An occasional Newsletter from Preserved Stories.

Can the term neoliberalism be turned into a useful analytic tool?

Given my interest in how language interacts with perception, I enjoyed reading an overview, in Status Update (2013), of the history of neoliberalism. Boas and Gans-Morse (2009) In her discussion of neoliberalism in Status Update (2013), Alice E. Marwick cites a 2009 journal article by Taylor C. Boas and Jordan Gans-Morse entitled Neo liberalism: From New Liberal Philosophy to Anti-Liberal Slogan. The source is: […]

‘I love working in south Etobicoke’ – December 2013 issue of The Anglican

The following text is from the December 2013 issue of The Anglican. I assume this is a local church newsletter. I have received the text by email, from a source that in my experience is a highly reliable source of information. [Conclusion of comment from Jaan Pill; the text mentioned above follows below] December 2013 […]

Bill Rawson’s been reading a great book about Jim Coleman

I recently visited Bill Rawson, who has shared a lot of great stories with us in the past about the history of Long Branch (Toronto not New Jersey), and I was delighted to see his used furniture store, on the south side of Lake Shore Blvd. West across from the Long Branch Library, is now […]

Local Air Quality Studies: Etobicoke-Lakeshore (Wards 5 & 6) – Open House Jan. 15, 2014

Local air quality of a topic of ongoing community interest, as an earlier blog post regarding a May 2013 Toronto Environmental Alliance (TEA) presentation notes. For details about the Jan. 15, 2014 City of Toronto event, click here. The following text is from the City of Toronto link in the previous sentence. The PDF file […]

December 2013 Friends of Fort York newsletter available here in 12-pt Times New Roman

I enjoyed reading the December 2013 issue of The Fife and Drum – The Newsletter of The Friends of Fort York and Garrison Commons. You can access the PDF version of the document here: fife-and-drum-dec-2013 I found it a challenge to read the printout of the original PDF file, as the print is small. That […]

The meaning of neoliberalism has changed dramatically since its origin in interwar Germany

The story of Long Branch (Toronto not New Jersey) began about 10,000 years ago when Palaeo-Indian nomadic hunters first arrived in Southern Ontario at the end of the last Ice Age. I enjoy imagining those times, and reading about the experiences of hunter-gatherers. Imagination is at play when we picture the past, as it is […]

Narrative helps us understand Germany in the 1930s (Richard J. Evans, 2004)

In his first work in a trilogy about Nazi Germany, Richard J. Evans discusses the role of narrative in the writing of the history of Germany in the 1930s. Peter Burke, in History and Social Theory, Second Edition (2005), notes that narrative has regained prestige as a way of understanding the world. In the preface to […]

Status Update (2013) focuses on the integration of market logics into social media

Updates A Jan. 6, 2014 Public Books article is entitled “What’s so social about social media?” Excerpts from the article, which I found of interest, are included at the end of this post. A Jan. 17, 2014 New York Times article is entitled “Technology is not driving us apart after all.” A Jan. 27, 2016 […]

Weston’s mayoral chain of office goes missing – 46 years after it was last worn (Metro News, Dec. 26, 2013)

The opening paragraphs of the article read: Though it hasn’t graced the chest of a chief magistrate in close to half a century, history buffs in Weston are aghast that their former town’s mayoral chain of office is missing. The alarm was raised on Dec. 4, when staff at the neighbourhood’s library – historic in […]

Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity, and Branding in the Social Media Age (Alice E. Marwick, 2013)

Status Update (2013) addresses status and branding as it relates to social media. Alice Marwick argues in this study that the evidence indicates that with social media, things aren’t necessarily as they appear. The blurb for Status Update (2013) at the Toronto Public Library website reads: Social media technologies such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook […]