We’ve always had tyrants, and we always will. Tyrants, after all, are simply extremely successful entrepreneurs who have co-opted their systems to obtain control over most or all of the available human and economic resources. And having done that, “much wants more”, so before long they will wage war, at someone else’s expense, to get…
Saskatchewan’s Ukrainian diaspora has blessed our country richly. Walter Terentiuk was of that stock. Walter never left home without his spiral-bound pocket notebook and a stubby pencil. He’d listen carefully to everything you said, asking insightful questions, and from time to time stop you and take notes. Later, the notes went into his meticulous records,…
There are probably no weasel words quite as slick as “up to”. And they clearly are very effective. Think about it– this language is plastered all over the place: “Get up to 75% off!”. “Kills up to 99.9% of bacteria and viruses!”. “Up to 53% of Americans think Biden should step down.” In order to…
Not that long ago in our history, capital punishment was a popular tourist attraction. The hanging of felons behind the “county gaol” was sure to draw a crowd, and if it could be arranged on a summer evening or weekend, entire families with picnic baskets would show up to watch the bad guy twitch on…
My two dogs are funny creatures. They teach me so many important life lessons. Take when I put treats in their respective dishes. I will drop an identical handful of goodies in each dish, simultaneously. You know exactly what’s going to happen, don’t you? Of course– Holly bolts for Meic’s dish, while Meic dashes over…
In the Christian Bible, the story is told of Mary Magdalene, in her distress and tears, encountering Jesus after having seen him crucified. She had watched him die and be buried, so through her tears she thought the man in front of her to be a gardener. Seeing the tomb empty, she sobbed “What have…
Paul Collins, writing about autists, says “Autists are the ultimate square pegs, and the problem with pounding a square peg into a round hole is not that the hammering is hard work. It’s that you’re destroying the peg.” Collins’ dictum brought me up short, not because I’ve had that much experience with the autistic, but…
Everybody needs to feel special. And, to be sure, everyone is special. Unique, in some way or another. Heaven knows, this blog keeps banging away at that very concept. But it needs to be special for a good reason. A useful reason. A noble reason. Not a trumped-up, selfish reason. Let’s take my very personal…
On August 19, 1942, just over six thousand commandos, mostly Canadian, were dropped off on the beaches at Dieppe, an exploratory raid to test invasion theories. Although the defenses were well known, little had been done to soften up the bunkers and pillboxes glowering down from the cliffs. It was not pretty. Nearly two thirds…
I should probably add English Muffins and French Toast to the list. Here we talk about names which describe things unrecognizable to the natives. Canadians visiting the US or the Caribbean are offered Canadian Bacon on the breakfast menu. Having no idea what is meant, they’ll order it only to discover it’s just run of…