In the classic Christmas story “The Gift of the Magi”, we are told of a sweet but impoverished young couple, very much in love, each wanting to give the other something extravagant, but not being able to afford anything. They owned only two treasures: Jim’s heirloom pocket watch and Della’s long and gorgeous hair. Of…
Trump. We’re not done with this reprobate yet. Nor his evil brood. For the foreseeable future, Donald Trump will remain the cult leader of about one in five Americans, and as such will retain enormous influence and power. The Trump Royal Family will appear on talk shows, write books, keynote “freedom rallies”, highlight county fairs,…
After a respectful time mourning our dear old Benny, Karen and I decided that the house was too empty and too quiet. We began a search for a new dog, which may or may not have been such a clever idea. In any event, we now have a border collie and a shih poo, both…
Lawrence Harvey Zeiger was a nice Jewish boy born in 1933 to Eastern European immigrants who ran a bar and grill in Brooklyn. Things got tough when his father died while Lawrence was just a boy, and his early years were destitute and somewhat troubled. Things could have turned out badly. But Lawrence had a…
When I was a very little boy my Mum and my Dad would read me stories from a collection of picture books surprisingly vast for such a poor family. Amongst my very favourite books was a Bible story picture book full of all kinds of neat stories about various miraculous events. I loved every page….
In the latest brimstone belch from Donald’s Bottomless Pit, we learned that some legal counsel are able to maintain their moral and professional compasses even when flying over the Bermuda Triangle of Trumpism. After the craven nuttiness of Giuliani, Barr, and Powell, it’s refreshing to see the impeachment defence team refuse to bend the knee…
Many, many, many years ago when I was a young teacher, there existed in Ontario four different elementary school teachers’ unions– one for Francophones, one for English speaking Catholics, one for Public School males, and one for Public School females. The latter was, by a significant margin, the largest. One day one of my male…
“It’s only words And words are all I have To take your heart away.” Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb (the “Bee Gees”) 1968 Words are funny things, aren’t they? Words can soothe a child, words can break a heart, words can start a riot, words can steel the soul. Words in the mouth of a…
I’ll bet you had no idea where the title of this piece was going to take you. To be honest, I didn’t, either. But this time no politics, no outrage, just a whimsical word study. Bedlam is one of those few words in English whose meaning can’t be guessed by its similarity to other words….
“Who the heck was Saint David?” you may ask. Well, he’s the patron saint of Wales, and a very fine saint he was, too. He deserves a decent holiday. Those of us who claim Welsh ancestry, in whole or in part, watch the world painted green to honour St. Patrick (who, by the way, was…