Meaningful presents require a personal touch

Today’s horoscope

MOON ALERT: Avoid shopping (except food and gas) and important decisions after 5 p.m. The moon is in Leo.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

An unusual idea or an unexpected event might take you into an entirely new headspace. You might entertain the notion of a new kind of future for yourself — something more romantic or more spiritual/touchy-feely (call it whatever you like) — than you had previously thought.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

The next Duff’s Ditch must be medical

A runaway rail trolley hurtles towards five people tied to the tracks. You stand at the switch lever. If you pull the lever, the trolley veers onto a sidetrack, where one person is tied down. Do nothing and five die. Pull the lever and one dies by your hand.

A health minister needs no introduction to the weight of that choice. Every budget season, governments confront this dilemma with one cruel modification — the lever switches between today and tomorrow. Down the near track sits this year’s emergency, a crowded emergency department, a surgical backlog, a crisis demanding a decision by Friday. Down the far track, in the distance, over the horizon, waits a geriatric demographic that has not arrived yet. Each year’s budget cannot simultaneously rescue both.

Philosophers treat the trolley scenario as a thought experiment. A health minister calls it Tuesday.

The actual choice is crueller, because both tracks hold real people. The stroke patient in today’s hallway deserves rescue, as do the patients down the line. Two scholars, Guido Calabresi and Philip Bobbitt, analyzed such allocations as tragic choices — scarcity forces a society to preserve one value by sacrificing another. Their darker observation concerned method. Societies rarely make these choices in the open. The lever keeps directing traffic away from the immediate noise, toward the far track.

Hydro’s planned outages turn out the lights for thousands across province

Business owners in the East Beaches area of Lake Winnipeg hauled out generators Wednesday after a planned Manitoba Hydro outage left thousands of residents and cottagers without power.

Lise Bourassa, who runs several stores in Grand Beach, had to rent generators to accommodate the eight-hour blackout, which affected the area from Beaconia to Victoria Beach as well as Sagkeeng First Nation, while Hydro crews fixed a pole that was damaged by fire in May .

Despite the spare power source, she was only able to open one of her stores during the outage and said it came at a bad time.

“I understand the importance of what Manitoba Hydro is doing, the problem all the businesses in this area are having is that our season is very short and to be shut down for a full day has a fairly big impact, plus they added cost of getting generators,” she wrote in a message to the Free Press. “We also had less than one week to make arrangements, find electricians and generators to be able to keep all the food safe.”

Letters, July 16

Thanks to Dan Lett for clarifying the settlement of the dispute over the opening of the Gordie Howe Bridge.

What's Up: Ballpark Brewfest, Timber Timbre tribute, Ai-Kon, Salsa Sundays, Neepawa ArtFest

Ballpark BrewfestBlue Cross Park, 1 Portage Ave. E.Saturday, 2-5 p.m.Tickets $70-$90The Winnipeg Goldeyes are loading up the bases this weekend as the bulk of Manitoba’s craft breweries descend upon Blue Cross Park as part of the third Ballpark Brewfest.

The Goldeyes organization has long been friends of local brewers — in 2022 the club introduced the Craft Beer Corner with a rotating selection of local beers on tap for thirsty baseball fans. Later that year, Goldeyes general manager Andrew Collier pitched the idea of a craft beer festival at the ballpark to brewers and was met with widespread enthusiasm — and Ballpark Brewfest was born.

The inaugural Ballpark Brewfest in 2022 featured around 18 craft brewers taking part; the following year two dozen brewers were pouring lagers, ales, sours and all manner ofIPAs.

Saturday’s Ballpark Brewfest marks its return after a two-year absence, and will see over 20 breweries taking part in the afternoon tasting (which takes place rain or shine — breweries are set up under the roof of the concourse). Participating breweries include Barn Hammer, Dastardly Villain, Trans Canada, Devil May Care and Good Neighbour — in addition to core pours, many breweries will be bringing small-batch/exclusive brews.