A Bit More Detail

• This Toronto Star feature touches upon the continuing upset among the communities affected by the murders of Bruce McArthur.


• Polling suggests that most Torontonians want Ontario Place to remain a place where they can access Lake Ontario easily. I do like the idea of a ferris wheel, mind. The Toronto Star reports.


• blogTO notes that a small shack near the Art Gallery of Ontario is selling for $2.5 million. (The value, to be fair, is in the land the building sits on.)


• Jamie Bradburn shares some classic advertisements for children's science magazines Chickadee and Owl.


• Steve Munro analyses at length the City of Toronto's budget, specifically as it relates to the TTC.

• blogTO notes that the TTC plans on raising fares for next year.


• Centauri Dreams notes the evidence for an ocean on Pluto.


• City of Brass' Aziz Poonawalla argues against Muslims voluntarily registering in an American listing of Muslims.


• Dangerous Minds notes the sadness of Abbie Hoffman at Janis Joplin's use of IV drugs.


• Joe. My. God. notes that Manhattan's Trump Place complex has opted to drop the name.


• Language Hat looks at a seminal Arabic novel published in mid-19th century France.


• Language Log looks at an intriguing Chinese-language sign in London.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money suggests that the US-Iran nuclear deal is likely to stay.


• The LRB Blog looks at a critic's old building, an old warehouse, in New York City.


• The NYRB Daily looks at the art of the spot illustration.


• Window on Eurasia notes the state of interethnic relations in Kazakhstan.


• Arnold Zwicky looks at some flowers of Mediterranean climate zones.

Not too many publications last 25 years, let alone 225, but that's the birthday being celebrated this year by the Old Farmer's Almanac.

There are still many that swear by it for its annual insights into the coming seasons and weather patterns.

And there's even an Islander involved, Peter Rukavina, who turned what he thought would be a short-term job into two decades of work.

As he told Island Morning's Matt Rainnie, he was asked to help with the publication's then-new digital companion, almanac.com.

"I had some experience with webby stuff, so I said yes, fully expecting this to be a month-long project, and 20 years later I'm still here," said Rukavina.

He's part of a great tradition which still sees some 4,000,000 copies distributed annually.

Xtra, the iconic gay and lesbian newspaper in Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver, announced on Wednesday it would be folding its print offerings.

The free weekly paper will transition to an enhanced digital offering, according to its publisher, Pink Triangle Press. It said getting out of the newspaper business is part of a strategic repositioning, which aims at financial stability not found in print publishing.

The paper first hit the streets in February 1984. It highlighted local political issues, celebrated queer art and emphasized a community involvement in the gay, lesbian and trans community.

Its website, DailyXtra.com, and gay adult dating website, Squirt.org, will expand this mission, according to Ken Popert, executive director and president of Pink Triangle Press. The new digital expansion will feature more social networking, including dating technology.

“Most of our revenues already come through digital membership sales in the adult dating space, where we’ve had great success building a growing online community,” he said.

This isn't the first time Pink Triangle Press has shut down one of its publications. In the spring of 2013, it ceased production of its free, bi-weekly gay magazine, Fab. The closure resulted in the loss of nine jobs in Toronto.

Media companies have been struggling for the past few years to make up for declining ad revenue as more readers go online for their news.

Last November, Torstar Corp. (TSX:TS.B) shuttered the digital operations at its Metro brand in seven cities where it no longer produces free daily newspapers. The closure affected the Metro websites in Hamilton, Kitchener, Windsor and London, Ont., as well as Regina, Saskatoon and Victoria.

In July 2014, Torstar also closed down the award-winning Toronto weekly, The Grid, after three years of publication, blaming low revenue.

"[O]ffensively anti-Muslim" is a completely wrong description of Charlie Hebdo's cartoons, at least from the point of view of the people who drew them. As a rule, the cartoonists did not attack Muslims as Muslims (whereas the sacked cartoonist did attack Jews as Jews, hence the sacking), and they did not even attack Islam per se. Rather, they attacked Islam as one element of a larger set of revealed religion, all equally hateful. They expressed a deep hatred of organized religious institutions, first and foremost, and for most of them (but not all) a rejection of all religious thinking. This is what their work was all about: attacking religious authorities and sometimes religion in general, and this blanket attack grew straight from the French revolt against an extremely oppressive Catholic Church in the 18th century.

The visual and intellectual equipment of both anticlericalism (attacking religious institutions) and antireligion (attacking religion in general) was consolidated around 1900. Anticlericalism was at the heart of the secularization of all public spaces (including schools) which took place in France between 1880 and 1910. But Jules Ferry, one of the leaders of the secularizing movement, took pains to explain that what had to be destroyed was not religion in itself, but the political and institutional power of religion (for anybody reading French, here is his "Letter to schoolteachers" which is a perfect presentation of what the original version of French laïcité was really all about).

A second, more virulent strain of secularizers did think that religious beliefs in and of themselves were medieval superstitions to be rooted out, that reason and enlightenment would eventually lead humanity on the road to complete atheism. For these "free-thinkers" (as they styled themselves), New Age types from Boulder would be just as bad as Fundamentalist Christians from the Bible Belt, or Islamists for that matter; all would be denounced as benighted brains clutching at shadows.

[. . .]

A second group of cartoons came also straight from the 18th century anticlerical fighters' handbook, and would have been eagerly endorsed by Voltaire or Diderot, and probably Ferry and many IIIrd Republic secularizers as well (as far as contents were concerned only of course; the raunchy 21st century presentation would have shocked!). These cartoons took aim at the distance between the actual teachings of various religious leaders, primarily Muhammad and Jesus, and the behavior of their followers. The following covers illustrate this (and contain representations of Muhammad, so, for those who don't want to see that, don't click!). In one, Cabu's Muhammad, seated on a cloud, has his head in his hands, weeping and saying "It's tough to be loved by a--holes". This cover by Charb, captioned "If Muhammad came back..." shows a kneeling Prophet about to have his throat slit by a Jihadi fighter, with the following dialogue: -"I am the Prophet, stupid!" / "Shut up, you infidel!".

I think many (though perhaps not all) of their biggest controversies are cases of what I call Onion Fail. You know, like that one time when Iranian state media quoted an article from The Onion that said Rural Whites Prefer Ahmadinejad To Obama, or that other time when North Korean media quoted a story that said Kim Jong-Un Named the Onion's Sexiest Man Alive for 2012. Quoting a satirical magazine is risky business, especially if the magazine is in another language or requires some understanding or the politics or culture of another country. Satire is about mockery. So, clearly, instead of actually praising Ahmadinejad or Kim Jong-Un, they are actually ridiculing them. Simply reporting a word-for-word translation of these farcical articles is going to get the intended message exactly backwards. You'd think the part about Kim Jong-Un having abs to rival Matthew McConaughey’s would have been a tip off, but alas, one of the truly boundless qualities of the universe is the ability to kiss ass and the willingness to receive it."

[. . .]

As you will see, someone in the Twitterverse has cited the image as an example of racism and has blasted it out under #JeNeSuisPasCharlie. The image shows a cartoon depicting Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, who was born in French Guiana, as a monkey. An open an shut case of racism, right? Actually, au contraire.

There are a number of glaring problems with the claim that this anti-racist cartoon is actually pro-racist. First, note that it is drawn by Charb himself. As mentioned in the beginning, his girlfriend was of North African decent and is also chair of the French Equal Opportunities and Anti-Discrimination Commission. So, it might seem a little strange for him to be promoting a racist image.

Second, look at what the text says: "Rassemblement Bleu Raciste." This is a parody of the slogan "Rassemblement Bleu Marine," which is used by Marine Le Pen's Front National. Also notice the tricolor flame next to the image. That is a mock up of the party's logo.

This cartoon came out following a controversy in which a politician from Front National shared a photoshopped image on Facebook that showed the Justice Minister as a monkey. The Charlie cartoon is doing a parody of this and saying Front National is racist. Ironically, some people outside of France are using it to say Charlie Hebdo is racist.

To understand the seismic shift in cat culture, you can start by picking apart Cat Fancy's name. It used to be much more than a whimsical reference to the enjoyment of felines. When the magazine launched in 1965, animal lovers were very familiar with something called "the cat fancy." The term referred to a connoisseurlike approach to cats: following professional cat shows, maintaining directories of cat breeders, and recognizing the importance of purebred bloodlines.

"Back then, the people who had all the knowledge tended to be the people who were showing cats, breeding cats, everything like that," said Melissa Kauffman, senior editorial director for I-5. Cat Fancy's innovation was to take that knowledge — and its attendant attitude toward cats — to a nationwide audience. "They did cover some of the topics that Cat Fancy covers today, but it was more about things like show information." There were long indexes of breeders, in-depth analyses of different breeds, and impassioned letters from opinionated cat owners (including, in one memorable instance, Ayn Rand).

However, Susan Logan is quick to say the magazine was not snobby. "From the very first [issue], the true scope included mixed-breed cats, feral felines, and even our domestic cats' wild cousins," she told me in an email. "Self-described as a magazine for 'anyone who fancies the cat,' Cat Fancy from its very first issue in 1965 defined that meaning as a voice devoted to the care, welfare, and adoration of all cats."

Nevertheless, readers of Cat Fancy in its early decades would likely be aghast at the shape of today's cat passions. Modern feline icons like Grumpy Cat and Lil Bub are mutts with genetic deformities. They wouldn't have made it past the front door at a Golden Age cat show. And their many public appearances are filled with fans who would disdain anyone who gets a cat from a breeder rather than a shelter.

[. . .]

Then there's the other massive trend in cat culture that Cat Fancy never totally caught up to: Nowadays, cat enthusiasm is all about laughter and delight. When the internet goes gaga for a piece of cat content, it's lighthearted, or about cats as an extension of our personalities and lifestyles. It's a video of a cat massaging another cat or falling into a fish tank. It's a list of GIFs of cats who "Cannot Even Handle It Right Now." It's an advice column about dating a fellow cat person (featuring, of course, lots of GIFs).

By contrast, Cat Fancy and its offshoot website, CatChannel.com (which will remain in operation), are more likely to publish useful-but-staid information about flea and tick products or details about Abyssinians. They have lists and photo essays, of course, but the overall tone remains calm and clinical, like words from a kind veterinarian.

Vice gets a much more favorable treatment from Lizzie Widdicombe, in large part because what it produces resembles the longform, original reporting that magazines like The New Yorker pride themselves on. "In recent years, Vice has been engaged in an energetic process of growing up—both commercially and in terms of journalistic ambition," she writes. After all, it got a huge, expensive scoop, getting some American media into North Korea, didn't it? "Look, the fact that he came is a big deal. The fact that we’re the only people to meet him is a big deal. The fact that we went to his house was a really big deal," argues CEO Shane Smith, referring to Kim Jong Un. The fogies at the big magazine companies may have reservations on how Vice presents its stories (and now its HBO show) but, as Widdicombe writes, "Vice’s biggest novelty is not its unruly journalistic techniques but its ability to make money in the Internet age."

While that might calm the likes of The New Yorker, it shouldn't. As Widdicombe relays, Vice relies on a different kind of business model that blurs the ethical lines between journalism and corporate sponsorship to a degree that would easily become scandal at most established outlets. Vice has no compunction about using its journalism to help make big bucks at its record label, book and film divisions, web sites, and in-house ad agency. In short: "Vice’s profits—which a source estimates were $40 million last year—seem to be dependent on securing and maintaining partnerships with a few major corporate clients," explains Widdicombe. That's a set-up that involves some compromises. Even its relationship with HBO, which is producing and airing a Vice television show, is filled with the types of compromises a news outlet doesn't want to make. Smith agreed to a certain concession because Bill Maher, who was providing supplementary material for the show, wouldn't like it. "Yeah," Smith said. "We’ll move the bear."