Bells and banners
Today, Sunday the 19th of July, is my birthday. “Let the bells ring out. Let the banners fly.” As birthdays go, it’s just another day, but with cake and far too many candles. I heard someone say birthdays shouldn’t count this year. I laughingly agreed at the time. I agreed because after four months of […]
Out to lunch
Monday: I harbour inner resistance to sameness: architecture; menu; fashion; housing; urban planning; design; trends—everywhere. In art, while repetition is used as a rhythm, a pattern to complement adjoining rhythms, it is not the thing in its entirety. When it becomes the thing in whole—beige— that’s when the mind dulls, gets underwhelmed as discovery and […]
Bring on the scientists
We are living through a crisis. Thankfully, the mantra that has guided most Canadian politicians through it is to ‘follow the science.’ In stark contrast has been the response of Donald Trump, who has trusted his (rapidly expanding) gut, with disastrous consequences. Indeed, the coronavirus crisis has underscored the importance of a scientific approach to […]
Pandemic toddlers
Week number fifteen, sixteen, ten or eleven? Who really knows? I do remember being at Kingston General Hospital on January 8th, for an appointment, and being asked “all of the COVID/not COVID questions”. “Have you travelled outside of Canada in the last two months? Have you been in contact with anyone who has travelled outside […]
Upping the BRBA
I love to choose books at the library. But it sometimes gets me into trouble, as I end up taking home books that I have only the slimmest intention of reading. For instance, just before our library closed for the pandemic, I came home with a copy of The Senior’s Guide to Garden Gnomes (updated […]
Good old days and birthdays
July! Remember way back in March when we laughed and said hopeful things like, “By the middle of April we’ll be back to business as usual”. I remember those days. In the old days, I remember watching the televised news, in the evening, and thinking how happy I was to live here and not in […]
A tale of half a year
The other day I did a mini inventory of all the bad things that have happened during a year that’s only half over. It’s scary stuff. The Australian bushfire crisis carried over into the new year and offered us the prospect of an environmental Armageddon. Then Donald Trump just about started World War III with […]
Canada days
Years ago, when I was a student at University of Waterloo, a professor asked us to write an essay about 10 things we’d put into a time capsule which would define us as Canadians. He said, “No printed materials, please.” As a student in the Canadian Studies Programme, I thought printed materials would be an […]
Marketing a lukewarm product“Catching the virus: It’s better at home.”
The County is of two minds about tourists. There are those who are grateful that income is at last flowing in, and who are prepared to accept the risk of vast numbers of people from the coronavirus hotbeds of Toronto and Montreal infecting County residents. And there are those who deem the risk too great, […]
How do I look in profile?
In 2012, LOML and I were driving in Mississauga on a quiet, residential road. Suddenly, the ominous flashing lights of a police cruiser approached from the rear. LOML was driving and pulled over, wondering aloud “What the heck did we do.” As it turned out, we didn’t do anything wrong. We were the prey. And […]