Dog On A Root

- Jim Young “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.” - Grouch Marx In April 2023, in an attempt to reduce their environmental footprint, the LCBO announced they would quit issuing paper bags to their customers, later that same year. The plan was to eliminate 135 million paper bags from the LCBO per annum. Calculated to save 188,000 trees each and every year thereafter, it was also estimated that 2,665 tonnes of waste would be diverted from landfills annually. Miles ahead of most other retail operations, the LCBO had already voluntarily eliminated plastic bags 15 years prior to that, shortly after the turn of the century. Even so, the LCBO’s decision to stop providing even paper bags to their customers altogether was not a novel idea. Many other retailers have stopped offering free bags, encouraging their customers to bring their own bags or purchase reusable bags which are said to be more environmen...

- jim Young “When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: You haven’t.” - Thomas Edison Recently a Toronto Officer recommended “that people leave the keys to their vehicle in a faraday bag by the front door,” as a deterrent to home invasions.  The idea being, the car thieves are only interested in your vehicle, so once they find what they are looking for (your car keys), they will not proceed to rob your home or confront your family. So as wild as that may seem, that suggestion may actually be effective in reducing home invasions in Toronto; however it does nothing to reduce the car theft problem. Brainstorming, “a creative thinking technique for coming up with new ideas and solving problems” uses a process which encourages everyone to offer any and every idea they may have as a solution, no matter how wild it may seem. The hope is, from all the ideas, no matter how crazy they may seem, the collective group can strip away the craziness and piece together one sensible ...

- jim Young “My bank balance is a constant reminder that I am safe from identity theft.” - anon DEFINITIONS Scammer: a person who deceives another into parting with their money or confidential information for personal gain. This can be done through personal contact, by phone, through the post office, by email or on the internet. Hacker: a scammer who uses computers and technology to gain unauthorized access to data. Facebook Imposter/Clone: a scammer who clones someone else’s Facebook account with the intention of hacking or scamming. Most often their intended target is not the owner of the Facebook account that has been cloned, but rather their friends. The Facebook Imposter Up Close & Personal I would imagine that in the hierarchy of scammers, hackers and Facebook Imposters, the Facebook Imposter is the lowest on the scale. If I were a hacker I would be embarrassed that these scumbags even exist. Of course I would also be embarrassed at my own existence as a hacker but the Fac...

- jim Young Take me out to the ball game, Take me out with the crowd; Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks, I don’t care if we never get back.”      - Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer I wonder why they sing, “Take me out to the ball game,” when they’re already at the ball game? ​​I don't usually follow the Blue Jays too much until the official season starts but My Shirley heard that spring training started pretty early this year so we decided to watch the first couple of games. In preparation for the games I decided to check out the roster for this year to see “who’s who?” in 2023. I was pleased to see most of my favourites like Bo and Vladdy were back. I wouldn’t care either way if they had kept George Springer or not. He’s pretty charismatic and a good player when he’s there but I got so god-damned tired of hearing Buck and Pat saying "Just wait until Springer’s off the IL!" I always called him Springsteen because he reminds me a little of Bruce Springsteen whic...