their sleeping bags, as the snow piled up on top of them. All three knew that without a tent it would be almost impossible to survive. I won’t say more but, against all odds, they do survive and even bring back three emperor eggs. As they finally reached safety, Wilson thanked Bowers and Cherry for what they had all suffered through, adding “I couldn’t have found two better companions – and what is more I never shall.”

Cherry merely says, “I am proud of that.” A few months later, Scott enlisted Wilson and Bowers for the final assault on the pole.

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history

T h u r s d a y , F e b r u a r y 2 8 , 2 0 1 9 | 21

This is the front page of the Feb. 26, 1919 edition of the Prince George Citizen.

The Citizen archives are available at the Prince George Public Library’s website at pgnewspapers.pgpl.ca/

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motoring

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T h u r s d a y , F e b r u a r y 2 8 , 2 0 1 9 | 23

A shift to clean energy gets support New Car Dealers Association of BC

A

Blair Qualey

s the president and CEO of the New Car Dealers Association of B.C., I had the opportunity to take part in the B.C. Budget 2019 media and stakeholders lock-up during which the finance minister presented her government’s fiscal plan for the next three years.

The budget was important from the perspective that it includes a host of positive clean energy initiatives and significant investments to support the CEVforBC Program and ongoing development of a fast charging network for electric vehicles and fueling for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

In total, over $900 million has been earmarked for CleanBC, to reduce air pollution and save families money through the Clean Energy Vehicle for BC Program (CEVforBC) with additional funding for purchases incentives towards clean energy vehicles, incentives for energy-saving home improvements, a net-zero building code, and programs to help communities transition to cleaner energy sources.

Of prime importance to B.C.’s New Car Dealers and consumers is news that the CEVforBC program will be topped up by $42 million for point of sale purchase incentives of up to $6,000 for qualifying EV or hydrogen vehicles. A further $6 million will be available to support light

97/16 news service photo by Christopher Katsarov

The electric powered Jaguar I-Pace (left) and the Kia Stinger were awarded 2019 Utility Vehicle and Car of the Year by the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada at the International Auto Show in Toronto on Valentine’s Day. duty fleets in shifting to clean energy vehicles and $1 million will be invested in program implementation and public outreach.

CEVforBC has been a significant factor in making the transition to EVs more affordable for British Columbians. Since the program was established in April of 2015, almost 11,000 incentives have been paid out to individuals and families – more than have half of those in the last calendar year.

A total of $30 million will also be invested in the infrastructure required to charge an electric vehicle or fuel a hydrogen vehicle including: $20 million to support new public fast-charging and hydrogen fueling stations, $5 million to support home and workplace charging stations and $5 million for charging stations at highway rest areas and B.C. government buildings.

These key investments will help continue B.C.’s nation-leading adoption of

clean energy vehicles in the next three years as we engage with government on the development of a workable system for zero emission vehicle sales quotas across B.C., beginning in 2025.

A balanced budget was delivered this year and we are pleased that no new business taxes were introduced in the 2019 budget.

Blair Qualey is president and CEO of the New Car Dealers Association of B.C. Email him at bqualey@newcardealers.ca.

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