NYT: From Canada, Lessons on Revolution

For the record. Cool to see Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi in New York Times. Have a read.

“From Canada, Lessons on Revolution
By CHRYSTIA FREELAND | REUTERS
CALGARY, ALBERTA — Conventional wisdom has it that the Internet is dumbing us down and making politics more partisan. Sound bites are more effective than substance. The punditocracy that shapes these truisms is, needless to say, pretty certain they apply most powerfully to people in the provinces, especially those with a history of voting for the right.

That is why the election of Naheed Nenshi, a 39-year-old former business school professor, as mayor of Calgary, is a watershed event that should be of interest far beyond Canada, where he has already become a political superstar.

When Mr. Nenshi earned his upset victory last October, the first flutter of outside enthusiasm was around the fact that an Ismaili Muslim son of South Asian immigrants who came to Canada from Tanzania had been chosen to lead the capital of Canada’s conservative heartland.

The next wave of excitement was inspired by his campaign’s sophisticated use of social media to overturn Calgary’s old-boy political establishment.

The Twitter revolutions, which we are now so familiar with thanks to the oil states of North Africa, had first hit the land of the blue-eyed sheiks thanks to clever tactics like a comic YouTube video of people struggling with the mayor’s name, or providing simple online tools for supporters to color their Facebook pages Nenshi purple.

NYT 10th Annual Year in ideas

Check out the very interesting and interactive New York Times 10th Annual Year in ideas.

Erin Bolger’s The Happy Baker – 2010 New York Times Best Cookbooks

I am excited to report Erin Bolger’s “The Happy Baker” has made the 2010 New York Times Best Cookbooks!

[...] After a while, Ms. Gold’s injunctions to cook “breathtaking” food made me want to curl up on a cinnamon bun for a nap with “The Happy Baker: A Girl’s Guide to Emotional Baking” by Erin Bolger (Harlequin, $17.95), a bright spot on the often-messy bookshelf of culinary comedy. Ms. Bolger’s tales of love, loss and caramels, matched with easy recipes, include advice on why sleeping with the gardener at a Cuban resort hotel is a good idea, and how to deal with a Valentine from Mom. She and Matt Moore, the earnest author of the self-published “Have Her Over For Dinner” (Last Resort Press, $25), might make a nice couple. Mr. Moore, a musician in Nashville, targets the young man who wants to make dinner on a date — while managing to avoid the usual Playboy-tinged prose of cookbooks “for men.”

Congrats Erin on your great job! You’ve worked hard to make this possible!

Feel free to check out my video interview with Erin “The Happy Baker” from earlier this year.