I was born in the Telephone City – Brantford – and someone in the family kept an old pamphlet that announced the arrival of direct-dialing via Bell Telephone. No more going through Marge on the giant switchboard. No more opportunities for Marge to listen in on your conversations. …
Ken and I are shooting a TV commercial this morning. It’s not just for our Morning Show on CJBK; afternoon drive host Andy Oudman is also in it and although the script is a closely guarded secret, I gather we are taking part in a mock debate, so it sounds like it will be fun. I will post it here once it’s finished and on the air. …
Well hello there and happy mid-August! I’m attempting to pour myself back into the work routine, as relaxed as a puddle after doing a whole lot of nothing special to anyone else but me. …
I hope your long weekend was wonderful. And if you worked, I hope people were kind to you. As I’ve mentioned before, losing track of the time is my ultimate indulgence. So, when social media pal (and world’s biggest tiny Donny Osmond fan) Carolyn retweeted Donny’s link to his and his wife Debbie’s new home furnishings collection, Donny Osmond Home, my inner child dove in to look at each and every piece. …
On Thursdays, we have a segment on the show called Ask Me Anything. Someone with a fascinating hobby or profession comes in and answers anything we and our listeners want to know about what they do. We’ve had a funeral director, a gun fanatic, a veterinarian, a former police chief and other interesting people. This week, I invited intuitive medium – psychic, if you like – Tania Thomas. She knew from the outset that I was a skeptic and she loves to talk about her work. But the result was unpredictable for another reason altogether. …
My brother Kevin is finally home after one of his bucket-list adventures: a motorcycle trip to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. It sits on the northern-most part of the US highway system – in fact, 10 miles north of the actual highway. Sarah Palin couldn’t see Russia from Prudhoe Bay, but that country isn’t far away. …
I’m pretty sure that Robbies Pizza was the first pizza I ever ate. That is correct – not Robbie’s; Robbies. I unearthed one of their flyers in a pile of my father’s stuff.
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The motorcycle industry is hurting. This isn’t anything new. It hasn’t really recovered since sales plummeted in the mid 2000s when the economy took a hit and the first things people gave up were their “play” items. They stopped buying sports cars, boats and bikes. When things started to pick up again, motorcycle manufacturers found themselves trying to sell powerful machines to people who were too old to want them. …
Trust me. This is worth your time. A woman who would obviously make a great friend or colleague decided to give her fiance a collection of boudoir photos. …
Months ago, we were given an old sewing machine and I knew immediately that I wanted it to be the base for a table. Meanwhile, we bought another couple of machines and earmarked them for the same fate. But we had to wait for just the right piece of wood. I wanted live-edge and beautiful but imperfect. …
Someone knocked on the door after 8 pm one night last week. Derek and I were in bed, reading, but I scrambled up and grabbed a robe. By the time I got to the door I saw a woman I didn’t know hustling down the end of our driveway, carrying signs on metal frames. …
Looking for something different to do last Friday, my pal Jenn suggested we check out the new broadcasting exhibit at Museum London. At the time, we didn’t realize it was the second anniversary of the death of our then-patriarch at Free-FM, Richard Costley-White. Fitting that we had stood in front of his photo at the Museum and remembered what a good guy he was. …
Have you ever looked at a simple little gizmo and thought, that can’t possibly work? That’s how I felt about my motion sickness wristbands until a pal told me they kept her stomach from trying to leave her body when she flew. Now I don’t go anywhere without them. Â …
It seemed that the Emerald City hop-on-hop-off trolley tour of Seattle wasn’t running yet last week, so Erin and I set about finding alternatives. At check-in, our hotel receptionist told Erin that the Smith Building was a better deal than the Space Needle for an overhead view of the entire city. A little Googling turned up Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour, so first, we went under the sidewalks to see the original Seattle. …
Seattle, Washington. Home of the Seahawks and the Mariners, the grunge music scene of the 1990s, fresh seafood that will make you moan and a long, pretty shoreline. It’s not surprising that they have tourism down to an art form. You can fly in, as we did from Victoria, via Alaska Air. You can take a ferry, as we did back to Victoria. They have light rail from the airport into downtown and bus rapid transit in the core. Uber and Lyft both operate legally alongside traditional cabs. Seattle gets it. Visitors want choices. …
Where to begin? At the beginning, I suppose. At my wonderful friends’ new home in Victoria, BC, with a panoramic view of the harbour and mountains, in the corner of our country that doesn’t experience weather extremes.
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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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An old friend from the Wingham/CKNX days posted an old photo of me on Facebook last weekend. Usually, I can tell by the hairstyle – or my hair’s lack of style – what year it was. I’m pretty sure this was taken early on in my four-year stint at ‘NX. But I’m not certain. …