Monthly Archives: January 2015
Lost Boys
There has been a lot of media coverage in my area about John Maguire, the young Canadian killed in action in Syria fighting for the Islamic State. There has been much written about his youth, asking how someone could grow up to renounce Canadian values and embrace such an extremist form of Islam. When I […]
The Artist
For me travel is about discovery: New places, new things, new people. Vacation is about rest and relaxation. Five countries in four weeks in July 2014 was definitely travel. In Ypres, as I have mentioned, admission to the In Flanders Fields Museum includes admission to a number of smaller museums. These are places I might […]
Dead Terrorists
I saw the report about the death of a Canadian terrorist last week, first online then, the next morning, in my newspaper. I read the whole article instead of just skimming, noted some interesting details and that was about it. I thought about doing a blog post, but decided against it. Why give extra publicity […]
The Dark Church
They call it “the dark church” because it gets very little natural light. That is a good thing – the dark interior means that the frescoes on the ceiling and walls are still vivid more than a thousand years after they were first painted. My son spent the third year of his undergraduate degree studying […]
The Cistern
Sometimes the guidebooks have it right, as I discovered last year on a trip to Istanbul. When you visit that city there are certain must see sites, such as the Hagia Sophia, The Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace, all of which I will get around to talking about here in the not too distant future. […]
More Lies
Someone sent me this photo last year, I don’t remember who, but I remember how much I laughed when I saw it. The card on the bulletin board reads: During the 3-1/2 years of World War 2 that started with the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and ended with the Surrender of […]
They Are Lying To You
In our post-modern world Truth seems to have become a relative where it once was an absolute. Perhaps this is a logical consequence of the progression of communications methods during the 20th century. Certainly looking at wartime posters on display in a couple of European museums this past summer I was struck by the simplicity […]
Another Panda Post
Yesterday’s post has me still thinking about pandas. You have probably seen this joke before, but it is worth the retelling. After all, it spawned a popular book about punctuation. (If you are one of those who thinks that the words popular and punctuation don’t belong together, I understand completely. However a lot of people […]
Panda Diplomacy
Having a monopoly on an endangered species has had certain advantages for Mainland China. I thought about that on a visit last year to the zoo in Toronto. The Toronto Zoo has a couple of giant pandas on loan. They will be there until 2018, when they will relocate to Calgary for a time in […]
The View From The Castle
Standing on the ramparts of Caen Castle in Normandy gave us a good view of the town. Today rather than hearing from me, I thought perhaps the pictures should tell the story. I must confess I have no idea what any of these buildings are. I presume one of the spires in the distance is […]
random thoughts from lorne 
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