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!)