Viscount Bennett High School 50th Reunion

On By Rick McIn about Rick, education, friendsLeave a comment

Good news. There’s a concept of a plan for a 50th reunion.

Saturday, May 10, 2025

4.00 p.m. at Schanks Sports Grill, Calgary

I was one of the organizers of the VB High 25th anniversary in 2000. A lot of fun.

VB Reunion website

I was one of those kids who actually enjoyed High School. 😀

Viscount Bennett High School
Viscount Bennett High, Calgary

Viscount Bennett High School operated as a junior and high school from 1955 to 1985, closing due to low enrolment. 

In 1995, Chinook Learning Services operated out of the building until the Calgary Board of Education (CBE) closed it permanently in 2018.

We had buried a time capsule in 1975. Dug it up in 2000. Then reburied some items.

BUT it was dug up during a facility renovation, the junk dumped on the sidewalk. Brian Mason picked it up. I still have some things in my basement.

In 1975, we had something called the “Grad Notebook“.

Handmade. Something we could pass around for kids to sign as a remembrance.

Here’s mine. I took a photo of each page. Did a little editing.

The Westgate Motor Inn Bar was demolished 2004.

The CREW of the 1975 Grad Film were Ian Baird, Ron Shewchuk, Brian Mason, Richard Englehardt, Dean Cave and myself.

Many in 1975 predicted recreational marijuana would be legal by 2000. BUT it wasn’t official until 2018.

Richard Englehardt and myself won the 1975 High School car rally when the REAL winners were disqualified for not wearing seatbelts.

Loraleigh Keashly was the smartest kid in school. She went on to finish multiple degrees and became a professor at Wayne State University. Certainly her comment was the most … accurate. 😀

Ron Shewchuk was already a writer and a bit of poet:

In ’00 we will meet

All older.

Some wiser

When I see this 25 years from

Now

I will probably realize

Au revoir.

Where to TRAVEL in 2025?

On By Rick McIn cycling, hiking, travelLeave a comment

Of course I have a half dozen different itineraries drafted. 😀

BUT which will end up happening?

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Highest priority destinations 2025:

  • Indonesia for World Gymnastics Championships October
  • Northern Australia
  • Nepal in November (Everest Base Camp)

Medium priority destinations 2025:

  • USA hiking part of the Pacific Crest Trail
  • Denmark for cycling
  • Germany for cycling

Low priority 2025:

  • Iceland and the Faroe Islands (again)
  • Madeira – Portuguese Islands
  • Canary Islands – Spain
  • East Africa
  • northern Vancouver Island cycling
  • Pakistan for hiking
  • India for hiking
  • Jordan for cycling
  • Oman for cycling
  • Taiwan for hiking
  • Mongolia
  • Greece
  • Scotland
  • Corsica
  • Montenegro & Balkans

Any other recommendations for me?

Hum by Helen Phillips

On By Rick McIn booksLeave a comment

I only got about 40% through this book.

GREAT plot. But the dysfunctional family was simply too depressing for me.

Hum (2024) is Helen Phillips 6th book.

It’s a dystopian novel set in the near future.

The air is polluted. World has heated up, requiring more air conditioning. Water supply questionable.

People spend a lot of time in ‘wooms’, something like a climate controlled capsule.

 “hums” – humanoid robots – are increasingly taking the jobs of humans.

Mary is out of work — and hears of an opportunity to earn several months’ salary by receiving an experimental facial injection, and takes it. The injection will render May’s face unrecognisable to the ubiquitous hums. She’s a guinea pig for a form of adversarial AI.

What could go wrong?

USA is a ‘Flawed Democracy’

On By Rick McIn economics, GOP USA, government, happiness, human rights, things getting worseLeave a comment

The American economy might never have been stronger relative to the rest of the world than in 2024.

BUT more and more of that money is going to the very rich. If that continues, you can project the States will be come some kind of oligarchy. Perhaps even a totalitarian state.

Government power in an oligarchy rests with a small number of people; nobility, fame, wealth, education, or corporate, religious, political, or military control. Indonesia, Russia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Iran are all oligarchies.

The Economist still ranks the USA as a ‘flawed democracy‘ in their annual Democracy Index. Only 29th on the list of democracies.

The full democracies 2023:

  1. Norway
  2. New Zealand
  3. Iceland
  4. Sweden
  5. Finland
  6. Denmark
  7. Ireland
  8. Switzerland
  9. Netherlands
  10. Taiwan
  11. Luxembourg
  12. Germany
  13. Canada
  14. Australia
  15. Uruguay
  16. Japan
  17. Costa Rica
  18. United Kingdom


I want to live in a full democracy where it’s easiest to get rid of leaders the majority don’t want. As Churchill said: “democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried.”

The full democracies tend to have a smaller gap between rich and poor.

Russians can’t get rid of Putin. Ali Hosseini Khamenei has been the leader of Iran since 1989. Iranians can’t get rid of him.

Americans should be wondering whether they can get rid of Musk or Trump.

It’s obvious that the top 1% buy American politicians who vote in their interest. This chart is from 2014. Things are much worse in 2024.


At its heart, this is a problem of corruption – caused by money in our political system. 

THE U.S. IS AN OLIGARCHY? THE RESEARCH, EXPLAINED

Thanks Tony.

Expedition Oregon Adventure Race

On By Rick McIn cycling, health & fitness, sport - amateurLeave a comment

Perhaps we should put together an Adventure Racing team for Expedition Oregon. 😀

Only 250 miles of mtn bike, trekking, climbing, packrafting, rafting, navigation.

America’s toughest A.R. race.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The House of Cross by James Patterson

On By Rick McIn books, TVLeave a comment

With the new TV series launching 2024, there was more than usual interest in the 2024 release of 33rd book in the series.

I’d say this is one of the better books. Entertaining escapism.

It’s timely. Set around the inauguration of a new President.

Judges on the list of potential Supreme Court candidates are being murdered.

Why?

A body believed to be the vigilante serial killer called “M” is found after a car wreck in Nevada.

Bree believes that he was the mastermind behind the criminal organization Maestro. She and Sampson pursue to the lair in British Columbia. And disappear.

Alex Cross to the rescue.

Black Doves – season 1

On By Rick McIn TVLeave a comment

Entertaining. Quirky characters. Some funny dialogue.

Black Doves is a British spy thriller television— absurd black comedy.

Though popular, there’s much to criticize.

I ASSuME the blatant inexplicable scenes are deliberate. The hitman hanging around the murder scene, unworried by CCTV, for example.

So … let’s forget about lack of reality in many scenes.

I can’t admire the writing, either. It’s not particularly smart.

It’s always disappointing to see writers rely on flashbacks to be sure even the dumbest viewers can follow.

Certainly Slow Horses and The Diplomat are far superior.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Storm Prey by John Sandford

On By Rick McIn booksLeave a comment

Action packed.

Another great read in the Lucas Davenport series — this one featuring Virgil Flowers, as well.

Storm Prey (2010) is 20th in the series.

The bad guys in this one are really, really dumb.

Very early, 4:45 on a bitterly cold Minnesota morning, three big men burst through the door of a hospital pharmacy, duct-tape the hands, feet, mouth and eyes of two pharmacy workers, and clean the place out. But then things swiftly go bad, one of the workers dies, and the robbers hustle out to their truck — and find themselves for just one second face to face with a blond woman who’s driven into the garage.

Weather Karkinnen, surgeon, wife of an investigator named Lucas Davenport.

Did she see enough? Can she identify them? Gnawing it over later, it seems to them there is only one thing they can do: Find out who she is, and eliminate the only possible witness….