Most of them are outside of my primary beat - that is they are not a Hamilton City Hall story.

As a reader-funded journalist, I must be clear about what I cover and what readers can expect from me.

I do my best to respond to messages and pitches, usually with a polite thank you for thinking of me, unfortunately ... then a quick reason why I cannot cover the story. For first-time emails, I'll say they are welcome to keep sending me pitches - one never knows when a story idea's timing will be ideal.

A pleasant response often follows. Communications pros appreciate a response, all too often they receive no reply or acknowledgment.

One of the benefits of guest lecturing in communications programs is I learn about "the other side." This is why, especially when a pitch comes from an early career communicator or student, I try to send a personal response when declining to follow up on a pitch.

Every few months, I'll receive a response accusing me of not caring about the subject or some other expression of disappointment from a passionate advocate of whatever they pitch. Again, part of the job.

Every few weeks, a person will accuse me of harbouring some socially unacceptable or discriminatory bias as the explanation for why I do not cover their pitch. Again, just part of the job.

A New and Unusual Bias Claim

A few weeks ago, shortly after the municipal election, a person sent me an interesting pitch for a story outside of my usual beat.

I read it and thought it was interesting, but there were two reasons I did not cover it. One, I needed to take a break post-election. Two, the story will require much time and is not directly within my beat.

I did not respond to the Direct Message - again I get more correspondence than I can respond to.

This week, the person DM'd me with an accusation that maybe I am biased against them because one of their ex-relationships was with a person who shares an interest which I do.

(I'm intentionally being vague because I am not looking to shame or identify the person)

I have no idea who they are referring to. I haven't engaged in the interest for at least five years. And even if I did engage in the interest or know the person from this interest, it is a bit of a stretch to suggest this would cause me to be biased against someone's pitch.

Presently, the government lawyer is arguing that CUPE's ongoing strike is a "mid-contract" withdrawal of services.

The lawyer argues there is a collective agreement in place, albeit imposed by government legislation and not free negotiation. Thus, he argues, CUPE workers cannot conduct a "mid-contract strike."

Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Minister of Education Stephen Leece invoked our Constitution's "nuclear option", the "notwithstanding" clause in Section 33 of the Charter, to override the workers' rights and prohibit them from using the courts to seek recourse.

The government's lawyer argues the labour bargain is that workers gain benefits, such as the right to access grievance, during a contract. In return, as part of the bargain, workers cannot strike because they no longer like parts of their contract.

There are many more arguments being advanced, I'm going to discuss the historic compromise between labour and business.

Doug Ford and Stephen Leece have broken the compromise bargain by using Section 33.

They preempted a legal strike by imposing a contract.

Governments can, and regularly do, impose back-to-work legislation for various reasons.

Even when imposing back-to-work legislation, until recent years, governments did not impose final contracts - they impose arbitration.

These workers only make an average of $39,000 per year, which is not even a living wage in the GTHA.

They are seeing their wages diminished even further by inflation. The government is imposing an effective pay cut by imposing salary increases which are below the rate of inflation.

With no recourse, with their democratic rights taken away from them, Ontario's lowest-paid education workers are out on the street picketing.

"Legal" or "illegal", the workers are in the right.

Peter Greenberg was age 78.

Peter Greenberg was a great educator. He made a positive impact on thousands of students, including me - and I wasn't even a student at his school.

I first met Greenberg in February 1998 at the Hamilton East Kiwanis Boys' and Girls' Club, where I was a referee at a basketball tournament.

Mr. Greenberg [as he was to me then] was there to cheer on his Dundas District teams as the Principal of the famed Dundas middle school.

The details are vague with time, but I remember the positive impression I had of him and an enjoyable discussion. I've met hundreds (thousands) of people, my first encounter with him is one I remember.

A few months later, Greenberg and I would be at the same times on transition committees for the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board.

The forced amalgamation of the Wentworth County and old City of Hamilton school boards was unpopular. The transition committee meetings could be tense as the County and City factions fought to have the new Board adopt each of their ways.

I was 15 years of age, the only student on each of the committees I sat on, and usually had some naive idea that was different than the others.

I was a "City" person.

Greenberg was a great mentor to me during this time, and that mattered a lot to me as he was a "County" person.

He cared about the entire education system, understood the socio-economic advantages afforded to his Dundas school, and I remember always listening intently when he spoke.

While the exact details are long lost in my memory, I recall a discussion regarding access to enrichment programming for middle school students in which Greenberg spoke about the need for opportunities at Prince of Wales and Queen Mary School.

He contributed to the success of the new District School Board #21, what we know as the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board today.

Over the coming decades, I would see Peter at various community and charitable events.

I enjoyed our conversations about politics and always hoped to bump into him whenever I was in Dundas.

He made a positive impact on me in his role as an educator. He continued to be a mentor in the years which followed.

Peter's life is an example to us all. I will miss our conversations.

Another journalist asked Loomis what he thought of Premier Doug Ford's plan to give the Mayors of Toronto and Ottawa as-of-yet unspecified veto powers.

Loomis responded, "The province hasn't put forward any specifics as of yet. So it would really just be speculation," adding that he began his campaign knowing the mayor is "one vote among sixteen," and he plans to "collaborate with the fifteen people around the council table to reach consensus."

I decided to ask a more specific follow-up question.

My goal was to have Loomis elaborate upon a close-vote situation in which a mayoral city-wide priority is defeated by councillors with a feudal ward lord mindset.

This is where I failed to frame the question well.

My mind was thinking about asking a transit area-rating question because from where we stood, 870 Queenston, was on the former boundary between Hamilton and Stoney Creek.

A home on Neil Avenue valued at $500,000 pays a $581 annual transit levy on the Hamilton side, the same house beside it on the Stoney Creek side of the boundary pays $181.

Both homeowners have the same access to transit.

Thus, I asked Loomis if his plan to phase out transit area rating failed on a close 9-7 transit vote. Would he like to have the power to veto such a vote?

[Around 20:55 in this Instagram video]

Loomis gave a reasonable answer that he did not wish to speculate.

He ended with a well-humoured "thanks for trying."

How to Ask a Better Framed Question

Loomis was announcing his housing platform, he wants 50,000 additional new homes built over 10 years.

Loomis states that zoning reform is needed to achieve this, including allowing Secondary Dwelling Units as-of-right.

This is the topic I should've used for my question.

The vote framing could be better. A 9-7 defeat is simple to think of, however, a tie 8-8 vote has the same effect.

An 8-8 tie vote defeat provides more possibilities to learn the candidate's thought process.

A quick example of a possibility that "8-8" opens is the idea that a mayor, elected city-wide, should have an extra tie-breaking vote.

The goal of the follow-up was to get the candidate to open up their thought process.

By switching topics from housing to transit, I failed to follow a path of least resistance.

COVID has ruined New Years Eve, Again. The present Ontario COVID regulations require restaurants to close at 11:00 pm, indoor gatherings are limited to 10 people, and outdoor gatherings to 25 people.

With 50 percent capacity limits, the restaurants along King William were full, there is the blinking of four way lights on vehicles picking up food delivery orders for those celebrating tonight at home.

The buses are free, as they are each New Year's Eve. The 9:00 pm B-Line bus leaves Main and John empty.

The sounds of distance fireworks fill the air, whereas most years the downtown be loud with crowds of people moving between bars with their noisemakers.

Emptiness, the City Hall forecourt, where selfies be taken and decades ago the old City of Hamilton held an official midnight countdown.

The weather is perfect for celebrating, the virus means we can't.

There have been special editions of TheSpec every Boxing Day Sunday since the legalization of Boxing Day retail opening in 1996.

The ProQuest database states the last Boxing Day special edition, on Sunday, December 26, 2010, contained 68 stories. There were over 100 stories on Sunday, December 26, 2004, and the 1999 edition included 94 stories.

Since 2010, Boxing Day has declined in importance to retailers.

With just-in-time logistics and advances in inventory data methods, retailers order just enough products to match detail projections of Christmas demand. The days of overstocking before Christmas are in the past, and the need for Boxing Day to clear overstock no longer exists.

Retailers are discounting prices year-round. Black Friday, Amazon Prime Days, Cyber Monday are just some of the significant retail discount days on the calendar. Even before the pandemic, each day was increasingly focused on electronic commerce over physical retailing.

Electronic commerce relies upon targeted online marketing. Long gone are the days of special print retailing inserts.

The Boxing Day special print editions required a skeleton crew of the newspaper's production staff to work on Christmas Day.

A few journalists and at least one photographer needed to work on Christmas Day to ensure the paper had new context for the front page. Most of the content was produced in advance, with year-in-review content filling the pages between advertisements.

The profitability of the special Sunday editions made it worth the effort. Not anymore.

It is just another symptom of the financial challenges facing newspapers.

- 30 -

Addendum.

In writing this post, I needed to confirm when Boxing Day retailing became legal. To assist anyone asking similar questions in the future, here's an addendum.

It was illegal for retailers to open on Boxing Day until 1996, when the Boxing Day Shopping Act Bill 95 was enacted.

Ontario's police forces strictly enforced the prohibition. Numerous retailers defied the law over the years.

By Boxing Day 1995, many large retailers were openly defying the law. The December 27, 1995 edition of The Hamilton Spectator included numerous stories of stores opening on Boxing Day, and police issuing provincial offence notices. The 1995 story states, "Yesterday's opening by The Brick was the first time in the store's history that it opened on Boxing Day."

In May 1995, TheSpec reported on a $6,000 fine imposed by a Justice of the Peace against a sports retailer for opening on Boxing Day.

"I agree stores should be open on Sundays, but there is no rhyme or reason to be open on Boxing Day," Justice of the Peace Brian McDermott is quoted as stating. A bit of a time capsule, only three years after Sunday shopping was legalized.

(Sunday shopping was illegal in Ontario until Bill 38 passed on June 3, 1992. The Solicitor General of Ontario who moved the legislation was Hamilton Centre MPP David Christopherson.)

The story states the store reported, the "court was told the store did $3,192 in sales on Boxing Day and after costs, such as taxes and salaries, realized a net profit of $107."

In May 1996, an Ontario Provincial Court judge ruled the prohibition against Boxing Day openings unconstitutional. The lower court judge lacked the jurisdiction to overturn numerous Supreme Court of Canada rulings that government laws imposing holiday closures did not violate the Charter. The decision was 16 paragraphs long and overturned on appeals.

[R. v. Hy & Zel's Inc. 1996 CarswellOnt 1968, [1996] O.J. No. 1937, 31 W.C.B. (2d) 127, 37 C.R.R. (2d) 161, 96 C.L.L.C. 210-032.]

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice overturned the ruling in 2000. The Ontario Court of Appeal agreed in 2005 that there is no Charter Right for retailers to open on holidays. The Supreme Court of Canada denied leave to appeal in 2006, settling the issue.

Friends have delivered gifts to my porch; I enjoyed a beautiful walk on this warm Christmas Eve, had a good laugh watching tonight's local evening newscast, and am enjoying the relaxation of this restful weekend.

I sit beside a Christmas tree, my Spotify library playing in the background (radio gave me enough seasonal music already for this year), wearing a knit cardigan, and a book to finish reading sitting beside me.

I am blessed with great friends, both old and new. I am thankful for the time I've had with many of them in recent weeks.

There isn't much more to say.

For your reading pleasure, newspaper design editor Brad Needham's look at some of this year's Christmas Eve front pages.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

I am not alone.

Today, every table at Hamilton's downtown coffee shops was taken by someone working on a laptop. One person, taking up a table of four, even brought their own second monitor to a cafe.

I managed to find a seat at a cafe on the eastern edges of the downtown, ordered my usual there, and sat down to write on my tablet.

It is a beautiful change to see the cafes all busy.

I write this from the viewpoint of someone who lives downtown and remembers the how deserted the downtown was during the height of COVID.

Naturally, me being me, I was observing my surrounding and trying to get a sense of who is working at these laptops, why, what it means for the revenue of these cafes, if it is impacting the "regulars" who frequent these places, and how long the present trend may hold.  

On the who, many appear to be McMaster students, both from their clothing on also from the colour and layout of what appeared to be course websites on their screens.

Chatting with small business owners downtown recently, there is a noticable increase in the number of students during the past few weeks. This is not surprising, there are a growing number of in-person activities resuming and the physical resources of the libraries are available again.

[A few weeks ago I enjoyed my first post-COVID on-campus dinner at the University of Toronto and it was very enjoyable to sit at a table of 16 people conversing.]

The Salvation Army thrift store was busy this afternoon, with many people in thier early 20s among the shoppers.

Returning to the cafes.

Demand for workspace in cafes is pushing students further out of the core. Durand Coffee is now busy during weekday business hours with young people using laptops.

Ditto for Cafe Oranje where I ended up this afternoon.

Why is answered by the simple fact we people need the stimulation of being in different spaces. The public library continues to have limited seating, and for McMaster students space on campus is limited as well. Additionally, many of them have no in-person classes - why travel to a campus when you have no reason to be there?

What does it mean for revenue? Each cafe owner I've spoken to speaks positively about having customers again. One states their weekend revenue has returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Weekday revenues are still below pre-COVID, obviously. Until workers return to offices, the profitable morning to-go coffee sales are going to be missing. The profitable lunch business has yet to fully return, but I am noticing increase lunch sales.

The sit-in coffee and snack crowd (the demographic I am part of) help cover the overhead so long as they do not overstay their welcome and do not cause customers to go elsewhere due to a lack of open tables.

[Cafes are an interesting business, they cannot be too empty either as some people will walk past an empty cafe.]

The "regulars" do not seem to mind. As I was sitting for about 25 minutes having my tea and snack, three "regulars" came into the cafe and had to order take-out due to a lack of open seats.

Of note, two specifically stated how pleased their were to see the cafe busy again and at capacity. I've heard the same at Durand Coffee and Relay Coffee in recent weeks. I think everyone understands the urge to be out of the house, even if it is staring into a screen just the same but in a different location.

So, is this a new normal or just a short-term trend.

I submit it is a short-term trend. McMaster is resuming many in-person classes in January. Students will need to travel to campus, and will remain in West Hamilton during the day as a result. [No point travelling 30 minutes to downtown only to travel back to campus shortly thereafter]

Campus life will resume more quickly than I believe people assume. My own observations at the University of Toronto is many things are back to pre-COVID with masks being the only difference.

The students are being exposed to more of Hamilton, this is an opportunity for downtown cafes to experiment with evening hours and incentives to draw back students as their seek places for group study this evening.

Government offices are slowly planning a partial return in January. This will bring back the daytime lunch crowd, and daytime coffee meetings.

Interestingly, I am not seeing many students or people in their young 20s passing by my usual spot in the Farmers Market. I have thoughts about why that may be, which sounds like a good blog post to write while drinking coffee at Lina's in the coming days.

My colleagues brought food to my door. I remained in my room for three solid days, keeping myself hydrated. It took six weeks for me to recover. For three weeks, going up the two flights of stairs to my third floor room was exhausting. [Equivalent to four stories in modern construction]

The conversation has been had with the question "do you think it was COVID"?

My answer is, and remains a no.

I did not spread the virus, despite being in close quarters for extended periods of time with other people. COVID spreads much too easily, had I acquired it, I would have spread it.

Here's my December 2019 flu timeline.

I experienced a slight increase in my body temperature on the morning of November 30th, which subsided by 12 noon. I was travelling to Germany that day and had the temperature not subsided, I would've gone to a walk-in clinic to determine if I should still travel.

On December 2nd, I ran a midday fever and suffered nausea during lunch. I returned to the hotel, vomited, and slept the rest of the day sleeping.

For the remainder of my trip, I took over the counter medications to make it though the day. I slept in the evenings.

On December 4th, the pressures of many things resulted in a nightmare recollection of my being abused as a child - a memory I have suppressed for obvious reasons. 2:00 am and I could not fall back asleep.  The mental stress of this would deeply suppress my immune system.

December 7th, I was terribly nauseous for the entire transatlantic flight. I did have a cloth covering my head to keep out light to assist. This disruption to my sleep would further compromise my immune system.

A colleague and her family drive me from the airport to the gates of Massey College in the University of Toronto. A few people help me with my bags and getting me to my room.

December 10, I'm a bit tired this day, but it is manageable. I spend time with colleagues and many friends. None of them will develop any illness.

December 11, I wake up in terrible condition. I spend most of my day sleeping but do go to get my own meals.

December 12, 13, 14, 15. I am bedridden, trying to stay hydrated, and frequently checking my temperature. In the evening of the 13th and into the afternoon of the 14th, I grow concerned that I may need to go to an urgent care centre. I can feel my heart throbbing. I inform one of my colleagues that I may need a ride that evening. Thankfully, I feel slightly better around 7pm when my colleague delivers my dinner.

I remain in my suite on the 15th, I am exhausted but my resting heart rate is declining while still very elevated.

Monday, the 16th, I left my suite to go for breakfast and was shocked by just how fatigued I was. I had to rest after descending the steps and I walked slowly across the basement to the front of the College. Climbing the stairs to the meal hall was exhausting.  My colleagues and the students all could see I was not my usual self.

Thus would be the case for the entire week.

Still I pressed onward and tried to resume my schedule later in the week. This was made easier by the fact we were entering the Christmas shutdown.

I took longer walks. Stairs continued to be exhausting.

Saturday, the 21st, I went out for dinner. The dinner location was about 2 kilometres from the campus and I walked - thinking I was recovered.

The walk exhausted me. People at dinner noticed. Thankfully, the colleague who joined me for dinner took care of all the conversation.

It was not until mid-January that I could return to the gym, after my resting heart rate returned to normal.

In concluding it was not COVID, none of my colleagues on the trip to Germany became sick. I spent over three hours with one specific colleague - who had been on the Germany trip - on December 10. They would not become ill.

The most profound effect of the illness is it made me accept, as my retired family doctor said to me in our final appointment "you are not seventeen anymore".

This flu knocked me down and knocked sense into me.

It is why I took COVID seriously, it is why I got vaccinated as soon as I could - despite my phobia of needles, and it is why I am getting my flu shot this year.

US cable television ratings from Thursday show just how much of a powerhouse Fox News is in prime time.

What happens when someone steals the car of the Toronto Star's Chief Investigative Reporter? He writes about it. Kevin Donovan's vehicle was quickly moved to the Port of Halifax. By happenstance, the cargo container which Donovan's stolen vehicle was in was subject of a random search. The speed which his vehicle was stolen, loaded into a container, shipped by train, and was in Halifax? Two days.

In I was how many years old when I learned. Former Member of Parliament Lenore Zann was the voice of Rogue during the 1990s animated X-Men series. The series is getting rebooted with the original voice actors returning.

New York Times Adds 455,000 Subscriptions in Third Quarter - I have a subscription to the NYT. No other publication covers such a breadth of topics at such high quality.  I do wish the NYT's would expand their Canadian coverage.

Licensed to thrill: Kim Sherwood set to ‘expand the James Bond universe’ - overdue for the James Bond universe to expand. It is a great franchise. Looking forward to fun thrills in the future. From the article "to write three contemporary thrillers set in the world of James Bond but where the original 007 is missing, presumed captured or even killed."

Soaring newsprint costs make life even harder for newspapers - is this the much predicted, hasn't yet happened moment, when printed words published daily on dead trees ends?  The Economist looks at the newsprint industry and the factors which are driving newsprint prices up by 50% in Britain, 50-70% higher in Europe, 25-45% in Asia and Oceania, in North America the increase is 20-30% higher.    The pandemic is a factor, the bigger driver is that mills are switching from producing newsprint to packaging as newspapers continue their steady decline in print circulation.

Americans are watching way less cable news - "On television, between October 2020 and October 2021, according to Nielsen data, CNN was down 73 percent, to 661,00 viewers. Over the same period, MSNBC was down 56 percent, to 1.2 million viewers, and Fox News was down 53 percent, to 2.3 million viewers."

Why public media should just say no to Facebook’s money - I see a similar argument for news organizations in general. Ethics over money, what a concept.

How producers of PBS’ prime-time series got their shows back on track during COVID - interesting to read how workflows changed and how PBS maintained its photography standards during COVID.

Oregon city courting Google data centers fights to keep their water usage secret - this is a common problem, corporations seeking to hide public information from the public, and public entities agreeing to undermine transparency rules which are essential to democracy.

A couple of key points from the article for other local newspapers to keep in mind:

• Journalism matters - this paper is part of a smaller chain which is mindful of its community responsibility and continues to invest in journalism. A local paper must be local and have the resources to provide the best coverage in numerous beats.
• Frills do not matter - this paper plans to use digital to show more photos and more data. Too much of the online content offered by newspapers is just filler, thrown on the web because it is easy to put anything online. Quality matters in print, quality matters online.
• Relationships matter - this paper includes a phone number for readers to call "to learn more", it will provide sessions for people to learn how to use the new digital edition.
• The Weekend Edition is Where the Money is - weekend newspapers that are rich with features and depth can make money, a lot of money. Advertisers still look to reach mass audiences and influence decisions. The public wishes to be informed in a nice concise informative package not restricted by algorithms. The weekend print edition is the best delivery device to do this. Look at the Sunday New York Times, and increasing efforts by both The Globe and Mail and Toronto Star to make their weekend editions more relevant to this reality.
• Local weekday papers are too thin already and a day late - weekday print editions attempt to summarize the news of yesterday. The problem facing them is that readers already read the news of yesterday online or on television. Daily coverage is challenging to put into long form context, this takes a day or two. The contextualization is best done in the weekend edition. More problematic for newspaper is the thin weekday editions beg the question "why I am paying for these few pages of local news and a bunch of other stuff I already get elsewhere?"

Legacy newspaper newsrooms retain a culture of longer form journalism and have dedicated long-time staff who do the time consuming work of diving into documents, filing information requests, and have the legal and editing resources to create the stories which matter most.

This is their competitive advantage. People will pay for this. Consumers will pay the same price for a great weekend edition with digital content during the week as they do for a daily newspaper.

A great weekend paper will draw new paying subscribers. I buy the Sunday Edition of the New York Times and consider the daily content I read there a "free bonus".