On this day thirteen years ago two of my favourite people made a promise to each other. On a cold and rainy Saturday, they stood in front of all their friends, their parents, and their seven still-living grandparents, looked each other in the eye, and promised they would stand together and look after each other…
I remember it like yesterday, the horrible cold clinging black cloud of frustration and humiliation of “not getting” calculus. To that point in life, math had always been easy for me, trivial, “do-it-in-your-head” easy, tangible, nice, chunky, visual, everything fitting precisely and predictably. And then came calculus. Calculus. Slippery, slidy, imprecise, it seemed more like…
No action movie would be complete without a scene of the earnest young lieutenant intoning desperately into his microphone as his craft rocks in the darkness, “Mayday! Mayday! Going down at 42.0539 and -47.7730!” But why exactly do we call out “Mayday!” when we’re in dire straits? Surely there are 364 other days on which…
No, this is not a screed for or against immigration. It’s a discussion of the real issue, which is ignored because it’s awkward. In our big, empty, beautiful country there’s actually plenty of room for newcomers. Heck, all Canadians except for First Nations are newcomers, and even their ancestors came from somewhere else, albeit 30,000…
What do you say to a woman on her 70th birthday? What do you say to the woman who promised to share a life as long as we both shall live? To a woman who has been a steadfast friend and partner through thick and thin in life and in business? Who has suffered sorrow…
Just over sixty years ago we came within a hair of global nuclear holocaust. I was a young high schooler and remember it like yesterday. Radios played non-stop news and we’d listen late into the night as the mighty militaries of Russia and America stared one another down, ready to fight humankind’s final battle. The…
Reading a Fox “News” “article” criticizing America’s support of Ukraine, I was struck by the heavy use of a tactic often seen in the courtroom: the use of non-given “givens”. But this isn’t a Faux News rant, it’s a rant about the slippery use of “Given that…” In court, counsel will look the judge right…
Being agreeable and getting along are wonderful traits, but as with everything in life, you can have too much of a good thing. Coming from a guy who celebrates consensus and collaboration, you might think that that’s a bit of heresy, so bear with me. Going with the flow has been bred into us for…
Like all self-respecting couples in their seventies, Karen and I have had “the discussion”. In fact, we’ve even “made plans”. And while you may not be anywhere near us in age, you too should have plans. About “you know what”. While I may not be as nuts-and-bolts about death as a funeral director, my history…
A recession is definitely coming, of that much you can be sure. But let’s be honest: so is Christmas and so are broken promises. As long as the world remains and human activity continues, economic cycles will come and go. You can predict with certainty that snowstorms and recessions will arrive, it’s just that you…