Roxanne Tellier – What’s Normal Anyway?

People are funny; they want their lives to be interesting and noteworthy, but most of us are good for

about 24 hours of novelty before we’re pining for ‘the good old days.’

Roxanne Tellier – The Age of Bullies Part One

As a child, my sister was often the target of bullies. Bullies sniff out the weak, the vulnerable, those who have already experienced the wrath of others. I spent a lot of my own childhood trying to protect Jodi from those who had nothing better to do with their time than to torment a shy, fragile, little girl.

Roxanne Tellier – The Music of War and Ukraine

This has been a hellish week. We are watching the unthinkable perpetrated upon the peaceful people of Ukraine by a Russian despot who has become a madman.   

Roxanne Tellier – The Right’s Woodstock Moment

On the surface, what the Canadian truckers hoped to accomplish during their protracted occupation of the Nation’s capital was comprehensible. In the beginning, we, the audience, and they, the truckers and their camp followers, could take as the stated purpose of the convoy and protest a common ennui and a genuine wish to end the most onerous and rigorous of the precautions levied during the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Bob’s Completely Unfocused Journal of Important Issues (wherein the Ukraine, Covid, The Beatles, blind truckers, semi-famous people, and more, collide in a cacophony of broken glass, spilt drinks, and trips to the bathroom, and converge to brighten your day …or not)

Deserved or not, Human Beings have been firmly sequestered at the top of the food chain on this planet for the past 4 or 5 thousand years.

As far as planets go, out of the Gazillion or so that zip through space in their little orbits around almost as many stars, we lucked out and got one you can honestly label as a Paradise.

Pat Blythe – Celebrating Anniversaries……and music

Well….I have three anniversaries this month. As of this writing on February 15, thirty-six years ago today, I married my sweetie. First wedding (and reception) ever held in Sparkles. For those of you old enough to remember, Sparkles was THE de rigueur lounge, club and disco in Toronto at that time. I have no idea what possessed me to book the place for a wedding! Maybe availability, maybe because it was an “all-in-one” since there was a restaurant below that would cater….who knows? Cost of the wedding, including food and non-alcoholic beverages, $1,350 for 65 people. One thing I’ll never forget…..the best man wanting to begin a speech with, “today, Chris got married in a place higher than he is”.

Roxanne Tellier – What Price Freedom and for Whom?

“The “Freedom Convoy” that converged in Ottawa on Jan. 28 began in response to the federal government’s move to require Canadian truck drivers crossing the U.S. border be fully vaccinated to avoid testing and quarantine requirements, but has evolved into a protest of all public health measures aimed at fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizers say they will not end their protest until all measures are dropped.”  Ottawa Citizen, Feb 13, 2022

Pat Blythe – Where do we go from here? ……and music

Throughout the past two years we’ve all tried to predict, guess, envisage, calculate, even hope what the future of music will be, once we are no longer struggling and fighting this global pandemic. We have been living in a world that seems surreal…..like a bad dream you wish you could wake up from, just by rubbing your eyes. That anything like this could happen in the 21^st century seems rather absurd and unbelievable. Thing is…..it did. We are not impervious, but we are arrogant in thinking that we are. Lately, events have proven that we still have a long way to go. There remains, in all parts of the world, a whole level of uneducated obtuseness that exists even after we’ve heard from Archimedes, Aristotle, Galileo, Isaac Newton, Einstein, Stephen Hawking and their ilk. Baby…..we have a looooong way to go.

Chef Tom – Nat’s What I Reckon

I love this guy. Punk rock (actually metal-head) goes cookin.’ This is NSFW. Like anyone is within earshot (in their lounge pants and dirty t-shirt) of anyone else, except maybe the hubby and a cat, and they don’t care. Yes, there really is an actual recipe in this, made with whole foods. He HATES processed-packaged-instant-meal-in-a-can kinda food.  He has a TON of videos that are quite informative and very entertaining.

Peter Goes to the Mall

A few columns ago I mentioned that I wasn’t especially hard on myself if I had trouble remembering something. I probably should have been a little more specific about that, as I certainly wouldn’t want you to think that I was going through Life like a “potty” Peter Sellers character, getting by mainly through the kindness ( and tolerance  😉 ) of others.