Did you ever ask yourself about “free gift” offers? Like, what other kinds of gifts are there? “I’ll give you this present, but you have to pay for it!” Seriously? Let’s poke some fun at tautologies. What are tautologies? Very simply, a grammatical construction which unnecessarily duplicates a meaning. You’re saying something twice when you…
Ginawaydaganuc (pronounced jin-away-daga-nuk) is an Anishinaabe (Algonquin) word or expression which means, well, it means quite a bit. In fact, it’s more or less an entire world view. In simplest terms, it means that everything is interconnected in space and time, and that everything we do is impacted by what is already done, and in…
Some of us are truly excited about the potential of artificial intelligence to make our lives, our professions, and our businesses easier, richer and more fulfilling. And some of us are terrified. Even those of us who fall into the optimists’ camp admit to a little trepidation that AI will just keep getting, well, more…
Some wag, stapling together pieces of two Bible verses, has said, “A lie is an abomination unto the Lord, but a very present help in time of trouble.” As a race, we all lie, all the time, mostly of the “little white” variety, and often for innocent reasons. After all, are you going to be…
It’s so satisfying, isn’t it, to stick in the knife and twist it. Sweet revenge! Just desserts, serves the SOB right! When our tender sensibilities have been sideswiped by some high flying, smart-ass, self-important dork, nothing feels better than smacking them down, giving them a taste of their own medicine, putting them in their place….
Larry Roine was one of my mentors, a giant of a man physically and professionally. Among his many Giftings was that of negotiation– First Nations treaties, labour disputes, and high-end commercial tangles. Larry was one of the “go to” stars of difficult, passionate, and high-stakes battles. Although he was a towering Nordic warrior in his…
Just about a year ago I wrote about the spring peepers and LinkedIn and professional reputation (https://mailchi.mp/add1ae62cb03/resolution-for-15362377?e=[UNIQID]) and all such serious stuff. As it turns out, I need to write about the spring peepers again, but for other reasons. Last year, and for as long as I can remember, it was well into April before…
English is a funny language, isn’t it? Take our orthography, or spelling, for example. Exactly why is there still a “p” in pneumonia, or ptarmigan? How come know and no are pronounced the same? And why do the Brits insist on spelling it “neighbour” while the Americans want “neighbor”? If you’re going to get finicky…
The English language has an unusual construction shared by few others. Even those related languages such as Dutch and German, which have a similar construction, make far less use of it. We call the structure a “phrasal verb”. Phrasal verbs are, as you might imagine, phrases, or groups of words, which behave like a single…
“If wishes were horses, beggars would ride” goes the old Scottish saying. While all of us spend some time riding wish-horses, it seems to me that those who form entire wish-cavalries live on the ends of the political spectrum. This isn’t “If you build it, they will come”– there’s no actual creation of a ball…