The secretary's reactions on this clip are terrific. Looks like it was posted to Youtube by Alan Funt's daughter.

On a recent dog park walk, I found myself discussing the work of Ken Loach and Mike Leigh. I saw Leigh's new film, Hard Truths, on Thursday and it was as spectacular as anything he's ever done.

While walking and talking, I struggled to recall the name Nick Hedges, whose b&w work from '68 to '72 reminds me of Loach (in composition) and Leigh (in tone). Took me a few hours or googling to bring his name to mind.

More on Hedges' site. Also available in book form.

Gwen Coyne's iPhone Photography is probably better than yours. It's certainly better than mine.

More on Coyne's site.

Emily O'Leary makes dog rugs.

More on her site.

The Center for Science in the Public's Interest (CSPI) offers up a Chemical Cuisine database rates additives — used to preserve foods or affect their taste, texture, or appearance — from ‘safe' to 'avoid.'

A direct link to the ratings is here. You can make a bookmark and save it on your phone's desktop. Come across an ingredient on a package and you want to know if it's safe? Check the database.

Eno, the Gary Hustwit-directed generative documentary that I mentioned in July gets its world streaming premiere tomorrow:

This livestream event is more than just the movie, it's a 24-hour curated film, art and music experience with multiple unique versions of the documentary generated around the clock and much more.

Streaming schedule and tickets ($24) are available at Anamorph.

You may know that in the 80s, Martin Scorsese directed Robert De Niro in a movie called The King of Comedy. It's the story of a comic so desperate to get on television that he kidnaps a Carson-esque talkshow host (played by Jerry Lewis after Carson declined the role) and refuses to release him until he's given a slot on the show.

But did you know that the film's screenwriter, Paul D. Zimmerman, who wrote the script in 1973, then called The Late Show with David Letterman asking for a slot? Letterman's producers agreed as long as Zimmerman's was willing to do some stand-up. As the Lewis character says in the film, "You don't just walk onto a network television show without any experience." It goes about as well as you'd expect. Stick around until after the credits for a bonus.

Molly White's guide to editing Wikipedia covers the basics in this ~30 minute video:

White is the person behind the newsletters and sites [citation needed] and Web3IsGoingGreat.

If you have a pet you know how Vet costs have been soaring in recent years. Part of the reason is lack of competition due to consolidation. Here's CBC's Marketplace on How the corporatization of vet clinics is driving up prices across Canada.

You can also search on this page to see if your vet is owned by one of the the Big 3. (Use the search box rather than scrolling.)

Personally, I find the Vet situation in Canada to be dreadful, and I don't just mean the pricing. I had a friend take her dog to Dundas West Animal Hospital for teeth cleaning and a few hours later the dog was dead because they failed to hook him up to oxygen during the procedure. The dog died of cardiac arrest and after a months-long investigation proving their incompetence, the clinic was given a slap on the wrist. The vet still practices and there's no public record of the incident for people searching. Google even deleted the dog owner's review, presumably at the request of the clinic. They offered my friend a "maximum of three hours of grief counselling" and refunded her for the procedure that killed her perfectly healthy dog. It's a disgraceful industry with no accountability and the governing body has no teeth to make meaningful change.