shadowspar

Imagine my shock to find that GAGAGA SP, a Japanese punk band who I thought was virtually unknown in the west, now has a Youtube channel.

Their greatest hits compilation "All time best - 20 years of misunderstanding" is probably the place to start if you want to know what you're in for. 😊😂

The section of highway 17 that runs from Sault Ste Marie to Wawa often has lengthy closures due to winter weather; it may well be the most frequently closed road in the province. This post gives options to deal with these closures, depending on where you're currently at, and how badly you need to travel.

Intro

Every winter, the eastern shore of Lake Superior gets hammered by relentless snowsqualls. The prevailing westerly winds scoop up moisture as they skim across Lake Superior, and then deposit it in the form of snow upon making landfall. This continues until Lake Superior ices over, which happens in February, March, or not at all, depending on how badly climate change is kicking our ass that year.

This has unfortunate consequences for travel along Ontario Highway 17 from Sault Ste Marie to Wawa. Snowsqualls are powerful snowstorms that change quickly in intensity. You can go from a clear winter's day to near-zero visibility over the course of a few minutes or miles. What's more, the heavy snowfall makes it very difficult to navigate the steep climbs on the route, notably the Montreal River Hill. As such, this section of highway is frequently closed in the winter, sometimes for days on end.

There are a few options to deal with these closures. Which one you choose depends on where your travels take you, how comfortable you are driving isolated back roads in winter, how well those roads have been plowed and sanded, and how well equipped your vehicle is for those conditions. All of these options have their own drawbacks, so it's not possible to make a general recommendation that applies to all circumstances.

Option #1: Highway 11

If you are making a huge drive across Northern Ontario (eg Ottawa/Toronto to Thunder Bay), Option #1 is to take Highway 11 from North Bay to Nipigon. Highway 11 is less hilly, less sketchy, less exposed to the weather, and generally less exciting. However it too gets its share of winter weather, and since it's the preferred route for trucks, one jack-knifed tractor trailer can close it as well. Moreover, it can be rather out of your way if you're already in, say, Sudbury or Wawa.

Option #2: Highway 144

If your travels involve Wawa & Sudbury, Option #2 is to take Highways 101 and 144 between those two towns. This has the advantage that you're on provincial highways the entire route, which are (supposedly) monitored, plowed, salted, and sanded on a consistent basis. It's also less twisty and less hilly than most minor highways in Northern Ontario, making it one of the better detours for semi trucks. It has the downside that it lengthens your journey time by a fair amount, especially with that dog-leg up towards Foleyet and Timmins. Note also that cell phone coverage is sketchy along much of 144, and non-existent on 101 between Foleyet and Wawa, except for the outskirts of Chapleau.

Option #3: Sultan Industrial Road

Option #3, again for Wawa-Sudbury, is to take the Sultan Industrial Road. For those not familiar with it...this will be an adventure.

A brief primer on Industrial Roads: these are logging roads which the public can also use. Basically, the government decides that the route is one that the public would greatly benefit from having access to, but the costs involved don't justify building a provincial highway. So the forestry company that maintains the road gets a stipend for its upkeep, on the condition that the public be allowed to access it. Conditions of these roads varies widely; they are gravel or dirt surfaced in summer, snow packed or iced over in winter, and have even fewer road design or safety affordances than highways do. This means that steep climbs, sharp turns, narrow sections, and single-lane bridges are all to be expected. Look out especially for logging trucks -- they need to travel close to the center of the roadway, because loaded trucks can sink into the soft shoulders and get stuck or even tip over.

All that said, the Sultan Industrial Road is very well maintained by the company that operates it; in winter, it's often in better shape than the surrounding highways. However, it can be closed on short notice by washouts, bridge work, or culvert failures, so it's a very good idea to check the Sultan Road Updates Facebook Group before heading this way.

There is no cell coverage along this route from the time you leave The Watershed truck stop at Highway 144, until you reach the outskirts of Wawa, unless you take a brief detour into Chapleau halfway along.

Option #4: Chapleau Highway

Option #4 is to take Highway 129 and 101 from Thessalon to Wawa. Highway 129, while an incredibly beautiful drive, is an infamously sketchy route even in summer. Not long after it opened, a journalist who'd just travelled the length of it reportedly wrote, "A trip down the Chapleau Highway will shave ten years off any man's life." Much of the highway is actually reasonably good by Northern Ontario backroads standards, albeit with some very steep climbs that can be difficult if the road is slippery. However, the section immediately south of the Hwy 556 junction -- roughly from Rapid River to Wakomata Lake -- can be downright terrifying, and is the source of the highway's notorious reputation.

Through this section, the west side of the highway abuts the beautiful Mississagi River, at times with no guardrail protecting you from a 20-foot drop into its pristine icy waters. The east side is often flush against a rock cut, sometimes with the occasional one jutting out into the road, leaving the highway only about a lane and a half wide. Throw in some tight curves and small but steep hills, and it's easy to understand why one spot along section of highway has been called "Devil's Gap". The margin for error is small, especially in slippery conditions. A few of the more gnarly sections are signed for 20 km/h, and it's recommended to take these warnings seriously. As well, the previous notes about log trucks apply -- if you meet one, slow down and give them as much room as possible.

When travelling this route for the first time, I would strongly recommend that you do so

• during the day,
• northbound, and
• in summer.

There is no cell coverage along this route from the time you leave Wharncliffe (just north of Thessalon), until you reach the outskirts of Wawa, save for taking a brief detour into the town of Chapleau halfway along.

Option #5: Ranger Lake Road

Option #5 is to take Highways 556 and 129 from Sault Ste Marie to Chapleau, and then on to Wawa via Hwy 101. This avoids the super sketchy section of Hwy 129 mentioned above, but introduces its own fun aspect: The Ranger Lake Road.

The Ranger Lake Road is the unpaved section of Hwy 556, roughly between Searchmont and the Hwy 129 intersection. It is basically a logging road that has been adopted into the provincial highway network. The drive features sharp corners, steep climbs, sketchy road surfaces, and, during times of rain, the occasional washout. A fun surprise in winter comes when you slow down to take a tight corner, only to meet a huge hill that you need to take a run at.

It is very much worth checking the Ranger Lake Road and Highway 129 Updates Facebook Group before heading out on this road.

There is no cell coverage along this route from the time you leave the junction with Hwy 532 (to Searchmont), until you reach the outskirts of Wawa, save for taking a brief detour into the town of Chapleau halfway along.

Option #6: Travel Stateside

Finally, if you are travelling to or from Western Canada, Option #6 is to cross into the USA, travelling between Sault Ste Marie and Duluth via M-28 and/or US-2. From Duluth you might either head up towards International Falls, across Minnesota towards Pembina, or somewhere else depending on your destination.

The big caveat here is that road conditions in the US side may be no better than those in Canada. The Michigan side of Lake Superior gets snowsqualls just like the Ontario side; the only difference depends on wind direction. As well, highway maintenance in Michigan can be rather piecemeal; it seems to vary on a county-by-county basis. You definitely want to try and assess road conditions through tools like MIDrive before committing to this route.

Option #7: Stay Put and Wait It Out

This, frankly, is an underrated option. Strong winter storms that close Highway 17 may also affect the routes listed above; waiting for conditions to improve is often the safest choice. As well, if night is falling, it's a good idea to bed down somewhere safe for the night and resume travelling when daylight rolls around, rather than trying to press on in difficult weather conditions made worse by inky darkness.

Last updated: 21 Jan 2024 (note that 101/144 is probably the best backroads route for CMVs)

Friends in the USA: if you would like some Remembrance Poppies for 11 Nov (Remembrance/Veterans Day), tell me how many you'd like and your mailing address if I don't have it already. I'll make sure they get to you. ^_^

(Comments screened for your convenience; I'll unscreen any that don't contain addresses.)

Ever feel so strongly about the non-existence of a given image macro that the world just seemed out of balance until you went and made it yourself?

Yeah, uh, me neither. ^_^;;

Pro Tip™: if someone walks like a racist, talks like a racist, acts like a racist, they are, for all practical intents & purposes, a racist. You really do not need to know if they feel like a racist deep down in their heart of hearts to figure out what to do about them. This isn't rocket surgery, y'all. For a group of folks who coined the term "duck typing", we should be all over this.

To put it another geekly way: if someone does or says something racist, then follows it up with "I was just trolling, yo! I'm not really racist!" then one right response is "I voluntarily fail my Will save! I am thoroughly convinced that you are a shitbag racist, and henceforth will treat you like one! :D"

(Note: expanding on my twitter mini-screed here.)

You would think that some things are just so racist that, on encountering them, everyone—even white folks, almost to a one—would say "holy FUCK that is some racist-ass shit, what the FUCK are you even thinking?" A sort of Maximum Ignorable Racism Threshold, if you will.

Apparently you'd be wrong, because you can be the most vilified racist shitbag in recent memory and still have people going to bat for you in the mainstream media: arguing that happened to you was wrong, telling people they should "calm down" over your racist remarks.

If this supposed threshold did exist, these racist-ass shirts would never have seen the light of day. Like, seriously, just think how many people have to have been party to that production, with none of them raising sufficient hue and cry to put a stop to it.

I sorely doubt that this is much of a revelation to anyone who's not carrying around a gigantor sack of white privilege. Chalk that up to yet another example of how privilege works to hide the realities of the rest of the world from people possessed of it.

CW: Brief mention of stalking behaviours.

It seems to be that time of year again where every retail purchase you make comes with a side of "We're doing a survey!!!1 Can we please have your postal code? :D"

Of course, the store is compiling data on where their customers live, and what people who live in each place buy, so they can try to market to you more effectively (iow, more creepily).

I'm not sure everyone's aware of this, but your full postal code gives your home address to a high degree of precision. One postal code represents

• all houses on one side of one residential street for a block or so, or
• one high-volume recipient of mail, like an apartment or office building, or
• in rural areas, a single small village or hamlet.

To put this another way, if you take a look at a postal code directory, the entries in it look something like this:

   D2D 1S1:   Even numbers   38-52 Strange St    Anytown ON
   D2D 1S2:   Odd numbers    53-79 Strange St    Anytown ON
   D2D 1S3:   Even numbers   56-128 Strange St   Anytown ON

   D2D 1X5:                  1000 Charm Ct       Anytown ON

By disclosing your postal code, you're essentially disclosing your home address. Especially from a personal safety perspective, if somebody knows your postal code and what you look like, they can almost certainly find you and your residence.

Now, given how personal this snippet of information is, you might not feel comfortable giving it away. If so, you can spread some holiday cheer and test their computing systems at the same time! Just tell them your postal code is:

H0H 0H0

...which is the code for Santa Claus' workshop at the North Pole.

Just think! As the poor statistics sorters sift through mounds of boring data, their faces will no doubt brighten as they see that Jolly Old St Nick's helpers were indeed busily working their way through the stores, stocking up on goodies for the holiday season. Just Imagine the glow on executives' faces when they see in the reports before them incontrovertible evidence that Santa's elves have been hard at work all year picking up toys, toasters, and tequila for good little children to find under the tree on Christmas Day. ^_^

So my inlaws have this coffee machine.

I am just now starting to come up to speed on the Ani DiFranco / plantation retreat thing, but...

If somebody says that a given person's slaves were "probably well treated for the time", and the insidious depravity of that statement doesn't immediately thump you on the head, perhaps this quote will help put it in perspective:

The cells of the Inquisition were, as a rule, large, airy, clean and with good windows admitting the sun. They were, in those respects, far superior to the civil prisons of that day.

That from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica's article on Thomas Torquemada^{[trigger warning]}.

Further reading

• Response from Jay Smooth
• Nottoway Plantation: How to Profit from an Ugly Past

I can't even verbalize how well listening to THE BLUE HEARTS suits night like this.

A friend on twitter asked us to recommend interesting conferences, so I looked through my notes to see what I had. One event that I'd made a note to check out further was KalamazooX. The focus of the event is on "soft skills", so I was kind of surprised when I couldn't find a Code of Conduct on the site. The "What people are saying" section, on the other hand, made me raise an eyebrow:

"I've discovered @kalamazoox is a hidden gem. Today was like a braver, more profane set of dev-oriented TED talks. Lots of passion and humor."

"In a time where organizers are censoring speakers and their content, @mjeaton and @kalamazoox is a bastion of freedom. He is a luminary."

"@mjeaton @kalamazoox believes in the open exchange of ideas, however uncomfortable, and trusts humans to think, collaborate and create."

To be sure, though, I asked the organizers if they had a Code of Conduct via twitter, and got this reply:

@shadowspar We do not have a published code of conduct. Our entire conference is about communication, respect and passion.

I parse this as

We don't feel as though we need a code of conduct, because we have a "culture of respect".

1. be completely shitfaced drunk; and
2. offer me a drink by offering to give me an actual beverage that is already in your possession. (Your intentions may be completely aboveboard, but I have no idea where that drink's been or what might be in it.)

Just because I know I'll want these numbers later without having to spend 60sec to get them out of bugzilla:

• effort-minor: 409
• effort-medium: 329
• effort-major: 70
• !effort-tag: 12

Unruly beings are as unlimited as space;
They cannot possibly all be overcome.
But if I overcome thoughts of anger alone,
This will be equivalent to vanquishing all foes.
:Shantideva

Filling:

• potatoes
• cheese or cheese-like substance

Peel, cube, boil and drain potatoes.
Add cubed cheese, cheeze whiz, or what have you, while still hot, so as to melt the stuff.
Wait a bit to let the cheesy stuff melt, then mash it all together.
Add a bit of salt and a lot of black pepper. Stir well. Adjust to taste.

Dough:

• ~ 3 cups flour
• 1 egg
• ~ 1 cup water

Mix together, turn out, and knead.
Roll out fairly thin and cut into squares.
To pinch perogies, first roll up a ball of the filling then place it in the middle of a square. Fold over to form a triangle, then pinch the edges together to seal.

To cook: Boil about 5 min. They're ready when they all float to the top of the boiling water. If you like them crispy, you can then pan-fry them.

To freeze: place them on trays, with a bit of space between them, and stuff them in the freezer. Once they've frozen, you can take them off the trays and freezer bag them. (If you just bag & freeze them, they'll stick together.)

My parents & grandparents usually served these fried in butter or bacon grease, with fried onions and bacon on top, and a generous dollop of sour cream on the side. That being said, there are untold numbers of variations. This recipe's pretty easy to bend to your whims, and perogies are traditionally peasant food, besides. If you want to make perogies filled with shallots and paneer, or refried beans and salsa, or whatever, go for it! The Perogie Police will not show up with a warrant for your arrest. The Perogie Preservation Society will not picket your house. Seriously. =)