“Somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly. Birds fly over the rainbow. Why then, oh, why can’t I?”
The Wizard of Oz was first release in movie theatres on August 25th, 1939
A Brief One by Doug Draper
Posted August 28th, 2019 on Niagara At Large
My father was an usher (back in the days when film theatres had ushers) at a long gone Capitol Theatre in Welland when The Wizard of Oz was released 80 years ago this August.
Movies filmed in colour was still very much a novelty then and I remember him telling me that he would stand at the back of the packed theatre, just to hear the audience say ooh and aah when Dorothy opened the door of her old farm house to Munchkinland, and the screen turned from black and white to a radiant Technicolor.
An image of an original poster from the 1939 debut of the film
It happened at every single screening.
The Wizard of Oz went on to become a classic and one of the most loved movies of all time – a status it continues to hold to this day. And back in the 1950s and 60s, long before the days of Netflix and gadgets that played movies you could rent or buy on VHS, DVD or Blu-ray, one of the television events of the year came every October around Halloween when they one of the networks broadcast The Wizard of Oz.
In my neighbourhood, there wasn’t a person outside during those broadcasts. Everyone was home, watching Dorothy, Toto and their friends following the Yellow Brick Road.
The Wizard of Oz remains one of my favourite moves and as a journalist, I can’t even count the number of times I have cited episodes from it to comment on some of the puzzling, disturbing or just plain weird stories unfolding before my eyes.
There are countless metaphors for life in The Wizard of Oz, not to mention the wealth of quotable quotes. “A heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others,” and; “Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking” are among my favourites.
Then there is the scene near the end of the film when Toto pulls back the curtain to expose the man pretending to be the Wizard behind.
“Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking.”
“You are a very bad man,” says Dorothy to the imposter. “No, my dear. I’m a very good man – just a bad Wizard.”
How many people have you met in your life that turned out to be a poor boss, or apolitical representative or poor at whatever other lofty position they may have ascended to, yet they were a nice person. I can think of quite a few.
Then there were the Flying Monkeys that chased after Dorothy and her friends for the Wicked Witch.
We had a bunch of what I don’t mind calling creeps on Niagara’s Regional Council and in top administrative positions at the Region during the 2014-to-2018 term that I sometimes compared to those Flying Monkeys.
One of the most popular songs of all time was also in that movie – one that, believe it or not, the business suits at MGM studios (and business suits are almost always wrong when it comes to art) wanted to edit out because they thought it was a little too slow and melancholy for what they saw as a children’s film
That song was “Over the Rainbow” and thankfully, the film’s director and others involved in the art of making The Wizard of Oz stood their ground because without the song, the movie would not be the same.
In the film, Dorothy, played by Judy Garland, sings the song with her furry friend Toto looking on. I find that song going through my mind every time I lose one of my fury friends, as I have this summer with the passing of two wonderful cats, Dylan and Dexter.
In my mind at least, they are “somewhere over the rainbow.”
You can click on the screen below to hear and watch Judy Garland as Dorothy, singing that song –
For more of a bio on The Wizard of Oz, click on – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wizard_of_Oz_(1939_film)
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“A politician thinks of the next election. a leader thinks of the next generation.” – Bernie Sanders
This was the
A Brief Remembrance for a Record Lover’s Paradise by Doug Draper
A NEW REPORT REVEALS THAT CANADIANS PAY AMONG THE HIGHEST PRICES IN THE WORLD FOR CELL AND INTERNET PLANS. Telecom giants like Bell and Rogers lobby the government and block competitors to reap huge profits, all at the expense of hard working Canadians.
Now, with the public’s strong awareness and desire for change, he is urging NPCA to take a leadership role. As he said recently, “We are very aware of the ecological crisis and the damages global warming will bring if we don’t act immediately
With a federal election on the horizon in October, it’s time to make the conservation of wild species and wild spaces an election issue. 
With all of the rotten things going on around the world these days, it is heartening to have a story about an outpouring of kindness and generosity so close to home. 
Starting on Tues Sept. 3, Niagara Region Transit is expanding service on many of its routes and adding service to the Town of Pelham. 
An Invite to All from Extinction Rebellion Niagara, a group of Niagara area citizens calling for urgent action to address the climate crisis
Amen. 
QUEEN’S PARK – Students, parents, teachers, education workers and the NDP have blasted Doug Ford’s scheme to hike class sizes – and an eleventh-hour attempt to soften that bad news by the Ford government won’t save students who have already registered for gigantic classes that start in a couple weeks.
TORONTO – Doug Ford ripped up the Health and Physical Education curriculum, threatened teachers with a sex-ed snitch-line and spent $1 million on an online survey, only to release a new curriculum Wednesday that is largely unchanged from the 2015 sex-ed curriculum.
Join the Green Party of Canada’s NIAGARA GREENS FEDERAL CAMPAIGN LAUNCH. Join us Thursday, August 22th at 6:30 pm, in the Pond Inlet at Brock University in J-Block of Mackenzie Chown Building in St. Catharines, Ontario.
“I live in the (Niagara) watershed. (and) this is the worst news possible. How can we protect the green belt and its rivers and lakes when these greedy gangsters want to pave it over. It’s scary.” – a comment from one of Niagara At Large’s readers, Edila MacIlrelli, in response to news that the Ford Government has sent a letter to the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority and other Conservation Authorities across the province, directing them to “wind down” conservation activities that fall outside of whatever the province deems to be their “core mandate”.
(A Brief Foreword Note – Andrea Horwath delivered this message to Ontario’s municipal leaders, including representatives from Niagara, shortly after they learned that Ontario Premier Doug Ford will move forward this coming year with already planned provincial cuts to public health, ambulance, child day care and other municipally operated services – therefore downloading any costs for these services, should municipalities choose to keep them – on residents and businesses that pay property taxes. So much for saving people money.)
This week, GM and Volkswagen announced they’d no longer be making hybrid vehicles.
“The fact is that no species has ever had such wholesale control over everything on earth, living or dead, as we now have. That lies upon us, whether we like it or not, an awesome responsibility. In our hands now lies not only our own future, but that of all other living creatures with whom we share the earth.”
Trump should look in the mirror and ask the question; “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the biggest rapist of all?”
Telecom giants like Bell and Rogers lobby the government and block competitors to reap huge profits, all at the expense of hard working Canadians.
“We are in the midst of an unprecedented extinction crisis, yet the Trump Administration is steamrolling our most effective wildlife protection law. This Administration seems set on damaging fragile ecosystems by prioritizing industry interests over science. We intend to fight these regulatory rollbacks so that we can preserve the natural world for generations to come.” — 
If Canadians do not believe Trump’s ongoing war on our planet does not affect us, we are sorely mistaken.
“Tackling things such as gender inequality, racism, heterosexism and environmental degradation in schools would contribute to the notion that we are an interconnected community of people who need to support and help each other.” – Shauna Pomerantz, Associate Professor of Child and Youth Studies (CHYS), Brock University 
High water levels continue to impact other parts of Lakeside Park. The east Port Dalhousie pier and the Lakeside Park Beach remain temporarily closed to the public until further notice for safety reasons. 
“And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.” – from one of the very last songs The Beatles ever recorded together as a group, and from one of the very last tracks on one of the group’s finest albums, Abbey Road 
Climate change, scientists tell us, is quite a bit about the frequency and intensity of storms. So here we are again.
There once was a time when that I well remember as an environment reporter in this region that people in Ontario pointed accusing fingers across to the Niagara River to polluters on the New York side, and to government bodies in New York State that didn’t seem to be doing enough to keep those polluters from poisoning the water, fish and air that people on both sides of the border drank, ate and breathed.
Following public consultation and approval from both regional and municipal councils, an updated Smoke and Vape-Free Outdoor Spaces Bylaw is now in effect for the Niagara region.
I am writing to request that your Ministry conduct a review into the planned closure next year of the Hamilton Forensics Pathology Unit. I have heard from constituents in my riding that the unit’s closure will have a devastating impact on families dealing with the loss of a loved one who require an autopsy.
In her words above, Toni Morrison might just have well have included the use of terms like “fake news” and “enemies of the people” and another strategy for assaulting writers and their work. And those two terms, the second of which has origins at least going back to the deadly purges of Soviet strongman Joseph Stalin, are not just the stuff of Trump.
“We should soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalizes racist sentiments; leaders who demonize those who don’t look like us, or suggest that other people, including immigrants, threaten our way of life, or refer to other people as sub-human, or imply that America belongs to just one certain type of people.” – former U.S. President Barack Obama, in a statement he issued after a shooter poisoned with the same kind of white-supremacist hate Trump gins up at his rallies, murdered 22 people at a shopping mall in El Paso, Texas
I wasn’t planning to post something so soon on this again on a site where most of our focus should go to news and commentary on issues of interest and concern to our region of the world.
A Call-Out for Assistance from Brock University’s Biological Sciences Department 
“You’re telling people, don’t drink the water. Don’t even touch it,” said John C.
(A Brief Foreword Note from Niagara At Large reporter and publisher Doug Draper – At a time of climate emergency this announcement from our New York neighbours is great news for all of us. Hydro power, while one of the oldest sources of energy), is still one of the cleanest and greenest, not to mention one of the safest, energy sources around.
The Ontario Health Coalition released a major new research report earlier this year revealing that resident-on-resident homicide rates are higher in Ontario’s long-term care homes than in any major cities in the province and that staff accident and injury rates are the highest of any sector in our economy.
The Coalition, which has advocated for improved access to care and improved regulated levels of care, released the following briefing note in response to the Inquiry’s report:
I was surprised myself when researching my paper—Unaccommodating: The Rental Wage in Canada
St. Catharines, Ontario – The City of St. Catharines celebrated Emancipation Day on Thursday, August 1, 2019 at noon by raising the pan-African flag at City Hall downtown. 
Niagara At Large 