Sibling Supremacy
My brother and I argue about the most inconsequential things. Last week, we spent more time than I care to admit in opposition over what a piece of melted cheese looked like. …
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Photography
Throwback Thursday – At Your Service
When I was a kid, I loved the poems of Robert Service. They told stories of the Yukon gold rush in a musical cadence that included lots of alliteration and rhymes. Service didn’t bother with subtleties in his most famous works. You knew what you were getting with The Cremation of Sam McGee, The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill and hundreds of others. He also wrote six novels, two autobiographies and even acted in the 1942 film, The Spoilers, with Marlene Dietrich. Visiting his restored cabin in Dawson City, Yukon – a preserved historical site – is on my bucket list. …
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The future is always beginning now ~Mark Strand.
While I check out my items at the grocery store, I can’t help but think about the last time I went through a cashier’s lane. We exchanged the usual pleasantries. She asked how I was. I responded, fine, how are you. And then she launched into the reasons why she shouldn’t be there. It wasn’t her shift. Someone called in sick and she was summoned at the last minute. She was really tired. …
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Hear My Voice
After more than a year away, I signed up once again to Voices.com. (I wrote about it HERE.) I was annoyed with them. My booking rates had fallen and they had doubled their escrow rates without notice. It went from 10% to 20% overnight. That’s the amount they charge a client based on the rate paid to the talent. The amount comes out of the total budget, ostensibly reducing how much the talent, like me, can charge for the job. …
Poly Wants a Freebie
The question I asked myself was, where can I buy a can of turkey gravy and a container of PolyFilla? I’m very tired and must get home to nap so this magical place must not be out of my way. Only one store came to mind: Walmart. …
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Spring Fling
So, this is what our basement floor looks like! I haven’t seen this much of it since it was installed!
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For Better or For Purse
What a difference a name makes. When fake leather was known as pleather it was considered cheap, as in, spend a few more bucks and buy real leather. Now that it’s got a better name – vegan leather – it’s the cool and cruelty-free thing to own. …
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Clean Getaway
Derek and I have been looking around to invest in a vacation retreat. Something modest to match our budget. A little place near water we can spruce up and customize. Our summer home when we’re ready to become snowbirds. We’re looking everywhere – from other provinces to other countries. Nothing is off the table. If you’ve explored the cottage areas of Ontario and you don’t have a million dollars to spend, you know how difficult it is to find something affordable close to home. …
March Saneness
So many young people. Millions around the world and even some in my own city, joining in Saturday’s March For Our Lives. Also, Parkland school shooting survivors and others, enduring taunts and ridicule from adult gun advocates. But gathering support from thousands of others. …
Thankful Thursday – Radio Days
Radio has given me a voice. It’s been loyal to me even when I wasn’t loyal to it. It’s forgiven me when I was a jerk (and there were times when I was a jerk!) and afforded me opportunities I wouldn’t have found anywhere else. Radio introduced me to some of the most wonderful people in the world, and some of the most famous. They’re not always the same thing. It legitimized me to strangers and gave me confidence until I built some of my own. …
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The Fish Sex Movie and Others
The Oscar-winners for Best Picture and Best Director often leave me baffled. Except for Titanic more than twenty years ago, the winner is rarely the most popular film. The Shape of Water certainly fits that mould. It’s a surreal cold-war tale about a monster from the sea and people on land who can’t seem to connect with others. …
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Short Cuts
Sometimes, I’m quite alright with cutting a corner or two. Farm Boy makes better gravy than I do. Lasagna is very time-consuming and there’s a frozen variety that we like. I once wrote a column about house-cleaning short-cuts that included pouring a little bleach down the sink, because the smell of bleach gives an illusion of “clean”. …
Don’t Bug Me
Last week, I ate a cricket. I hadn’t planned to but I got caught up in the moment. Ken and I were interviewing a naturalist from the Butterfly Conservancy of Cambridge about their Chocolate Bugfeast that’s on this week. Ken chomped on some chocolate-covered critters and I decided to join in. Â …
A Ford, A Woman and a Tulip
The “progressive” part of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives was removed from their name on the weekend. What a mess. The Liberals were the real winners of the PC leadership debacle that elected Doug Ford. …
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Weighty Matters
I’ve only ever known how it feels to eat whatever I want for short periods of time. I’ve been on Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig and always have a few Lean Cuisine dinners in the freezer, so I don’t get caught without anything to eat and have to tear into an entire elephant or something. Whenever I’ve strayed from the basic tenets of Weight Watchers, I’ve put on weight. True, the formula is calories-in, calories-out, but I’m not about to become the marathon runner my metabolism apparently wants me to be. (Darn you scoliosis!)Â …
What Marcus Had to Say
Derek recently narrated a book devoted to the stoicism of Marcus Aurelius. Marcus – let’s call him Marc – on second thought let’s not – lived from the year 121 to 180. For the last 19 years of his life, he was the Roman Emperor. Until Derek got this job, I was unfamiliar with his master work, Meditations, although millions around the world have read it. …
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My Good Friend Joe
A few weeks ago, I received an email telling me that I was one of ten finalists in the Win A Wardrobe For Life Contest from Joe Fresh. This immediately raised my suspicions, of course. However, I had a clear memory of entering the contest and the attached form wasn’t asking for anything related to my bank accounts or credit card numbers. It looked legit. …
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