Thursday, June 26, 2008



I have what you could call the overdue library book syndrome. I know my book is overdue so I put it into a drawer and close it. With the overdue book out of my site the problem of having to return it does not exist. The problem of course exists as soon as I get that big bill for $20.

I know a man who used to live in Victoria who had a variant of this problem. His name is Mike Gluss and he is a photographer. He was teaching at University of Victoria some years ago and he would get parking tickets. There were few parking spaces and in spite of being a teacher he was not given one. Gluss kept his tickets in a drawer until one day he got a summons and a bill in the thousands of dollars. He made the pages of the Vancouver Sun because of the size of the sum. The last I heard he contested the fines but I never found out if he won. For me the library always gets it book and I pay the fines.

In my garage I have kept out of my sight a 1986 Maserati Biturbo with a transmission clunk. I got tired of spending money on it. At first I though that perhaps some day I would become rich and then I would fix it. It would be my Sunday car. The prospects of getting rich are non existent. My friend Paul Leisz asks me if I have drained the oil, etc. I just don't answer. As long as I don't see it the problem does not exist.

While walking through a Shaughnessy street I think I spotted someone else's library book syndrome. When I saw it I thought of it as a ghost. I don't ever photograph ugly things. I think this Lincoln Continental is beautiful even if it is overdue.