So, must we start every sentence with so?

I’m a bit of a newshound. I like to have an ear to the ground as it were. Working from home I have the radio on in the background and the TV, with the audio muted, showing CNN, BBC, or Sky News. As I listen to audio reports on a wide range of topics, from

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

COVID19 In Our Rear-view Mirror

It’s so close you can almost touch it. But not just yet. I refer to the time when the COVID19 pandemic will be, like Lubbock, Texas in the Mac Davis song, in our rear-view mirrors. I can’t imagine what Mac had against Lubbock, but he was sure pleased to be leaving. Things are getting better

Try To Remember …

Try to remember the kind of September … Back when I was a boy – yep, it’s going to be one of those posts – I always had mixed feelings about the month of September. On the one hand my birthday was coming up, while on the other it was back to school time. As

Taking Advantage of the Pandemic

The current pandemic has opened doors to all kinds of people, giving them an opportunity to promote their theories. Including Montreal’s mayor using it to fast-track her desire to pedestrianise a main downtown street. But that’s just politics. Then there are the anti-vaxers, those folks who refuse to even think about having themselves or their

Justify My Text

WordPress has introduced yet another version of the Block Editor. I have not been a fan of the concept from the beginning, but I thought I’d see it through and continue with the new version rather than seek shortcuts to get back to my comfort zone. But I like the look of the two neat

Today I Am My Father’s Age

Originally posted June 2014 Reposting for Father’s Day Today I am the exact age my father was when he passed away. Tomorrow I will be older than my father ever was. Yesterday marked the thirty-seventh anniversary of my father’s passing. He was born on September 21, 1922, and passed away on June 4, 1977, at the

An Ode to Bars and Those Who Tend Them – Take 2

Not that I’m a lush, but I like bars. Not just the establishments that are known as bars, pubs, or watering holes, but the actual bar itself. I find much comfort in sitting on a comfortable stool – with back if you please – and sipping a cold beer or two, on tap or cold

A Canadian Leprechroon and Irish Superstitions

My maternal great grandparents were both born in Dublin. As was the case with many Irish at the time, not long after they married in the 1880s they emigrated to England. But of course, the bloodline remains. I’ve come to the conclusion that this makes me a Leprechroon. Yep, not an octoroon, nor a quadroon,