Well Edmonton, it’s Friday. We’re buried arse-deep in snow, the roads are like mashed potatoes, the sun hasn’t appeared for a few days, and it’s getting cold. What’s not to love?

This weeks assortment of links for your Friday reading pleasure.

Moon Viewing by Ron C Moss. A stirring Haiga by Ron Moss, published by our friends at Daily Haiga.

The Elms of November by Thomas Trofimuk. A beautiful, personal piece about mortality and the frailty of our time here.

Doing Less by British designer Mark Boulton.

Doing more is easier than doing less.

This article has a design focus, but I believe the concepts can be applied to the arts, including writing and poetry. Editing is to writing as iteration is to design.

Open Access – We no longer need expensive publishing networks. Interesting piece on digital publishing in academia.

Tamas Dobozy wins Writers’ Trust Prize for ‘Siege 13’. I’m adding this to my reading list. The book is also up for a Governor General’s Award.

Literary Jury Duty Not For Faint of Heart. Nice piece by Michael Hingston in the Edmonton Journal about Lynn Coady’s adventures in jurying books, including the Writer’s Trust Prize.

“I don’t mean this in a disparaging way,” Coady says, “but Canadians write a lot of fiction set in the fairly distant past. There’s a lot of World War I and II stuff. I think what’s underneath it is this Canadian inferiority complex, where we feel like contemporary Canada is not a topic worthy of literature.”

That’s probably true, I’d say. But hey, we have Todd Babiak working on behalf of Edmonton, so things can’t be that staid, can they?

John Lennon’s letters to be published as app. You will be seeing more and more of this kind of publishing. Many people now turn to apps for specialized content, much to the delight of content providers who can more readily monetize apps. As a fan of the open web, I’m not sure I like the trend, but it’s an interesting development.

The Who Announce 2012/2013 Quadrophenia Tour. I’m trying to figure out when these geezers will finally pack it in, or, even better, do something new and different and perhaps age gracefully. See also, The Rolling Stones arena shows set to happen before the year closes. Time to pack it in, lads? Make room for newer acts?

The End of Liberty in America. This ridiculous screed from a disappointed Libertarian is probably the funniest, over-the-top, American election-related thing you’ll read all week. And by funny, I mean shockingly ignorant. And in case you’re thinking, “Nobody thinks like this, gotta be a hoax”, alas, it is not. See also: Donald Trump’s sad, hilarious disappointment voiced on Twitter, then later deleted.