Sweet

"Your table manners are so good," I said to grandson the other day, as he said, 'please, thank you, this is delicious and may I be excused from the table' and took his plate to the counter.  "Mummy must have taught you well."  "Well Grandma, you taught Mummy so she taught me," he sweetly replied.   

Now, that's one compliment I will treasure.  His sister is completely logical in her politesse.  "I like this, but I don't like it, but I like it," she commented.  Translated, this means, "I like this soup you made, but I like the other kind with the tortellini better, but I still like this one."  Sounds logical to me.   
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With the deluded Greta stumbling boringly around the world, I got to thinking about how our parents' and grandparents' generations recycled before recycling was invented!  Like this:

• Paper bags only, used for other things such as covering school books
• Waxed paper, no plastic wrap
• Beer bottles taken back
• Milk bottles picked up by the milk man
• Water from a fountain
• Frozen juice mixed in the same container
• Clotheslines
• No canned soft drinks
• Cloth diapers
• Ironing
• Paper straws
• Cotton and cardboard tampons
• Leftovers used for soup or casseroles
• Visiting the shoemaker regularly (I still wear pairs that are 30-40 years old)
• Making one's own clothes
• Saving and re-using wrapping paper, ribbon and string
• Wearing hand-me-downs from older siblings and cousins
• Pens and inkwells at school
• Fillable fountain pens
• Push lawnmowers
• Saving screws and all sorts of other hardware items
• Knitting.......

I could go on, but those are just a few that come to mind.  As I said, we were recycling, re-using or repairing before any of it was invented. 

So depressing

Reading 'The Globe and Mail' this morning and listening to the political talking heads all day, I was confronted with the following:

• Dived
• Shined
• Less seats
• The Conservative party are...
• Theirselves
• Humbleness, and
• Re-incentivise

So depressing.  The Queen's English has been trashed and trampled by people well-paid to know better.  By the way, most people would have written, "......people who are paid to know better."  The "who are" is not necessary.  I have yet to pick up an article, column or editorial without finding grammatical errors. 

So depressing.

Also depressing that Climate Barbie has been re-elected.  And to listen to Scheer, Singh, May and Bernier talk about how each "won" last night is ludicrous.  Especially Bernier, who not only lost his own seat, but also failed to win any for his "People's Party".

So, "Sock Boy" is back.  Whoa, what a mess. 

Why is he there?

Watching CBC coverage of this painful election, I saw a fat guy in the group of commentators and said, "Gee, that looks like Nenshi, but it can't be because he's mayor of Calgary and we are in a mess and he's obviously here at city hall pounding a calculator and pouring over the numbers, trying to fix us."  But guess what!?  It was Nenshi. 

OGM!

It's unbelievable to me that our mayor jets off to TO to "comment" on the federal election.  He is so incompetent.  Why would he do that?  Oh, I forgot, hubris.  Or maybe the cheeseburgers are better in TO? 

The other reason I can't watch CBC is that they have levitated Pastor Mansbridge out of the grave and planted him in front of a camera.  I also can't stand the "always-right" Rosemary Barton.  However, I would like to watch CBC because they have the brilliant Marie Heinen on as a commentator and I have enormous respect for her.  Too bad she is seated by the corpulent Nenshi.  Switched to CTV.   

Could Trudeau get another majority?  I fear he is on his way to one.  How can it have happened?     

Unconscionable

What have I always said?  Natives do not identify as "Canadian".  The airwaves have been belching out the ravings of native leaders bragging about how they never vote in "Canadian" elections because they are "nations". 

Please. 

No, they are not nations.  They are culturally different, but they are not nations.  "My people do not vote in Canadian or American elections because we do not recognize any "nation" but our own," said one ignorant chief.  (I am using "ignorant" in the proper way, i.e., does not know what a "nation" is.)  But this same chief takes millions from "Canadians" every year.   "I have never voted in any election and my people won't either," he helpfully added.  In one reserve area of 8,000, only 56 souls actually voted. 

WTF??!!

I find it disgusting that natives in this country are content to rifle through the pockets of hard-working Canadians, yet refuse to participate in elections.  But, of course, why would they?  They will get their millions regardless of who wins.

It is so wrong.  You can't take money from a country and then not only refuse to account for it, but also refuse to vote for those who fork it over.  I have two status friends, one who lives here, and I find it disheartening and dishonest that neither publically comments on this issue.  Why is that?

And does the media call them on it?  Of course not.  So wrong.     

Three or four times a year.....

....we go to The Palliser Hotel downtown for lunch.  I love that place because of its old-world elegance and charm.  I also, now and then, love to put on the war paint, high heels and get dressed up.  It also reminds me of my EXPO '86 days, when I travelled all over Canada with a co-worker, who became -- and remains -- my best friend.  The antics up to which we got!  Some repeatable, others not so much.  Like the time in Vancouver, when we........oh dear, never mind! 

When in Calgary, we always stayed at The Palliser and hit the lobby bar.  I love lobby bars because they afford the best people-watching spots you'll ever come across.  Recently renovated, The Palliser is really gorgeous with its trompe l'oeil and gold columns everywhere. 

But you never know what kind of people will show up, which is part of its charm as well as not.  Sitting there, sipping a $20 vodka martini, I overheard a man complaining about his $12 beer.  Dressed in old jeans, worn shirt and with his gut hanging out, he complained, to no one in particular, "That's ridiculous!  Twelve bucks for a beer!"  Hey, buddy.  Don't go to The Palliser, go to a dive and order a draft.  Look around, how do you think this elegance is paid for?  Calgary could do with a lot fewer of these boor-types.

But what I really want to talk about is "Clipboard boy".  What a complete jerk.  If you have ever watched 'The Kids in the Hall', you will remember the character with all the cheap pens in a plastic pouch in his shirt pocket -- the guy who kept losing one and running around yelling, "My pen, my pen!"  Well, that's "Clipboard boy" at the Y.  He walks around the pool deck with his famous clipboard and an earpiece stuck in his ear, I guess in case the mayor or the premier need to get hold of him.  He sometimes leads the aquasize -- and I do mean "size" -- class and takes down everyone's name as they arrive.  You now have to sign up in advance -- for no reason -- and woe betide if you haven't!  "Clipboard boy" practically calls the police!  "I don't have you down here," he officiously frowns to some poor slob trying to flop into the water.  "Well, I'll let you take the class just this once, but you have to sign up in advance next time," he admonishes some two-ton Tessie. 

There is no point to this because anyone can take the class, so taking attendance is just another of "Clipboard boy's" made up duties.  As I am swimming laps in the only two lanes left open I hear, "Well, welcome everyone.  No, it's not Monday, it's Wednesday.  Can everyone hear me?  Yes, including those of us who don't want to.  How's the music?  Too loud?  Do you like this song?  Let's warm up with a little water-pushing, push, push that water.  For eff's sake!  I took an instant dislike of this boob the first time I laid eyes on him, with his special shoes and special shorts. 

Gawd!           

Ludicrous

The 'Globe and Mail' devoted its entire two-page folio to Chrystia Freeland today.  Why?  In G-d's name, why?!  CBC also had a long interview with her to which I could not listen.

Not only is she rude, but she's also so full of herself as to be rendered oblivious to everyone else.  She is sure she is right.  All the time.  About everything.  As I have pointed out before, here we have a foreign minister who is not only proud of being agenda-driven by her Ukrainian background, but also barred from entering Russia because of it.

Does she not notice she is foreign minister of Canada, not Ukraine!?!  To top it off, the Globe article claims she is the "obvious" successor to Trudeau.  OMG!  I guess it's "obvious" because she is as dumb as he.

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The other thing I want to rave on about is Indigenous child welfare leader Cindy Blackstock bleating on that native children need the same benefits as other children.  Well, of course they do.  But the money is less because native bands are given billions via another channel, so they don't get the same as the rest of Canadian children who don't get that extra funding.  In fact, I bet native children get more money, but it may be siphoned off by their leaders and doesn't get to them.  Hence, Cindy's whining.  Why doesn't she go after Indian leaders?

Of course, not one interviewer asks about this.  As an ex-journalist, I would be asking that question right up front and I would have the numbers.