Note: Transcripts may contain errors. If you wish to re-use all, or part of, a transcript, please contact CBC for permission. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print. Copyright © CBC 2019

The AIH Transcript for August 6, 2019

Hosts: Piya Chattopadhyay and Chris Howden

Prologue

PIYA CHATTOPADHYAY: Hello, I'm Piya Chattopadhyay, sitting in for Carol Off.

CHRIS HOWDEN: Good evening. I'm Chris Howden. This is As It Happens.

[Music: Theme]

CH: Tonight...

PC: Under the gun. After the killings in Dayton, Ohio, and facing pressure from voters, the governor of the state announces new gun control measures -- but a state senator says getting those measures passed will be close to impossible.

CH: A city orphaned. The mayor of Mogadishu dies after a terrorist bombing at his office -- and an advisor tells us she hasn't just lost a friend, she's losing hope for the future of the city.

PC: Making history by remaking it. The late Toni Morrison wrote stories that hadn't been told in a voice no one had ever heard before -- and tonight a long-time friend and collaborator shares her own stories of the person behind the brilliant words.

CH: Watched pot boils over. A BC woman opens her home to a local garden tour only to have it raided later by police because she had three cannabis plants which is legal but they were visible from a public place which weirdly is not.

PC: Straight to the pointiness. An unwelcome summer tradition begins again in Germany as people are kept awake by their loud, lustful neighbours -- who can't be reasoned with because they are hedgehogs.

CH: And for one thing, it doesn't say "I love you guys!" But a new artificial tongue isn't just silent after a lot of whiskey, it's also much more accurate at tasting whiskey than the gross sloppy tongues we store in our dumb human mouths. As It Happens. The Tuesday Edition. Radio that knows when it's licked.

[Music: Theme]

Part 1: Toni Morrison achieved her 'extraordinary ambition' to write for everyone, says friend

Dayton shooting: Ohio senator

Guest: Cecil Thomas

CH: Today, more survivors of the massacre at an El Paso, Texas Wal-Mart are telling their stories. Octavio Lizarde was inside the store on Saturday morning when the shooting broke out. He was shot in the foot. His 15-year-old nephew was shot and killed. Here's part of what Mr. Lizarde said at a hospital press conference today.

SOUNDCLIP

OCTAVIO LIZARDE: I heard the gunshots when me and my nephew were in line to open a bank account. We saw people running. And I grabbed him by the hand and I was like "oh crap." So I grabbed him and shots were fired so I took him to the back of the room, the bank. Well everything happened -- while I was trying to crawl back to where he was hiding. He shot my foot. And like I said he could have easily shot me. But he didn't.

CH: Meanwhile the city of Dayton, Ohio is dealing with the aftermath of its own weekend mass shooting. Nine people were killed when a gunman opened fire in a downtown neighbourhood on Sunday. At a vigil for the victims, Republican Governor Mike DeWine was interrupted by calls from the crowd who demanded he do something. Today Governor DeWine said he got the message. He announced 17 new gun related measures. Here he is explaining one of the proposals.

SOUNDCLIP

MIKE DEWINE: Today I'm asking the legislature to pass a law to allow courts to issue safety protection orders. These orders which would be grand upon clear and convincing evidence would allow the removal of firearms from potentially dangerous individuals and get them the mental health treatment that they need. Get them whatever help that they need.

CH: Cecil Thomas is a Democratic Ohio State Senator who has tried to introduce a number of new gun laws in the state. We reached him in Columbus.

PC: Senator Thomas, Governor DeWine says he has finally heard the call to do something about gun violence. Why do you think your Republican governor is finally listening now?

CECIL THOMAS: I think it's not so much the Republican governor finally listening. I go back to when Governor Kasich tried very hard to get some gun legislation passed which was a red flag law. He and I work together to try to push that through. However the General Assembly -- the majority in the General Assembly -- failed to move this issue forward. I suspect there will be the same rhetoric that occurred the last time. The governor is powerless unless the General Assembly agrees. And based on some of the other items that are added to the bill, I don't foresee the bill moving forward.

PC: And so just a few days after many people in your state were gunned down in a mass shooting and you said look I don't expect anything to happen this time either. Where does that leave you?

CT: It leaves me frustrated. When I heard the news it was like a dagger in my heart simply because of the amount of work I put in to try to get what would be considered common sense gun legislation to minimize the potential of these kinds of things happening.

PC: So talk to me about some of these common sense measures that you have introduced politically. What are some of them that you've suggested?

CT: Well obviously I suggested universal background checks. Even my colleagues on the other side of the aisle I thought that they would be reasonable when nearly 80 to 90 percent of the people that live in Ohio agreed to universal background checks. We also talked about closing gun show loopholes. It makes no sense that an individual can come into a gun show, purchase from a private seller -- and there's no background check. There's nothing. That makes no sense.

PC: You know I had a quick look at an article that listed gun bills pending at the Ohio State House. I think there's at least 10 or 11 in there -- some in the Senate and some in the House. And each one is stuck in some sort of committee. In other words there have been no legal changes in your state as it pertains to gun laws.

CT: And see the state of Ohio has been under one party rule since 2011. They have been in control. And just a simple vote to pass common sense gun legislation could be very simple if they were serious about taking on this issue and not so afraid of their constituents who are gun lobbyists and who are NRA supporters and all of this stuff.

PC: Your governor said he's going to introduce measures like safety protection orders and increased background checks. How much difference do you think measures like that would actually make in preventing mass shootings like the one we saw in Dayton this weekend?

CT: This young man had a contact with law enforcement and there were concerns by members of his school. Even the administration of the school had to remove him from school because of the kinds of threats that he was making. Had we had a red flag law in place, yes maybe -- once he went to purchase that weapon it would have shown up in a thorough background check investigation. So my point is that it may not stop the situation but it doggone sure would give us an opportunity to possibly stop that situation.

PC: And just so I understand this correctly I understand that a red flag law in your country is a prevention law -- it allows police or family members to go to court and say look the firearm should be taken away from them. Is that what a red flag law essentially is?

CT: Essentially it takes the gun away from the individual. It allows to temporarily remove him from access to that firearm while there's additional evaluation being addressed.

PC: The accused shooter in Dayton was able to arm himself with a high capacity rifle with a 100 round magazine and fired 41 shots in less than 30 seconds. This is a semiautomatic weapon. How is anyone able to get their hands on that kind of firepower?

CT: Being able to order that type of weaponry -- which is basically a weapon of war -- being able to order it over the Internet, have it delivered to a gun store, then go and pick that gun up -- why would we want that type of weapon in the hands of folks on our streets? So what does it mean to say the 'right to bear arms' -- if someone needs a handgun to protect themselves in their home, nothing wrong with that. If they want to have a gun for recreational purposes, that's fine. But, do we want weapons of war for someone who's just enthusiastic about weapons? That makes no sense.

PC: President Trump is set to visit Dayton tomorrow. Is he welcome in Ohio?

CT: I have to be polite. I would hope that he would come bringing the common sense thoughts. But if he's going to come and give his condolences and giving them lip service to how we need to fix our laws, I've got problems with that. My heart still hurts when I think of just possibly this could have been avoided had we immediately put in place things that will allow for early warning signs, give family members some tools that they can use to provide law enforcement -- community -- some assistance, give these laws to a psychiatrist so they would have some tools to help out here. We need to bring all these folks to the table and say how can we do this so that we can make it as difficult as possible for individuals to get their hands on these type of weapons.

PC: Senator Thomas thank you for making time for us today. I do appreciate it.

CT: Thank you. You have a good day.

CH: Cecil Thomas is a Democratic Ohio State Senator. We reached him in Columbus.

[Music]

Toni Morrison obit

Guest: Claudia Brodsky

CH: In 1993, Toni Morrison became the first black woman to win a Nobel Prize. In her acceptance lecture she said, quote, "We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives." Toni Morrison died yesterday in New York City. She was 88-years-old. But if language is the measure of a life, she'll be immortal. In 2015, the author of "Beloved" "Song of Solomon" and "Jazz" spoke with Carol on this program. She just published the novel "God Help the Child." During their conversation Carol asked if she identified as an African-American writer or an American writer.

SOUNDCLIP

TONI MORRISON: Well it has to be both. You know it's like -- I don't know. Tolstoy was a Russian writer and he was a world writer. And you know I don't know why you can't be both things. I think of myself -- well obviously I think of myself as somebody named Chloe Wofford. But out in the world you know I relate fundamentally as an African-American female. And what is hanging over that or sheltering that -- feeding that -- is the art. That's what I am...a writer.

CH: Pulitzer Prize winner, Nobel laureate, and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Toni Morrison speaking with Carol on As It Happens in 2015. From 1989 until her retirement in 2006, Toni Morrison taught at Princeton University where she met her long-time friend, colleague, and collaborator Claudia Brodsky. We reached Professor Brodsky today in Paris, France.

PC: Claudia Brodsky let me first say I'm sorry about the passing of your friend Toni Morrison.

CLAUDIA BRODSKY: Thank you. I appreciate that.

PC: When did you first meet each other?

CB: Well it was back when Tony was first about to be employed by Princeton University where I had also just been employed. And I was in the audience of her kind of inaugural lecture. And by some extraordinarily fortuitous gesture I was invited to this very small dinner with her after that lecture. And from that moment on, it is fair to say that we were friends. We both shared the same belief in the power of language to reach people.

PC: And many people remarking on Toni Morrison's career as a writer today. But as you said "We were friends." What was Toni Morrison like as a friend?

CB: Well every milestone and every difficult moment that I went through, she was there for. And I'll give you one example. I was an expectant mother of a second child more or less at wit's end and I was searching desperately for a name for my child. And she said, "Okay Claudia calm down. Just call her Chloe. I'm giving you that. It will suit her perfectly. Take that as my gift to you." Now that just simply epitomized her understanding of the gift that language is.

PC: That's not just a name she picked out of the air, right? That was her name as a young child.

CB: Yes.

PC: And did you name your child Chloe?

CB: I subsequently did. I mean it was a perfect name. And she understood what she was doing when she gave it to me. It was like I'm giving you this. That's my gift to you. Take it and stop worrying. [Laughs] And you know she often did that -- just like "Enough Claudia! Stop worrying. Do the following." And that was one problem that she solved for me immediately.

PC: Now as far as friendship goes the most meaningful ones of course are give and take. And so we've been talking about some of the wonderful memories and things Toni Morrison did for you. But you also reciprocated in many ways I'm sure and one of the ways is when you worked alongside her for many years at Princeton you edited some of her work and I'm so curious to know what does an early Toni Morrison first draft actually look like?

CB: Well I certainly wouldn't say that I edited it. But I will say this for a writer like Toni who wants to know specifically how words land, how specific turns of phrase are received, for her to always send me her drafts of manuscripts was an honor to me but also something that I knew she would take seriously. She would listen to what I had to say. She wanted a reception of her manuscripts from someone she knew also believed that the precision of language really counted and I was more than thrilled to provide her with responses. But I never edited it. I would never say I edited it.

PC: You were an early reader.

CB: Yes we shared that as well and I was glad to give her -- more than glad -- to give her my responses. Those were some pretty wonderful moments.

PC: Undoubtedly Toni Morrison was a mega force. She's often celebrated for her writing about the black experience and there has been -- long been -- a conversation about who she is writing for. What is your sense of who she hoped would read her work? Who was she writing for?

CB: She was writing for everyone. She was writing for women she was writing for men. She was writing for African-American people. She was writing for all people not African-American. That was her extraordinary ambition and I think that we can say she achieved it. And she knew she would only achieve it based on her use of language and her ability to imagine what the experience of actual factual data was like. She took great pride in the fact that she had researched every detail of her works and that her contribution was to add experience to those facts and those experience she always hoped would be available (and) accessible to everyone. She wanted to be -- and I think she achieved the status of being -- canonical in the very best sense of the word.

PC: Today you know those of us who didn't know Toni Morrison -- (knew her) only through her works are thinking of passages that she wrote, thinking of the books we want to revisit or read for the first time. And I'm sure you're thinking about all of that too. But I'm also wondering as someone who is a dear friend to Toni Morrison what are you going to miss most about her?

CB: The perfect interlocutor. Someone who understood that when I read what she wrote or spoke to her I would know she meant what she said and vice versa. Someone who believed that communication without screens was possible. When I last met with Toni it was quote unquote old times. That is to say she was alert to everything that was going on. And I'm going to say this one kind of wonderful thing which was that she was more optimistic than I was about the outlook for the nation. It was extraordinary to me. I mean she looked at me as if I was just someone immature enough when I expressed my dismay. She said, "Oh come on Claudia. We've been here before." And that again was something quite extraordinary about having her as a friend...the perspective that she provided.

PC: Ms. Brodsky thank you for sharing a bit about your friend Toni Morrison with us today. I really do appreciate it.

CB: My pleasure. Thank you.

CH: We reached Professor Claudia Brodsky in Paris. Yesterday her friend the Nobel Prize winning author Toni Morrison died at the age of 88.

[Music]

RCMP pot search

Guest: Anna Minten

CH: Anna Minten runs a wellness collective in Revelstoke, BC. She dabbles in gardening and she considers herself a law abiding citizen. And she was. Until she opened her home for the city's annual Garden and Art Tour -- where her three legally allowed pot plants were on display. A generous, community-minded gesture that ended with a visit from the RCMP. We reached Anna Minten in Revelstoke.

PC: Ms. Minten so you were getting home from dinner on Friday night. When did you realize that something was up at your house?

ANNA MINTEN: As we were approaching the house we noticed all the lights were on which is not something we do and that my dog was tied up outside which we were putting inside because there was cougar sightings.

PC: And so when you pulled up to your house and noticed the lights were on and the dog was outside then what did you do?

AM: Well we didn't really think anything of it. We walked past our tenants and they were like, "Are you guys okay?" And we're like "Yeah -- we are fine." You know like completely clueless as to what had just gone down. And then when we entered our house -- right as we entered our house -- they had put a search warrant on a stool in front -- as we entered. Then I grabbed it and went and asked our tenant. I was like what just happened? You know they were like yeah we don't know -- when we got here we thought you know like maybe -- you know our first question to cops was like "Are you here about the cougar?" And they were like, "No. We have a search warrant." And they said one cop kept them away from them basically searching through the house and that there was three cruisers and five cops.

PC: You had been growing three pot plants which you were allowed to do like every other Canadian under the law in our country. What happened to your pot plant?

AM: On Sunday July 28th, my husband and I opened up our garden for a local fund raiser for the local food initiative. And from what we understand our local RCMP officer saw our three plants and found that grounds to open up search warrant because we crossed section 56-G on the cannabis act of having plants in public.

PC: 56-G says you are not allowed to have pot plants on public display?

AM: Something like that yeah.

PC: And that's what the search warrant that you found taped to a stool or on the stool when you walked in your front door after going out for dinner -- that's what the RCMP had left to say why they had entered your house and searched it.

AM: Why they had grounds for the search warrant was yes because we had plants in public. Yes.

PC: And so when you got all those pieces kind of together in your own head how did you feel when you realized your entire home had been searched by police because of three pot plants that you have which are legal which you broke the law by putting them on some sort of display for the public?

AM: I was heartbroken. I was incredibly heartbroken. I felt invaded. I felt betrayed by my local RCMP. My house feels tainted. You know like it's a really weird feeling to be completely honest.

PC: And this all goes back to the Garden and Art Tour you hosted in your house so the implication as I understand is that by opening up your home meant you violated the law by putting the pot plants on display. Is that your understanding of it?

AM: That's what I'm believing I still haven't heard from the RCMP so I don't fully know their side of the story still. But from you know like I said the pieces put together when I announced to the rest of the art and garden tour members that this had happened a few them spoke up and said whose name was on the warrant and they said we know as a fact he was present at the tour. Now we're fearful we're next because I was not the only person to have cannabis plants in my garden.

PC: So the law states that you aren't allowed to grow nonmedical cannabis that is visible from a public space. So that would include people on a garden tour?

AM: That's where the fuzzy line is drawn I guess and that's what I'm hoping to get clarity on and so is my community and I think many other British Columbians that are freaking out that they thought this was legal such as I.

PC: You said that you haven't spoken with the RCMP as of yet. Have you reached out to them?

AM: To be honest I don't really want to talk to them. They've hurt me and they could have come and talk to me right at the get go so I've left it for my lawyer and the media to deal with it.

PC: Even if what you did is technically against the law, what do you think about the use of police resources and time put into investigating what happened on this garden tour or the three pot health plans that you've had in your home?

AM: I don't think RCMP in whole are necessarily bad people but I do think that their actions were unjust. They could have very easily just come and communicated with me to let me know that I had drawn the line. So I'm very disappointed with the waste of resources, and a simple profile check probably could help them out a bit.

PC: Now that your three pot plants are gone, are you planning to grow more plants?

AM: Once I better understand the laws because it looks like there's lots of fuzzy gray areas, yes I'd love to. I think cannabis is a beautiful medicine. I'm grateful that it did become legal. I think it's a harmless plant.

PC: Cannabis has been legal in Canada not even a year now. What do you think what happened to you -- what do you want to say to other Canadians who maybe growing their three pot plants in their home and having a garden tour or whatnot?

AM: I guess to be more cautious that these laws aren't as exciting and pretty as they seem. That they've put a lot of red tape around it and to be very aware of their actions and that the RCMP seem to be serious about theirs as well enforcing what they can. For me I thought I was following the law and I guess I wasn't. So to not get the same rude awakening that I was granted.

PC: Ms. Minten please keep us informed what your discussions with the RCMP are and what they tell you about why they came into your home and took away your pot plants. Thank you.

AM: You're very welcome. I will keep you guys informed. Thank you for sharing my story.

CH: We reached Anna Minten in Revelstoke, BC. We reached out to the RCMP but did not hear back by air time. And you can see pictures of Ms. Minten's pot plants on our website: cbc.ca/aih.

[Music]

Part 2: This Canadian woman was with Mogadishu's mayor hours before attack that killed him

Mogadishu mayor killed

Guest: Hodan Ali

CH: Abdirahman Omar Osman fled war-torn Somalia in the early 90s. But after spending years in the UK, he returned to Mogadishu with a vision for a city free of violence. Last Thursday Mr. Osman -- the mayor of Mogadishu -- died after he was injured in an attack at his office on July 24th. Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility. Hodan Ali is a Somali-Canadian nurse practitioner who left her family in Ontario and moved to Mogadishu three years ago. She was both a friend and an advisor to Mayor Osman. She was at his office just hours before the bomb went off. We reached Hodan Ali in Mogadishu.

PC: Ms. Ali how did you learn about the attack?

HODAN ALI: I had just arrived at a place where I was having coffee and some snack, just finished the meeting, and a friend of mine who was sitting next to me said the municipality has been bombed and the mayor is injured. I was like "What?! That's not possible. I just came from there." And I tried to make some calls trying to sort of confirm. I was unable to get through to anyone because some of the phones were busy and others were just ringing and not being picked up. As I tried to frantically call every phone number I can remember more information was being passed through the friend who was with me through social media and the like. And unfortunately what I had feared the most was true -- an internal attack on the municipality severely injuring the mayor and killing several colleagues.

PC: I'm sorry.

HA: It's very difficult.

PC: Now you said you had just come from there. How close of a call was this for you?

HA: Extremely close. We had just spent the entire morning and early afternoon conducting a meeting with the new secretary general representative to Somalia -- Mr. James Swan made a courtesy call to the municipality and the mayor and I really spent about two hours with him that morning. He left about 11:30-ish. And then after that I had done some more work in the office and decided to leave 2 p.m. after the mayor had just left. And after that meeting is when I had gone to the coffee shop that I mentioned and that's where I learned of the tragedy.

PC: What do you know about the attacker?

HA: She was I mean by all accounts not a suspect to anyone. A blind young woman, extremely articulate, intelligent young woman who was a passionate advocate for those disabled. And her office was next to mine. The mayor appointed her as a director for disability in the region. By all accounts this was not someone that you ever expect to commit such atrocity. And I think this is another part why this attack is much scarier than all the others and it puts our security at a much bigger concern.

PC: Given what you've just said, why do you think she may have done this?

HA: I don't think there's any way of comprehending it but from what I've seen and what I do see are youth who've been brainwashed into thinking what they're doing is somehow religiously viable and that they are killing in the name of Islam but truly is the most un-Islamic act to take the life of an innocent human being. There's many layers to why young people join these extremist elements in particularly post-conflict, very fragile, and economically disadvantaged youth. Particularly she's of someone with disability -- she probably faced a lot more challenges. But it also speaks to the fact that we're not doing enough to gain back the trust and the confidence of the youth and they are able to fall prey to ideologies that are such against humanity and I think for her to sort of take her own life and take the lives of 10 other people is something fundamentally a challenge that this country faces -- I mean in other places not just particular to this country.

PC: Tell me about Mayor Osman -- what was he like and what does the death of him mean for Mogadishu and Somalia?

HA: Mayor Osman also known as Engineer Yarisow. He was you know the youngest in his engineering class, and the term "yarisow" indicates sort of someone of small petite figure but also an age much younger than his classmates. He was a true patriot -- very dedicated to this country, came back from the diaspora as well. He lived in the UK, raising a family, chose to come back to Somalia to be part of the rebuilding. An amazing human being, compassionate, patient, very humble, but really invested in seeing Somalia beat this evil of terror. In terms of for the city, it's a great loss. I think Mogadishans feel orphaned today. He had a dream, a vision of making this city great again. He used to reminisce every time that we had visitors come to the municipality he would always open you know. Mogadishu was known as the Riviera of Africa where you know European tourists would prefer to vacation. So that really what he hung onto in terms of memory from his youth and he wanted to bring Mogadishu to that point in further. And that's how he lived every day in terms of how he governed.

PC: You mentioned that he had moved abroad and come back to help improve life in Somalia and so have you and so many other Somalis who've left your home country and gone abroad and have gone back. Why has it been so important for you to move to Somalia?

HA: I think like many others who left and have come back there's a sense of duty, a sense of honor in wanting to come back and contribute to improve the conditions of millions whichever little small contribution we can all make. As you know recently we also lost a Canadian journalist Hodan Nalayeh who chose to come back, who was a good friend of mine. I think there's a calling for some of us who have been blessed to either live in Canada or in the United Kingdom and benefit from that privilege of being a Canadian or a Brit with all the education and all that life has given us the opportunity and want to share that and contribute that to the resurgence of Somalia you know to make it a place where all of us in the end if we wanted to come back permanently can live. And I think Mayor Yarisow really was passionate about that. He always talked about wanting his children to return to a safer more habitable Somalia.

PC: How fearful are you for your life? You've lost two good friends in the last month. We spoke to you back in 2017 after another attack in Somalia left 600 people dead. We know that Somalia has great things but it can be quite a dangerous place and I am wondering if you're thinking about leaving and how fearful you are for your life?

HA: Yes I remember 2017 -- we have connected over the biggest tragedy that this country has faced you know in terms of loss...that was huge. But what happened on July 24th probably has a bit more impact and it is more painful because it hits so close -- being there for a couple hours but also in the heart of the municipality with all kinds of layers of security breached and the mayor being killed among other nine. How scared I am? I think this one has really resonated a lot more than any other attacks that have happened in the city. Am I scared? Absolutely. Am I considering to leave? Yes. Haven't made that final choice yet but that is something very real. I have a family. They constantly have been on the phone asking me to leave -- at minimum take a break. You know we all come back knowing Mogadishu is a dangerous place. But this attack is different from all the other -- and the place where we felt most secure has been violated. And I think that is probably the biggest tragedy that we have right now.

PC: Ms. Ali as you said you have three children who live in the West. You are Canadian. And you said I'm mulling over whether to stay in Somalia or whether to leave. How do you even make that decision?

HA: It's not an easy decision. Like I said you know three kids, husband, mom, sisters, friends who are desperately worried about me and I absolutely understand that. And then there's also the part of me that's been here for such a long time that sees the need not to leave because if people like me leave...it just leaves you know that space for others to fill in that vacuum. And we lose the bigger picture. And I think sacrifices sometimes are made for a greater purpose. Not that I'm wanting to sacrifice my life but I'm saying in terms of why I still keep coming back to it...this is home. I have a home in Canada and I love what Canada has given me and that's a big part of me. But there's also that sense of duty that you know if all of us who are in a place -- in a capacity -- to have effect don't come back or leave because it's more safer and convenient I think that would plunge this country into a deeper hole than it is. So it's a struggle. It's not something light or easy. Either way, if I go it's not easy and if I stay it's not easy. So it really is a huge challenge.

PC: Well Ms. Ali please stay safe and thank you for talking with me today. I do appreciate you making the time and I'm sorry again for the loss of your friend.

HA: Thank you Piya. Take care.

CH: Hodan Ali is a Somali-Canadian nurse practitioner who was friends with the late mayor of Mogadishu, Abdirahman Omar Osman. We reached her in Mogadishu. And there's more on this story on our website: cbc.ca/aih.

[Music]

Drive-In Talkback

CH: Paul Peterson is urging movie-goers that his drive-in theater to put safety first. Mr. Peterson owns the Mustang Drive-In near Bloomfield, Ontario. And last week, we spoke with him after a four month old infant was killed by a car at a drive-in theater in Quebec -- the Cine-Parc Boucherville, on Montreal's south shore. After that interview, one listener called Talkback, to share the steps her local drive-in takes to try to keep movie-goers safe.

SOUNDCLIP

FAYE WILLIAMS: Hi my name is Faye Williams. I'm calling from Prince Edward Island. My comment was: In Prince Edward Island we still have an amazing drive-in and what I find extremely helpful is at the beginning they actually show a video saying all the do's and don'ts of the drive-in. It's very short and to the point. And one of the things that actually shows on the video is a vehicle backing up and running over a teddy bear. And it just kind of makes you really really see how easy it could happen. Another thing they have is a huge grassed area at the front of the drive-in -- and right in front of the screen -- where there's already seats there, there's plenty of room to put up a tent, but they have an actual designated area for anybody who wants to enjoy the drive-in sitting outside. But that video is amazing and it's the drive-in owner who is speaking in it and it was locally produced and filmed. And anyways I think that that really goes a long way to really illustrate the safety levels of the drive-in.

CH: Thanks Ms. Williams. And thanks to everyone who called and wrote to comment on this story or anything else you hear on the program. You can find us on Twitter and Facebook both @CBCAsItHappens. Our email is aih@cbc.ca. Or you can give talkback a call: 416-205-5687.

[Music]

Whiskey tongue

Guest: Alasdair Clark

CH: You may have a taste for scotch whisky. You may even be the type to swish it around in your mouth before announcing you detect notes of leather, toffee...I don't know, hotdogs. But no matter how discriminating your palate, an artificial tongue might be better. I know that's enough to make you spit that single malt onto your smoking jacket. But it's true. Engineers in Scotland have developed an artificial tongue with incredible abilities to distinguish one whisky from another. Alasdair Clark is a lecturer in engineering at the University of Glasgow. That's where we reached him.

PC: Mr. Clark first of all what does this tongue look like?

ALASDAIR CLARK: Well it's not big and floppy and pink like our tongues. It is comprised of millions of tiny little metal taste buds. So there are about a thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair and they're made of aluminium and gold. And when you shrink metals down to that size you take on these really weird optical properties. So when we shine light at them, they kind of shine a colour back at us. So what does it look like? It looks like a little patch of a little green square on a patch of glass.

PC: And how does it work?

AC: So the optical response of these things -- in other words the colour that shine back at us -- is really affected by their local surroundings. So it gives you one signal when there's nothing on top of it that when you do a complex chemical mixture on top of it like a whisky that colour that appears shift ever so slightly. So we measure that tiny little colour shift to build up a statistical map of the chemical compounds in that liquid. Something that's quite analogous to the human sensation of taste.

PC: You know I'm not a super taster so I just taste things. I don't have precise taste I suppose. How precise is this device?

AC: Well relatively precise. We tested it 300 times with a few hundred different samples, and it was able to identify all but one of those.

PC: And so when you've done these 300 samples what kind of distinctions can it make between different whiskies?

AC: Well it can make distinctions based on age. Say if you take the same whiskey that's been aged for different length of time, it can tell you that. It can also tell you if the whiskey has been aged in a different type of cask -- maybe a sherry cask, or bourbon cask, or rum cask. So it is very good at picking up these tiny minute chemical differences in whiskey.

PC: Who would want to use this kind of device? Who are you thinking might have a use for this?

AC: Well two things really. One is the huge counterfeit market in counterfeit whiskey. And so you know the ability to be able to tell whether something is real whiskey that's come from Scotland or Ireland and something that has been manufactured elsewhere and is being passed off as a similar thing -- that is quite a valuable thing to be able to do. But also maybe more mundane tasks like just monitoring the quality or the taste of beverages on a production line. Doesn't necessarily have to be whiskey. It could be anything where you might want to make a measurement or identification of a complex chemical mixture so other liquids like beverages you could train it to look for poisons, you could train it to look for contaminants in a water supply for instance in a river maybe where something's happening upstream that you want to measure.

PC: And so of all the liquids in the world why did you -- who works at the University of Glasgow -- decide whisky?

AC: [Laughter] Yes.

PC: Maybe a rhetorical question.

AC: Yeah. Yes. We saw the opportunity to buy a lot of whisky. [Laughter] But it just seemed like you know because we were from Scotland so we're aware that counterfeit whisky is a thing. So when we're looking to test this tongue we thought well what better way to test it than with the different whiskies.

PC: How sizable is the fake whiskey market?

AC: As far as I'm aware that's hundreds of millions of British pounds per year. So relatively large. And it's a mixture of things -- it's a mixture of high value ancient whiskies which auction for tens of thousands of pounds per bottle and often turn out to be fake unfortunately, and more mundane things like you know regular 20 dollar bottles of whisky that are entering international markets, Asian markets in particular that are being passed off as Scotch whiskey. But in fact they're being manufactured elsewhere with a fake label slapped on them.

PC: Now there is some skepticism out there of your artificial tongue when it comes to whiskey tasting. Charles MacLean who is one of the top whiskey tasters in the world said this to CNN. He said, "Flavor assessment in the whiskey industry is done by smell, taste, and texture. Of all the senses employed, smell is the most important. Whiskey blenders and quality assessors rely entirely on smell. Our sense of taste is crude in comparison." To that, you say what?

AC: Well I would say that you mean we've chosen to call it a tongue but what it is actually doing is making measurements of the chemical mixture of the liquid. It's exactly the same way that your nose works. Your nose is taking in particulates of the liquid and making an assessment or your brain is making an assessment of the chemical composition of that. You might not really know that's what's happening but that's the same sensation. So smell and taste are very related particularly when you're trying to make artificial versions of them. Also I would say that you know this is not a replacement for people with our super tasters and that work in the whisky industry and the beverage industry -- this is just another tool that people can use in order to monitor the quality of liquids.

PC: Is this is the kind of device I can fit in my pocket and take to a pub or a bar if I order whiskey to see if I'm getting the real deal?

AC: At the moment no because it's a prototype so it's rather large and requires a microscope. But there's no reason it couldn't be made much much smaller and to get to the point where you could do that.

PC: Mr. Clark thank you.

AC: Thank you.

CH: Alasdair Clark is a lecturer in engineering at the University of Glasgow in Scotland.

[Music]

Hedgehogs

CH: The Captain and Tennille with "Muskrat Love." The romantic tale of Muskrat Susie and Muskrat Sam who court adorably and then, I guess, have sex. I mean, how else are we supposed to understand the lyrics: "Now he's tickling her fancy, Rubbin' her toes, Muzzle to muzzle, Now anything goes, as they wriggle." Look there's a good reason that that's the only hit song about cute animals getting busy. First, because it is really weird. But second because animal mating isn't really the stuff of soft-rock ballads. It is intense. Hedgehogs for example they're only 25 centimetres long on average but their mating procedure requires an area of 40 square metres. Germans have a word for this: Igelkarussell -- "hedgehog carousel." Big word right now in Germany. As is the word "Igelsex" which means hedgehog sex. That's because hedgehogs all over the country are disrupting people's sleep with their sensual screeching. According to the Guardian they make sounds ranging from, quote, "quiet snuffling to hissing, snarling, purring, whistling, clicking, and even loud screaming." Maybe the racket is because of the prickles but apparently they're snarling and screaming sounds like people. So every year around this time all over Germany the police are called about a sexy disturbance only to find hedgehogs instead of humans. And since urban hedgehog populations are declining, experts are asking people not to do anything to mess with the creatures cacophonous coitus. Either put in some earplugs or watch them in respectful silence. And if the lost sleep makes you feel prickly -- well, imagine how they feel.

Back To Top »

Provide Transcript Feedback

CBC would like to acknowledge the support of the Broadcasting Accessibility Fund.

August 6, 2019 Episode Transcript

More Stories Like This