Back when I was a youngster – literally in another millennium! – most kids had names that were pretty solid and stolid. Everybody knew a John or a Jim or a Tim or a Phillip or a Michael. Or a Diane or a Debbie or a Mary or a Janice
Continue readingAuthor: Maurice Tougas
In This Corner: Lessons from COVID … but will we learn?
Did you celebrate Canada Day on Thursday? If so, shame on you! If you read the daily newspapers (which nobody does anymore) or watch the TV news (which nobody should do anymore), you might think that Canada is a horribly racist country with nothing to celebrate. No less a personage
Continue readingIn This Corner: Battle of the butts: how we (almost) beat smoking
While driving around town recently, I saw something that actually made me come up short. The guy behind me was not pleased. Nothing turns a woman on more than blowing smoke in her face. I wish I had known this years ago. What did I see? Get this: there was
Continue readingIn This Corner: This just in … Father’s Day is Sunday
I’ve got some potentially bad news for any of you who have a father: Sunday is Father’s Day. Your reaction to this news will vary from “Yes, I know it’s Father’s Day. I bought my gift weeks ago” (generally a female response), to “What? Father’s Day again! Why didn’t somebody
Continue readingIn This Corner: Snips and Cuts of 1939 (2021 remix)
While rummaging through my junk recently (and by junk, I mean scraps of paper, etc., not, well, my junk) I came across something I didn’t know I had. A yearbook. From Central High School. In Charlotte, North Carolina. From 1939. I know why I have it … it was my
Continue readingIn This Corner: Canada: home of the world’s most flexible constitution
Is Canada a country? Yes, I know Canada is a country in the land-mass sense of the word. You really can’t miss Canada on a map. It’s that massive slab of land, quite often coloured pink to show we’re part of the British Commonwealth (the same reason I added a
Continue readingIn This Corner: The world’s super censor brings John Cena to his knees
Are you familiar with John Cena? If not, good for you; he’s not really worth knowing about. So for the uninitiated, John Cena is a former professional wrestler. According to the World Wrestling Entertainment website, he is a 16-time WWE champion, author and ‘actor’ (quotes are mine). To quote directly
Continue readingIn This Corner: I’m STILL confused …
So-o-o-o-o … what’s new? Well, the Stanley Cup playoffs have begun, so there’s that. I’m very excited, up until the Edmonton Oilers are eliminated which. After that, my interest in hockey falls to near zero, with the exception of a hockey pool I entered. When researching which teams to choose,
Continue readingIn This Corner: An abundance of confusion
So I’m at a pharmacy, getting a prescription filled. The pharmacy tech is behind a shield, of course. She is also wearing a mask, naturally. And, not so naturally, she is also wearing a face shield. That’s three layers of protection between us. I’m thinking to myself that this is
Continue readingIn This Corner: Happy Mother’s Day … sorry, have I excluded you?
Happy Mother’s Day! Oh, I’m sorry. Have I offended you? Please accept my apology, especially if you are a student of Manchester University in England. Old school hot mother I came across a story on the internet a while back, with the click-bait headline ‘Manchester University bans the word ‘mother’
Continue readingIn This Corner: Sorry, UCP, but you’re stuck with Kenney
When Jason Kenney assumed the leadership of the newly-hatched United Conservative party in 2017, he was no doubt expecting a long, unchallenged reign. Coupled with his resounding victory over Rachel Notley’s one-and-done New Spend-ocratics (oooh, good one) , it likely gave him a feeling of invincibility. Those were the days,
Continue readingIn This Corner: The pure comedy of Spam, a lot of spam
Few crimes make me angrier than telephone or online scams. But I don’t know who I am angrier at – the scammer or the victim. The scammer is a reprehensible sub-human, preying on naive elderly people. What’s worse than that? But I’m also angry at the naive elderly person. Seriously,
Continue readingIn This Corner: And the winner is … who cares?
The Academy Awards – Oscar to his friends – airs this Sunday. Are you excited? No? OK, mildly interested? No, not even that? Indifferent or openly hostile? Yeah, that sounds more like it. “Hello, it’s me, Oscar. Anybody? C’mon, it’s be fun … OK, maybe not fun.” I’m not proud
Continue readingIn This Corner: Sorry, Ernest, but I just don’t get you
While scrolling through the TV listings last week (I spent almost as much time looking for something to watch as actually watching), I came upon a new Ken Burns documentary on PBS. (Insert nerd joke here.) I love documentaries, and a Ken Burns doc is an event. Burns is arguably
Continue readingIn This Corner: What to keep, and what to trash: an old man’s dilemma
As regular readers (yeah, that’s you … admit it) know, your humble scribe turned 65 in February. In the course of three score and five years, I have accumulated a fair pile of stuff. As a lifelong newspaper junkie and de facto family archivist (both of my birth family and
Continue readingIn This Corner: Hey, COVID protesters. Here’s a lesson in tyranny.
It has become an almost weekly event here in Alberta, and in other parts of the Mediocre White North, for a small group of malcontents to gather in protest of COVID-19 restrictions. Yep, this is tyranny, alright. They carry crudely-made signs, and listen intently while someone rants into a bullhorn
Continue readingIn This Corner: Ancient Rome: What every Grade 2 kid should know
The Alberta government has introduced a new social studies curriculum for Grades 1-6 that puts an emphasis on ancient and medieval civilizations and the history of religions. Here is a preview of a Grade 2 class in the not-too distant future. “OK, class, settle down, settle down. Today, we are
Continue readingIn This Corner: A logophile’s lament …
After many, many decades as a journalist and writer, I have developed a rare condition: I am a logophile, which is someone who loves words. You’ve likely never encountered the word ‘logophile’ before and, to be honest, neither had I. I just looked it up, and it works perfectly. As
Continue readingIn This Corner: A cautionary tale about Twitter
Last week, I got a notice from Twitter that I was ‘celebrating’ 12 years on the social media platform. What an accomplishment. Here are my Twitter stats after 12 years. As of March 2021, I have sent out 3,475 tweets. I am following 50 accounts, one of whom claims to
Continue readingIn This Corner: Winners and losers of the first COVID-19 year
How did this microscopic turd bring the world to its knees? So here we are, a full year into the Coronapocalypse. It has been (choose your favourite hackneyed phrase) a year like no other, unlike anything we’ve ever seen, a year of the new normal, etc. It will be years
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