Most lawyers I know give generously of themselves to the community. The same is true for the other professions. Sports, church, not-for-profit organizations, soup kitchens– it’s not hard to find lawyers and their counterparts right there in the thick of things. As they should be. It’s also more common than one might think that lawyers…
Norm, are you serious? Winnipeg is in the centre of the continent, and sits 239m above mean sea level. If Winnipeg floods, we’re all in serious trouble. Well, Winnipeg is not likely to face flooding from the oceans, but it is still going to pay a steep price for rising sea levels. And so will…
Whisky is a funny word, but so is Scotch. Let’s have a bit of fun with both. We can’t even get the spelling of whisky straight, and even if we think there are rules, they get broken. Which is kind of appropriate given the subject matter. Whisky, or whiskey, is the anglicisation of uisce beatha,…
As Karen and I approach our fiftieth wedding anniversary, I understand better each day that I am and have been a very lucky man. I will be the first to say that being married to me is no easy task, yet my dear wife has been unwavering through thick and thin, my confidante, my cheerleader,…
Uberrimae Fidei– utmost good faith– is a legal concept at the heart of a good deal of contract interpretation. It goes more or less like this: If I ask you to enter into an agreement with me, and I have relevant knowledge that you do not have, but which would affect your decision if you…
In the early summer of 1939 my Mum turned twenty. She was pretty, vivacious, joyous, and privileged. Her father’s prosperous business gave her and her siblings private schooling, the loveliest of fashions, and long summers in their beloved Wales. Life was good. By her twenty-first birthday, my Mum was in uniform, living in barracks, in…
All of us who learned French as a second language learned about Mrs. Vandertramp. None of my francophone friends have ever heard of her, and they think it’s the funniest thing they ever heard. In French, there exists a handful of verbs which are not conjugated in the usual way with avoir, but with être….
It may be flattering to think that Thor, Odin, or Zeus, or the God of Judaism, Christianity, or Islam (or any of their thousands of sects), can’t get along without me. But I’m afraid I’m not their guy. This isn’t to pick and choose amongst the constellation of deities claiming sole place– that’s your business,…
“I know what you’re thinking. ‘Did he fire six shots or only five’? Well to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I kind of lost track myself. But being that this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask…
The human mind is an amazing thing, and we don’t give ourselves enough credit. Take something as simple as reading and understanding text. In our English speaking world we take for granted that sounds can be transliterated into phonemes formed by (more or less) predictable combinations of letters, that the phonemes can be jammed together…