More Easter
While there is still chocolate left in the world to eat…Â …
Photography
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. …
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. …
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. …
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. …
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. …
Off the Beaten Path
We like to get out and explore on our own. One of our favourite side trips from Las Vegas was to Oatman, Arizona. They call Oatman a ghost town because it’s settled in the Black Mountains of the Mohave and once boasted a population of 3,500. That was in the gold rush days. Now about 100 people live in the old west throwback town year round and wild burros roam freely through the streets. …
Ten Feet Off of Beale
It’s impossible to visit Memphis without getting a repetitive earworm of Marc Cohn’s 1991 hit “Walkin’ in Memphis”. (If you don’t know it, get thee to YouTube and check it out.) Cohn’s autobiographical, Grammy-winning song brought Beale Street – and most of Memphis – to the masses. Walkin’ in Memphis mentions many of the city’s highlights, from catfish on the table to gospel in the air.  …
Walkin’ (Too Much!) In Memphis
There’s no need to park in downtown Memphis and walk ten city blocks to your destination. We know that now! Looking back, I can’t remember why we did this on our second-last day in the city. It wasn’t the only time we paid for parking when a free spot was available at our destination. Tourists, eh? …
Walkin’ In Memphis
It had been about twenty years since I first visited Graceland. Elvis purchased the mansion, on nearly 14 acres of land, in 1957. The sellers doubled the price to about $100,000 once they found out who the buyer was. The King’s parents moved in and Elvis joined them once he finished filming Jailhouse Rock. Graceland was named for the original landowner, not for Elvis’ beloved Mother, Grace. …
Drivin’ To Memphis
I hope you have your traveling pants on. This week, I’m taking you on our road trip where we visited (or at least passed through) eight US states, brought home some contraband (you can lie by omission at the border, right?) and had a thoroughly great time. …
Eight Days a Week Times Two
I’m taking a two-week hiatus. No radio show. No news-hounding, at least not like usual. And no blog posts. …
Love Letters
It’s been too cold to drag a saw out of the shop and cut wood. Too cold to sand or stain or paint for that matter, even in shop #2 in our basement. But it’s not too cold for stencils. …