George Carlin had his list of words – now the CBC has theirs

In 1972, the late great George Carlin introduced his list of the Seven Words You Can’t Say On TV. Clearly, George was talking about a time before cable and specialty stations because many of the seven words are heard often now. I’ll not list the words but will suggest you have a look at this

Supply chain woes and blood donations

I am a big proponent of donating blood. I’m a coward when it comes to essentially all things medical but I can assure you that the process is painless, and not even terribly wooz-inducing. I’m up to thirty donations now and my only regret is that I didn’t start earlier. During the preparation for one

My Grandfather’s Lexicon

I’ve always liked the word lexicon, defined as the “vocabulary of a language, an individual speaker or group of speakers, or a subject”. I wonder if the words and terms used by denizens of Guadalajara make up a Mexicon? Or if those witty utterances of the wee lucky green people from Ireland constitute a Lexichaun? If

Odd cheer for classic country lyric

According to Wikipedia, Country is a genre of popular music that originated with blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, old-time, and American folk music forms including Appalachian, Cajun, Creole, and the cowboy Western music styles of New Mexico, Red Dirt, Tejano, and Texas country. Growing up, it was referred to as Country

My Great-Grandfather’s World War One Lie

  My great-grandfather, Ernest Henry Blackwell, was born in Sussex, England. In 1893, he and his wife Annie Ellis emigrated to Canada where he would spend the rest of his days. They had five children: three sons and two daughters. His eldest child, George Ernest Blackwell, was my grandfather. I have recounted some of his

Sorry But We Canadians Do Not Apologize Too Much

This post originally appeared in 2013. At the time it was linked to by CNN. It is often said that we Canadians are polite to a fault.  As a Canadian, I would suggest, but certainly not argue, that it is impossible to be overly polite. People point out that we say thank you way too

Kamikaze food delivery

While many, if not most, industries have taken it on the chin during the pandemic, there are a few that actually flourished. Chief among them is the food delivery business. Certainly, the concept of home delivery was around long before COVID19, but with restaurants closed to in-house dining, the only hope of survival was take-out

Time to give tourists a break

There are those who would have you believe that the whole pandemic is actually a means for certain nefarious world powers, elected officials, and large corporations to reset how we live. These conspiracy theories usually revolve around the notion of governmental control. Anti-vaxxers lead the charge. Don’t tell me what to do. Well, if there

COVID19 and the demise of the Bro-Hug

As we head into the heart of autumn, COVID19 warnings become more and more confusing. On the one hand vaccination numbers are up, not enough yet, but up. Yet some jurisdictions are reporting rises in the number of daily cases. Of course, there is a strong correlation in that the vast majority of these cases

R.I.P Ferguson