ons.In “Dates with Destiny” (Geist 67), Daniel Francis meets Elio, whose father made a torpedo in a factory that sunk a ship carrying Francis’s mother-in-law; thus Daniel says to Elio: “So, your father tried to kill my wife’s mother.” Canadian taxpayers pay for weapons, ammunition and soldiers that are used in the Afghan “mission”; in this way of thinking, each and every one of us is personally responsible for the killing of Afghan fathers and sons. »»
ace.As if “Dates with Destiny” (Geist 67) didn’t speak to coincidence eagerly enough, I stumbled upon it during my waitressing shift. Wouldn’t you know it—at the moment I flipped through No. 67, the word Fiume jumped out to meet me—the short-lived city Fiume, my own father’s birthplace. »»
own.Maybe Patty Osborne, who reviewed Canada in the Rough (Geist 62), should visit a slaughterhouse and take lots of pictures of how they kill the animals she eats. The farmer’s little calf, raised by a child and now maybe has grown to an adult with the big brown eyes, paraded into a room and shot in the head with a ramset a couple of times before it goes down. »»
ing.Thanks for the email about the writing workshop and other things. Pierre Berton’s name is spelled wrong in the email. Just felt compelled to point that out since he’s a Canadian institution and everything. »»
ude.In response to your request for polling ideas (“Who the Hell is Peter Gzowski?”, Geist 16), my wife wants to know how many Geist readers sleep in the nude. »»
tim.Thanks for publishing my letter about the fractured French in your reprint of Catherine Owen’s “Trouvé mort” or “Un Patient est Trouvé Mort: Haikus from the French” (Geist 64). I appreciate seeing the author’s response alongside your own in Geist 65. I give Owen full points for chutzpah. Of special interest is her assertion that the errors in the poem’s French-language citations are entirely attributable to Le Journal de Montréal, which she says is quoted verbatim. »»
sue.It’s about the fractured French in “Trouvé Mort,” the poem by Catherine Owen reprinted in the Findings section of No. 64. While aware that Geist and its staff are not responsible for the poem’s content, I’ve been teasing apart the levels of irony and offence in your choosing it for this issue. »»
r />A certain reader of yours residing in Thunder Bay wrote a letter (Geist 66) saying that he will not renew his subscription because he was incensed by Stephen Osborne’s Letter to Subscribers, included, as I recall, in the plastic envelope Geist is shipped in, in the summer issue. Unfortunately, I threw it in the recycling bin. »»
ing.A note to Stephen Osborne about his Letter to Subscribers, on summer fiction, enclosed in Geist 65: Fiction is your business. For many of us who don’t have the luxury of daily contact we are stuck with the editorial page and many other kinds of uninspired writing. »»
