All the Best in 2015 !

For us, 2014 has been an ‘up-and-down’ year.
We welcomed our new family, Chris, Yannis, with Amélie, our grand-niece, now a busy 19 months old. It took place in late February, just after a furnace failure (fixed!) and just before the latest of our 24-hour blizzards.

Neither Mama or la niña had ever seen snow, so it was a treat to watch their reactions!
In June, my wife got to visit Cape Cod for the 50th Reunion of her Band (not a band like the ‘Eagles’ or ‘Rolling Stones,’ but her Class at the Sisters of Charity - Halifax).
In late July, she had emergency surgery, while I developed a flare-up of vertigo.
Since then, it has been a matter of ‘getting better.’

My Fave. Funnies

I love the 'Funnies.'
When I get my hands on the ‘morning paper’, I dive to the 'Arts and Life' section, and flip to the back page -- the comics page.

Here is what's available:
Baby Blues: with Zoe, Hamie (brother-from-hell), Baby Wren.
Born Loser: Wilberforce Thornapple, Hurricane Hattie, greedy / tyrant boss Vebbelfester’.
Overboard: Captain, Lab. dog, guest mice.
Betty: Mom, Dad, nerdy son.
Luann: 1st-year at college, and friends.
Blondie: Dagwood, Herb, Elmo, postman.
Dilbert: kamikaze office politics.
Zits: Jeremy, Pierce, in high school.
Jumpstart: cop, nurse, embryos, 8 pro-football brothers

Ah, the Newspaper …

When you pick up a newspaper, what do you read first?

Front page?
Local News?
Sports?
Obituaries?
Business?
Editorial?
Homes?
Movie guide?
or … perhaps … the Comics?
Even as newspapers shrink (classified ads, in-depth stories, pages, profits, staff), we still take our local daily, the Halifax ‘Chronicle Herald.’
There is still a tinge of discovery as we pluck it out of the box and unfurl the front page, to check the banner headline.
This news junkie also consults their on-line and e-editions several times per day, with alerts from them, and from CBC News, CNN, BBC News and NPR News.

A Great 'Small Town'

Small towns come up often in conversation, and are highly regarded ... in nostalgia.
Or, on the other hand, they get ‘a bad rap.’

The usual line goes: It was great to have been brought up in one, until … oh, until that day you felt the world (read ‘big city’) was passing you by.
Then, you couldn’t wait to get out and see the world!
For example, check out the biting lyrics in Paul Simon’s, ‘My Little Town,’ from 1975. Simon has stated that the song is not autobiographical; instead he says that it is about "someone who hates the town he grew up in. Somebody happy to get out."
But, I’m going to avoid nostalgia and praise a small town: Antigonish, N.S.
Recently, my wife underwent surgery at St. Martha’s Hospital, and I spent a week in town for support during her recovery.
I stayed at the nearby ’Maritime Inn,’ which has a room which is handicapped-equipped.
All I can say is in summary, the staff (as well as other townspeople) were great!
You notice right away that everyone seems to know everyone else,

TED Talks

One of the most fascinating Internet podcasts that I have run into is, ’TED Talks.’

The format isn’t fancy: ’TED Talks’ shows just one person talking for about 10 to 15 minutes, while standing alone on stage (perhaps with a minimal slide show) in front of an audience.
However, the subject matter is on a concept that might change the world, or as they state, ‘to stir your curiosity,’
The main attraction is simply that the talking is being done by many of the world’s brightest ’thinkers and doers' — in such fields as technology, psychology, sociology and literature.
My advice is to check out ’TED Talks’ on your computer, or better yet, get the App on your choice of platforms (I prefer the ‘video’ version, but please get the ‘audio’ if you listen while driving or walking).
It’s for those of us with eclectic interests.
And, be ready to be impressed!

My Favourite Podcasts

We may now be known by the podcasts we download!
I am a proud ‘news junkie,’ and I enjoy learning about all aspects of computers. (But don’t get me started on the terrible waste of time and resources on video / computer games!)

My downloaded podcasts reflect my tastes, and I really enjoy my daily walks while listening to good discussions on a headset on topics political and digital.
Here are a few that I proudly share:
— ‘Click:' BBC World audio, (Although there is a totally autonomous video version.) Tuesdays.

The Genius of Wayne and Shuster

For several decades, the works of Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster highlighted Canadian comedy, first on radio and then on television.

They began on CBC radio during World War Two, and then made the leap to CBC Television in the 1950s, until the mid-1970s.
Their form of comedy, branded 'literary comedy,' was also featured on their record 76 appearances on the CBS top-rated Ed Sullivan show'.
My favourite sketches include:
1. 'Rinse the Blood of my Toga,’ (their debut on the CBS show in 1958), is a spoof of the 'Dragnet ' detective series,

Coding and Logical Thinking

As a retired teacher, I try to keep up with the trends in education. The main idea it has taught me is: ‘bandwagons’ come and ‘bandwagons’ go.

Today's topic: 'tech literacy.'
It seems that every school board, education ministry or country feels that it is lagging, and being left behind in tech literacy, so this time, the Brits have decided to do something about it.
Not long ago, schools were encouraged to make laptops available to each student, in an effort to get all of them computer literate. And then along came the iPad and other tablet successors, and the students would be using them to begin studying computers.
However, these efforts were usually introduced on a piecemeal basis, for certain grades in certain jurisdictions,

Radio . . . and Me - 32

In the 1960s, when wanted to relax, I could listen to WQXR, the quiet, 50,000-watt classical music station from New York, ‘way down on the right side of the AM radio dial.
ID: ‘This is the radio station of the New York Times, WQXR, New York.’

There it was, a quiet spa on 1560, amid a sea of loud rock ’n’ roll stations: WMEX, 1510 Boston, WKBW, 1520 Buffalo, and WPTR, 1540 Albany.
Quiet, too, because they had commercials, usually read by the duty announcer, but … without jingles!
And, of course, as they were owned by the New York Times, they had excellent hourly newscasts.

Bonne fête de l'Acadie!

Attention tous les Acadiens / Acadiennes, de l’Acadie, de la Nouvelle-Angleterre, et nos cousins / cousines de la Louisianne, du Texas, et de partout au monde -- c’est demain que nous célébrons notre Fête nationale.

On va faire, ensemble, un grand 'Tantamarre,' pour proclamer:
'Asteure q'on est là, c'est pour y rester!'
Célébrons aussi la fête de l'Assomption de la Vièrge Marie, 'Stella Maris,' notre Patronne.
Félicitations, et bonne fête Acadienne!

Yarmouth Tourism

I’m in the process of drafting a letter to Mayor Pam Mood of Yarmouth, about the level of tourism infrastructure in her town.

--Your Honour:
About two months ago, my wife and her friend wanted to attend a Class Reunion on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
We had a great idea: The new cruise ferry ‘Nova Star’ had just begun operations; I could drive the girls to Yarmouth and stay there overnight; they could board the ferry to Portland, Maine, where they would be met by their girlfriend, who was also attending the Reunion.
I need to explain here that I use a walker, cannot use steps,

I’ve Got the ‘Bifocals Blues’

For the last couple of months, I have been wearing bifocals.
‘Big deal,’ you might say, and you would probably be right.
Thousands, indeed millions, of people have had to adjust to changes in their vision correction, and that is usually a process that works out well in the long run.

For me, the experience has been 'mixed,' at best.
- Driving is okay. Better than I expected.
- Computer: okay.
- Reading a book, or newspaper, is good, bordering on very good or even, dare I say, excellent.
- Watching Digital TV: I can usually read the bottom line 'news ticker' at CBC News, which is rather tiny. (The font for the news tocker at CTV News Channel is much larger, and never was a problem for me.)

Radio . . . and Me - 31

The ‘bottom-line’ question, Dear Reader, is: How well did the 10-10 WINS Westinghouse Radio 1965 shift to all-news format pay off?
Answer:
1. It’s the longest-running all news station in the country’; and, as the remind us often,
2. ‘More people get their news from 10-10 WINS than from any other radio station in the nation.’
Not bad, considering they have strong competition from sister news station, WCBS 880 (which has now restored ‘all-news’ after starring as the flagship radio voice of the New York Yankees) and some all-sports and all-business stations.

The 10-10 WINS format has been copied (with only slight variations) in such large-market U-S markets as Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, and Boston (on WBZ 1030, which I listened to each day during my year-long stay), on News 1152 in London, England, and on Rogers, across Canada.

Radio . . . and Me - 30

I have been a ‘news junkie’ for as long as I can remember.
In the 1950s, when I started listening to radio, news on local radio was usually presented as a 5- to 10-minute summary, without commercials.
News on the American stations, at night, was a mixture of 5-minute summaries on ‘block’ programs, usually on rock ’n roll stations, along with a few well-respected holdovers from the World War II era, who presented 10- to 15-minute newscasts, complete with commentary, and a couple of commercial breaks.

It was a delightful surprise for me in April, 1965, to hear the following slogan every 20 minutes on what had been a favourite rock ’n roll station in New York:
“All news, all the time. This is 10-10 WINS: You give us 22 minutes, we’ll give YOU the world.”
That is the same slogan — as you can hear — that they still use today.

Radio . . . and Me - 29

My earliest memory, Dear Reader, of great rock ’n roll radio brings in Alan Freed on 10-10 WINS, New York.
It’s late on a Sunday afternoon, he’s putting out a steady stream of rapid DJ patter, then introducing the monster hit, ‘Don’t Be Cruel,’’ by Elvis Presley. (That must have been in 1956.)

A couple of years before, the legendary Freed (even back then!), who had coined the term, “rock ’n’ roll,” had moved to WINS, from Cleveland, to take the evening shift.
In 1958, another legend, Murray “the K” (Kaufman) arrived, starting overnights, and then worked in the evenings, when I began listening to his ‘Swingin’ Soirée,’ ‘on clear radio nights.’

’Number, Please?’

Those of us ‘of an age’ can remember that phrase from every time we wanted to make a phone call.
If you lived in a small town as I did, you often didn’t even have to say the number. You could simply say, ‘Aunt Matilda, please,’ and you would be connected to her phone, because the folks at ‘Central’ knew your voice (even if you were calling from another phone).

In St. Peter’s, when I was growing up, Jesse and Jack Adams were the great people you spoke to at ‘Central’ when placing a call. Jack could often show a quick wit, by commenting, ‘My, you look well today!’ Jesse was the one who called me in Ottawa in 1969 to deliver the sad news that my Mom had passed away.
Over the years, they exchanged many messages across the village

The Internet Minefield

'Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water…,' intoned the warning on the 1970s movie promo.

With apologies to the producers of 'JAWS,' we change that to 'Just when you thought it was safe to surf the Internet.'
Can you spell, 'Anti virus?'
Of course, Dear Reader, YOU have already installed your favourite anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-everything program. (If not, please go over and do that - - THEN come back here.)
It has been a harrowing month for all of us who are on the Internet first, on April 8, Microsoft carried out their threat to abandon those who had been using windows XP by not giving them protection from hacking.

Radio . . . and Me - 28

On the right side of the radio dial (past all the big rock stations), Halifax boasts a different kind of radio station. Some people are calling it: ‘The Little Station That CAN.’
Here’s how it came to be:
About 20 years ago a radio announcer-wannabe named Wayne Harnett started a radio station in his home in Eastern Passage.

He called it ‘Seaside FM.’
It ran a number of ‘special’ programs around the Christmas season and local summer festival time, at various spots up and down the dial, depending on which frequency the CRTC deemed available on that date. Nothing big; just a few veteran radio announcers

A Very Busy Month!

The month of March has always been busy in our family for as long as I can remember.
When we were teaching, of course, we would look forward — longingly, during many dreary winter weeks — to ‘March Break,’ the time for getting out of the classroom and doing some travel!
Easter or the preparation for it, usually took place during the month, and it was always a busy time.
This year, it has been busy for a host of other reasons:
— On the home front, our nephew, his wife and their 10-month-old daughter, Amelie (a.k.a., La niña), arrived at our home in Bedford, to begin a new life in a new country.

The family ‘Welcome to Canada’ program could've been a little bit .. ah, warmer, as we awoke the first morning to no heat (which was quickly fixed by a team of excellent service technicians), and then a day-long early spring blizzard! This weather feature was quite the adventure,

The ‘Francis Effect’

One year ago today, Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis, and the Catholic Church has been swept along by his wave of popularity.
And, what a year it has been!

He has made a hit with Catholics, Jews, Protestants, atheists, and gays and lesbians, throughout the world.
He gathered more than three million people to an open-air Mass last summer at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janiero; the crowds attending his audiences in St. Peter’s Square have tripled, and, last month … he made the cover of ‘Rolling Stone.’
Along with ‘Dr. Hook,’ of course!
He lives in a small apartment, wears simple robes at liturgies, and often declines the papal limo,

Olympian Spirit - 2

Don’t let anyone tell you, Dear Reader, that Canadians don’t take hockey seriously!
Beginning at 8 a.m. Atlantic (4 a.m. Pacific) last Sunday, we gathered in our homes, pubs, community halls, mosques, arenas and public squares to watch the Olympics Mens hockey final game.
On Monday, CBC News showed a Tweet with a photo from Highway 401 in Toronto, taken during that game: there were NO VEHICLES on that stretch of Canada’s busiest route!

That hockey game was described as ’tense’, along with the semi-final win over a strong Team Latvia.
But they could not match the drama of the womens hockey final with Team Canada against Team U-S-A!
Team USA was leading 2-0 with less than 3 minutes left in the 3rd period, and it looked like they would capture the gold medal. I was listening to the excellent CBC Radio call by Steve Armitage, and the situation seemed hopeless.
But Team Canada scored a goal on a deflection, and later another goal while they had 6 attackers,

Olympian Spirit - 1

The CBC is providing extensive coverage of the Olympic Winter Games now underway in Sochi, Russia: on TV, radio and the Internet. And they can be proud of their work!

The Games are presented throughout the morning and early afternoons (because of the 8-hour time difference), and highlight packages are available during the evenings. Of course, all Canadian team hockey games men's and women's, are shown live.
In our society, we often hear of some negative behaviours expected or shown by the younger generation. During these games, however, we have witnessed many members of our team who have made us proud by their performances in the games, as well as with the media.
I am particularly impressed by these young people (and they ARE young, aren't they!!) for their excellent poise and sporting behaviour when they are interviewed.

The Wonder of Reading

The solution to yesterday's newspaper ‘Cryptoquote’ said it well:
There are many little ways to enlarge your child's world. Love of books is the best of all. — Jackie Kennedy.
Reading has always been a special part of my life. I cannot remember not having books. My wife and I, both former teachers, still read a lot and have always ‘adopted’ books over our house.

During my early years, my Mom, as well as just about any visitor to our house, often took time to read to me. For example, we would look through ‘The Three Little Pigs,’ while she told the story and sang the famous ditty: “Who's afraid of the big bad Wolf?” Of course, I followed the excellent illustrations.
My reading career was launched in a variety of Walt Disney books,

How Cold Was It?*

That question has been on everybody's lips for the last month, as the northern half of the globe has seen a ‘roller coaster’ of temperatures.

First, there was a continent-wide cold snap in December, near the date of the official start of winter. On Monday, the 23rd, a blizzard with lots of snow and freezing rain swept across the American Mid-West, as well as Ontario, Québec and New Brunswick. Many of the folks in these areas — especially 250,000 in Greater Toronto and 40,000 in Montréal — had no power throughout the entire Christmas week.
(Photo: fotosearch.com)
There was deep cold throughout the Prairie provinces, with temperature readings as low as -50, taking into account the wind chill. In the U-S, colder temperatures made it all the way down to Atlanta, and as far west has Dallas, and even San Diego.