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Showing posts from June, 2023

Cursive vs Hieroglyphics

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Published In The Great North Arrow, July 2022: See You In 10 Years

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- jim Young “Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing,  Only a signal shown, and a distant voice in the darkness;  So on the ocean of life, we pass and speak one another,  Only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence.”  - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow It’s always nice to renew old friendships at something like a High School or Family Reunion. There’s just something fun about “catching up” with others that you haven’t seen for a long time. It doesn’t even have to be a close friend. Maybe you run into a coworker that you only knew briefly from that job you first took when you were fresh out of school. A quick exchange of “Hi, how are you? What’s the old place like? Is so-and-so still working there?” are quickly exchanged before you each turn about and go your separate ways. Perhaps it’s our subconscious mind at work dealing with our own mortality. Who doesn’t want to be remembered? As we were leaving Cuba on our last vacation we sat in the VIP room at the

Published In The Great North Arrow, July 2022: Canada Day: 2022

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 jim Young “I know this place is where I am, No other place is better then. No matter where I go I am, Proud to be Canadian!” -  Molson’s Commercial Most of our “stat” holidays in Canada fall on the same day each year. Some are planned to fall on a specific calendar day such as New Year's Day on January 1st, Christmas Day on December 25th or Boxing Day on December 26th.  Others, for the sake of convenience are designed to be tagged onto a weekend such as the Monday before May 25th for Victoria Day, the second Monday in October for Thanksgiving or the much more complex “two days prior to the first Sunday following the full Moon that occurs on or just after the ecclesiastical spring equinox” in the case of Good Friday. Officially Canada Day falls on July 1st to “commemorate the unification of the three North American British colonies: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the Province of Canada (which consisted of Ontario and Quebec)” that took place on July 1, 1867. Some businesses will

Boys And Their Toys

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- jim Young “When I am grown to man’s estate, I shall be very proud and great. And tell the other girls and boys, not to meddle with my toys.” - Robert Louis Stevenson Growing up as an only child can be lonely sometimes. I wasn’t an only child myself, however I was the only boy in a house full of girls and I sometimes think it might be similar. Don’t get me wrong. My sisters, both older and younger, were great friends and we all enjoyed many happy times together, but as the only boy, I also spent a lot of time on my own. Those times spent on my own were divided between my pets and my toys.  My loyal and faithful companion “Punky” , a Heinz 57 mutt was almost always at my side. But I also enjoyed the company of hamsters, rabbits, mice and rats (both domestic and wild) turtles, snakes, birds, fish, sea monkeys, you name it, I had it.  Except for a pony and a Bengal Tiger. Those were two pets my parent’s prohibited me from having. Even when Gordie Tapp was offering a Bengal Tiger as 1st p

Today seems like one of the 70 longest days of my life!

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Getting Trump Off

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End The Embargo On Cuba

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In a conversation with French Journalist/Author, Jean Daniel in 1963,  Kennedy confessed that the United States was at least partially to blame for the corruption in Cuba during the Batista Regime, leading to the Cuban Revolution. Kennedy also admitted he approved of Fidel Castro's call for justice  made in the Sierra Maestra and he,  Kennedy also agreed with the Cuban Revolutionaries. END THE EMBARGO NOW!  

Havesting Ice

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- jim Young “‘ I see,’ said the blind man as he picked up his hammer and saw.” - anon Long before the chainsaw came into popular use, crosscut saws were used by loggers to clear the forests across Canada. It was a two man operation. Standing on opposite sides of the tree or log they were preparing to cut, the men would take turns pulling and pushing the saw back and forth as the teeth of the saw blade cut through the wood. Woodcutters using an old crosscut saw are about to saw the trunk of a tree they just cut down. As a means of preserving history and creating a work of art, many people have taken to painting antique saw blades to display inside or outside their houses. So when my Grandfather offered me his saw blade, I was happy to take it. The handles were missing from the blade but that didn’t bother me. It wasn’t until sometime later however, that I noticed that only one end of this saw blade had been designed for a handle. The other end was rounded. I thought this was peculiar so