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This week's donation goes to A Company of Fools, often referred to simply as The Fools. I always think of The Fool on my favourite deck of tarot cards when I think of this band of merry men and women. In pre-pandemic times, this terrific troupe would tour Ottawa neighbourhood parks throughout July and August, making Shakespeare plays (mainly comedies) accessible and enjoyable for adults and children alike. Their presentations are a wonderful summer evening activity for young and young at heart families. Economical too - admission is free, with a pass-the-hat at the end. While the format is somewhat abbreviated so that an entire play is presented in a little under 90 minutes, the great soliloquies and quotable lines are always left in. Actors play multiple roles, sometimes more or less traditionally, other times with an interesting twist, such as the year they went with a "tag-team" approach or the year that characters were represented by gardening implements.

During the pandemic, the Fools have been offering events for Long Term Care residents to the extent that Covid restrictions allowed, as well as free online educational workshops for kids:

https://fools.ca/whats-on/

And in September, they will be returning to live theatre with a four-week tour. Their original play Love from Afar is a mash-up of some of Shakespeare's "greatest hits" and I can't wait to see it!

Is mean-spiritedness an inevitable outcome of months of enforced social distancing? I'm beginning to think so. Two recent cases involving bylaw enforcement officers, one in Ottawa and the other in Toronto, have me shaking my head in disbelief at the pettiness of human nature and city hall.

Here is the first story:

https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/plot-thickens-in-old-ottawa-south-shakespeare-drama-1.5085851

A family of five in Old Ottawa South sets up a makeshift stage in their backyard and involves their kids and a few friends in rehearsing the Shakespeare play A Comedy of Errors. All necessary safety precautions are taken and opening night was scheduled for this past weekend. The audience is limited to twenty people. It promised the young people a fun and educational in-person experience, something that has been far too rare in recent months. It wasn't conceived as a profit-making venture either. It was strictly pass-the-hat, with all proceeds donated to the Ottawa Food Bank. Surely a win-win kind of venture, don't you think?

Not so fast, said the Ottawa Bylaw folks. Your backyard isn't zoned for that. Even the mayor stepped in to offer Windsor Park for the performance, but that just didn't work for them because they would have to re-build all the stage sets over there. The latest madness is that By-law want to inspect the structure in the backyard, probably so they can maintain it was never legal in the first place and justify a hefty fine of some sort.

A comedy of errors indeed. I'd like to think next year's performance might be All's Well that Ends Well, but I rather suspect it's more likely to be Much Ado About Nothing for all those poor 'ados' and their families and friends!

Moving from "ados" to elders, many folks are having to modify their housing arrangements during this pandemic, often under less than ideal conditions. Many people see granny flats and coach houses as a sensible alternative to unhealthy and overcrowded long-term care and retirement homes, at least for some. This Toronto-area father and son felt it would work well for them. The City of Toronto, however, wasted no time in nixing the idea:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-coach-houses-illegal-city-rules-1.5703790?cmp=rss

I think back to the days when I worked with my colleagues on recruiting new people. In working out what job qualifications we required, we always allocated a bit - maybe 15% or so - to the Personal Suitability factor. This generally included things like good judgement, discretion, tact, flexibility, ability to negotiate... all qualities I find to be sorely lacking in the aforementioned bylaw enforcement officers!