Once upon a time, there was a little red hen who owned a wheat field.

“Who will help me harvest the wheat?” she asked.

“Not I,” said the dog. “I’ve never done that before.”

“Not I,” said the cow. “I’ve got way too much to do already.”

“Not I,” said the duck. “That’s not on my job description.”

So the little red hen did it herself.

“Who will help me grind the wheat into flour?” she asked.

“Not I,” said the dog. “You’re so much better at that than I am.”

“Not I,” said the cow. “There’s not enough time to show me how.”

“Not I, “ said the duck. “I would probably just mess it up.”

So the little red hen did it herself.
“Who will help me make some bread?” asked the little red hen.

“Not I,” said the dog.  “I’ve got a deadline to meet.”

“Not I,” said the cow. “I’ve got to leave right at 5:00 p.m.”

“Not I,” said the duck.  “You can’t trust me with something that important.”

So the little red hen did it herself.

When all her guests arrived that evening for the farmyard dinner party, the little red hen had nothing ready to serve except the bread.  Now, it was some fine bread – the best anyone had ever tasted – but it was disappointing as a main course nonetheless.  The little red hen had been so caught up doing everything herself that she didn’t have time to get anything else ready.

Moral of the Story:

Leaders learn how to delegate.  They involve others throughout a project for both the project’s and the team members’ good.  Good leaders challenge their performers to do more than the performers think they can, and good leaders never “chicken out” by doing the whole thing themselves.

By Andrew James Murdoch Stephen

Thank God that stupid fairy like TV fluff is over for this season….what a load of garbage that was….and I’m sure every woman and fairy are totally devastated until the next season….and talking about fairies…not that I saw the AWA show or whatever it was but I saw the so called outrage on CNN and what is the big deal?  A self professed fag kisses another guy on TV…ahhhh…what about Madonna?  what about a double standard here?  I mean come on get real!  all you did is blast his name and so called notority through the roof…man he couldn’t have paid enough for so much publicity…..God, the outrage minions and drones are so stupid….that is all I have to say….Andy from Ottawa

By Andrew James Murdoch Stephen

Ok, ok, Ottawa police department has a long standing tradition of keeping people in their employ as policemen even if they are charged with sex crimes….or, drunken driving or, assaulting their own children with weapons i.e. a belt or whatever….but it must be enough….severe enough that they get charged….but are they under paid suspension?  No…..they are still working as cops….i.e. full duties, wearing a weapon, actually two weapons, actually three weapons….that is to say, their gun, their baton, and mace….and as for the cop who was providing info to a drug big wig here in our area using our computer CPIC system (goes cross country police search on everything about everybody) if I remember correctly he is still working too….now we go back, way back, way back to 1987…I was charged for beating up a ex-boxer, one on one, who it had taken 4 of us to handcuff…but I took him one on one uncuffed…well….I was suspended, with pay, for almost 5 years….then, I was to face, even though I was acquitted criminally, a police act hearing for my job….same circumstances, same evidence, irregardless of my acquittal…..I was to face police act hearing by none other than the ex-police commissioner Dan Chilcott himself….so….chief drunk flannagan and my lawyer negotiated a golden parachute for me…thanks to my lawyer….chief drunk flannagan would have made sure if not for my lawyer that my parachute was full of holes….at the same time my case was going on another cop was charged with sex crimes that he was charged with criminally as well…well….he kept his job….i.e. no suspension, but he got to work everyday, sometimes even as a gasoline jockey at the police cruisers fuel station…but at least he got to work 10 hours a day….and when he was acquitted, for his sex crimes, he wasn’t charged under the police act….so, I guess the Ottawa brass love their criminals in their midst and hate and dispise and loath a real cop who was only doing his job and when he was acquitted (one helluva a lot of publicity over 5 years)they realized they had egg dripping off their jowls but policemen who are underworld spies….no problem….sex criminals….no problem…parental abuse with a weapon…no problem….all in a day’s work…like the vaunted vern white says (ottawa chief of police)…risk your job, to do your job….ya right vern, you piece of crap…been there, been burnt, very very p.o.’d  to this day….you have not heard the last of me yet….until I am dust in the wind…Andy from Ottawa, ex-690.

By Andrew James Murdoch Stephen

Ok, ok, shut off your nitrous oxide so you won’t be laughing as hard as this story will unfold. It is the honest to God quote from Vern White the chief of police of Ottawa…..on November 16th at some late night gathering (of whom I don’t know but it was well attended) he had the balls to stand up and address the audience concerning police and community (ahhhhh I’m an ex-cop so read on…..) police should “risk their job to do their job”….that was then reported the next day at exactly 12:05 p.m. the 17th of November on CTV and I flipped….back in 1987 I “risked MY job to do MY job” with an ex-boxer whom it took 4 of us to handcuff……and by myself when I got him into the cell block to place him in jail (he was under arrest for break and enter, hiding in his ex-girlfriends place where he had broken into and chased out his 13 year old step son whose name was Eddie, and was lying in wait in total darkened apartment to confront her and her new boyfriend) I uncuffed him, one on one, nobody else was around but the jailer four feet away with the keys…to make a long story short I beat him to the punch…..now, fast forward 3 year long trial, got acquitted….charges re-laid under the Police Act….because chief flannagan (notorious drunk, even died years later drunk falling down a flight of stairs, as his wife had 2 years earlier, exact staircase in their home, that is the truth) so, under the Police Act I was facing none other than the ex police commissioner of Ottawa, Justice Dan Chilcott…..so, by now we are looking at over 4 years of me under paid suspension, almost no doubt a million dollars for a court case that left egg dripping off the jowls of the Ottawa brass…..chief drunk flannagan and they came back to me themselves via my lawyer Arthur Cogan Esquire….and I jumped with a hell of a lot of money in my pockets…you know the old saying…better jump than be pushed….now, getting back to today…..Vern White espouses in his wisdom “cops should risk their jobs to do their jobs”….what A POISENED CHALICE TO DRINK OUT OF……ya, as if the police brass are going to stand behind a hard working cop doing his own damn job and expect even today to be protected and stood by, by the brass?  Ya right!  The only brass that stands behind their police officers are the RCMP or the QPP when they are shooting Indians to death…so anyways, I have contacted CTV, CBC, newspapers in my town, even called and left a message or two to the chief himself and the chief didn’t even have the balls to call me back….so remember from this Dear Readers….if you have a son, daughter, or even yourself are considering or are in law enforcement in Ontario, especially Ottawa, the vaunted vern white’s quote that cops should “risk their job to do their job” 16 November 2009 is nothing but drinking from a poisened chalice…they will wreak and ruin you, your good name, your good life and your good reputation….they are nothing but liars and duplicitous bullshiters……..Andy from Ottawa, former badge #690

 I stumbled on The Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood’s current exhibition “Wonderland”, where 50 Hackney printmakers have produced illustrations of fairy tales, myths and folk tales from around the world, and I like it. The website says:

Folklore, myths, legends and fairy tales are a cauldron of a culture’s deepest hopes, beliefs and anxieties symbolically expressed through storytelling and passed on through generations. The exhibiting artist’s works are loosely themed Cautionary Tales, Fantasy, Good versus Evil, Love and Friendship, Myths and Folklore and The Heroic Quest.

There’s a generous sample of the artworks on the site. Click an image below for more…

I think a commission like this is a wonderful thing and I like it when a museum or visitor place gets away from simply objects and artifacts. I remember when the Museum of Childhood was a very dry and dusty sort of place, with its giant dolls’ houses in glass cases. Now it’s a lot more hands on. Branching out into the realm of story is another great way of getting beyond the static object. And it’s got a lot of talented people re-presenting these great tales!

Jolie Rama
Sur un gradin perchée
(Gradin d’assemblée…
Gradin de stade…)
Tenait en ses mains
Bien serrées
Son maroquin.
Un gredin de Renard,
Par ce corps beau
Alléché…
(Un corps beau
À croquer !)
Lui tint à peu près ce langage :
« Que vous êtes jolie !
Vue d’en m’bas,
Que vous me semblez m’Bo !
Descends donc !
Nous danserons
Le mam’bo.
Et ton maroquin,
Pas d’chagrin,
Tu l’gard’ras,
J’en f’rai  pas
Plein de rage
Un fromage… »

Puis ainsi
Le rossard causit :
« Sans ment’rie
Si votre ramaillade
Se rapporte à votre plumaillade
Vous êtes le phénix
De mes minix
Et des hôtes
De mes champs
(Élysées).»
À ces mots
Si bien dits
(À ses maux
Pressentis),
Rama ne ressent pas de joie,
En perd même la voix
Et ferme son joli bec,
Se retient,
N’en pense pas moins
« Rien de neuf ! »
Comm’ Titeuf :
«Même pô peur ! »
« Pas si ‘rô qu’ça ! ».

Et de ses menues mains
Elle tient bien
L’maroquin
Tant elle craint
Le coquin.
(«Grand pendard !
Dit Voltaire).
Et elle pense :
« Par prudence
Mieux vaut m’taire !»
À ses mots
Devinés
Il jura,
(Mais un peu tard),
« Nom d’un pétard ! »,
Qu’on ne l’y prendrait plus.

La petite Pléyade

By Andrew James Murdoch Stephen

Ok, ok, I am still heaving over this…and I’m sure you will too when you read this….read it in the paper today…that a 38 year old piece of crap with the last name of Akuma (new Canadian?) is now charged with raping a 91 year old, bed ridden, alzheimer’s patient in her nursing home…what gives?  I cannot say any more…and I am sure that reading this neither could you especially over the internet….because they are busy chasing after good innocent guys and rarely get the real bad guys on the internet….ie. pedophilia…I won’t say any more….but give me, and I’m sure you feel the same way, a Montreal moment with Akuma….yours, Andy from Ottawa…oh and by the way, I may be half paralyzed and walk with a cane but I will throw away the cane and let my 6 feet 2 inches and 240 pounds speak for itself….I’m an excop, very very very well trained in martial arts, krav maga, and I’m a nasty SOB to boot…

By Andrew James Murdoch Stephen

Oh, oh oh, I forgot to mention last night, on my blog post that way back in 1987, the break and enter/intimidator/ex-boxer was paid and the City even admitted it to the press (Ottawa Citizen, my Police Act arbitration board hearing) but was never admitted during the criminal procedings in 1987, was the fact that exactly 10 weeks before my trial the criminal was paid $10,000 to testify against me because he had never intended to testify against me…. by none other than Paul Kane Esq and chief drunk flannagan….and that was the only way they could get him to testify against me….then, years upon years later, when I was in mediation (again…sigh) with my insurance company concerning my motorcycle accident that has left me part paralyzed, the negotiator was hand picked and the insurance company was represented by none other than Paul Kane’s Esq law firm….needless to say, I lost my insurance arbitration hearing and as my wife, myself and my best friend were standing at an elevator door the mediator had the balls to say to me directly “oh didn’t you know I sing in the Ottawa Police choir…(teeheehee or something equal effete like that) ”  …. well I guess they were trying to provoke me to rip the head off of that red headed pencil necked geek in retribution…but I just walked away….so as I said before, on my blog….reminds me of the old cowboy song…Maman don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys…well from all of my experience…I say, Maman don’t let your boys or girls grow up to be cops, especially in Ottawa, Ontario…yours, Andy from Ottawa

Today I was talking to a 10 year old boy, I was trying to explain to him the concept of discounted cash flow. I came up with a very intuitive way of explaining it using the fable of “the goose that laid golden eggs”.

Suppose you are the guy who has a goose that lays golden eggs every day. But you are not satisfied! You cannot wait for the whole thousand days to have thousand golden eggs. So what do you do? Do you kill the goose to extract all the eggs at once! Well that would be stupid, that is what the story says. So is there any other way to get rich in one day? Fortunately there is! The solution is to sell the geese today. Why? because the valuation of the geese will include the total number of eggs that it is going to lay in its whole lifetime discounted at a certain rate.

So how do you use this insight to make billion dollars in a short time. Well start a company with profits in the range of $100 millions and then sell the company. The valuation of the company will be in the range of $billion. Woah!

By Andrew James Murdoch Stephen

Ok, ok, shut off your nitrous oxide so you won’t be laughing as hard as this story will unfold. It is the honest to God quote from Vern White the chief of police of Ottawa…..on November 16th at some late night gathering (of whom I don’t know but it was well attended) he had the balls to stand up and address the audience concerning police and community (ahhhhh I’m an ex-cop so read on…..) police should “risk their job to do their job”….that was then reported the next day at exactly 12:05 p.m. the 17th of November on CTV and I flipped….back in 1987 I “risked MY job to do MY job” with an ex-boxer whom it took 4 of us to handcuff……and by myself when I got him into the cell block to place him in jail (he was under arrest for break and enter, hiding in his ex-girlfriends place where he had broken into and chased out his 13 year old step son whose name was Eddie, and was lying in wait in total darkened apartment to confront her and her new boyfriend) I uncuffed him, one on one, nobody else was around but the jailer four feet away with the keys…to make a long story short I beat him to the punch…..now, fast forward 3 year long trial, got acquitted….charges re-laid under the Police Act….because chief flannagan (notorious drunk, even died years later drunk falling down a flight of stairs, as his wife had 2 years earlier, exact staircase in their home, that is the truth) so, under the Police Act I was facing none other than the ex police commissioner of Ottawa, Justice Dan Chilcott…..so, by now we are looking at over 4 years of me under paid suspension, almost no doubt a million dollars for a court case that left egg dripping off the jowls of the Ottawa brass…..chief drunk flannagan and they came back to me themselves via my lawyer Arthur Cogan Esquire….and I jumped with a hell of a lot of money in my pockets…you know the old saying…better jump than be pushed….now, getting back to today…..Vern White espouses in his wisdom “cops should risk their jobs to do their jobs”….what A POISENED CHALICE TO DRINK OUT OF……ya, as if the police brass are going to stand behind a hard working cop doing his own damn job and expect even today to be protected and stood by, by the brass?  Ya right!  The only brass that stands behind their police officers are the RCMP or the QPP when they are shooting Indians to death…so anyways, I have contacted CTV, CBC, newspapers in my town, even called and left a message or two to the chief himself and the chief didn’t even have the balls to call me back….so remember from this Dear Readers….if you have a son, daughter, or even yourself are considering or are in law enforcement in Ontario, especially Ottawa, the vaunted vern white’s quote that cops should “risk their job to do their job” 16 November 2009 is nothing but drinking from a poisened chalice…they will wreak and ruin you, your good name, your good life and your good reputation….they are nothing but liars and duplicitous bullshiters……..Andy from Ottawa, former badge #690

Long long ago in a deep darkly wooded forrest, a young rabbit girl was on a journey to find some poison berries. This was of course, when the rabbit and wolf peoples of the earth where dominant species. On her way to a particular stretch of wood where the rare poison berries grew abundantly at that time of year, the rabbitress was spotted by a fiercely strapping and viscously cunning wolf boy, now waking from a short spell of hibernation and achingly hungry. Quiet and cautiously he stalked her on her path, drawing near and nearer to her as she trod hopingly along the forrest floor. As he stalked closer and closer he became more and more enchanted with the quirks of her merry bunny way, singing to herself quietly and jumping merrily with her fluffy bunny bottom shaking adorably behind her as she went. He prowled and stalked, closer and closer until anti-climactically he howled out rather shyly, “pardon me miss, do you know the time of day per chance?” In a sudden move to make small talk as apposed to devouring her. She looked up at the sun to check the time, confused and rather taken aback by his sudden emergence from the wood, but as she looked back to him she became entranced by the handsome lack of ferociousness in the charming look he gave her. Forgetting his question she respond timidly, “excuse me”, he then burst forth with some meaningless small talk about the great abundance and variety of mushrooms abound in the forrest that year. Before the two of them knew what had happened they had fallen madly in love, and tried desperately to conceive a child together out of the immense adoration that without warning had befallen them, being only slightly saddened by the lack of conception. Their love for each other was so grand and profound that soon all the other bunny and wolf peoples got wind of their great and epic love for each other, and began more commonly seeking out such previously unthinkable relations. Specialty establishments began popping up all over the forest, catering specifically to this new niche of singles night life. Eventually it seemed, the trend grew so common for bunny and wolf peoples to mate, despite the obvious lack of offspring, that to see a bunny with a bunny or a wolf with a wolf, was considered ultra passe and unfashionable, and as the years went by a general decline in the genetic diversity required to continue each species as such occurred, so they slowly devolved into what we now know as the common bunny and wolf. Though every now and then in the declining forests, one will see a bunny and a wolf getting on rather oddly well, and those in the know smile at the remembrance of the old wives tale about the great love between the bunny girl and the wolf boy.

It’s not every day that a game like Fable The Lost Chapters comes out. That’s why i’m blogging about it. If you’re thinking about buying it or even about watching any of the trailers, you’ve gotta check out this Fable The Lost Chapters Review first. It’s pretty funny and entertaining.

Fable The Lost Chapters

by Andrew James Murdoch Stephen

Dear Readers, I fully agree with that 65 year old sentiment…they should not have ever sent over their children during the blitz, because one of them, in my case, became my Mother….and she was, is, will always be, the nastiest, most miserable BITCH that I don’t know who ever created…yes, Britain owes not an apology to the kids of the blitz but they sure as hell owe me one helluva big apology for the nastiest, most wicked, most malicious and malevant piece of shit I have ever met in my life….and I’m 54 years old and I’ve met a helluva lot of people in my time….so Britain, you owe me some money or some military type of medal for what I put up with from your goddamned country…Andy from Ottawa…

by Andrew James Murdoch Stephen

re Hamilton man who urinated on a World War I/II Cenotaph on Rememberance Week and then to top it off spat on all the wreaths….I wish this on you my piece of shit…I wish that you were somehow in a parallel universe, sent back to an Army barracks of the Warriors fighting WWI or even WWII, it doesn’t matter…knowing what you did….you would not have lasted a Montreal moment…you unmitigated piece of shit…I hope that this never leaves your name and will forever follow you (ie. job application etc etc or that you remain living in Hamilton) and you can be sure one day, one moment, one bar, one Canadian young War Vet from Afghanistan wearing jeans and a red and blue airborne teeshirt knows who you are and sits beside you in the bar…I will say no more, I will prognosticate no more, I leave it to your and your doctor’s, and I mean one helluva lot of doctors that would have to work on you……………..imagination….I’m getting out of here, I think I’ve said enough….Andy from Ottawa

by Andrew James Murdoch Stephen

Dear Pres, ok, you want to send in thousands of more troops to Afghanistan, your predecessor left you one helluva mess in Iraq but thankfully your troops suicide rates are down in Iraq…isn’t that good?  Up here in Canada we have no idea of your total American losses in Iraq….the last I heard it was months upon months ago at 4342 so I guess you are censoring your losses there….now, moving to Afghanistan a lot of losses there too I understand….I think around 800….remarkable that the American propaganda machine never releases either of the casualty figures…so I guess it is because of the post Viet Nam demoralizing effect…but, your suicide rates are higher in Afghanistan now as compared to Iraq….now I am not for one Montreal moment insulting your intelligence by asking this….what does that tell you Pres Rush to Judgement?…..as you are oozing out of Iraq why do you not just crack the whip and get out of two ingrate nations who have no use for you, consider you the Holy Crusaders Part Deux or maybe even Part Trois…get the hell out of where you are not wanted….and spend all those hundreds of billions on your health care program for your own citizens and be the true hero we all thought and were hoping and certainly expecting that you would be….so in all respect and to close…the world held high hopes for you when you were sworn in in January to that sacred office…I myself watched it live on CNN and lit up one of my expensive Cuban cigars and drank a fine glass of Spanish red wine…..but you disappointed me Man….I don’t know what is going to happen in 2012 or whenever your next election is….I am sure the rubes and the minions let alone the intelligensia will do at that time…much love and respect to your brave Men and Women in the Armed Services…do right by them! ….as the slang goes….yours Andy from Ottawa, Canada

By Andrew James Murdoch Stephen

Ok, ok, like my title says, now let me get this right, you are going to put 5 of the top 9/11 instigators on civilian trial with all of it’s inherant rights and protected priviledges……so much for water boarding 183 times on RUK….case tossed right off the bat….then you propose to shelter and try eventually the other 200…are you guys nuts?  I tell you what, and I am a Muslim myself, but I am a good Muslim….I’ll even tell you my chosen name….Saifullah….I suggest you take the over 200 bastards, load them up on a ship and sink them in international waters…..you stand at great risk, oh America…bigger than you would even believe…it will be a non ending, unending, never to be satisfied blood oath of the zealots to wreak havoc on your nation as long as the lunatic fringe of my own faith are on your soil….woe to you USA….Andy / Saifullah from Ottawa, Canada

Having just read and enjoyed the tale of  The Chained Lion and the Unchained Lion (google translate), here’s a tale from me:

Nasrudin usually gets about, as you know, on his donkey.

Well, one day while he was at the market, his donkey disappeared.

“OK, listen to me everyone!” he shouted. “Someone has stolen my donkey. If I don’t get it back soon… then I will do what my father did when his donkey was stolen!”

People got looking and, mysteriously, anonymously, the donkey reappeared. Everyone was relieved.

Nasrudin was about to set off home again. Someone came up to him to ask a question:

“Mulla, what was it your father did when his donkey was stolen?”

“What did he do? He walked home.”

& – &- & – &- & – &- & – &- & – &- & – &- & – &- & – &- & – &- & – &- & – &- & – &- Re

Rebecca Dautremer has illustrated a book, by Odile Weulersse, that takes this tale and expands it into a great picture book, Nasreddine et son âne.

I love her colours, her lines, her sense of space…

I would love to see lots of other Nasrudin tales treated like this!

Lots of people (like serena and Babelfish) have remarked on her beautiful work, though I’m not sure how much of it is available in English.

Rebecca Dautremer also illustrated the film just out (site, bandwidth heavy,  kerity-lefilm.com). It looks beautiful and the plan is to go and see it next month.

Here’s the trailer: