Dog On A Root

- 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...

  - jim Young “Beware of false knowledge. It is more dangerous than ignorance.” - George Bernard Shaw “Fake news”, or more correctly “lies” have been around pretty much forever. The actual term “ fake news” however was first used in the 1890s. So although Donald Trump didn’t invent the term “Fake News”, according to Wikipedia, “Trump has been credited with popularizing the term by using it to describe any negative press coverage of himself”. Aye… there’s the rub. “Negative press” isn’t really the same thing as a “lie” now, is it? Regardless, wouldn’t you think that someone that is so sensitive to “negative press” and to be fair, even “misinformation” in some cases being reported about him, would be wary of the validity of any information from those same sources? At the very least, it would certainly behoove a politician running for such an important position as President of The United States Of America to vet the accuracy of this information prior to declaring it a fact on National...