DIARY
A
ray of hope: spring is on the way
by
Robert LaFrance
Okay, so the weather outside is
frightful, but the thought of spring is delightful; let it snow, let it snow,
let it snow.
I know we Canadians are going to
suffer too, but how I pity the people south of the border, now that the new
crowd is in power. The snow, such as is falling as I write this, will get a
little more acetic, but it may not matter if Putin decides to level North
America and his good buddy in the White House.
My cousin sent me an email from
Ontario and said that she, her husband and daughter are going to Florida this
month – if they are allowed in. She has dark hair. “That man may ruin the
country. I think you know who I mean,” she wrote.
One final word on that dreary
subject and we shall go on to better topics. All I ask is that each American
citizen look over the history of Germany from the late 1920s to the end of the
1000-year Reich a decade and a half later. Those who can understand history
will see many similarities.
*************************
Did I get this wrong? I heard that
the SPCA is about to press charges against farmers who keep their cattle
outside in the bitter cold. “If humans can live in a nice warm living room, so
should our four-legged friends,” said Elroy Griggs, spokesman for the alleged
animal protection organization. “I won’t insist that they should have
television – at least a flat-screen one – but people certainly should enlarge
their living areas to accommodate dozens of Holsteins and Black Angus. Right
now I would draw the line on work horses.”
Now that Robbie Burns Night – both
shows – is or are over, I want to point something out. Or as the late Sara
Williams, my high school English teacher would say: “I want to point out
something. The helper word ‘out’ should be near the verb.”
However one phrases it, I want to
point out that around this house where the Burns Night MC lives, complete with
rolling pin(s), the year is divided into two parts: ‘Before Burns and after
Burns’. Recall when history teachers and others talked about Caesar being born
in 100 BC, and the Norman conquest of Britain was 1066 AD? Those letters act
about the same as BB (Before Burns) and AB (After Burns) around here. That
reminds me, I must dry my kilt. I accidentally dropped it into the fireplace.
I know he’s just trying to make
money, but Clyde Dinja, whose tattoo shop is just down the road, has had an ad
in the Kincardine Times and Dubiety: “Tattoos removed! Only $99” and his
business is booming!
(Sounds like his company sells dynamite.)
Here is his secret: Clyde doesn’t erase tattoos; he
adds another tattoo – this one flesh-coloured. He has a long shelf of small
vials of various skin colours. In spite of what might be the prevailing
‘thinking’ in the White House, there are various colours of human skin. Mine is
sort of a mottled eggshell as laid by a Rhode Island Red which, by the way,
will soon he deported from that country to the south. Only white hens allowed.
Here’s some recent news that reminded me of the days
long ago. When I was in my early 20s I was working in a bank in Hamilton,
Ontario, and decided to invest some money in the stock market – common shares.
I chose a Nova Scotia Company, Clairtone, which made TVs; I invested about $450
of my VERY hard-earned money into shares, hoping to see it worth $600+ in a
matter of months and go on from there. It didn’t quite do that.
One month later my shares were worth $125 and within
three months they had disappeared altogether. (The same with Stelco and Nortel
shares in later years, but that’s another story.)
What made me think of this was a recent news story
that the former Clairtone plant that had sucked up my money had been purchased
by a company that will grow and sell medicinal marijuana. Ironic, and I’ll say
no more about that.
*************************
Here’s a phenomenon that has appeared over the past
few years – the endless repetition of the same commercial as if the viewing
audience has a short attention span.
Where was I? Oh yes,
commercials. I was watching an English soccer game last weekend and at the
halftime break there was a Guinness commercial, and then the same one, and
again, and again. And yet again. What’s going on?-end-
No comments:
Post a Comment