Please and thank-you
The words “telephone” and “etiquette” are not frequently employed together. In fact, if you are assuming that “etiquette” is a code of behaviour employed by living persons, then we don’t often get to experience any etiquette at all. Our telephone enounters are first and foremost with automated phone menus; then with interactive but recorded voices; […]
Death and kisses
No. Nope. No way. It wasn’t my Mac’s grey-screen-of-death that made me think about changing my life as it relates to communication technology. Although, it is fitting in that it is the second time in less than a year I’ve been confounded by the Mac GSOD. This time, as it was the last time, the […]
The wren
Sheared corn-stalks bristle in fields of ice; rivers and streams hold still; the big lake is cranky and unwelcoming. We drift in the shadows of the festive season, and as I sit here at my desk and ponder the grey woods beyond, I hear a song in my head. It’s a traditional Irish folk ballad […]
New World Order
A wine event of seismic proportion took place in Paris on 24 May 1976. The 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay from the Napa Valley finished first in a blind tasting of American and French white wines. The 1973 Stag’s Leap Cabernet Sauvignon, also from Napa, finished first in the reds. Also known as the “Judgement in […]
Juniors and the big boys
Last week I shared some information with you about the Post Cereal Canadian Hockey League cards. Many of those players spent the holidays in Malmo, Sweden, competing in the World Junior Championships. There was a fair amount of weeping and gnashing of teeth after the dust had settled from that tournament. The Canadian boys lost […]
A crack in the corporate reputation
You just can’t be too careful in catering to a fickle marketplace. No one knows that better—now—than high end curlingwear manufacturer OliverOrange. Once upon a time, it was an analyst’s darling—a company that could seemingly do no wrong. Now, thanks to some concerns about the quality of its product, combined with some injudicious comments by […]
Appropriate, expropriate
Here she goes again. The first time I heard the word “expropriation,” my father had said something like, “Well, if the government is going to expropriate property, I wish the hell they’d make me an offer.” At the time, we lived in a house my Dad had built on a half-acre just north of the […]
Hunter and his Honeycombs
Our grandson Hunter really enjoys his Honeycomb cereal. To add to his pleasure, and to his education, Post Cereal has recently added a program to keep his interest at the breakfast table. There are 24 hockey cards available to collectors in the program; however, Hunter is more interested in the boxes. Six players from the […]
Victoria’s Secret
Although the term terroir is tossed about in wine banter, it has far greater importance in our day-to-day lives. We generally associate terroir with wine laws throughout the world, such as the “appellation d’origine contrôlée” (AOC) in France, or the Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA) standard here in Ontario. The word derives from the Latin “terre”, […]
New Ford video shocker
No one has ever gone broke underestimating the capacity of Toronto mayor Rob Ford to shock the ostensibly unshockable. Yet tales of a new Ford video are surfacing, with those who purport to have seen it saying it ‘takes the cake‘ compared with all that has gone before. The Times has not seen this video […]