Columnists

Stop, what’s that sound?

Posted: Nov 12, 2020 at 9:31 am   /   Columnists

Stop. What’s that sound?” A massive, collective sigh of relief? Does peacefulness have a sound? I don’t think in all of my years I’ve ever been so distraught and focused with regard to politics, especially the politics of the United States of America. I know what happens to our southern neighbours has an impact on […]

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Imagining the Cube

Posted: Nov 5, 2020 at 11:52 am   /   Columnists

If I hadn’t already made my fortune as a weekly columnist with the Wellington Times, I would like to have made it as an inventor. But not just any inventor. No improved industrial sludge separators or high efficiency potato peelers for me. I would prefer to have invented a toy. But not just any toy. […]

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This, that and the other thing

Posted: Nov 5, 2020 at 11:50 am   /   Columnists

November first. Yep, here we are rushing toward the end of 2020. You know, 2020, the year we woke up all excited about this, that and the other thing? We were barely into February we found out “the other thing” would just about the only “thing” we’d have on our minds for the rest of […]

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Ditching the Ranked Ballot

Posted: Oct 29, 2020 at 9:34 am   /   Columnists

Let’s get right to the big news. Doug Ford and his Ontario Conservative crew are planning to repeal paragraph 3 of subsection 7(3). I know; it’s a shocker. That would be the paragraph and subsection of the Municipal Elections Act that allows a Municipality to hold an election using the ranked ballot system of voting. […]

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Bookmarks and other treats

Posted: Oct 29, 2020 at 9:32 am   /   Columnists

To paraphrase a good friend, “It’s a sad day when the garden furniture gets put away for the winter.” Maybe she feels the way I do about the changing of seasons, this year. It feels as if we didn’t really have enough summer and here we are, knee-deep in fall. This summer afforded us an […]

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Partiendo el pan—breaking bread

Posted: Oct 21, 2020 at 2:53 pm   /   Columnists

It’s late on a recent Wednesday afternoon when I climb the stone steps near a building appropriately known as the Ridge, a structure that is the heart of the Closson Chase Winery. On the lower level, the grape harvest is pressed and prepared to be aged for later savouring. The upper storey, my destination today, […]

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A Net Negative

Posted: Oct 21, 2020 at 2:47 pm   /   Columnists

day. And in doing so, I just about lost my mind, as well as the goodwill of my family. I noticed it was missing last Thursday morning, just as my wife and I were going out to run a few errands. It wasn’t in its usual place in the outside pocket of my shoulder bag, […]

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Nice work

Posted: Oct 21, 2020 at 2:45 pm   /   Columnists

Our family has a little “joke” about my mother. As Mom got older, she’d occasionally forget where she was going with something. For example, one day when I was visiting she told me she was going to bake a raisin pie. My favourite pie is raisin. I didn’t know if she’d remembered the connection between […]

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Entering the lexicon

Posted: Oct 15, 2020 at 9:23 am   /   Columnists

lexicon After a significant and prolonged event such as the 2020 pandemic, there are going to be words and phrases that enter our lexicon on a semi-permanent basis. So let’s look af a few candidates in the early running. “Covid belly” denotes the acquisition of a spare tire as a result of nine months of […]

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Pandemic thankfulness

Posted: Oct 15, 2020 at 9:17 am   /   Columnists

Ah, Thanksgiving!! I love a long weekend holiday excuse to cook, bake and be with the family! Thanksgiving is the perfect holiday, as far as I’m concerned. The fall weather is usually co-operative. It’s warm enough for walks and cool enough for a bonfire. The food is plentiful, and that’s a bonus. The drinks flow, […]

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