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America! Where Are You Now?
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- jim Young “America. Where are you now? Don’t you care about your sons and daughters?” - Jerry Edmonton and John Kay You can argue whether Jan. 6 was an insurrection or an attempted coup led or incited by Donald Trump all you want, but all you have to do is take a look at the preparations being made for the upcoming election to know that something is very, very wrong in the United States today. Drop boxes for mail in ballots are being sabotaged with incendiary devices to destroy ballots. Snipers are being stationed at polling booths. Poll workers are facing harassment and threats of violence. In some areas police radios will be distributed to election workers to enable them to more quickly contact the police in emergency situations. Bulletproof vests, metal detectors, and surveillance drones are being used to protect election officials - the ones that haven’t already quit in fear of their personal safety. In some instances election officials have received a “bump in pay” or even
Published In The Great North Arrow, November 1, 2023: Self Check-out
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- jim Young “There’s more to business than just business” - The Young Family General Store motto. Recently I used a self check-out for the first time. It was not by choice as the only till that accomodated a cashier was closed. My wife and I were standing in line at Value Village in North Bay, watching other customers at the self check-outs struggling to check themselves out. And we waited as they finally made their purchases, slowly advancing the line one customer at a time. In addition to the one full-serve check-out that was closed, there were 6 self check-outs available of which only 3 were open. Yes they even had those numbers that light up on the poles at each self check-out to indicate which ones were open and which ones were closed. I couldn’t help but wonder “If they are self check-outs anyway, why wouldn’t they have them ALL open ALL of the time?” With a company that is so calloused they would lay off employees to save a few bucks by opening self check-outs in the first
Caramel Apples
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You’d think Hallowe’en would be over by now based on how long Hallowe’en candies have been available in stores. You would also think we would already have sufficient Hallowe’en candies to pass out to the trick or treaters that will be soon knocking on our door. I mean we’ve been buying more each week since they arrived in the stores late last summer. But somehow, most of them have disappeared. So, what do you do to prepare for Hallowe’en when all the goodies have vanished? Do you want to give the ghosties and goblins that will be coming around something delicious or something healthy? Some years, we will throw an apple into their pillow sheets along with some traditional treats of sugar filled delights just to help keep their teeth clean. But why not give them both in one? Who’s not going to love getting an apple covered in caramel or taffy? Back in the day when I was young, there was one house in the neighbourhood that was known for handing out taffy apples. But you had to get there
Published in The Great North Arrow, October 1, 2023: Names, Names, Names (Unusual Spellings and Unusual Names)
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Part 3 of a 3 Part series on Names - jim Young “That’s my name. Don’t wear it out.” - Pee Wee Herman In my last article on names, in the Great North Arrow (September 1, Issue 16, Volume 10) I discussed how the unusual spelling of a first name could have some legal benefits. The use of unusual spellings of a first name however doesn’t always involve a legal conflict. For the first half of the 20th century, in the western world at least, most names were pretty common and easy to pronounce. Boys were often given names like Tom, Dick and Harry. Girls would be assigned names like Jane, Betty and Sue. But then came the 60s revolution and everything changed. First it was just unusual names for children like Skye, Harmony, Jasmine, Ziggy, Summer, Dharma and Nirvana just to name a few that were chosen for their children by the hippies. As some of these names became more generally accepted, parents tried to find unique ways to spell their children’s names and Diane became Di-Anne, Michele becam