Monthly Archives: September 2016

Duck Cleaning

This happened last night and the dialogue is as accurate as my memory allows. “Good evening sir, my name is Robert and I am calling about duct cleaning. We are having a special in your area.” I couldn’t resist. And his thick Indian accent made it easy. “Duck cleaning? I am so glad you called. […]

This Space Intentionally Left Blank

There is no post today. You are just imagining that you are reading this. Today’s scheduled post was hijacked by circumstances. The details might fall into the “too much information” category, so I won’t burden you with them. However, I don’t want to leave you with nothing to read. Feel free to click on one […]

Marijuana For Sale

I’m confused. Which makes me pretty much like every Canadian. We can be confused about many things and for many reasons, but what has me confused today is marijuana. And no, I have never smoked the stuff, so my confusion can’t be blamed on overindulgence. It is too much knowledge that causes my confusion. I […]

The Day After

No political commentary today. If you are interested in politics or world affairs, you probably watched last night’s first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. If you are a supporter of ether candidate, you probably need something to brighten your day. If you don’t care about politics, and weren’t among the record television […]

Debate Night

The first presidential debates of the 2016 American election is tonight. By midnight we should have a pretty good idea as to who is going to top the ballot on November 8. Usually my opinion on these things is that debates don’t really matter as long as you play a good defence. A politician doesn’t […]

A Trip To Clontarf

It used to be that by the third week of September the leaves on the trees had turned glorious shades of red, gold and orange, but that hasn’t happened yet this year. All that greenery wasn’t going to stop a ramble with some friends through rural Renfrew County yesterday. We had an agenda starting off, […]

Northern Birthers

The birther political scandal broke out in Canada this week. Of course we had to give it our own unique twist, so as not to be accused of copying the United States. Down south there have been persistent rumours that President Barack Obama was not born in the US, which would disqualify him from becoming […]

Commuter Etiquette

When I was young the British had a reputation: they knew how to queue. When a line formed in the UK, for whatever reason, it was always orderly. That fact would usually be mentioned as people were trying to find their way through a chaotic situation where an orderly line would have made things so […]

Crime and Punishment

Crime does not pay. But it does charge admission. We were in Rothenburg, and I already knew that one of the must-see sites for me was the Medieval Museum of Crime and Punishment. At least that is what my guide book called it, though I note the website refers to it now as the Medieval […]

The Publishing Sensation of 2016

The beasty is called an American Trump It’s skin is bright orange, its figure is plump;   My daughter the Kindergarten teacher brought home a new children’s book from the public library. She won’t be sharing it with her students though. A Child’s First Book of Trump is written at a level that a five-year-old […]