Dog On A Root

- jim Young (191112) When someone says, “He’s a good guy once you get to know him,” what they’re really saying is “He’s an asshole, but you’ll get used to it.” - anon When Don Cherry referred to immigrants as “you people” , suggesting they should be wearing a poppy in support of the  “these guys”  that “paid for your way of life”  what he was overlooking was “these guys” were actually defending the way of life that allows the “you people” as well as every other Canadian to choose if they would like to wear a poppy or not. Let’s be honest here. Not every Canadian, whether immigrant or natural born, wear poppies in support of veterans. “These guys” paid for every one of us to choose which causes we would like to support. Or not. However it should also be remembered that “these guys” also paid for Don Cherry’s right to voice his opinion; at least as Don Cherry if not a spokesman for Sportsnet. Afterall, “these guys” likewise paid for Sportsnet’s right to de...

- jim Young 191106 “In my home, Christmas and its decorations do not diminish the memory of our vets, it enhances them. Christmas and its decorations do not disrespect the memory of our vets, it honours them.” - jim Young I would like to know who started the notion that it is disrespectful to decorate for Christmas before Remembrance Day. This was not something I remember growing up with and it seems to be a recent concept. I suspect it evolved from those people who are annoyed that stores start displaying Christmas decorations even before Hallowe’en. Here’s a little known secret. The reality is EVERY business only sells their Christmas decorations during one brief time of the year. It begins when the majority of their customers START buying them and ends when the majority of their customers STOP buying them. How do they determine when this time is? Their computerized cash register receipts tell them so. If the public quits buying them early in the season, the stores...

- jim Young 20191025 It's Hallowe'en,  the lamp is lit, And 'round the fire,  we children sit, 'Til sister Susie says "Hushhhhhh!" What's that peeking 'round the kitchen door? What's that creeping ‘cross the bedroom floor? What's that screeching like it’s throat is sore? It's a GOBLIN! - anon I remember sitting in the darkened living room in Gramma Young’s house in Stroud on Hallowe’en night singing this song with my 3 sisters. By the end of the first verse, I was so terrified that I would not dare venture into the dining room without the protection of one of my older sisters by my side, her hand held tightly in mine. "What's that screeching like it's throat is sore?" That was the fun of Hallowe’en - scaring ourselves silly. It was scarier than the wooden roller coaster at the CNE. The darkness of night had already arrived when Dad got home from work to help us carve the pumpkin. Lit with a candle a...

- jim Young 190912 “Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic.”  -  Edward de Bono Like all magic, the claim that "Beyond Meat is a healthier option" is just an illusion. I remember the Yogurt craze of the 1970s when those we generally referred to as “health food nuts” began touting the beneficial value of yogurt. Suddenly yogurt was available everywhere and it wasn’t long before it began appearing in the forms of ice cream and candy. “It’s yogurt candy!” I would hear people exclaim and I cringed when they inevitably jumped to the erroneous conclusion, “it must be good for you.” People are funny like that. And when I say “people are funny like that,” what I really mean is “people are stupid.” Or to put it in a nicer way, perhaps they are just “naive.” “How sweet is the perception of a new natural fact!” - Henry David Thoreau Fast forward almost 50 years and people are still proving to be “naive” with the...

- jim Young “I was never obligated to growing UP, but I had no choice in growing OLD.” - Steve Greeley Calculating my age. I don't know about you, but I literally have to stop and do the calculations whenever someone asks me how old I am. And even then, because I was born at the end of the year, I usually have to deduct 1 anyway. Minus-ing even 1 in my head is sometimes a mental challenge these days. Maybe it wouldn't be so hard if the number didn't change every year. Why can't we celebrate birthdays just every 5 years instead? Sure, our age would then be recorded in 5 year increments, but it might be easier to remember. We’re 60 for 5 years, then 65 for 5 years and so on. To let people know we are using the “5 year aging scale” we could qualify that by adding a plus sign to it. Let’s face it, if you want to be technical, even one day after our 65th birthday we are really 65.0028 years old (rounded to 5 digits). Telling someone we are 65+ is really mor...

Whenever Trump opens his mouth you can count on one of three things happening. 1) He will blatantly lie. 2) He will quote untrue information. 3) He will do both. And he didn't disappoint us again.

- jim Young 19920613 This is an article I wrote in 1992 that was lost during the transition of my site to a new server. As it is Father’s Day today, I thought it was an appropriate time to reprint it here now. On this, the occasion of my first Father's Day without my father, I address the following letter to Dad. George Young 1925 - 1991 circa 1980s Dear Dad, There's no doubt in my mind that you knew how much I loved you, even if the words were never spoken. For that I will be eternally grateful. I'm sure Leah prepared a nice room for you. Did she make you some homemade peanut brittle? Were you able to eat it? Is it true that they take your false teeth and give you back your real teeth in heaven? A lot has happened in the short time since you left us but I probably don't need to tell you that. I've felt your guiding hand with me throughout most of it. We've moved to the country now. I think you knew that was in the back of our minds for some ...

- jim Young 20190615 When preparing a recipe that involves dipping your food into any kind of batter or sauce, such as chicken wings or fish, I inevitably end up with extra batter or sauce left over. Or worse - not enough to finish the job. In most cases, since I've been dipping raw meat into my batter, it's probably been contaminated and not worth the risk of food poisoning by trying to keep it for another time. Recently I was preparing some Baked Buffalo Wings  when I somehow had a considerable amount of both the wet, egg/milk mix and dry, flour/breadcrumb dipping mixes left over. It seemed a shame to throw it out but I had nothing handy to use it up on. Rather than carry two bowls to the garbage, I combined the two mixes into one bowl. It occurred to me then, that perhaps I could mix it up and bake them into biscuits. I imagined my biscuits would be pretty bland however, so I looked around my kitchen for ideas and decided to add some of my hot sauce mix that I...

- jim Young 20190614 “My Wife: It’s dinner time. Are you hungry? Me: What’s being hungry got to do with eating?” I like chicken wings. That's not really a revelation to anyone that knows me. Last year when I was in the city for a week-long assignment I ate out every night and ordered chicken wings for dinner each night. There are so many good places to enjoy your wings in Barrie, but the wings at Tiff’s Bar & Restaurant  are - well - they’re legendary. Don’t believe me? You can check it out for yourself right on their menu . Panzerotto Pizza and Wing Machine at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Barrie An unlikely spot if you’re looking for good wings in Barrie is the Royal Victoria Hospital. You won't have to be admitted as a patient, however, you’ll find these wings in the food court at Gino’s Pizza and Wing Machine. At least they were good wings when they were known as the Panzerotto Pizza and Wing Machine. There are probably 40 or 50 places that you can get...

- jim Young 20190611 “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”  - Adolf Hitler Donald Trump, is not stupid! Scott Olsen / Getty Images If you’re anti-Trump and you’re being honest (and not stupid yourself) you have to admit that’s true. But he’s also an idiot! And if you’re a Trump supporter and you’re being honest (and not an idiot yourself) you will also have to admit that is true. Even Donald himself alluded to this on January 8, 2013 when he tweeted the following quote “Give me a smart idiot over a stupid genius any day. - Samuel Goldwyn.”  Ironically it’s in his idiocy that Trump best demonstrates his “smarts” in a warped sort of way. According to the Washington Post Fact Checker , “As of June 7, his 869th day in office, the president has made 10,796 false or misleading claims.” That’s more than 12 a day. As a world leader, you’d have to be an idiot to tell so many blatant lies that can be so easily exposed....

- jim Young 20190529 “There'll be no new tunes on this old piano.” - Johnny Lange & Hy Heath There was a piano in the first apartment I ever lived in and there was a piano in the house I lived in the day I left home. There was also a piano in the only house I lived in, between those two places. Beyond a sad rendition of "Chopsticks" or "Heart And Soul", I never learned to play the piano. But my mother played the piano and how I loved to hear those old songs she played! I remember coming home from school in grade one, hearing the piano playing in the dining room as I walked up the front step and into the house. My parents’ parties always ended with a group of people standing around the piano singing along to their favourite tunes of the day as my mother pounded on the keyboards. When it came time to move the old piano from the first apartment I lived in, to the house that my grandfather built for my parents in Painswick, the task o...

- jim Young 20120515 “give me spots on the apples but leave me the birds and the bees, please… They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.” - from Big Yellow Taxi – by Joni Mitchell I want Dandelions planted on my grave. Not that I want that to happen soon. But when the time comes, I want Dandelions planted on my grave. I think the Dandelion has gotten a bad rap. First of all – it’s a very pretty flower. Just look at the 2 pictures below and tell me the Dandelion isn’t every bit as pretty as the Marigold. I think dandelions are just as pretty as this field of marigolds. The dandelion has gotten a bad rap. You can make salad from the Dandelion leaf. Not that I would ever eat it. (Or any other kind of salad for that matter.) You can make wine from the Dandelion plant. That I WOULD drink if someone would put it together in a nice little Dandelion Wine kit like the ones I buy at Costco. Make a wish upon a dandelion that has gone to seed. And who ...

There is only 1 reason that I wouldn't reply to an email regarding any of my Ads and that's if I don't get it. Kijiji's mail relay system sometimes seems to lose an occasional email for unknown reasons. I check my "junk" mail periodically but if I am not expecting an email, sometimes that gets overlooked.  If you haven't received a response to an email you have sent me, (don't forget to check your junk mail) please email me through Kijiji again or email me directly at Madrugada52@hotmail.com . Thanks.

- jim Young 20190516 “Nothing on this earth is standing still. It's either growing or it's dying. No matter if it's a tree or a human being.” - Lou Holtz Mary-Anne Bloomfield was a classmate of mine through most of my high school years. My best friend dated her a couple of times. On their first date, Mary-Anne’s cousin was visiting from out of town so they set me up with the cousin to make it a double-date. It was just a very innocent high school kind of date and no long term relationships developed from it. In fact, the highlight of the evening was probably the flat tire we had to change on our way to the park where the high school event was being held. What was a little unusual about it was that when we went to pick up our dates, we had to drive into the center of the Barrie Union Cemetery. That’s where Mary-Anne lived. It wasn’t quite as freakish as an Addams Family or Munsters episode, but it was out of the ordinary. Coincidentally, several years later ...

- jim Young 20190513 “The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.” – Andy Rooney Many of the resorts we have visited in Cuba have a population of cats or dogs roaming free on the grounds. For My Shirley, an avid animal lover, this is just an added bonus. My Shirley delights in bringing food and treats for the cats or dogs to feast upon in return for their devoted affection. It’s a perfect illustration of Quid Pro Quo at its finest. I get that some people are not as enthusiastic about the resident dogs at Marea Del Portillo in Manzanillo de Cuba but I don’t think the dogs could be described as a nuisance in any stretch of the imagination. I don’t know if they “did their business” elsewhere or if the grounds crew were diligent in cleaning up after them but I never saw any evidence that the dogs were a part of the resort population other than their actual presence. So their hygiene certainly can’t be an issue. During our last visit to Marea Del Portillo I witn...

The going away party on our last night was rained out but as we had an early flight the next morning we would likely have passed on it anyway. Towel Art and a nice goodbye note from our maid. When we had booked our trip we had mostly considered our arrival time back in Toronto which was 4:35 pm. It seemed like a better time than arriving home at 2:00 am as we had last time. But we forgot to do the math to determine what time we would be leaving. Once we realized there would be a stopover in Varadero we checked to note that our departure time leaving Manzanillo airport was scheduled for 11:15 am. That still didn’t seem too bad until we realized we had to be at the airport 3 hours ahead (8:15 am) and the bus ride is 2 hours (6:15 am). As we were required to have our bags in the lobby to load onto the bus by 6:00 am, this meant, if we were mostly packed the night before, we would still have to get up at 5:30 am. On the way back to our room on our last night a young couple fr...

Following dinner on our first night, we ventured out the front door of the resort to see if we might find a horse and buggy to take us for a quick ride around the area. We were pleased to see Juan, our horse and buggy driver from last year who remembered us right away. Juan Carlos has been our trusted horse and buggy driver for our past two visits to Cuba. For just 4 pesos each (~ $5.35 Cdn), Juan took as on a little tour around the town of Marea down to the seashore where the fishermen had docked their boats for the evening. Boats belonging to the local fishermen. It was just getting dark as we arrived back at the resort. We arranged for several more horse and buggy rides with Juan during our stay, including a trip to the waterfalls and a visit to an agricultural “cactus” farm. We were greeted at the gate of the cactus farm by a Cuban farmer brandishing a large machete. It was not an intimidating sight as machetes are a tool of the trade that are carried by mo...