November 2012 - Arts and Letters Club

Lunch 12:00 noon
Price $19.75. Please reserve at ext. 2 (voice mail)
Tuesday, November 6
ANDREW WESTOLL
“Meet the Chimps of Fauna
Sanctuary”
Author and ex-primatologist, Mr.
Westoll spent ten weeks living and
working at the Fauna Foundation, a
retirement sanctuary for chimpanzees
rescued from a medical research lab.
Join him as he takes you deep inside
the Fauna chimp house, and
introduces you to the characters who live there.
Mr. Westoll is the national-bestselling author of The
Riverbones and The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary, which won
the 2012 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction.
Tuesday, November 13
ALLEN KORETSKy
“Troilus and Criseyde: a story in many
genres of medieval hotties”
Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde is one of
the great love stories of English literature.
Chaucer took the main character and
action from other writers, most notably
Boccaccio in his Il Filostrato, but Chaucer
gave the basic story a unique charm and
depth through his use of rhetoric and his
exploitation of the potential of several
different genres. This talk will give a brief
analysis of the literary background and context of Chaucer’s
masterpiece and try to identify the essential elements of this
long narrative poem.
ARTWORK CREDITS
Page 1: President’s caricature by Michele Alosinac (used
with permission of the artist)
Page 1: Club Masthead designed by Ray Cattell
Page 4: Camera Obscura photograph by Mercedes Espinosa
Page 6: The Seventh Annual December Show and Sale
Artwork by Rudolf Stussi
Page 7: Nuit Blanche photograph by Gordon Fulton
Page 8: Photography in Focus photo by Karolina Burghardt
Page 9: John Fraser photograph and book cover courtesy
John Fraser
Page 9: Meredith Hall photograph courtesy Meredith Hall
Page 10: Richard Stursberg photograph courtesy Richard
Stursberg
Page 10: Andrew Westoll photograph courtesy Andrew
Westoll
Page 10: Terry Reardon photograph courtesy Terry Reardon
Page 11: Beatriz Boizán photograph courtesy Beatriz Boizán
Page 11: Ad Lib logo by Andrew Sookrah
10 November 2012
WHAT’S ON IN NOVEMBER
Literary Tables
Tuesday, November 20
RiCHARD STURSBERG
“Cutting through the Static: The
Tower of Babble”
From 2004 to 2010, Mr. Stursberg
headed the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation, amid controversy, lockouts,
massive ratings successes and
some serious flops. There was no
lack of drama during his reign, but
now he sets the record straight. In
his book The Tower of Babble, the ultimate CBC insider
exposes those controversies, successes and dead-ends of his
time at the top.
Tuesday, November 27
TERRy REARDON
“Winston Churchill and
Mackenzie King:
So Similar, So Different”
Mr. Reardon’s book recounts
the dramatic collision, whose
impact is still being felt, of the
two prime ministers and their
nations at the crossroads of the
Second World War. King’s diaries (which he never intended
to be made public) reveal a growing admiration for
Churchill. In turn, Churchill opened up about his respect for
Canada’s—and King’s—role as a mediator between Britain
and the United States.
Mr. Reardon began his career in English banking, continuing
in Canada. A director of the International Churchill Society in
Canada, he is also on the editorial board of Finest Hour, the
Churchillian magazine.
Club Love by Rosemary Aubert
This month we look at one member who joined
the Club relatively recently and another who has been with
us for some time. Ashley Williamson says she has been a
member since the spring of 2004 and that her main interest
is stage. She’s contributed to many Club performance events
in her spritely and innovative manner. She says, “My
favourite item in the Club is the narwhal tusk that lives in the
Library. It was found in the North by Sir Frederick Banting
and donated to the Club by Lady Banting, who went to
medical school with my grandfather!” Doug Purdon joined
the Club in 1993. Since then his magnificent paintings have
graced the walls in nearly every show. He says, “Working as a
painter can be a solitary process and the Club allows me to
meet not only other painters but members active in other
artistic disciplines.”