I should know better, at my age. There are no real Boxing Day bargains, especially when the prices are published for all to see. For days now, the intrepid shoppers have been planning their strategies, armed with fast cars and cell phones. I am no more than a witness without much money.
posted in economy, Wx | Comments Off on Fear of a stampede | 515 words
Tonight the Global network carried the “Canadian Urban Music Awards”, from Toronto I assume. At least, the little video headers showed subway cars with destination plates for Downsview… that sounds sufficiently Queen City to me.
posted in music | Comments Off on When culture is alien | 256 words
Late in the summer of 1972, I swung down from the Ocean Limited in Amherst, and collected my trusty Targa bicycle from the baggage car. With a fair portion of my worldly belongings in a huge green knapsack (still in the basement), I mounted my trusty steed and set off for the Island. With sixty kilometers of road and the wind at my back, it was time to turn on my transistor radio and tune in CFCY.
posted in history | Comments Off on The dance has ended | 344 words
It’s already been six months. A phrase that fits many situations, but here in Quebec it means that the season “not winter” is over. Six months ago, I changed the four season tires onto the van and got ready for all that means around here. New leaves. Grass. A short vacation.
posted in Wx | Comments Off on One sure mark of a change in seasons | 279 words
My university lost a fine teacher yesterday.
A lifetime spent teaching Latin and other Classics is one that won’t have much meaning to the youth in our schools today, but only a generation ago, the study of Latin still carried a value. The study of Latin at university was rare, but still recognized as worth something in intellectual terms.
posted in history | Comments Off on Nunc dimittis | 297 words
The shampoo and hair product industry leaves me baffled. To watch the ads (where only beautiful women with long hair need apply), or read the print on the bottles (when there is nothing else around to read, not even six day old newspapers), one would believe that this was the elixir of the ages.
posted in media, technology | Comments Off on It’s soap, not a diet supplement | 264 words
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. …”
posted in environment | Comments Off on Avian delinquents | 205 words
