Do you want to talk to Bubbie?

Ah, the innocence of children.  That's what B's grandson asked him on the phone from Houston yesterday.  "No thank you," B replied.  "Bubbie" is his ex-wife (why this ultra-wasp uses the Jewish term for "grandmother", I have no clue?  Must be ordinary, garden variety contrariness. )  Their divorce was as ugly as any in history, which is why we have made it a point for many years to never, ever speak.   

All I say is thank God we no longer live in the same city or part of the country as this person.  Keeping B's last name meant Ottawa was like an in-grown toenail because we were always bumping into people who would ask if we were related to her?  "No relation," is what I would reply; saved a lot of b-llsh-t.

Why divorces have to be so ugly is a mystery?  Oh yes, it's because someone wants more money, or wants to deny the other parent access.  So, whenever you hear the term "ugly divorce", you know it's about $$$$$. 

Seriously?

So annoying.  The channels that have that ridiculous audio description of everything happening.  "A man walks into the room; a woman turns her head."  Seriously!?  Apparently such descriptions are for blind people.  Whaaaaaaat??!!

My question is:  How can blind people "watch" TV?

The reason I have blogged this, instead of just making a comment on facebook, is that some of my "friends" would be offended.  Hey, I am not decrying the blind, just wondering how they can possibly "watch" TV and expect everyone else to listen to these distracting descriptions?  Thankfully, my tech-savvy son is here from Toronto and disabled this annoying "feature". 



   

Finally happened

I went to someone's house and was told I could not wear my high heels!  Really?!  "The floors can't take it," said our otherwise very gracious host.  I love these people, but to have floors one can't wear shoes on baffles me?! 

So, my lovely outfit was incomplete because I spent the evening in stocking feet.  You know me, I always say shoes make the outfit, so mine didn't work.  Call me a self-centred loser, but I am too old to change and besides, I love my high heels.

$6K later

"The furnace is making weird sounds?" I said to B yesterday.  Then it quit altogether.  Perfect timing.  But only in Canada could I call a repair company and have it done and installed the next day, which was today.  Yep, a new furnace costs $6,000, folks!  Unfortunately, we didn't have that kind of change lying around in the kitchen drawer!?  A word of warning:  Even though I am probably the only Calgarian who regularly changes the filter, it still quit. 

I was grateful it hadn't given up the ghost two days later, and we do get a provincial rebate of $1,500 for the super-efficiency one just installed, but that was still a huge chunk of dough.  Ah well, it's only money, or as I always say, "It's not cancer, so shut up."

Merry Christmas!         

Smart guy

"I am part of the problem," wrote film director Morgan Spurlock in a blog post the other day.  The Globe and Mail carried some of it and either this guy is very smart, very crafty or both.  Apparently, the director of 'Super Size Me' was, to say the least, very naughty with women during what he said had been a long history of sexual misconduct against classmates, co-workers and two wives.  So, he decided to come clean before anyone outed him. 

"As I sit around watching hero after hero, man after man, fall at the realization of their past indiscretions, I don't sit by and wonder who will be next?  I wonder when they will come for me?" he wrote.  I can't blindly act as though I didn't somehow play a part in this.  Over my life, there have been many instances that parallel what we see every day in the news," he confessed. 

He recounts one instance in college where he coerced a co-ed to have sex, even though she said no.  When she began to cry, he stopped, believing she was OK.  "She believe she had been raped," he writes.  In another, he paid off a female assistant he had called "hot pants" and "sex pants" because, "I paid for peace of mind.  I paid for her silence and co-operation, but most of all, I paid so I could remain who I was."

Reaction was swift and varied.  Some thought him brave, others honest, but many didn't feel he deserved any praise.  "Morgan Spurlock is not brave, he's trying to get ahead of the story and give you a reason, so when you hear about how garbage he is, you think of the reason," comedian Peter Coffin wrote on Twitter.  "Opportunistic," was how someone described him.  Someone else said, "He's still bad and I want him to go away."

I still think it was a craftier move than waiting for the myriad of shoes to drop and then denying everything.  That never works. 

What peace process?

The hullaballoo in Israel about Jerusalem's now being the official capital is laughable.  "It will impede the peace process," said someone-or-other.  All I can say is, what peace process?  Never going to happen.  One of my closest friends from our university days moved to Jerusalem almost 50 years ago, so if anyone knows what's going on it's she. 

"Unofficially, Jerusalem has been the capital for 3,000 years," she wrote me the other day.  "Mostly it just provoked the Palestinians into violent demonstrations and kept the army and police busy.  Just another reason to demonstrate.  Neither side really wants to sit down at the negotiating table.  In order to hold political power, both need to incite against the other because both will need to give up more than they want and take less than they promised.  The old guard has to die off before there's any hope," she concluded. 

Maybe she's right, but I doubt it.  Palestinian mothers raise their children to hate Israelis; not sure how Israeli mothers handle it?  Mothers have a huge responsibility in all this, but no one ever mentions it.  I also think the tons of too-much, super-strong coffee they drink doesn't help.  (I'm serious about that last sentence, by the way.) 
___________________________________________________

But what I really want to talk about is Beverly McLachlin.  Adrienne Clarkson, a previous GG, wrote a worship-piece in the Globe and Mail the other day and it's nauseating in its fawning.  "What you've always been able to do, my dear Chief Justice, is to(sic) make us understand as Canadians that the Supreme Court is not only a superbly important Canadian institution, but(sic) it has(sic) a dramatic impact on all of our lives.  It is a guarantor of our democratic process.  You in your 28 years on the Court have embodied this."  (Note:  Clarkson went to the same high school as I, one of the best in the country, but sadly, she cannot write.)

Basically, Clarkson is lauding herself as a superb Canadian pioneer and leader, something with which I beg to differ.  In my view, McLachlin thought she was making law, instead of interpreting it.  Laws are made by Parliament, not the Supreme Court.  The new Chief Justice is the son of Claude Wagner, one of the toughest politicians ever to hit the Quebec legislature.  I just hope his head isn't as big as McLachlin's. 

That's why

Before I get started on "That's why", I just want to say that Hilary Clinton's book, 'What Happened' should contain two words:  "You lost."  What else is there to say?!?  The Clinton's and Obama's spent 16 years in the White House and did nothing.  They stalled everything they had promised, but did nothing.  Frankly, if Trump ran again today, he'd win. 

What I really want to talk about is the appalling agenda Trudeau has set for our county's upcoming G7 presidency.  Our ridiculous PM has said that he will focus on....wait for it.....sit down......hydrate....:

• gender equality
• climate change
• oceans and clean energy
• economic growth that works for everyone
• preparing for jobs of the future, and
• building a more peaceful and secure world.

Firstly, economic growth can never work for everyone.  It's a zero-sum game, there are winners and losers.  Remember that saying, "The poor will always be with us"?  Economically, the poor are essential to any economy.  I mean, if you quit school at 15, you're doomed to poverty and jobs that need to be done no one wants to do.  And if you have a kid at 14 or 15, you are also doomed to poverty, selfishly sharing the dismal state with your kids -- probably from different fathers. 

It's all so sad and it's the reason Canada will never be taken seriously on the world stage.  We're a laughing stock, we have neither army nor navy for Gawd's sake! 

Trudeau, a self-identified "feminist" (seriously?), is going to spend $650 million over three years on sexual and reproductive health and rights worldwide, including contraception, sex education and legal abortion.  Here's a bulletin:  The countries where this is a problem will never spend the money on those issues; male domination and rape are the accepted norm in the very countries he thinks he will "help".

Not going to do a thing.

 "The G7 is about building consensus and moving forward together, but it's also about making sure people hear loudly and clearly what our own priorities are.  And that's why we're going to keep talking about the environment and about how important it is to fight climate change," Trudeau said.

OMG!  How delusional can anyone be?  A trust-fund kid, our hapless PM will never get the reality in which most of the world exists. 

Seriously?!

So, veterans want cash for life for serving two years...somewhere.  Really?  And those who pocketed a lump sum of $200 K are also demanding the monthly stipend being offered those who didn't get it. 

It's insane.  Here's the deal.  You only go into the army if you can't get any other job.  The lower ranks are usually unskilled people who are hard-pressed to find other employment.  They need to get out of their parents' basement, so they join the infantry.  Sorry to be so blunt, but them's the facts, folks.  I mean, why would you go into the army as a foot soldier with a good chance of dying if you could get any other employment?  To enjoy Afghanistan and Bosnia?  Hardly. 

Just watched a guy crying on 'Power Play' about how he needs a lifetime pension.  I had to work for 40 years to get one; two years doesn't really cut it.  But vets have an aura, thanks only to people such as my father-in-law, his brothers and my uncle who served with distinction.  One of them died at 24.  Those who survived received small pensions, but then went out and got jobs.  They thought their lot a good one. 

And as to PTSD, that's what the legions were for.  That's where the vets met comrades, shared stories and hoisted a few just to get through the day.  B's uncle suffered all his life with malaria and assorted other maladies, but he worked hard and never complained.

In Canada, everyone wants a big handout.     

Lots of money there

I know where Trudeau and Morneau could find a lot of money.  All they have to do is not allow the Athabaska Chipewyan people to keep the money they take every year from five oil companies (see "All Yap, no facts", 12-01-2017).  Are you sitting down?  Chief Allan Adam pockets $250 million a year from Syncrude, Suncor, Cenovus, Husky and Esso.  And I am sure he is not the only one doing this. 

Yep, that's right $250 million!  Hey Mr. Morneau, do the math! 

Apparently, the money is to permit these oil companies to pass over "their" land.  But guess what, it's not native land, it's Crown land and legally all monies should go to the feds.

But of course it won't.  These are readily-available facts for anyone to look up at the touch of a keyboard, but for some reason, no one wants to expose this scam because it's a native one.  So, this government is hosing small business owners and the middle class instead of enforcing the law and getting rightful royalties.

All so wrong.   

You can't get one in Houston

I'm talking about a "Caesar", you can only get a "Bloody Mary" and no one has ever heard of the former.  Told one barman about how good they are and he googled it.  "I'm going to try this out here," he said, surprised to learn it had been invented in Canada. 

Just back from a five-day visit to Houston, where we spent time with the grands and my stepdaughter to celebrate her birthday.  You cannot get a sense of the devastation she and her family have suffered until you walk into their house.  The entire first floor and everything in it is gone and they have to completely re-build.  I'm talkin' walls, floors, electrical, plumbing, furniture, rugs and appliances.  They have nothing left.  Were it me, I'd probably cry all day, but she is a very positive woman, so I mucked in with that personality so the kids wouldn't freak.  They have been troopers, but we took them with us to our hotel for the weekend to give the parents a break. 

In her neighbourhood, people have gone all out with lights -- flood wreckage or not.  It was very heartening.  Settling into the plane on the way there, the captain came on and said, "Good morning, this is Captain Jamie Roth speaking, welcome aboard."  "We know that guy," I said to B.  "He's that ironman friend of our daughter and son-in-law.  They're neighbours and we met them at a barbeque last summer in Cochrane."  I knew he was a WestJet pilot, but I didn't expect to be on one of his flights.  After introducing ourselves to the flight attendant, we were pleased he came out to chat a bit. 

"It's only harassment if I work for you," said a very handsome Milt Stegall look-alike I had complimented in the lobby.  "Would it be harassment if I told you how gorgeous you are?" I had asked.  So, I guess I was off the hook on that one.  When people found out we were from Canada, we were credited with bringing snow to Houston for the first time in eight years.  People went crazy! 

We attended a beautiful mass at a huge local church, St. John Vianney.  It is always so packed, they need police to direct traffic for every mass!  The pastor gave a fabulous homily lamenting the demise and denial of Christmas in this secular world.

"These are strange times," he wrote in the bulletin.  "I recently read that groups of atheists and satanists were demanding to erect monuments to Satan in public spaces and their requests were approved!  All this at the same time the Archdiocese of Washington was prohibited from purchasing advertising on the D.C. metro system encouraging people to go to church at Christmas!  Religious observance by Christians is mocked and scorned, while mass shootings are lamented.  The world has indeed gone mad!" 

Indeed it has, when it comes to celebrating Christmas.  Sad state of affairs.

The Houston grands







You know me...

...and what I think hair says about our personalities, so naturally I have already formed an opinion of the new dyed-blonde justice, Sheila Martin.  Not only does dyed-blonde hair define a young woman's personality, it is also a bizarre statement for a 60-year-old to make.  What is a woman of her age doing with hair like that?

Tells me she is very concerned about her hair and about trying to look younger.  At a certain point, a woman has to cut her hair.  When your face and hair don't match, you look even older.

 



 

What a disaster

Having worked directly for ministers of The Crown, I cannot understand why the PM was hustled off to China with a buggered-up and unknown agenda??!!  B also worked for Trudeau's father and was incredulous that the outcome was not clear before junior stepped on the plane??!! 

There is no way a prime minister should ever be put in the position of being seen as having failed on a trade mission.  Or on any mission, for that matter.  What the eff was the problem with the advance staff work?  It's definitely a firing offence for John Mccallum, the current ambassador to China who did not do his job by letting the PM stumble into this mess and humiliate Canada.  I do remember Mccallum's having had an "over-refreshed" problem a few years ago.  Was this a repeat performance and he didn't do his job?  Just sayin'............. 

Speaking of ministers who should be fired, Kent Hehr and Bill Morneau are right up there.  With this trade debacle, Freeland is also at the head of the line.  She is incapable of negotiating NAFTA.  Will never be a win for Canada.  And Hehr dressing down and blaming thalidomide victims!?  Seriously.  Was he "over-refreshed" at the time?

God help us all.  Can we impeach this PM?  Please..........someone.
  

Flirting

"Hey, "D", has anyone charged you with criminal flirting yet?" I said this morning to a guy I swim with.  A large-animal vet and industry leader, this guy is a world-class flirt.  Frankly, I think he is the cat's meow.  Middle-aged and still very handsome, he is not only charming, but also outrageous.  Frankly, I told him, I am flattered you flirt so well, but don't try it on any young women.  They won't appreciate it like I do.

When I say "outrageous", I mean outrageous.  He says graphic things to women he likes that are beyond belief, but it's pretty innocent in my view because he's such a gentleman.  In fact, if D flirts with you, you're OK.  It's actually a compliment 'cause he doesn't flirt with just anyone.  The first time I met him in the lanes, he asked if I were stalking him.  "No, but I will if you want," I replied.  We both laughed and it's continued from there. 

But not anymore -- although I told him to keep it up with me.  We'll see.  But it's all so sad, now that even good-natured flirting is being outlawed.  I feel sorry for young men today because no one will be having any innocent fun in the workplace, thanks to the real bums who took it too far.

Sexual assault and harassment are crimes; flirting was fun.