Bob Schwartz

Don’t come a-knockin’ around my door
Don’t wanna see your shadow no more
Coloured lights can hypnotize
Sparkle someone else’s eyes

Many people like or love Canada. One of the reasons is that without the roster of Canadian artists, modern pop music would be much, much poorer:

Neil Young
Joni Mitchell
The Band
Leonard Cohen
k.d. Lang
Rush
The Weeknd
Celine Dion
Justin Bieber
Drake
Arcade Fire
Shania Twain
Etc.

Nobody likes a bully, except for those who benefit from the bullying. History and the current world are filled with bullies. Russia bullies Ukraine. Israel bullies Palestine.

The U.S., in addition to its finest moments, has also been a bully. Currently, the strangest and most perplexing bullying involves our longtime friend, neighbor and provider of great musicians Canada.

Canadian artists frequently include their love of Canada in their songs. The songs may also include issues with the United States, even (especially?) for those artists who have adopted it as home.

No Canadian song about the U.S. is more fitting than American Woman (1970) by Winnipeg natives The Guess Who. The United States was not a favorite nation in much of the world in 1970, especially among young people rejecting America’s deadly and tragic Vietnam War.

American Woman still sounds just about right.

American woman gonna mess your mind
American woman, she gonna mess your mind

American woman
Stay away from me
American woman
Mama, let me be
Don’t come a-hangin’ around my door
I don’t wanna see your face no more
I got more important things to do
Than spend my time growin’ old with you
American woman
Get away from me
American woman
Mama, let me be
Don’t come a-knockin’ around my door
Don’t wanna see your shadow no more
Coloured lights can hypnotize
Sparkle someone else’s eyes

American woman
Said get away
American woman
Listen what I say
Don’t come a-hangin’ around my door
Don’t wanna see your face no more
I don’t need your war machines
I don’t need your ghetto scenes
Coloured lights can hypnotize
Sparkle someone else’s eyes

You’re no good for me, I’m no good for you
Gonna look you right in the eye, tell you what I’m gonna do
You know I’m gonna leave
You know I’m gonna go, you know I’m gonna leave
You know I’m gonna go, woman
I’m gonna leave, woman
Goodbye, American woman

The mad frenzy to rename waters around the U.S. continues. An attempt was made to start calling the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. Now Lake Ontario has been “renamed” Lake America. Soon maybe the Great Lakes will be called the Great American Lakes. (I know, don’t give anyone ideas.)

The oceans on both sides of the U.S. may be next. But there is a problem. The obvious initiative is to call each ocean the Ocean of America. But that would obviously be confusing, like having two streets with the same name.

The simple solution: Name one the Ocean of America and name the other the Other Ocean of America. In the image above, I have put Ocean of America on the Pacific, but there is no reason it can’t be the other way around.

Speaking of naming, I want to include a musical moment. Not quite Shakespeare (“A rose by any other name’) but a good point:

You call it rain
but the human name
doesn’t mean shit to a tree
—Eskimo Blue Day, Jefferson Airplane

© 2026 Bob Schwartz

In one of the most significant exchanges in religious history, it is reported that after the Buddha’s enlightenment, he was asked who he was. He simply replied, “I am awake.”

Trying to make “woke” a pejorative is crazy. Not crazy like a political and ideological fox, just bonkers. No matter the party or philosophy, from the White House on down, everybody wants to wake up each day, and wants those they love to wake up each day. The opposite of waking up is not waking up, and that is not what we want.

What is actually meant by the charge of “woke” is related to the Buddha’s expression. It is an accusation of being enlightened, of seeing others, all others, no matter their identities and origins, as worthy of our active care and concern. Since this is a Christian, not just a Buddhist message, it is inconceivable that so many are sworn enemies of “woke”. Not to mention that all of these anti-woke people really do want to wake up each day. Instead of the alternative.

© 2026 Bob Schwartz

I’ve occasionally designated and declared various years and months to be dedicated to important causes. Very informal, unofficial declarations, since I have no authority or platform to direct or realize those declarations. Just this blog.

A few weeks ago, I declared the upcoming Jewish New Year 5787 (time flies!) as the “Jewish Year of Compassion”. Reconsidering this declaration–once again, very informal and unofficial–I’ve determined that the declaration should read “5787: Year of Jewish Compassion”. Every writer and editor will recognize the subtle nuanced torture of word placement, particular in a phrase four words long.

For now, and for what it’s worth, it is declared that the upcoming year 5787 that begins on Rosh Hashanah (evening of September 11) is the Year of Jewish Compassion.

For JDS with love

I had a recent conversation about coin flipping.

Tom Stoppard’s earliest of many great plays is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. The title of the play is taken from a line in Hamlet, in which these characters play a small part in the greater drama. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are minor players in Hamlet, but the Stoppard version makes them the main focus.

The play begins with their betting on flipped coins. The unlikely result is that coins always turn up heads. They discuss this seeming anomaly, not completely understanding, nor understanding that the small part they are playing in the drama will result in their death.

Probability is a funny thing. Over many flips, we say the chances are that the number of heads and tails will be about equal, 50/50. But seemingly unlikely, it could be heads every time, since on any one flip, the chance remains 50/50. Stoppard makes this point funny, as is the play, but also a profound truth in the lives of the characters and in our lives.

I’ve written multiple times about randomness. Randomness and probability are siblings, maybe twins. Two sides of the same coin. I’ve pointed out Gregory Bateson’s saying that for him, a random number table is at the heart of his holy of holies.

The significance of probability stretches from the Bible to AI.

The Bible begins with a scene of chaos, a universe of randomness. People, pre-Bible and now, want some order and predictability. So the very first event in the Bible has God bringing order out of chaos, out of tohu and bohu.

AI operates on principles of probability. In that it operates not unlike the way that people also generate information, only from greater knowledge than most and more comprehensively and quickly. Though, as it has become obvious, not always as creatively.

We live with randomness, no matter how much we believe that absolute order and predictability can be imposed. God may be able to eliminate randomness and chaos in the Bible, but we can’t. Knowing the limits of probability means knowing the nature of reality, our reality.

Flip a coin.