Looking at life through a funhouse mirror
It’s been twenty-five years since Alanis Morissette released Jagged Little Pill. For each and every one of the years between then and now, she has had to suffer the scorn of English 101 students everywhere, because they are experts in recognizing and using irony as a device that can be verbal, dramatic, or situational, but …
I’m already beginning to regret going back to school. “But didn’t you just graduate from something? Didn’t you already go back to school?” some of you might ask. And yes, I did, graduating just this spring. Part of the class of 2020 that will be forever remembered for its unique graduation circumstances, until the class …
Until now, I had not been to downtown Toronto in six months. First it was because of the pandemic perils, then the ice went out and I decamped to the cottage to hunker down for several months of swimming, sunning, and sloth. In May, when their office opened again, my dentist, who I’m sure thinks …
Please do not judge me, but lately I have been watching Jeopardy reruns on Netflix. Let me explain. First, I do not have TV. I have unplugged from cable and satellite and no longer have access to the regular over-the-air channels. Yes, I know. It is possible to pull them in via other methods or …
Weather: good, thank goodness. For the moment. Summer, don’t fail me now! Reason weather needed to be good: Lumber’s Island Labour day weekend party. Six Mile Lake island and island wanna be’s converged from far and wide. Nobody lost an eye, that I know of, even though we almost killed Lois with the nuts in …
Portuguese custard tarts are not my friend. I don’t mean I don’t like Portuguese custard tarts; they don’t like me. Or at least they don’t cooperate when I try to make them, which in my book is pretty much the same thing as not liking me. Even if you are unfamiliar with them, you may …
The first thing my new eReader wants me to do is sign on to Wi-Fi so it can configure itself. Lest you think I am being dragged kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century, this is actually my third eReader. The first one lost its mind after being locked in a briefcase in a closet …
There was an interesting op-ed in the Globe and Mail this weekend by Elizabeth Renzetti about dress codes in schools. Specifically, dress codes for girls because it seems that girls are the only sex that warrants dress codes. And this is 2018. Oh, where are you women’s liberation when we need you! My experience with …
I don’t know why I obsess so much about putting my cats’ food in a clean bowl. Anyone who has an up close and personal relationship with cats knows they like to put on a show about being clean, but in fact they are slobs. For example, the first thing Henry does when he is …
Dorm rooms are built for function over form, kind of like conference room chairs are built for stacking not sitting. Dorm rooms are not interested in your enjoyment of anything. You are not here for aesthetics, you are here to wallow in the austerity that breeds great work. Or at least that’s what I tell …