Jan. 9: Yesterday was my lucky day.
I found a free copy of the St. John Telegraph at a Macdonald’s which obviously draws a more intellectual clientele than the others. (the others had only the TandT.) So…
Graeme Decarie
Jan. 8: The column I never expected to see….
….but let’s start with the small stuff. The cheap shot of the year can be found among letters to the editor. “Mrs. Crocker, hang your head in shame” (headline written…
January 7: Step down, Rob Ford..
….New Brunswick has its own clown-mayor. Two years ago, mayor Woodside of Fredericton expelled Occupy protesters from their demonstration site. Then he ordered the site demolished. But there was one,…
Jan.6: When the going gets tough…
…the powerful pick on the weak… Some months ago, Harper announced a general get tough policy on Native Peoples. You may have read of it through fliers distributed through his…
Jan. 4, 2014: If people want to know how cold it is…….
….you don’t hold up a picture of cold. In fact, there is not such thing as a picture of cold. So you tell them the temperature. Unless you work for…
Jan 3, 2014: About the Bangladesh story that didn’t make the Irving press.
I mentioned yesterday some of the companies that use use extremely cheap labour and barbaric conditions to produce goods cheaply in Bangladesh. The workers are mostly women who work seven…
Jan. 2, 2014: A feast for the mind…
I came home to see a mouth watering pile of TandTs waiting for me. And I was intellectually starved after a week of seeing nothing but the Toronto Globe and…
Dec. 23: I should add….
to yesterday’s blog that when I suggested we need political parties based on moral principle, I did not mean parties based narrowly on any religion in particular. Churches certainly should…
Dec.22: The most important provincial election ever……
….and, no, the big issue is not the provincial budget. It’s not Mr. Alward’s fault (not directly) that we have a deficit. Anyway, he doesn’t have an answer for that…
Dec. 21: Dynamite on page one?
Or fluff? “Oil, gas industry facing roadblock.” says the headline. It seems there are problems in disposing of toxic waste water – you know the stuff filled with secret chemicals…
Dec. 20: The best column I have ever seen in the irving press…
…..is by Gwynne Dyer on the op ed page. It’s one of the best I have seen in any press. And, in dealing with Melson Mandela, it is far superior…
Dec. 19: the inevitable headline: Snow buries metro again….
Good thing I read the paper before going out. I was planning to go for a stroll in my bathing suit and bare feet. The only story of interest in…
Dec. 18: I know how the Irving press could save big money.
Instead of delivering a newspaper in the morning, it could distribute earplugs with a recorded message built into them. “You are tired. you are very tired. You are getting sleee….”…
Dec. 17: Damn me for a fool….
….yesterday, as I commented on the news of Canada Post laying off almost everybody, I didn’t have the wit to do the simple, ten minute check I should have done.…
Dec. 16: It starts on p. 1….
..where a story (which is otherwise a good one) carries the headline “Bird counts tally species” which means, roughly, bird counts count birds. (Note that headlines are NOT written by…
Dec. 15: Lots to to think about….
…none of it though, in the Irving press. On Dec. 14, several stories appeared in The Guardian, a British paper. They appeared because fracking has come to Britain. And it’s…
Dec. 14: Egg on my face…..
When I heard it on CBC news, I chortled with joy. (You chortle a lot as you get older; it’s less tiring than laughing.) It was a story about how…
Dec. 13: This is actually being written on the evening of Dec. 12 because…
…Dec. 13 is the day I see the doctor to determine whether it’s time to alert all the used body parts dealers that there’s a big sale coming – and…
Dec. 12: A collector’s item…
Some day, the edition of The Moncton Times and Transcript for this day, Dec. 12, 2013, will be worth big money. I’ve been thinking of buying a bunch for all…
Dec. 11: Check your mail carefully…
In recent days, I have had delivered to my house an expensive brochure (our taxes at work) giving me information I need for this winter. For example, as a form…