Some sad news today: Raylene Rankin has died of cancer, aged 52. She and four of her siblings formed The Rankin Family over 20 years ago, and are widely credited with popularizing the Keltic-tinged folk/country music of Cape Breton for a wider audience. The above is the most famous song of theirs that I could think of; it was a great radio staple during the early 1990s. And it takes me right back to the other “north country” of my childhood, Northern Ontario, every time I hear it.






Hey Bina,
Someone just hotlinked to one of your images, a proverbial light bulb went off and so I thought I’d say hello. 🙂
Dunno if you remember me from the Mike Malloy forums (pretty sure EconAtheist was my handle)… I worked nights for the VA… that was probably 6-7 yrs ago…
*crickets*
:/ lol
ANYHOW. Nice to see that you’re still blogging away. Best wishes from WI and keep up the good fight, you benevolent witch. 😛
p.s. i didn’t know raylene’s music… sorry for the loss
p.p.s. you should check out my friend genevieve ‘feminist killjoy’ dempre’s stuff… she’s good. here’s a recent one: http://geekout.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/26/in-defense-of-lady-geeks/