Dog On A Root

 

 

- jim Young “I love a parade, the tramping of feet; I love every beat I hear of a drum. I love a parade, when I hear a band, I just want to stand and cheer as they come.” - Harry Richman The better question might be… “Who doesn’t love a parade?” Many parades will see young and old alike line the streets in all kinds of weather waiting in anticipation of the parade to pass them by. Decorated floats, costumes, marching bands, clowns, animals, celebrities, policemen, firemen and more all hold a very special appeal for those who have gathered to watch the parade go by. Cave paintings from about ten thousand years ago suggest the first parades may have been cavemen returning home from a hunt, proudly displaying their prey. By around 3,000 B.C. parades fell into 2 categories - religious processions and military parades.  In more recent times, parades are organized for any number of reasons. Parades may be held for religious events such as Easter and Christmas, patriotic events like Cana...

Santa answers the questions that children ask. Let's Ask Santa as told to jim Young We all know reindeer like to play games because the song tells us Santa's reindeer "never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games.” If you are a child now or ever were a child I’ll bet you’ve often wondered just what kinds of games reindeer DO play! Maybe you’ve wondered other things about Santa too, such as “Why does Santa have the same wrapping paper as my mom?” And just who HASN’T sometimes wondered how Santa gets into houses that don’t have chimneys? Well now you and your children can get the real answers to these questions from Santa Claus himself. “Let’s Ask Santa” is a collection of questions everyone wants to know about Santa and the North Pole and they are answered by Santa himself as told to author jim Young from Loring, Ontario and writer for the Great North Arrow. You may be surprised to discover that Santa doesn’t rely on magic nearly as much as you might think. Most of t...

 

 

 -  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 “bu...

- 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...

 

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 th...

 

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 b...