Category: Personal Reminiscences

The Cancer Diaries Part 1

Daily life / Family history / Musings / Personal Reminiscences / Stoicism & classical philosophyLeave a comment

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I should have started this a while ago. Perhaps when I received the first news something as wrong. But it took a while to really sink in. And then it was upon me. Although this is personal, I wanted to share it, in the hope others might find it useful. There’s a psychological process called the Kübler-Ross model, or the Five Stages of Grief, which is often applied to cancer and other diseases, but at least for me, it didn’t work that way. Her stages are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance. But for me, the first thing was ……… click below for more ↓

Shaving notes, again

Daily life / Personal Reminiscences3 Comments

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It’s been a while since I wrote about shaving, so I thought it was time to bring that story up to date. If you wish to read my previous posts on shaving, blades, and razors, you can do so here. Suffice to say, I gleefully returned to the art of shaving with a double-edged (DE) safety razor a couple of years back and spent some time (and money) trying different brands and styles of razor and blade. I can’t believe all those years I wasted using those plastic razors with their environmentally-hostile throw-away blades. And don’t get me started on ……… click below for more ↓

Dandelions and civilization

Behaviour & Psychology / Culture / Ethics & morality / History & Biography / Manners & Civility / Personal Reminiscences / Pop Culture / Social Order & DisorderLeave a comment

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Whenever I see a lawn with dandelions, I think, “This is the home of civilized people. This is the home of people who care about the environment and their community. This is where bees are welcome.” When I see a monoculture lawn, bereft of weeds or dandelions, I think, “Here is the home of an anti-social family; a place where life is restricted, wildlife discouraged; where community and the environment don’t matter.” I feel the same when I see a lawn sign advertising that an anti-“weed” toxin has been applied: “Here is the house of someone who dislikes their neighbours, ……… click below for more ↓

Big G and Me

Culture / Family history / Film & Reviews / Godzilla / Musings / Personal Reminiscences / Pop Culture / TV2 Comments

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One of my fondest childhood memories is sitting between my parents on a warm summer night, on the front seat of the family car, watching a movie through the windshield, above the dashboard. A single, metal-wrapped speaker hung from the glass of the half-opened window on the driver’s side. A box of salty popcorn passed between us, soft drinks too. Around us were dozens of other cars, all facing the giant outdoor screen, their occupants nothing more than dark shadows. Behind us was a low, concrete building with a screen-facing opening where we could buy snacks and drinks. It was ……… click below for more ↓

The Sounds of Winter

Humour & Satire / Literary pretensions / My Writing / Poetry & LyricsLeave a comment

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To the tune of Sounds of Silence, with apologies to Paul Simon… Hello, winter, my old friend I have a bone to pick, again Because a snowplow softly creeping Passed my house while I was sleeping My driveway’s blocked and I’m shovelling again My back’s in pain I curse these days of winter. Every day we play this game. Digging out then filled again. The snow drifts reach up unto my knees Beneath the heavy snow my pipes do freeze Each time I clear my driveway of the heavy load I know There’ll be more snow. I hear the plow ……… click below for more ↓

I’m Reading as Fast as I Can

Books & Reviews / Daily life / Personal Reminiscences / Reading & Literacy / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

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I don’t recall just when I started putting books aside to read, or perhaps just finish, when I retired. I had this naive, romantic idea that upon retirement, at the age of 65 or thereabouts, I would be able to spend my time puttering around the house and garden, carting a bag of books from place to place, to living out my final years in the warm glow of reading and cups of tea. Books have long lives in my library. Putting one aside to reach for another, and then consigning it to an imagined peaceful future where I would ……… click below for more ↓

Of dictionaries, memories, and friends

Books & Reviews / Language & Grammar / Musings / Personal Reminiscences / What I'm Reading Now / Words & etymology / Writing & FictionLeave a comment

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When a copy of this selection from Samuel Johnson’s famous dictionary arrived last week, I was delighted, and immediately reminded of my late, and well-loved friend, Bill. He would have appreciated the book, chuckled over Johnson’s witty definitions, delighted in the words at play. We would have sat around the kitchen counter, alternately reading random definitions from the book, in between sips of wine. Like every good writer I’ve ever known, Bill loved words, puns, wit, and the interplay of language. Sadly, Bill died of esophageal cancer late last year, the same cancer that took my father a few years ……… click below for more ↓

2018 in review

Blog & Blogging / Musings / My Writing / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

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As the year 2018 closes, it’s time for my customary review of what I wrote. It’s also time to thank every reader for participating, for reading my humble musings, for sharing my posts and sending me emails about them. I appreciate your presence and your comments. Twenty eighteen was another good year for my blog. I wrote almost 180,000 words  and saw one-two percent more visitors than last year (although not quite as many as my best year, 2016). My best month for visitors was May; the slowest was November. Since Jan. 1, 2012, I’ve written close to two million ……… click below for more ↓

Dictionary vs Dictionary.com

Books & Reviews / Daily life / Internet & Social Media / Literature / Musings / Personal Reminiscences / Reading & Literacy / Style & usage / TV / What I'm Reading Now / Words & etymologyLeave a comment

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Did you know that doxastic is a philosophical adjective relating to an individual’s beliefs? Or that doxorubicin was an antibiotic used in treating leukemia? Or that doxy is a 16th century word for mistress and prostitute? That drack is Australian slang for unattractive or dreary? Drabble means to make wet and dirty in muddy water? A downwarp is a broad depression in the earth’s surface? Drail is a weighted fish hook? Dragonnade means quartering troops on a population while dragonet is a small fish but a dragoman is an interpreter? That a dramaturge is a literary editor on a theatre ……… click below for more ↓

Storytelling cubes

Language & Grammar / Learning & Education / Literary pretensions / Personal Reminiscences / What I'm Reading Now / Words & etymology / Writing & FictionOne Comment

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You don’t expect Wal Mart to be the source for literary tools, but if you amble into the section crammed with toys, you can pick up a set of Rory’s Story Cubes for just $10 (the base set). Now, I realize these are meant as a creative game for children and/or families (marked ages 8+), but they are actually an ingenious little tool for plot development and ideas in storytelling. And for some exercises in creative thinking. Wait, you say: they’re just dice with pictures. Can pictures alone make a story? Well, yes: just look at Xu Bing’s Book from ……… click below for more ↓

Imperialism and razors

Daily life / International politics / Musings / Personal ReminiscencesOne Comment

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I’m looking at my recently-acquired, matte black, Weishi adjustable, TTO (Twist To Open, aka butterfly-head) razor. Quite attractive, smart even, and a solid heft in the hand. Chinese-made, Amazon-sold. I am still bemused by my ability to buy products – especially household items, things I use daily – from half a world away with a simple click. Especially when I can’t find any of those items locally (and, yes, I’ve looked…). Convenient, yes, but also a symbol of the new imperialism: the transnational corporate empires. Most (all?) of the safety razors I’ve purchased in the past six months since I ……… click below for more ↓

The sharp edge: razors and rituals

Daily life / Musings / Personal Reminiscences / PhilosophyLeave a comment

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Since I switched to using a safety razor, as I wrote about last spring, I’ve continued to pursue my explorations into razors, blades, technologies and techniques about shaving. I’ve learned much, but still want more hands-on experience. Nothing teaches like hands-on. I followed up that post with another one on shaving, a month later, about what I’d learned since that first piece. Now, four months later, I come back to the topic with new discoveries to relate. And some new razors to describe. But let me interject a comment on why this matters. Shaving is something I do if not ……… click below for more ↓

The arts of politics and baking

Bread & Baking / Collingwood / Daily life / Election 2018 / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

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In his book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, author Robert Prisig wrote about how dealing with the small things of daily life  – like fixing his wayward motorcycle – could teach us about the world at large. A sort of microcosm-becomes-macrocosm perspective, with the vagarities of motorcycle repair to colour the learning. What we learn in one we can apply to the other. * Baking bread, too, offers a meta-window into other arts and crafts, in particular (for me), politics. Bakers and thinkers have oft cited bread as a metaphor for life (listen to master baker Peter Reinhart’s comments on ……… click below for more ↓

Abby the heartbreaker

Daily life / Personal Reminiscences / PetsLeave a comment

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She was a small cat. At first we thought she might be not much older than six or eight months, but no, we were assured, she was fully grown. Just petite. Two kilos, maybe a hair more. Black with a little white patch on her chest. Big, expressive eyes. This was a dozen years ago, back when the humane society was in its infancy, and didn’t yet have a permanent shelter. Cats and dogs that couldn’t find homes or foster care were kenneled with willing veterinarians around the region. Susan and I had agreed to adopt one more cat, and ……… click below for more ↓

Relevant poetry

Books & Reviews / Culture / Musings / Personal Reminiscences / Poetry & LyricsOne Comment

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I was standing in a bookstore in downtown Toronto a couple of weeks back, and opened The Essential Ginsberg, a collection of poems, songs and other writing by the late Allen Ginsberg, he of Howl fame*. I open the book at random and read the opening Ginsberg’s poem, Capital Air, which starts: I don’t like the government where I live I don’t like dictatorship of the Rich I don’t like bureaucrats telling me what to eat I don’t like Police dogs sniffing around my feet Even though Ginsberg wrote it in 1980, it felt like something he would be writing ……… click below for more ↓

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