Did You Know...?

Did you know that the word stereotype originated with the use of the printing press in the 15th century? Printers would use an image numerous times because an image engraved on wood wasn't very precise and copper images were time consuming and required much skill; so, to be cost effective, they utilized engravings created sometimes decades before.

Do you notice anything about the Native Indian figures in these pictures, taken from the engravings of Theodore de Bry in 1590? European features, Greek musculature - these images do not reflect reality and yet they were used again and again to portray what the indigenous people in the New World looked like to those interested in Europe.

This, and many other interesting facts can be discovered at university.

Labour Day Wedding

A friend told me that, despite not having given it much thought or attention, she's determined to get married on Labour Day weekend. She listed her reasons: as a statutory holiday rounding up summer vacations, her wedding will be well attended; Labour Day symbolizes new beginnings, appropriate for her and her husband's-to-be brand new lives together.

I

I support her in all of her marital decisions, please understand. For me, however, Labour Day is perhaps the last day I would choose to commence a life of bliss with the man I love. It has always indicated an end of freedom for me as a child. In July and August my parents would pack us into the van and drive to wherever we had relatives: southern Alberta, Utah, California, Las Vegas. Simple trips, but fun. Summer holidays were to be looked forward to with anticipation, enjoyed with relish, and remembered with longing. Labour Day symbolized the immutable perseverance of school. Do any teenagers really enjoy it? I was no different. I dreaded the end of the long lazy summer afternoons I used to read under the plum tree in the back yard, a pile of pits accumulating beside me, the end of rollerblading to the lake (in Kelowna) and spending the evening floating in calm cool water as the sun set.

I

Growing up, Labour Day meant everything good was coming to an end and everything awful was about to start up again. As an adult, I feel differently. I look forward to school with a zest I used to reserve for ice cream on a hot day. The change in the seasons excites me. I've lived summer to the fullest and now I'm ready for mittened hands wrapped around steaming teas.

I

I still adamantly refuse to consider marriage on this day though. Old prejudices die hard.