Tony Perry

When I walked into the kitchen, carrying a few plates after dinner, there she was guzzling a bottle of wine -- not bothering with a glass.

I am talking about Mrs. Perry, Matthew's grandmother and mother of Tony Perry, his uncle.  I had met Tony when my best friend, Suzanne Langford, married John Perry, Matthew's father, and I was Maid of Honour.  We hit it off and became a couple, but not before I had come back from my long-planned trip to Europe with my cousin.

Tony on the right, Matthew on the left beside his father, John and Mr. Perry, centre. 

Tony hailed from Williamstown, Mass., where the wine guzzling took place the Christmas I had returned, but at that time he was living in New York City and was a member of expanded group, The Serendipity Singers, based there.  While I was swanning around Europe, Tony wrote me dozens of letters, c/o the Canadian Embassy wherever we were.  When I returned, I hopped on a plane to New York, where Tony and I had a ball.

For some reason, I remember his address:  45 West Tenth Street.  He knew so many entertainers.  One night, he took me to a club where Neil Diamond was headlining.  Naturally, Neil joined us after each set.  Neil was a real charmer.  Tony was determined to marry me, even going so far as buying me a ring, below, but we drifted when I moved to Toronto and started climbing the career ladder in journalism.

Can you imagine a more impractical ring?  (I still have it, but never wear it.)

Nevertheless, he was persistent, I'll give him that.  I had mailed back the ring, but one night he knocked on my door in Toronto, where the group was playing, and handed it back.  That was a surprise, to say the least, but I realized I no longer cared for him, even though he was still very keen on getting me back.  

Out of curiosity, I googled him and found a video of Tony and John being interviewed on 'Ojai Valley News' on YouTube.  Man, Tony looked awful!  He apparently died in 2015 at age 78 in Ojai, California.  Tried to find a wife, or widow, but couldn't.  Did he ever marry after I turned him down?  I am sure he must have.

Tony, on the left, with John Perry, Matthew's father.

So, that's a little trip down memory lane.  Man, I am getting very lost in the memory weeds these days!

    

A little solo lunch

I was getting a little sick of being Florence Nightingale and Julia Child to my bedridden hubby, so I got dressed up, put on the warpaint and headed to The Palliser Hotel in Calgary -- the only nice hotel in the entire region.

While there, I indulged.  It was an Absolute martini, oysters, a glass of house white and a divine hazelnut dessert.  I also did a little people watching and caught a couple of women with hideous hair.  

Here are a few souvenir shots:

If you're going to dye your hair, deal with the roots, please!

This hairdo went out with the sixties.

PEI oysters.  Delicious!

Health dessert -- hazelnut cake and ice cream.

The lovely Fairmont Palliser!

An analysis by an Ottawa city inside employee

Following is an analysis by a close friend at Ottawa City Hall.  Seems reasonable to me:

"Mark Sutcliffe took over the transit system mess left by Jim Watson. I will say, while Watson was a bit of a dictator, apparently Mark at least tries to work with Council as a whole. 

"He made a lot of promises (150+) on the campaign trail. Reporters are saying for the most part, his promises are either met, or on track. The issues that I was concerned about included, for example, keeping kept taxes low at 2.5% for the first 2 years and a little higher at 3.75% in the second;

Sutcliffe stumping.

"On the other hand, while he brags about 1/4 billion in efficiencies, some were simply transferred to owners, like garbage collecting that shot up 10% with more restrictions on what can be put out for collection and now minimum charges for residents at dump sites. 

"He didn't cut recreation fees by 10%. He did add 42 paramedics and 100 police officers. 

"The LRT transit extensions are underway but with no Provincial funding commitment as promised, future work is at risk. There is still no confidence in the LRT system and roads are overwhelmed with the Queensway at a standstill during rush hour. 

"He kept his promise spending $100 million on roads and sidewalk repairs. He added 55 Km of cycling paths. 

"He promised 100,000 new homes. However, even with streamlining the approval process and removing the sales tax for first home buyers, he states that due to the current high cost of ownership, demand has weakened, thus fewer houses are currently being built. He promised and came through on a new landfill site and expanding the one near us.

"Given the record of the previous loser and the candidates Jeff Leiper (a community activist and ward Councillor) plus two unknowns, Neil Saranamuttoo and Alex Lawson, there was not much of a choice. So it's another 4 years to see what Sutcliffe can accomplish."

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So, Ottawans can judge my friend's analysis. As he says, we'll see.

Out of his own mouth

 Mark Carney continues to tell us who he really is, but no one seems to be listening.  Here are three excerpts from 'The National Post', describing his real agenda:

Carney is courting evil left, right and centre.

"New World Order", right there from his own mouth.

There are his words again.  Getting the picture?

When someone tells you who they are, believe them.

Unpublished letters...........

Here are a few letters which didn't see the light of day:

Letters to the Editor.

 Dear Editor (Globe and Mail):

There's another ubiquitous expression that grates: "Can I grab you guys anything else?"  This is the go-to question when one is asking for the bill in any restaurant.  

Call me old-fashioned, but asking in that way conjures up an unpleasant image of food being grabbed from a kitchen counter and thrown onto a random plate.

"May I get you anything else?" would be preferable.  Sadly, that form of polite speech has also fled.

Nancy Marley-Clarke

_________________
Dear Editor (Globe and Mail):

I remember when there was a federal department called, 'Employment and Immigration', which logically, sensibly and responsibly tied immigration to national and regional Canadian employment requirements. 

Created in 1977, it was abolished in 1996 and hived off into a number of separate and distinct ministries.

Perhaps immigration needs to again be returned to a wider lens to ensure coherence returns to the messy hodgepodge in which this file currently staggers and stumbles.

Nancy Marley-Clarke
_________________
Dear Editor (Globe and Mail):

I'd say Canada has had very deep ties with Africa, if you measure such ties monetarily.  Canada has given -- and continues to give -- billions and billions to Africa over decades, so one wonders how much more this country can contribute, given our own dismal economic reality?

The tragedy appears to be that such billions do not seem to trickle down.  Perhaps African leaders could answer that question.

Nancy Marley-Clarke
__________________
Dear Editor (Calgary Herald):

So, the jewels of Canada, its magnificent parks, are being sacrificed on the altar of international aid.  Canada has committed $26 billion and counting to Ukraine and $3.2 to Africa, to name just two of more than 130 recipients of Canada's largesse.
  
Closer to home, for a measly $80,000 out of a $12 million security contract, Canada's Commissionaires have lost a long-held security contract to a U.S. company. 

 
Now Parks Canada is being gutted and 3,000 staff will lose their jobs.  When are Canada's interests going to be supported?

Something seems terribly out-of-whack.

Nancy Marley-Clarke
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Trouble is, I have been published very recently, so they have to wait for another.  BTW, if any of you want a letter penned, over your own name, I would be only so delighted to help.  I know many people can't put thoughts succinctly on paper so they will be published.  That is a skill I do possess.

Simple agenda

Or, should be.  There will be another First Ministers' meeting shortly, focussing on Indigenous issues.  Naturally, AFN Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak gave the real agenda away when she issued the following statement:

The second paragraph highlights the real purpose of the gathering:  "The budget is the big test," said Nepinak.

Well, of course it is.  In fact, it's the only item she wants to talk about.  She claimed it was to chart a new course for her people, but the only course she will be charting is the one to the nearest bank.  

Let's face it, her headdress, finery and puffery aside, money is the only object on that file.

Chow

And I'm not talking about the Chinese variety.  I refer to the disasterous Olivia, currently running for re-election as mayor of Toronto -- a city she has ruined with her bonkers left-wing agenda.

First it was breakfast programs in schools and now her latest aberration is to expand it to lunches.  Have parents no responsibility to feed their own kids?  And all this while Toronto slides further and further into degradation and chaos!  Drug addicts have taken over parks and streets everywhere, with police unable to do a thing.

Remember when she pushed to re-name Dundas Square to some ridiculous thing called "Sankofa Square"?  Why?!  I blogged it a while ago (see "Sanitary Pads, Dec. 16, 2023.  Just re-read it, it's brilliant).  Under Chow, the city has officially tanked.   

Her Worship in her official Mayoral, Number One dress.  I assumed it was AI; sadly it wasn't.  

Henry Dundas, first Viscount Melville, after whom Dundas Square was proudly named.

I lived in Toronto in my "salad days" as a journalist working for Maclean Hunter -- the Canadian version of the brilliant "Mad Men" -- and I loved every second of it.  Back then, the "Red Rocket", as the subway was called, was safe, clean and reliable.

Not anymore.

The once proud and glorious Toronto.  Gone.

Were I still a resident, I'd cast my ballot for the sensible Brad Bradford -- he of the back-to-basics agenda.  When you think of it, all city council agendas should be basic -- not the lefty variety we see in Canada everywhere these days -- starting with Carney.  City councils are, by definition, conservative.  Why?  Because they are charged with handling the basics, i.e., garbage collection, road repairs, safety, cleanliness, order -- not communist gobbledygook.    

So, the dour, humourless David Eby was handed a ferocious shellacking yesterday by the B.C. electorate he tried to hoodwink into giving him another four years when he already had two to go with a majority.  It was time to throw the bum out.

Have you ever seen the guy smile?  I haven't.  His brow is always furrowed and his mien morose, glum and sullen.   Looks like his dog has just died.  And that sneaky ten-dollar-a-day daycare scam he deviously enrolled his kids in finally roused a few somnolent voters into realizing what the guy was really about.  I mean his wife's a doctor and he makes, er, made, a ton of money as premier, so how he slipped under the waiting list rope and got his brats that sweetheart deal had to have been a slight-of-hand move.

So, he's gonzo and mercifully monstrous Olivia will be next.  

Canadians have had enough of lefties.  Did you hear that Mark and Diana Carney?  Please Gawd you're next.