Too soon and yet after too much suffering, my father has died as the result of complications from Parkinson’s. It’s a horrible disease. An eventual life sentence of deteriorating motor skills, loss of independence and dementia. He was 82, but in the past year, he aged to look ten years older. He was my Daddy and no matter what illness did to him, he somehow kept a glimmer of his sense of humour, a testament to his strength.
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Loads of positive feedback followed my first Really Late Review last Friday.  It seems I’ve found common ground with plenty of people who don’t leap on the next new thing the minute it comes out. Several readers promised to submit their reviews and Sharon Whiteside was first through the gate with her podcast review. I’m definitely going to listen to this one. Some podcasts are amazing, some are disappointing, but there’s nothing like a first-person review from someone you can trust. And that’s the whole idea. Enjoy Sharon’s RLR!Â
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RLR – Sharon Whiteside Reviews “Girl on Guy” PodcastsRead More »
There were a few years when we were kids that people mistook my baby brother and me for twins. I wasn’t growing at all and he was growing fast. We’re sixteen months apart but we looked alike. …
We’re lucky that my Dad is mostly in a good mood while Parkinson’s eats away at his mobility and dementia claims more of his time. As I’ve posted previously, we just go along with whatever reality he’s in. It’s as if he’s literally seeing things that we can’t see, which I suppose he is. He was recently in hospital for eighteen days and we thought we’d lost him. Now he’s back in his long-term care home and re-adjusting pretty well. But he fixates on things for a day or two at a time and on the weekend, he was seeing – or wanting to see – grapes.Â
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The Ken and Lisa Morning Show pitched a contest idea some time ago: a wedding vow renewal. We’d choose a couple and give them a CJBK Wedding Do-Over. Mary and Fred’s entry was selected some time ago, and their mini-wedding was held last Wednesday evening. It was wonderful! We selected a couple whose first wedding had a lot of mishaps including a lost ring and no money for a honeymoon. It also happens to be their fiftieth anniversary year. …
Erin Moran never would have made it on a sitcom in this era of instant critics on social media. She was cute but she was ordinary. She didn’t have a 22-inch waist or DD boobs. Unless she could write her own show and work nude, like Lena Dunham, a girl like Erin Moran wouldn’t have been able to stay afloat in the Kardashian sea.  It’s simply a sad fact. …
This is an experiment. It occurred to me that not everyone sees movies when they first come out. We sure don’t. Life is busy and there are other priorities. I used to try to see all of the nominees for Best Picture before the Academy Awards but there are simply too many other things to do. We don’t get a lot of screen time. …
Tall women have long been told that they shouldn’t wear heels, or look taller than men. This is, of course, ridiculous. A female friend who’s 6′ tells everyone she’s 5′ 12″. (She does it as a joke, though.) Â The crew dug a trench for Nicole Kidman to walk in as she was filmed alongside then-husband Tom Cruise for the 1992 romantic adventure movie Far and Away. And although there wasn’t much the royal spin doctors could do about live appearances of Prince Charles and his wife Diana – except perhaps require her to walk twelve paces behind him – their official portraits were doctored to hide the fact that they were the same height.Â
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Although Derek continues to make tables and other items out of wood, he seems to have found his niche in making one-of-a-kind lamps. He also loves the work. I tell him that they’re functional works of art and he says, aw, g’won. But they are. …
A couple of weeks ago I put out a request on social media for coffee mug recommendations. Not ordinary mugs though, travel mugs, or something that would keep my coffee hot. I have a cheap, ordinary mug at work and my coffee turns ice cold within minutes, or so it seems. I take coffee pretty seriously and hosting a live talk show means I don’t have time to run around and heat it up again. I googled for solutions but I wanted real-life experiences with specific mugs. …
Like tens of thousands of other people, I got a little caught up in the excitement of April the giraffe giving birth. The live webcam went up so early, it started to seem like they were streaming the goings-on in her pen far too early. Was she even pregnant? Had she lied to her much younger partner Oliver about the baby? It was the animal world’s little soap opera courtesy of the Animal Adventure Park and YouTube. …
The Easter Bunny, in all its glory! …
How quickly things change, eh? This throwback House Proud column from November 2009 proves it. I was so excited about technology that reads text aloud and now we live in the age of Siri, Alexa and a host of other gizmos that are part of our phones. I’d still like a robot house-keeper, though.  It sure would be nice to have a robot to help around the house. On TV, The Jetsons had Rosie, their robotic housekeeper and technology is almost advanced enough to bring Rosie out of the cartoon world and into the real one. Plenty of robots are available to help with various chores inside and outside your home. …
Throwback Thursday: I Robot – House Proud, Toronto SunRead More »
Part of my deal with the agency that represents me for voice work is that I’ll no longer travel for an in-studio session. If someone wants to hire me, they can do what’s called a Directed Session over Skype while I stay in my home studio. It’s how I remain sane while doing VO on the side while starting my day around 3 am to cohost the CJBK morning show. It’s a hard and fast rule. So, why did I break it last week? …
In our house, I’m the technology expert. Once we walk out the door, I’m basically a dummy in this area.Â
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Lately I’ve been making fairly regular trips back to my hometown. Well, I have three hometowns, and I’m traveling past or to at least one of them on these road trips. I drink coffee. I always take along a bottle of water. When nature calls, I’m caught in that all-too-familiar state of wondering how to answer. A stroke of genius hit me on Sunday. Â …
EQ – emotional intelligence –  isn’t about getting in touch with your inner child or learning how to cry. It’s the dealing-with-people-and-life version of IQ, which is your book-learnin’ and problem-solving intelligence. And unlike an IQ, an EQ can go way up if you want it to. …
My niece is looking for a prom dress. This dress is the most important article of clothing in the world. It must be perfect. It must not only flatter but enhance and beyond that, it must meet with the approval of the Wardrobe Committee – her girlfriends who have individual veto power over each contender. They’re not shopping with her. They’re receiving selfies, one at a time, as she shops with her parents who are nearing their wits’ ends. One gown almost made the cut until one of the Committee members responded to it with a text that read, “Ewwwww!” Â Â …