Category Society
Land of Confusion
Are you as confused as I am? Or have Canada’s leaders lost touch with reality? You have to be 16 to get a driver’s licence. Eighteen to vote. And that isn’t all. There are age restrictions on who can smoke tobacco or marijuana, or legally drink alcohol. You can’t serve in the military until you […]
In The Mail
I was wandering in downtown Bern, the Swiss capital, when I came across this monument commemorating the founding of the Universal Postal Union. It is amazing what is sometimes found to be worthy of public art. Sending something by mail seems almost a forgotten reminder of another era in these days of electronic communication. I […]
A Different Type of Panic
Have you stocked up? Have the warnings about coronavirus (COVID-19) sent you scurrying to the store, just in case? I hadn’t given any thought to the matter until a friend called complaining that there was neither hand sanitizer nor face masks available at any pharmacy in the region. My first thought was that people were […]
Playing With Fire
There were no demons in evidence, no people in animal costumes, no-one swearing allegiance to Satan on the hills above Sulzburg Saturday night. Which may explain why there were only about fifty people, mostly children, taking part in Scheibenfeuer. Google tells me that translates as “disc fire” – which really doesn’t explain anything. When I […]
Fastnacht 2020
The roads into Sulzburg are closed for the parade, but that doesn’t matter to me. I left early this morning, not wanting to be in town for Fastnacht. I’ll go back this evening when the fuss is over. I experienced Fastnacht during our first year here. Given what I had heard about it, I felt […]
Lessons Learned? Probably Not.
It isn’t over. But at least the trains are running, for the most part. Passenger and freight trains were shut down in Canada for a couple of weeks. Not by weather, but by protesters. Rather than jump into the fray immediately, I thought I should take time to reflect on Canada’s recent political/economic crisispolitical/economic crisis. […]
Mere Propaganda
I had great plans for Thursday, then my computer developed a mind of its own. Which is why you are reading this post, a repeat from January 2015. 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 […]
Making a Mark
It occurred to me this morning that I hadn’t done any flashback posts yet in 2020. I do like to post one occasionally, allowing new readers to see some of what they missed. Like this one, which was published five years ago today, February 22, 2015. One of the things I enjoy about vacation is […]
Messiah
I don’t have time to binge-watch television. That explains why it took my wife and I almost two weeks to get through the ten episodes in the first season of the new Netflix series Messiah, which was released in January. It is a compelling drama that touches on so many aspects of contemporary society. A […]
An Election Non-Issue
Americans are voting in November. One issue that you are pretty much guaranteed to hear almost nothing about is gun control. Americans love their guns, and, on what seems like a regular basis, someone with a grudge will take one of those guns and shoot several innocent people. I think such incidents happen more in […]
random thoughts from lorne 
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