This is a hilarious blog post from Notes From The UK by Ellen Hawley. It made me laugh so I thought I would share it. If you ask the BBC about dwile flonking (and who doesn’t at some point?), you’ll find them asking a question of their own: Does dwile flonking really date back to […]
It is always pleasing to see the public engaging with art, and when the public displays a sense of humour in their engagement it feels as though all is right with the world. Back in November, I shared some photos of a new art installation near my home. I think of the work as Red […]
Just suppose for a moment that you want to find out the price of a new car. Not a loan for a car; just a car, outright. But, when you ask, the dealership does not give you a dollar amount. Instead, they ask you first to tell them how much money you have saved, how […]
Everywhere we go in any city in the western world, we are being video-recorded. In stores, outside banks, at intersections, and anywhere near a doorbell camera or security camera. We have become so used to it that we don’t even think about it any more. Yesterday, though, I was given a reason to think about […]
There is a word in the English language that is a kind of verbal Get Out Of Jail Free card. It is also quite delicious to say out loud. The word is ‘notwithstanding‘. It means ‘in spite of’ and is used when you want to recognize that something can be true regardless of the fact […]
I felt guilty yesterday because I watched from my car as a woman tried to walk across an icy parking lot, and I smiled. Well, to tell the truth, I actually laughed. Yes, I am a cruel unfeeling human. But, between you and me, it was really quite funny. Edmonton has had at least three […]
They meant well, but sometimes meaning well does not mean well-being. I was presented this week with two contradictory images. One was of a sculpture representing the work done by Catholic nuns in Alberta. It is called Service Through Christ and is by the artist Herman Poulin. The press release from Covenant Health says: “The […]
Everyone agrees that the Covid-19 problem is awful, and almost everyone thinks that their politicians are doing a terrible job of managing it. A friend on Facebook recently described the situation in Alberta as being “a dumpster fire” and she isn’t wrong. Comparatively, though, the dumpster fire is bigger in a lot of other places. […]
Yesterday, I visited a local cannabis dispensary in order to buy some CBD cream because cold weather has made the joints in my fingers very stiff and a little painful. I have osteoarthritis in my hands and it has become progressively more of a nuisance over the years. So, when I heard that someone I […]
A new art installation has appeared less than a block from my home. It is called Walking Figures and it is by the Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz. I saw a television news item about the installation and one of the comments that stood out for me was that the figures represent our shared humanity and […]
Molly Jung-Fast, Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Beast, got it right when she wrote today “America Finally Breaks Up With Her Abusive Boyfriend.” As a Canadian watching from the sidelines for the past four years, I feel the analogy fits perfectly. When you watch a close friend or family member being constantly insulted or abused, you […]
Like most people, I’ve been watching the US election results trickle in over the last few days. It is a very close competition in some states as I write this, and the media exaggerates this by referring to it as a race. So, it is exciting both because of the significance of the vote and […]
Some of my neighbours have really scary stuff in front of their houses. Most of it has to do with Hallowe’en. But then there is this. What is it? And, more importantly, what the flaming heck is it doing in my residential neighbourhood? The canoe and the propane tanks make me think it is someone’s […]
Information is coming at us from all sides. We get news from traditional media, and news from non-traditional media. We get tidbits of stories from our friends and family in person, and we get them from strangers on Facebook/Twitter/Reddit/QAnon. Some sources clearly have a bias, some claim to have no bias, and some have a […]
The process for finding and meeting a psychologist isn’t hard, but when you are depressed it seems like a pathway strewn with obstacles. At each roadblock, it is easy to just give up. Having overcome some of those setbacks, I would strongly encourage anyone who is feeling unusually despondent to stick with it. With the […]
There are eighteen churches of various Christian denominations within a mile of my house. Here are numbers sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen, plus one that used to be a church but is no longer, I think. It’s hard to tell. The principal character in Candide, by Voltaire, is travelling the cruel and savage world when he […]
Apparently, this part of Edmonton was once in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the greatest number of churches. I cannot prove this because I can’t find that record on their website, but I believe it. I have been photographing the churches within a one-mile walking distance from my house and so far […]
