 LEE |  BEAR |
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LEE | BEAR |
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BEAR / LEE 's Page | COPNTROL YOUR Politician | GIANT CHESS |
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Originally, my website was called `Lee’s Page’.
Why did I start a web site, to display my wares; scripts, novel, photos, etc. that I was trying to sell.
Scroll down on my home page `www.bearspage.info’ for more detail.
I’ve heard, unconfirmed, rumours that the term `bear’ is used to denote people of alternate life styles. I’m also told that there are many website that use the name `bear’ to denote websites that are for non heterosexual persons. I have no proof of either statement.
A few years ago, when, the wife and, I went to visit China, I bought a parka that had an emblem of a bear on the shoulder. Consequently, since I stand 6’4” and my nephews were only 14 yrs. old, they called me `da shon’ - `big bear’.
So I changed my website to `Bear’s Page’
I was busy at other things so I dropped the whole thing for awhile but due to popular request I started it back up again.
When I started it back up I renamed it Lee’s Page.
Then I opened Bear’s Page back up, but keeping two sites, even though a mirror of each other, was too much work and Lee’s Page was getting more hits than Bear’s Page so I am slowly making all the Bear’s Page pages forwards to their sister pages on Lees’ page.
Neither site has ever resulted in a sale of any of my works, however the art store, `SMART Frames’, in Metrotown, actually sold one of my prints a couple of weeks ago - http://www.picable.com/Nature/Sunsets/Sailing-Into-the-Sunset.45057 . After all these years, and the thousands of photos I have taken, I have finally sold one.
Now if I could make a living at it I could retire from trucking.
In Canada the federal Government of Canada allows, to a refugee, a monthly pension of, $1,890.00 plus $580.00, in social aid. A total of : $2,470.00 per month.
By comparison a senior citizen who has contributed to the development of Our Beautiful Big Country during 40 or 50 years, CANNOT receive more than $1,012.00 in Old Age Pension and Guaranteed Income Supplement per month.
Is there something wrong with this picture?
They say that Canada, and the USA, are democracies. They aren’t.
In a democracy politicians listen to the advise of their employers.
You can make your country a democracy by demanding that politian’s listen to you.
Tell them that at the next election you will vote for someone else and they will be out of work, in plain language, you will fire them.
You pay their wages, tell them how you want your taxes spent.
Phone them, write them, send them an E. Demand they earn their wages.
Don’t know, who, or where to write? Look up your electoral district on the web.
Go to www.webcrawler.com), type in the name of the town you live in and put in `city council’, `Legislative riding’. or `Federal riding’
You will get a name, phone number, address, and `E’ address of YOUR employee.
Or, scroll down from here to `RELATED WEBSITES’ and you will find links to general pages that will list phone numbers etc.
In B. C., Canada there is a Premier, and I use the term lightly, that no one wants.
How did he become premier?
No one went to the polls to vote.
So, how did he get elected?
Because no one went to the polls to vote for the other party.
The people of B. C. don’t want Campbell as their leader so they didn’t go to the polls but they didn’t go to the polls and vote for the opposition, so he got re-elected.
Sometimes I think he pays the opposition parties to keep running the same leader because he knows no one will voter for that person.
Why the opposition parties don’t realize that they will never win if they keep on flogging the same leader is beyond me.
Be that as it may, if you want to control the government which is what you should do, in a democratic country, you need to impress upon the politicians what it is you want them to do and that if they don’t do it you will fire them at the next election.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
So, start squeaking.
Whether it is by phone, letter, or E mail, make yourself heard.
Weather it is higher rates for old age pension, lower rates for refugees, a new bridge, or lower taxes.
Whatever you beef, or desire, let them know that you are not satisfied with they way they are spending your tax dollar.
LEE A. WOOD
Lost in the woods there, is a small amphitheatre with three checkerboards that seem destined to return to nature. Unable to repel nature's attack, without the help of man, it is slowly returning to the primeval forest which surrounds it.
Almost impossible to see, by visitors to Stanley Park, the little amphitheatre lies to the North of Pipeline Road, the road that runs through the Rose Garden. The checkerboard is located West of the turn off to the parking area for the Children's Petting Zoo.
The Park Board staff member that I first talked to didn't know it existed. Rumour has it that a couple of the pieces were broken and the set was put in storage, wherever that is. Further investigation found that the pieces were not chessmen but checkers and rather unique pieces at that.
At one time in Vancouver there was a factory that made wooden pipe. As a gesture of goodwill, the pipe company cut cross sections of the clear cedar pipe, bound them with galvanized wire, fitted them with loops for lifting, and donated them to the park as checkers.
It is believed that a couple of the checkers were broken and as they were irreplaceable they were put in storage and forgotten. According to the Parks Board it has been over twenty-seven years since anyone has asked to use them.
 GARTH R. MAKES HIS MOVE. |
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Not too many blocks distant from the amphitheatre, located on the main level of the Denman Street Mall, its close cousin fares a little better.
It is used occasionally, though when I was, first, there, which, grant you, was in the evening, the surrounding benches were occupied by two persons catching a few winks.
The chessmen are in the cupboard under the stairs to the West side and the key is available from the friendly staff at the Minifoto shop on the North side of the center court.
The overhead banner declares that center court is called `Community Chess Square'.
The chessboard is actually tiles in the floor of the foyer.
According to a 1994 article in the West End Times the idea was borrowed from the Park Royal Mall in West Vancouver in an attempt to bring European culture to the West End. The chessmen were hand carved under the guidance of Haida artist Clarence Mills.
The amphitheatre's more distant cousin resides across the water, on the opposite shore of the First Narrows. If one continues West on Pipeline road from the amphitheatre, gets back onto the Georgia Street Viaduct, and crosses the Lion's Gate Bridge, elder brother to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and bears West again, he will reach a split mall in the city of West Vancouver.
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In the Southern half of the Park Royal Shopping Center is a constantly busy, man sized, chessboard. If it isn't in use, though it usually is, the chessmen are available from any member of security.
As well as the playing area in the center court, there are tables on the upper level that are usually in use and, as well, towards the administration office, there is a meeting room with eight tables with chessboards. These separate areas were originally designed as smoking and non smoking, however there are no set rules amongst the players or spectators.
Actually there is one rule, no talking of stocks and bonds. Other business conversations are acceptable and in fact have led to fortunes won and lost. More than one high-rise edifice within the city is a result of architects and engineers meeting to play chess.
Originally conceived by the Ambassador from Iran some fifteen years ago, millionaires, welfare recipients, children, seniors, beginners, world class professionals, male, female, players and spectators from around the world gather about the inlaid tiles now nicknamed the TV board.
The chessmen are a hand made Stauton Set. That is to say they are built to Chess Federation dimensions. No one seems to know who made them but awhile ago when a piece was stolen it was replaced by a carpenter in Squamish.
Unloved and unwanted, too shady and damp to be used but on the sunniest of days, our little amphitheatre relaxes in the knowledge that its cousins are known and loved.
(AUTHOR'S NOTE: This article was written in 2000, in 2006 the floor tile was replaced in the Park Royal Mall. The new tiling does not include a chess board. The area is now occupied by a Rogers Wireless outlet.
In 2007 I was told of another outdoor chess set, in Oppenheimer Park.
The pieces are made from lengths of 4 X 4 lumber and are available from the caretaker at the park office.
Mark K. of Prince George came across this `man sized' chess set at the Royal Decameron Hotel, near Bucerias (Puerto Vallarta) Mexico
