Category Family
Back To The Vet
9:20 a.m. Tuesday March 17. The phone rings. It is our usual veterinary clinic calling. They weren’t open at midnight yesterday, but they had been faxed the details by the emergency service we used. “How is Marshall?” I give an update. They don’t like what I am saying. “You can’t wait until we open at […]
The Vet Visit
“Dad wake up, Marshall is sick.” Marshall is the younger of our two cats, the orange tabby. I looked at the clock. 11:42 p.m. I had had maybe an hour of sleep. Why did this have to happen when Vivian is away? The cats are her problem. I prefer not to be woken unnecessarily, I’m […]
The Epidemic
North America has been seized by a measles hysteria. Should I admit I have never received the measles vaccination? Or would that admission cause panic? In Ontario there have been 15 cases reported (in a population of about 10 million) and that fact leads the radio newscasts. I am a little puzzled about that. I […]
The Parable of the Two Daughters – II
We have all heard that you can’t legislate morality; government should not even try. Many social changes of the past half century, from the legalization of gambling and liberalization of drug laws to changes in how sexuality is regarded, have come from government abandoning its role in areas once thought to be proper for it. […]
The Parable of the Two Daughters – I
I came across a modern parable in my newspaper and thought you might be interested in it also. You know what a parable is, right? In the Bible you know that when he was teaching his disciples Jesus often spoke in parables, telling a story that makes a moral point. Here is a paraphrase of […]
The Good Lie
When I first heard of The Good Lie, at its Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) premiere last September, I knew it was a film I wanted to see. That was reinforced after viewing the trailer and seeing an interview with the stars that took place at TIFF. Brilliant move to make a film about […]
The Hippopotamus Song
I take requests. It’s a hangover from my days as a radio disc jockey. I always enjoyed that interaction with a listener on the telephone who wanted to suggest a song, especially when doing an overnight shift. At night there aren’t as many listeners as in the daytime; you can get to know your regular […]
My Mother’s Pet Peeve
My mother reads the obituaries in the newspaper each morning. She’s 86, and I suspect she is checking to make sure she isn’t listed. Her official reason is that as an animal lover she wants to see if anyone has left money to the Humane Society, but I know it is more just to see […]
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 […]
New Year’s Eve
The world parties tonight, and for good reason: we have survived 2014, and there is the hope things will improve for 2015. Given our track record that may not be a big hope, but we have to have something to hold on to. So tonight we party, as we try to forget missing airliners, floods […]
random thoughts from lorne 
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