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…
You’re probably wondering where this odd title is going to take us. Well, here’s the thing: horses, carburetors and phone booths were all once ubiquitous, but now you have to know where to look for one. Some wag has pointed out that in an earlier time, everybody had a horse, but only the rich had…
If you’re anything like me, you have your share of “not quite finished” tasks and projects. That’s OK to a certain extent, but sometimes our lives get so littered with “not quite finished” that we can barely focus on what’s important. It may be a Master’s degree that’s one paper short of completion. But it’s…
There was a time that Governor Andrew Cuomo was the world’s hero, showing leadership when all of us needed it during the depths of the COVID nightmare. But today he is a pariah. Whether or not Governor Cuomo went beyond legal bounds is not the point. The point, even if we were to believe a…
There are all kinds of ethical and moral reasons why the wave of voter suppression in the US is wicked, but none of those are today’s subject. The practical, if cynical, reason all this stuff should be avoided is that it’s bad for business. Let me explain. Stereotypes are an easy but dangerous way to…
For rats in Alberta, 2020 was the best year in a long time. Their population doubled to twenty-six, although only one at a time. The bad news for the rats is that was as good as it got. As each one snuck into the province on a truck or a railway car, it was quickly…
Like many Ontarians, I have watched Premier Doug Ford hold multiple press conferences to deliver grim news in this our purgatory of COVID. Like many Ontarians, I’ve applauded the man’s stamina, humility, guts, and forthrightness. Perfect? No, he’s as human as you or me. Might you or I have said and done things differently? Perhaps…