I'm reviving this thread largely due to the Olympics ... and, as someone who complains bitterly about the cost of Olympics in the UK, this is perhaps ironic.

However, what's done is done.

I thought of this thread when I heard Shane Koyczan recite his poem, We are More , at the opening ceremonies in Vancouver. I know some don't like it, but I think it's great. Some lines, like "don't let your luggage define your travels", will go down in my personal book of favourite quotes.

I thought the use of traditional and folk music in the opening ceremonies was fabulous - Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, et al. There's another thread on all that, so I won't go on about it.

Big Mick, I'd be interested in knowing more about Bill Gallaher's "Shadow Boats". Would I be correct in thinking that it has something to do with rum running? (A big little business at one time in my home town on Lake Erie.) I've just been reading "Scruples of Conscience: The War of 1812 in the Sugarloaf Settlement" (by Donald G. Anger) and was a bit surprised to learn that the Americans who settled there after the American Revolution weren't upping sticks because they were 'loyal to the crown'; they were actually Quakers and Mennonites who refused to fight in the war or to pay the ensuing fines and had their lands confiscated. I found this passage about the Plumstead Cowboys interesting:

"As Quakers, Joseph Doan Sr and his five sons had for reasons of conscientious objection refused to take up arms agains the King and additionally had refused to pay the heavy fines which resulted because to do so would help congtribute to the war effort. The inevitable result had been the confiscation of their lands during the war. To the sons, this meant that their government was their enemy and the British as a result were their friends. Their 'Jesse James' style careers in thenext several years which included horse-stealing, spying and even the robbing of the Newtown Treasury building were the stuff of legend."

The Quakers and the Mennonites who relocated to that north eastern Erie shore also seemed to have run a lively trade in whisky distilling during the War of 1812.

You read; you learn!

sian