2013 Posts
I think it’s going to be a long, long, time
Apparently January is a great time to look for a job. Now that the holidays are over and there are no days off on the immediate horizon, it’s time to knuckle down and get some work done. This is when ...
Baby, it’s cold outside
For a winter nation, we certainly have a weird relationship with the season that others use to define us. Even those who pretend to like it slink away to Mexico at the earliest opportunity and there are entire colonies in ...
My Friend Rudy
It seems I have entered the demographic where people you know start to die. This is not a good thing, but it is a wake-up call to remind us that life is far too short. My friend Rudy died suddenly ...
Walking in Memphis
Actually, I did little to no walking in Memphis. That’s because I was in greater metropolitan Memphis, such as it is, at FedEx’s headquarters at the intersection of two major highways. FedEx’s centre of world shipping domination is situated on ...
I’m in a New York state of mind
I just discovered I have missed the Broadway ‘revival’ of Glengarry Glen Ross, starring Al Pacino as Shelley Levine. This is a huge bummer. Not only do I love David Mamet in general, but I am especially fond of the ...
On the road again
I am once again spending lots of quality time in the U.S. and once again I am noticing the not so subtle differences introduced by the invisible line along the 49th parallel. Here are some of my observations. I do ...
My dancing career Part 2
I was watching the movie ‘All that Jazz’ on the plane the other week (the Classic movie genre being the only respite for frequent trans-coastal fliers who have already mined the not so deep depths of the new release offerings). ...
How much is that doggie in the window?
Anyone worth their steak knives follows the rule of ‘ABC’ (always be closing), but the true skill of the salesperson is how they finesse sealing the deal. There are many techniques in the sales manual, but none comes close to ...
Every day I write the book
Those of you who are well acquainted with my technology dyslexia will be very surprised by my most recent acquisition: I am now the proud owner of an e-reader. The method to my madness was to have a mechanism to ...
My theatre career: Part 3
A strange thing happens when you get older. Sometimes (okay, all the time), you think about your younger years and how wonderful they were compared to the drudgery of being a grownup. A couple of years ago I had one ...
My address to the graduating class of 2013
When you graduate from post secondary school it is natural to have a sense of a new beginning. Who knows what adventures await? Who knows where you will end up working? Who knows when you will pay off your student ...
Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies
As we all know there are lies, damn lies, and then there are statistics. Or in my life, there are statistics, damn statistics and can you please stop with the damn statistics. The last thing I ever thought I would ...
Supercalifragalisticexpealidocious
Various publications including Forbes magazine recently published their list of the most annoying business jargon. Jargon, as we know, is a way for people to feel like they are at one with their chosen profession. It’s (literally) a way to ...
The truth is out there
There are many things that people who should know better say with complete confidence that turn out later to be completely false. I think this started with the caveman who stated emphatically that there would never be a faster mode ...
Nyet nyet Soviet jewellery
I was hanging out in the lobby of the Metropol Hotel (rooms from 7450 Rubles) in downtown Moscow yesterday. This is a fairly grand hotel, located right next to Red Square. It was built in 1901 at the very beginning ...
It wasn’t a rock – it was a rock lobster!
My new favourite magazine is Bon Appetite. This is from someone who has about 7 magazines delivered to her door each month. Anyhow, the rest will have to live with the fact that Bon Appetite is my current golden child ...
Kodachrome – you give us the nice bright colours
As you may know, I was recently away on vacation in Russia. What you don’t know is how many photos I took. Want to hazard a guess? Whatever you guessed I’m guessing you are wrong. I took none. Zero. Zippo. ...
School’s out for the summer
When you are a kid, there is nothing better than the day you are let out of school for the summer with two whole months to do pretty much nothing. And there is nothing worse than being sentenced to go ...
School’s out for the summer – Part 2
The second time I voluntarily went to school in the summer was to attend a 6 week French immersion course. With all of the logic the Federal government (who funded the course) could muster, the location chosen to transform us ...
The writing is on the wall
Apparently hand writing is on its last legs (or more correctly, its last arms). Specifically, cursive writing is currently in the academic cross hairs, although block printing is probably not too far behind. Much like we no longer teach long ...
Video killed the radio star
The Yellow Pages arrived on my porch a couple of weeks ago. At first I wasn’t sure what brick of paper was blocking the top of my stairs as I thought the Yellow Pages had gone the way of the ...
Just like a waving flag
In general, Canadians wave our flag much less frequently than Americans. In a typical American city or town you can see at least 5 flags from any given vantage point, while here the only place you are guaranteed to see ...
Watch, look and listen
For some reason I missed the memo on the anniversary of the wrist watch last year. These days, we simply call it a watch and don’t add any information about its location on a particular body part. But back in ...
Beach blanket bingo
In my continuing attempt to provide simultaneous translation to those of you outside the gilded circle of professional services professionals, here is a supplementary explanation of terminology you should know. On the beach. This is actually an expression from the ...
Colours of my mind
In case you didn’t know this, Pantone, the people who invented the paint colour chart, are also in charge of annual colour trend predictions for fashion. This fall expect to see lots of Acai, Samba and Turbulence (the latter of ...
Don’t know much about history
This just in: you make more money if you decide to be a doctor, engineer, or if recent information about the distribution of wealth on aboriginal reservations is true, Indian chief, than if you choose to complete a B.A. I ...
It’s on the list
Those who know me know that I am not a procrastinator. In fact I am the opposite of a procrastinator although I don’t know what the word for that would be. Oh wait, Mr. Google could probably tell me. One ...
Tea for two
Although we may like to think we invented it in the 1960s, the t-shirt is in fact 100 years old. Come to think of it, this should not be a surprise because I have a few that look at least ...
My friend Doug
The thing I find most annoying about life is how often people leave it. My friend Louis, my friend Rudy, and now my friend Doug, who died very suddenly last weekend, and unfortunately before he could eat Thanksgiving dinner. It ...
I don’t like Mondays
I have a huge issue I must disclose. I don’t like a third of the year. I don’t like November, December, January or February. I have just come to terms with the fact that this is not a good thing. ...
Run away, run away
This may be an unfortunate way to start, but my inspiration this week is that an 81 year old man in Toronto just got arrested for murdering his roommate in his downtown nursing home. There are many things wrong with ...
Stay, just a little bit longer
Another insult to the injury of November is leaving the cottage for the season. Not that I am not less than miserable at the lake when the sleet starts sleeting, the dark starts creeping, and the water lines start freezing ...
Call me
I am not sure if this is truly a coincidence or not, but this week was both the 50th anniversary of the touch tone phone and the 50th anniversary of Dr. Who, the latter of which as you should know ...
It never rains in California
There was a cold snap in California this week, which also happened to correspond to the week that I was there. Which is typical. The most common sentence I hear in my travels is “you should have been here last ...
Fly me to the moon
Unfortunately there has been no glamour in air travel for a very long time. This is even more unfortunate for those of us who spend a lot of time on planes. The current state of airports and airlines has created ...
Rockin’ around the Christmas tree
Almost every year around this time there are hot commodities on the Christmas shopping list that are in short supply, either because people fall prey to marketing hype or generally lack imagination. I never did have a Cabbage Patch doll, ...
Say the word
The crossword puzzle turned 100 last week, which has prompted all manner of adulation. The first ‘word cross’ puzzle debuted December 21, 1913 in the New York World and has been a fixture in newspapers ever since. I know that ...