48 Hours

The term, 'blog' (a contraction of, ‘web log’) was coined when people listed and discussed daily events in an essay format in the Internet. Of course, folks have been keeping logs for centuries; my Dad, a retired mariner, always kept a weather log (which was essential if you were tending the wheel of the steamship or sailboat).
A mariner ALWAYS has to know the weather, and my dad was an expert in reading instruments, especially the barometer.
I offer this introduction here, because I am going to discuss some of the various events during my 48 hours this past weekend.
The fun began at about 2 p.m. on Saturday, when I plan to post a new article on our parish website.
I could read the dreaded: ‘Forbidden: 403 error' message, meaning that I was denied access to the website.
When I contacted the site 'Super Administrator,' she explained that our site had been 'hacked' and

The Funnies - 3 - 'Good Grief'

One of the ‘Funnies’ that I was introduced to later on in life was called, ‘Peanuts.’
Much has been written about this comic strip (including many doctoral theses!), which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, and which also later became as set of vastly-popular prime time TV specials, which are still being shown today.
The major event of 1965 that began my admiration for the strip was opening my roommate's ‘Ottawa Citizen,’ and then to have both of us chuckle, giggle and even guffaw to the antics of the characters.
You may have guessed, Dear Reader, that the local newspapers did not carry the strip.
Here are some of the ‘Li'l Folks’ (BTW, the original name of the strip created and drawn by the venerable Charles M. Schultz):
-- Good Old Charlie Brown: the loveable perennial anti-hero, who dreamt of hitting that game-winning home run (but usually struck out); who could never get his pitch to home plate without a formidable, earthquake hit by the opposition batter;

Donations

Sometimes, life can bring pleasant surprises.
One evening last week, while we digested supper by watching TV, the doorbell rang, and my wife went to answer.
Two young girls, one in grade 2 and one in grade 1 at the local elementary school, were standing there (with Mom in the background), asking for a donation to 'Muscular Dystrophy.'
I recall that when folks used to collect for the Jerry Lewis Telethon, it was usually carried out by a group of tall firefighters (members of the International Firefighters Union), and you placed your donation in the 'Boot.'
To use the current jargon, Dear Reader,: For transparency -- I have a form of muscular dystrophy: Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease, or C-M-T, and have difficulty walking and performing some fine-motor tasks.
However, the girls' query 'passed the test,' and as my wife was handing over our donation,

The Funnies - 2

Here are more 'Funnies' that I used to see in the newspapers:
-- L'il Abner (Yokum); who was a tall, but not very bright, 'Southern Boy';' with his perpetual, voluptuous girlfriend, Daisy Mae; autocratic Mammy, (whose phrase, 'Ah has spoken!' stopped every argument in its tracks.).
One of the strangest denizens of Dogpatch, U-S-A, Joe Btfsplk, the world's worst jinx, was always drawn with a dark rain cloud over his head.
The strip, written and drawn by Al Capp, ran for 43 years, reaching some 60 million readers. In 1937, it introduced the cultural event known as 'The Sadie Hawkins Dance,' where a woman invites a man of her choice, instead of demurely waiting for a man to ask her.

The Funnies

I started reading daily and weekly newspapers before I could hold the pages open.
So, I had to spread the broadsheet on the floor and sit on it to 'read' the news, and the funnies!'
The Halifax Chronicle-Herald, along with the Sydney Post Record -- later to be renamed the Cape Breton Post -- were the two dailies available in the early 1950s (but then, I'm dating myself!). There was a small local weekly, the Richmond Record, which was published from Arichat, and we also had a subscription to two national weeklies, the Family Herald, and the Farmer's Advocate,which were mostly about farming and other topics of interest to rural readers.
We were well equipped, Dear Reader, for getting the news, supplemented by the local radio stations,

The February … blahs?

During my teaching days, February was predictably a long and boring month. We were halfway through unusually bleak winter, and still had more than a few weeks to go before the magical “March Break.”
It has been slightly different since my retirement (when I am sometimes as busy as ever!), And I want to tell you about my February this year.

First of all, I caught a bad cold and spent most of 10 days in varying degrees of the classic “cabin fever.” You would think I was bored during that time, but, au contraire, news items have been quite riveting:
-- Groundhog Day revealed an assortment of predictions, with the local “Shubenacadie Sam” calling for more snow. We have had 2 major snowstorms in early February, amounting to almost all the snow that fell during last winter. And it's only the middle of the month!
-- Super Bowl XLVII (you figure it out!)

Radio ... and Me - 25

My fascination with radio goes back a long time, and it was during my 4 years at St. FX University that I had a chance to learn how to work on radio shows.
In January of 1966, the usual “mid-winter blahs” were claiming all our waking hours. These were the days before the Super Bowl, when sports fans and football fanatics take a fling on a football game. Many universities and some high schools, at that time, began to organize a … Winter Carnival, complete with sledding and skating and ice-sculpture events, and a round of social activities.

The highlight at St. FX was the legendary “Sophomore Variety Show,” a hilarious mix of amateur comedy skits and music numbers, performed by both young and veteran students, many of whom went on to careers in show business. The Carnival Committee of 1966 wanted to go all out: they organized an ambitious program, called the 'Klondike Karnival,' to run over two weekends and the week in between.
We planned an original radio production