Category: Personal Reminiscences

What did the former council ever do for us?

Collingwood / Council / Humour & Satire / My WritingLeave a comment

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TIM: What exactly are the demands? BRIAN: We’re giving Powerstream two days to dismantle the entire apparatus of the Collus utility, and if they don’t agree immediately, we execute the shotgun clause. TIM: You mean, cut their nose off? DEB: Cut all our noses off. To spite our collective faces. Show them we’re not to be trifled with. BRIAN: Also, we’re demanding a ten foot mahogany statue of the former mayor with his conflicts hangin’ out. KATHY: What? They’ll never agree to that, Brian. BRIAN: That’s just a bar– a bargaining counter. And of course, we point out that they bear ……… click below for more ↓

These Old Bones

Literary pretensions / My Writing / Personal Reminiscences / Poetry & LyricsOne Comment

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These old bones; You wouldn’t think they’d cut a rug jitterbug dance between the rain drops but once I could. Once I did. Danced to the music, lover in hand, that time in the park when we didn’t care laughing in the face of the storm. The rain, the wind, splashing in the grass. The music was all in our heads, our breath, our hearts beat with the tunes we sang inside. I remember every line, every lyric. These old bones knew music. These old bones knew the hotcha rhythm of the dance. You wouldn’t think them spry enough, not ……… click below for more ↓

The raison d’etre

Humour & Satire / My Writing / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

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“Why do you do it?” A voice asked me, momentarily distracting my attention from deciding between the firm and silky tofu in the grocery store. I looked up to find a woman close to my own age in front of me. Well, perhaps she was a teensy bit older by about 20 years, but once you cross 60, age differences between seniors seem smaller. To my aging eyes, at least. I couldn’t easily disengage since her cart was wedged up against mine, and because I needed to find my way to the sweet potatoes across the aisle, I responded, hoping to ……… click below for more ↓

Bumble, Fumble, Stumble and Mumble

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Humour & Satire3 Comments

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Councillor Cam Ecclestone did an unusual and unexpected thing this week at Collingwood Council. He spoke. Normally, the intrepid but mute councillor is too busy to open his mouth. Like his colleague, Councillor “Sponge Bob” Madigan, he takes seriously his duty of holding his chair in place in case gravity ever lets go, while laboriously turning oxygen into carbon dioxide. At both tasks, these two excel beyond normal expectations. Yet this meeting, they stepped out of character. Take a look at the Rogers recording of the Monday night meeting, starting at 1:35:00. Read the story in the Connection, too (the ……… click below for more ↓

Collingwood’s comedy duo

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Humour & Satire5 Comments

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Abbott and Costello. Laurel and Hardy. Pegg and Frost. Wilder and Feldman. Jeffrey and Doherty. Great comedy duos of our time. Such memorable moments they have given us. Who can forget the timeless Abbott and Costello skit, “Who’s On First?” Or Laurel and Hardy’s “Soda Fountain” skit? W.C. Fields and Jody Gilbert doing “The Diner Skit” in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break? Or Jeffrey and Doherty in “How I Spent Your Tax Dollars Partying at FCM” at the last Collingwood Council meeting? You can watch the skit here on the Rogers’ broadcast of the meeting. It starts about 1:52:58 and runs on for ……… click below for more ↓

Spiralizing out of control

Cooking / Food & Drink / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

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I bought myself a spiral veggie cutter recently – a spiralizer, they’re called – after hearing a friend rave on about how wonderful his was. And since I both like to cook and I’m a gadget freak, I thought I ought to get myself one, too. And as an added bonus, I eat a lot of veggies and stir fry dishes. Sounded like a perfect match. Oh, and they are called by other names, too, like spiral slicers and spiral cutters. Somehow I must have missed the bandwagon because these things are all the rage, with dozens to choose from ……… click below for more ↓

The accomplishments of council

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Humour & SatireLeave a comment

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“You really are negative about our council,” the woman said to me as I stood in the grocery store, trying to decide whether to converse or pick mushrooms from the bin. But she insisted on the former. “Your blog is always about the bad things they do. You ought to try to say something positive now and then.” “What if I can’t think of anything?” I replied. “Oh come on,” she said. “They can’t be totally bad. Everyone does something good. Even them. You shouldn’t just write about the bad things. Write about the good things, too. It will improve ……… click below for more ↓

Boris Godunov

Culture / Music & Reviews / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

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I’m not sure why Boris Godunov, moves me like it does, but it has a curious, emotional effect on me. It’s a sprawling tragedy mixed with politics and betrayal, weighted down by brooding and scheming characters, a fickle mob, a holy fool, a ghost, an imposter as pretender to the throne, and the overthrow of a ruler – very Shakespearean. Or perhaps Machiavellian, in the negative sense of the word. I’ve been listening to it, again, as background music while I work at home these past few days. And every now and then I stop to listen, and marvel at ……… click below for more ↓

Dear Amazon…

Books & Reviews / Humour & Satire / Personal ReminiscencesOne Comment

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Dear Amazon: Hello, it’s me, Ian. Yes, that’s right, the crazy guy who orders all those books. Yeah, the history books, the science books, the philosophy books, the ones on leadership and politics… you know, the guy who spends at least $100 a month buying books from you. Plus don’t forget the pasta maker, the PC games, the laptop battery, the kitchenware, the ukulele tuners, the gaming mice, drawing tablet, Kindle and other stuff, I’ve bought from you… 26 orders from you in the last six months alone. Yeah, that Ian. Well, I’m at it again. I just can’t get enough. ……… click below for more ↓

The gems of Salomé

Books & Reviews / Language & Grammar / Personal Reminiscences / Poetry & LyricsLeave a comment

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I was perhaps 11 or 12 when I first encountered Oscar Wilde’s play, Salomé. Some of it, at least. At the time, I knew nothing of Wilde, his writing, or even much about theatre in general. After all, I was in grade seven or eight. It would be a few years before I encountered (and developed a passion for) Shakespeare and other playwrights. But Wilde I actually discovered first. Faced with the dramatic challenges of their own – my mother was either still in hospital or had only recently been released and was struggling with the paralyzing results of her stroke – my parents ……… click below for more ↓

Two conferences and a show

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Municipal Politics / Personal Reminiscences / Planning & Policies / Provincial Politics / WaterOne Comment

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I had the honour and the enjoyment of attending two municipal conferences last week. While no longer directly involved in politics, I am able to keep my finger in some of the political pies through my current work for an NGO. Plus, I like to remain informed and up-to-date about politics and governance, and am always looking for opportunities to increase my knowledge and understanding of pretty much any topic. The first event was the Ontario Water Conference, in Windsor. While predominantly a technical and operations event for facility managers and operators, it also has a good political component where utility board ……… click below for more ↓

The Crow and the Lion

Fables / Literary pretensions / PoliticsLeave a comment

Once upon a time, a crafty, old crow was sitting in his nest while his dole of pet doves brought him his breakfast. He happened to look down to the forest floor and saw a convocation of animals had been called. The animals gathered in front of their leader, a wise old lion. I don’t like lions, said the crow to himself. They’re too full of themselves. The animals like them too much. The lion shouldn’t be king of the beasts. I should be. So he called his doves to his side. “I am far more experienced, wiser, and smarter and ……… click below for more ↓

Mazatlan, 2016

Culture / Mexico / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

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We hadn’t been back to Mexico for at least six years and we missed it. We missed the climate, the culture, the food, the people, the music… Mexico has a dear place in our hearts from more than three decades of visiting it. For more than a decade we had been going to Zihuatanejo every February, staying in a house that was only a 10-15 minute walk from the downtown. Over the years, we met a lot of people, made friends with locals, with three generations of family that owned the house, and got to know the city pretty well. ……… click below for more ↓

The Wolf and the Dogs

Culture / Humour & Satire / Legends & Myths / Social Order & DisorderLeave a comment

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Once upon a time, there was a pack of good-hearted dogs who were known for their good deeds, and indeed their good natures. They travelled around the town unmolested, loved by everyone they met, helping with the chores, keeping the town safe from wild animals and intruders. The humans fed and pampered them, the other animals in the town bowed to them. Their leader, a kindly, gentle dog, was loved by all. But there were animals in the forest who grew envious of the dogs. They hated their popularity, their good deeds, their companionship with people. They wanted what the dogs had. Most ……… click below for more ↓

The Crafty Crow and the Doves

Culture / Fables / Humour & Satire / Legends & Myths / Literature / What I'm Reading Now / Writing & FictionLeave a comment

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Once upon a time, an old crow lived by the seaside. He had grown fat over the years because he was too lazy to work for his food. He preferred to sit than fly. He followed the other animals to get their leftovers, taking what wasn’t his, and annoying them by begging for some of their food. The other animals shunned him. They had chased him from many places, until he found himself on the coast. He was unwanted and unloved. One day, a flight of doves appeared. They were young, inexperienced doves fresh from the forest, who didn’t know their way ……… click below for more ↓

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