My life at 'Mad Men'

This is the 10th 'First Person' the Globe has not accepted.  I think it's pretty good and have no clue why they will not publish my work.  Have a read and tell me what you think: 

'Mad Men’ at the corner of University and Dundas

I suppose it all started with Miss Anderson in grade eight.  That’s when I learned all my grammar and began to actually enjoy writing.  Miss Anderson was a tough taskmaster who regularly invited us to stand and parse a long, convoluted sentence she had written on the blackboard – usually by a wordsmith like Charles Dickens, or some such other brilliant writer.  It was murder, but it was worth it.

After graduating from university, like any other aspiring young lady, off I went to the Centre of the Universe:  Toronto.  With a degree in English – a luxury, but not really practical – I decided to focus on what I could do best, write.  With the help of a new boyfriend who worked at an ad agency, I made the rounds of art directors with ads I had re-written with my own copy.  

That didn’t go too well, until I had an interview with one director who knew someone who knew someone who was an editor at the biggest publishing company in Toronto, Maclean Hunter (MH).  Taking pity on me, he secured me an interview and to my amazement, that senior editor hired me on the spot!

Thus began my life at ‘Mad Men’ on University Avenue.  And what an adventure it was!  This being the late sixties, we young women were the first cohort of “feminism”.  We had tossed away the restrictive cloaks of ladylike, prescriptive fifties behaviour and were spreading our liberated wings to the hilt.  Or so we thought.  The years have shown that feminism wasn't all it was cracked up to be, but never mind, we were marching ahead anyway.

At that time, MH published Maclean’s, Chatelaine, Miss Chatelaine and The Financial Post – as well as scores of trade magazines.  I started out in the editorial pool, where I wrote pieces for a number of magazines, eventually graduating to penning book reviews for The Post and even a horoscope booklet for ‘Miss Chatelaine’, the latter of which sold like hotcakes!

I must confess that despite the extensive research I did for the booklet, in the end I realized that every sign seemed to have many of the same qualities as every other.  So, pushed to deadline, I simply made a lot of it up.  Oops!

While toiling in the editorial “bullpen”, as I called it, I was supervised by one of the first female columnists in the country.  Her red pen was ruthless and from her I learned how to cut unnecessary words – a skill I rarely see these days.     

Back then, there were “Don Draper’s” everywhere.  Handsome, suave, debonair, talented charmers who flirted shamelessly with every new female hire in the building.  What fun we had!  Everyone smoked all the time, everyone tippled all the time and everyone dated everyone.  As you can surmise, “#metoo” had not yet arrived.  We had a ball.  But let me be clear, we women were in charge and there was no sexual harassment whatsoever.  You either dated someone, or you didn’t.  Now such men would be labeled “male chauvinistic pigs”.  To me, they were perfect gentlemen who treated women with respect and class.

A typical suave "Don Draper" at M-H

One of my assignments was to a home goods trade magazine, which entailed going to huge conventions at places like the Royal York Hotel, where I would walk into a roomful of 500 unknown delegates.  My job was to approach these strangers, introduce myself, take out my notebook and start interviewing.  This was when I was glad my mother had taught me to “speak to a person”, as she would admonish.  Shyness was not permitted in her world of civility and politesse.  Being shy was being rude, which enabled me to get my job done without stress.

Friday’s the magazine went to press and you never missed a deadline.  The printing plant was heavily unionized and we lowly editors had to be given permission to step onto the printing floor.  This being the era of hot type, the typesetters were in charge.  If a piece didn’t fit, you had to cut from the bottom, so I learned to put the important facts up front.  Today, that has all changed and when I read a long piece, I go straight to the end to find the point.

Being able to write has given me every job I have ever had since.  Marriage, divorce and relocation found me in Ottawa, where I found assignments writing speeches for ministers of the Crown.  One job led to another, but writing was always why I got the jobs I did. 

I guess it’s natural for many of us to look back as the runway gets shorter.  What did Bruce Springsteen write?  Glory Days?  Every time I watch an episode of ‘Mad Men’, I am transported back to those heady days at MH when I was blazing new trails and paving the way for women in the workplace everywhere. 

And it all started with parsing sentences for Miss Anderson in grade eight.  What a debt of gratitude I owe her.  

Nancy Marley-Clarke

7 Glendale Way, Cochrane, Alta., T4C 1J2

403-710-9122

A Pauline conversion

That's what happened to Dennis Quaid a number of years ago, when he quit cocaine.  Interesting interview with Piers Morgan on YouTube, during which he said finding Jesus was what got him off his then-God, cocaine.

He was not strident about it, but it was moving.  It got me thinking about the many people I have known who have embraced Christianity; some brought perfunctorily up in one religion or another and others I met when I ran a discernment ministry at 'Our Lady of Fatima' Catholic church in Ottawa.  In both cases, people went from sitting in "comfortable pews", as Pierre Burton described them, to fervent followers.

Strong belief changes lives.

It occurred to me that I don't recall a lot of people converting to Judaism.  Judaism is a closed society and if you marry into it, you have to convert if your spouse is a practicing Jew.  Oh, there are cases where people convert to Judaism for cultural reasons, but other than that, Christianity, and in particular Catholicism,  seems to be the only religion encouraging and accepting converts of all stripes for any reason at all.  

I know, I know.  You probably find it hard to believe that I was involved in such a ministry.  You'd also be shocked to learn that I took communion around the Civic Hospital to many Catholic patients every Sunday morning for years.  And you'd also be surprised to know I was head of the Fatima parish council for many years.

Shit happens, as Keith Richards says.  

In my case, I was sort of roped into this work by a wily Father Martineau, who took advantage of my absence at meetings to elect me head of this and chair of that.  "You weren't here, but you were voted in as chair," he'd say.  "Frankly, I couldn't face anyone else chairing those interminable meetings."  Oh, thanks a bunch!

But you couldn't say no to the guy.  Mysteriously, I had a number of inexplicable pastoral experiences at the Civic, which only served to make me a believer.  Here in Calgary, I don't even go to Mass, but those experiences still haunt me and inform my outlook.

I also watched Douglas Murray, author of 'The Strange Death of Europe', on YouTube (yes, I have no life) and he was talking about the cultural ghettos in Britain and especially London.  He was bemoaning the degradation and loss of British culture.  I agree.  We have it in Canada too -- especially in cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. 

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an immigrant scholar from Somalia who preaches assimilation and is a vocal critic of Islam, says if immigrants and minorities don't assimilate, Britain will go the way of the countries she and others fled.  

"Apparently, our politicians keep telling us diversity is our strength," said Murray.  "Well, no, it's our folly.  Those cultures invading Britain do not integrate.  In fact, in some areas immigrants can live their entire lives without speaking a word of English, or joining or doing anything English whatsoever.

"When was the last time anyone said, 'We need more Wales in Eritrea'?  The audience understandably guffawed.  "Just doesn't work the other way," he concluded.  And who decides to convert to the Jehovah Witness cult?  How about that other cult, Mormonism?  No one.  But when I was running that ministry, we always had about five converts at any one time.  Even intellectual giants like Malcolm Muggeridge were converts: 

The great Malcolm Muggeridge

"The essential feature and necessity of life is to know reality, which means knowing God," Muggeridge said upon conversion.  He believed the Catholic Church was the only true church, having descended from St. Paul.

Here, there seems to be no "Canada" anymore either, as evidenced by the ludicrous and illegal occupations of university campuses across the country.  And surprise, surprise, they are all antisemitic and pro-Palestine!  And what are university presidents doing?  Nothing with any teeth.  It's unconscionable.

This is at the University of Calgary.

Jewish parents are pulling their kids out of schools because they fear violence from Palestinian extremists.  This is Canada, for Gawd's sake!  Stop it!

Tasha Kheiriddin weighed in with a column the other day.  "Canada has become a society of silos.  Instead of diversity being our strength, it has become our Achilles heel and a weakness for malignant foreign states to exploit.  

"Today we have become ashamed of Canada.  We topple our statues.  We erase the word "pioneer" from historical installations.  We rename our public spaces with monikers that have no connection to our history."   

Hear, hear.

"The most affected are young people.  They are not encouraged to find common bonds, but to focus on what divides them.  Wander the halls in any public high school in Toronto and you'll see displays and murals commemorating Canada's sins:  Murdered Indigenous women, Black Lives Matter, Trans Rights Matter."

British Columbia even has an entire "inclusive calendar guide" for K-12.  It's 30 pages long and lists 193 days, months and seasons to recognize various holidays, heritages and minority rights.  Of those, only five commemorate Canadian historical figures:  Louis Riel, Queen Victoria, St-Jean Baptiste, the Famous Five and Lincoln Alexander.  

You read that right.  Five, out of 193.  Only five in this country!

What is recognized?  Sikh holidays number at least a dozen, LGBTQ gets an entire season, plus many days and every month is some culture's heritage month.  

"Today, kids are fed a culture of division, not diversity.  Schools practice segregation.  Everyone must be labelled, put in a box.  You are this first, that second, something else third and then, somewhere along the line, oh ya, you are Canadian," she writes.  "If you're not in a box, you're just a basic Canadian.  What is that anyway?"

It's as if Canadians are being told to shelter in place, stay out of the way and keep quiet.

This has to change.  But I bet it won't.  We are a culture and society in decline.

Cilantro, arugula and aioli

Why does EVERY chef have to put cilantro, arugula or aioli into EVERY dish?  Apparently, because it's there and they do.  Frankly, I can't stand any of these horrors because they wreck the taste of everything.

Take good, old-fashioned mayonnaise.  Why is aioli ALWAYS in EVERY mayonnaise EVERYWHERE?  And let's not forget about kale.  WTF is up with that?!  I also hate kale.  I went on a kale site and someone asked, "What is the tastiest way to serve kale?"

There isn't one.

WTF is "sambal mayo"?!

The dreaded arugula.  Ugh!

"Chefs can't be spoken to, can they," I said to a young server the other day.  "No, they can't," he replied.  "Well, tell the chef I'd like salmon cakes, but hold the aioli, hold the kale, hold the cilantro and hold the arugula."  I felt like Jack Nicholson in 'Five Easy Pieces' trying to order breakfast.

The dreaded arugula hiding behind the salmon cake.

You'd think that would give the average chef a clue, but no, it doesn't.

If only I could find a Woolworth's lunch counter to get an ordinary, garden-variety sandwich.  Sigh.................  

 

How will this work?

It won't.  Now the RCMP has designated the native "ribbon skirt" as an official uniform for Indigenous RCMP female officers.

The new RCMP female uniform.  Huh!???!!!

How in Gawd's name are women going to operate effectively wearing a skirt?!  As I said, they won't.  This all started when the RCMP allowed Baltej Dhillon to wear a turban as official hear gear in 1991.  Now, anything goes.

Ludicrous

 And it all stems from the brain of our befuddled prime minister, who rubber stamps any ludicrous idea put forward by any Indigenous lobby that crosses his desk.  

The PM's brain

Geezer alert

"I was being a smarty pants and showing off," I said to the lifeguard when I finally returned to the pool three months after my injury.

Yes, I was racing some 12-year-old and did serious damage to my right shoulder rotator cuff.  That was 13 years ago and I could not swim for three months.  Eventually, it felt better, so I got back into the water.  Things improved over the years, but I must have injured it again over the summer because it became impossible and painful again.

Naturally, I did not have it properly assessed 13 years ago, but this time I did.  Here's what's officially still wrong with my rotator cuff, according to the latest ultrasound:

• Biceps tendon, subluxed, heterogeneous, fluid hyperemia.  Area of concern;
• Full-thickness tear distal = 9x9 tendinosis of the subscapularis tendon;
• Complete tear of the supraspinatus tendon;
• Full thickness tear distal of the infraspinatus tendon, 13x11mm;
• Bursitis in the subacromial-subdeltoid;
• Degeration of the acromloclavicular joint; and
• Impingement of the abduction.

I'm amazed that I have been swimming through this nightmare for 13 years!  Must be the Irish in me because I am still swimming.  The specialist who saw me the other day said an operation would not help.  He was also amazed that I have pushed through this and still swim 40 laps a day.  Did I mention I just turned 77?    

Here's what the internet shows it looks like.  This shows just one tear; I have three.  I am posting this so my doctor sister, Nora Doyle, can have a look:

See the tear?  

  

Canada destroyed

It's a sad, sad day when the prime minister of Canada prefers to tweet about the death of a sportscaster on Victoria Day, instead of mentioning the Queen who created this country on her day.

Queen Victoria, the creator of Canada.

Not to make light of Darren Dutchyshen's tragic, too-young demise, but seriously, it's Victoria Day!  And as if the PM's dereliction wasn't bad enough, not even the governor general mentioned the day.  And she's the Monarch's representative in this country!!  Shame on you Mary Simon, as you sit in splendor in Rideau Hall, enjoying the high life of tea, crumpets and sherry bestowed upon you by Queen Victoria herself.

Our governor general, who has no clue what her job is!?

And what were the Lieutenants General of all the provinces doing on Victoria Day?  No clue?  It shocked me when I learned that Canada is the only country that marks Victoria Day.  Yep, that's true.  But of course, not all provinces recognize it.  In fact, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador don't celebrate it, which flabbergasted me.  

As for Quebec, they renamed it National Patriots' Day, but they still give themselves a holiday.  Why, of course they do!  They also take St. Jean Baptiste Day, by the way.  

Meanwhile, Trudeau was swanning around in the US on Victoria Day kissing ass and trying to get a jump on the disasters that will befall him when Trump gets in.  (Trump, to his credit, can't stand Trudeau.)  Who knows what Simon was doing, but it wasn't celebrating and honouring the Queen who created Canada.

I'm getting pretty sick of politicians who ignore our history and pay no heed to how Canada was created.  It's all about votes, not about our once-wonderful country.

Shame, shame on Trudeau.  

   

Still love the guy

Every year or so, I pick up the phone and call my late cousin's first husband, John Booth (of the Booth lumber Booth's, those Booth's).  We've been friends for 59 years and he always picks up.  We then fall effortlessly into the most intimate chat, as if no years have passed.  Just called him and once again, we dove nostalgically into the past and present.

I first met him in 1966, when he and my cousin got together.  That first summer, I dated his younger brother, Bill.  What a time we all had.  We spent a lot of it up at the Booth home in The Seigneury Club (now a Fairmont hotel) and their nearby cottage on Lake Commandant.  

The Seigneury Club in Montebello, now a Fairmont.

Heady times for me, what with servants and a cook and all the other accoutrements the wealthy take for granted.  Whenever I watch professional waterskiing, I think of John and Bill.  You have to have rich parents to be that good because the rest of us had to work all summer; you guys just waterskiied from morning 'til night.

Examples of how John and Bill skiied

John was a better skier than this guy; his shoulder was only an inch from the water.

One weekend, John spent endless, patient hours teaching me to get up on one ski and thanks to him, I finally managed it!  As for the Booth brothers, they never even got wet.  Just jumped off the dock on one ski and landed back on the dock, as dry as the rest of us watching.

My phone call made me appreciate just how lucky B and I are.  We are relatively healthy, so it shocked me to hear that John's wife has dementia.  Heavens, she's seven years younger than I!  

In another shocker, B got an email from an old friend to tell him his wife had died because of a lack of  "mobility and vitality".  Apparently, she had been bedridden for the last few years and she too is younger than both B and I.  Not sure if his wife exercised, but he remains an avid walker.

Both these stories have made it clear that I HAVE to keep swimming -- even though I NEVER want to get out of bed in the morning to trudge to that godforsaken pool!

Arrrrrgh!

   

 

Trapped

That's what I will be until the actual Stanley Cup is presented, done and dusted.  Right now, we're in "the playoffs", but in my world, it's not the playoffs until the final six games unfold.  And even then, I don't really perk up until the cup is in the building, ready to be presented.

(Note to Gary Bettman:  Stay away!!)

My only hope is that Connor McDavid finally gets his moment in the sun.  The best player in the world deserves it, after languishing with the dismal Oilers for so many hopeless years.

A few years ago, we went to an open house at Olympic Park, where Gordie Howe and a few other ancient luminaries did a little skate around meet-and-greet.  The Keeper of the Cup, Phil Pritchard, was also there -- complete with his trademark white gloves to protect it.  Guarding the 121-year-old cup has been Pritchard's job for 25 years; it never leaves his care. 

Phil Pritchard with his charge -- gloved as usual!

The damage to the cup happens when each member of the winning team is permitted to take it to his hometown following victory.  Pritchard is always there too, but victors are allowed to take it to parties and bars, fill it with booze and now and then drop it.  This has happened eight times, with varying degrees of damage.  Oops!

Waiting for B at the bar of the local 'Earls', I started to chat with the bartender -- as usual.  Hockey came up.  "Do you follow hockey?" he asked.  "Not really, but I am trapped watching it because my husband loves the game," I wearily replied.  We then began trading facts, stats, anecdotes, my two NHL boyfriends and player skills to which he exclaimed, "Boy, for someone who says she knows nothing about hockey, you sure know a lot."

I put it down to osmosis.  Obviously, it's seeping in.  Can't wait 'til the end of June.....sigh.  

   

What am I missing?

So, Trump paid Stormy Daniels money.  So what?  What is the difference between giving someone hush money and having them sign a non-disclosure agreement for money?  What is the problem?  Is it a crime to give someone money?  Their interactions were private, were they not?  Frankly, the more the government goes after Trump, the higher his popularity rises. 

Ms. Daniels and her client.

He could have saved himself millions by just letting the whole thing slide and the chips fall.  No one cares, except those who want to "get" him.  They're focused on "porn wars", to quote Kevin O'Leary -- not the disasters unfolding in the US under Biden:  Open borders, inflation at 19%, the ballooning of crime, etc., etc.  Prosecutors can't even coherently explain what the "crime" he supposedly committed was!?  

I know it's fashionable and de rigeur to vilify Trump -- especially with the liberal, leftist media,  but I don't have a problem with the guy.  Remember, he is the only president in living memory who didn't start a war and he's the one who brought the troops out of that useless graveyard called Afghanistan.  He'll also build that wall which will prevent so many illegals from travelling on up to Canada, where we will have to pay for them.

Don't countries have borders for a reason?  Don't countries have immigration and refugee procedures for a reason?

Hundreds of Canadian soldiers were killed in Afghanistan for absolutely no reason.  The place has reverted back to its perpetual medieval state, with women shoved underground or in caves and war lords back in the drug business.  Children are starving, so their mothers give them heroin to dull their hunger.  I saw a documentary about it and I literally cried seeing toddlers taking heroin.  It's all so sad.  Wish I hadn't watched it because I can't unwatch it.

Reminds me of the hysteria that erupted when Nigel Wright gave Mike Duffy $90,000 for legal fees over something and everyone went insane.  I still don't get what that problem was either?  Now, Duffy is a very successful motivational speaker.  Good for him.

Duffy, his benefactor Wright and PM Harper, who gave him a Senate seat.

Speaking of sex, watched 'Spacey Unmasked' on Prime or Netflix and was appalled.  The guy is a sexual predator who has evaded prosecution, in spite of the testimony of the scores of men who had been molested by him over the years.  They interviewed many of them who had been groped or abused when they were high school students and others on the sets of many of his films.  

Just watched Piers Morgan's interview with Spacey and I have mellowed in my assessment.  He was found not guilty in both a criminal and civil trial, so many of the charges against him were trumped up, so to speak.  He now hopes to get back to work, but I doubt anyone will cast him in anything.  All very sad.

That's the basic story in the whole, sordid mess.  

Spacey in better days.

I'm sad because he is a great actor and now has been disappeared forever.  'House of Cards' was never the same without him.  May he Rest in Peace.    

If there was a point, I missed it

I'm talking about the foreign interference "inquiry" into just who was meddling in federal elections.  According to Justice Marie-Josée Hogue's report, we don't really know.  Probably it was China.  Maybe it was India.

Hogue having a chuckle

Really?  Millions spent and all she concludes is that, "perhaps there was meddling" and "it is likely to increase and may have negative consequences" and that "alerting the public might have been too slow" and that CSIS "might have been so secretive it didn't share what Canadians needed to know" and "it is possible that results in a small number of ridings were affected, but this cannot be said with certainty".

The key words are "perhaps, maybe and might".  That's ludicrous.  In the end, she reported nothing, so what was the point?  

Andrew Coyne, not my favourite columnist as you know, actually made a good point when he wrote that Hogue was unable to draw any conclusions about Trudeau's failure to take action or follow up.  "I am not certain what steps were taken," said Hogue.

She concludes by saying, "Further study is required before I can make definitive recommendations."  She also has not answered the biggest question about what the prime minister knew, when he knew it and what he did about it?

The answer is that of course he did nothing because China wanted the Liberals to get elected and Trudeau knew it.  That's what he knew and that's what he cared about.  And Hogue, appointed by Trudeau, would not dare to call him out on his deceptions; afterall, that's where her bread is buttered.

As we drift ever further into the dark abyss the Liberals have created, I fear they might actually get re-elected and we will remain led by a narcissistic, bully and tyrant.

Gawd help us all.

    

You are antisemitic

That's what a Jewish acquaintance accused B of being a few years ago.  His crime?  She had asked him what he thought the wars in the Middle East were all about.  "Real estate," he replied.

He, of course, was right, but she immediately accused him of being antisemitic and walked off in a huff.  See, that's the problem.  You analyze anything going on over there with any logic or reality and immediately you're labelled an antisemite.

I thought universities were about learning and informed, objective debating.  Guess not.  The mobs at McGill are made up of professional disrupters and students from other schools.  Mostly pro-Palestinian and rabidly anti-Jewish, they indicate just how alive and well antisemitism remains, bubbling under the surface, ready to emerge at any excuse.

The whole thing is being funded by Qatar, Iran and George Soros!  The students have issued a set of demands that include food, medical supplies and the assurance that no one will be charged or arrested.  This is insane!

Antisemitic mob rule 

I find that very disturbing.  Were I the president, I would ensure every protester was failed because obviously, they are not attending class and presumably not handing in assignments.  I would also do what the Americans are doing and arrest a few hundred.  

But not Deep Saini, McGill's president.  Do I dare mention that Saini is from an ethnic culture and therefore prone to avoiding any hint of cracking down and enforcing law and order on private property?  No, I daren't.

Deep Saini

And do I dare mention that the head of the students society, Risann Wright, is also an Arab and therefore anti-Israeli?  No, I daren't.

Risann Wright

But with these two in charge, why are we surprised?  As I always say, you have to pull back the curtain and look into who's running an organization to discover the agenda.  That'll tell you everything.  

Ottawa U is also deluged with sit-ins, but president Jacques Frémont will do nothing because he has spent his career advocating for human rights all over the world.  Expect that mess to continue indefinitely.  

Frémont with his buddy, the odious Trudeau.

Only if they have money

I regularly frequent the only Dim Sum restaurant in Northwest Calgary and I love looking around and studying the Chinese culture, embodied in the families there.  What I have observed is that, unlike our culture, Chinese families include three generations when they dine out -- regardless of the mobility, or lack thereof, of ancient or handicapped members.

"Why do Chinese women marry Caucasian men, but Chinese men do not marry Caucasian women?" I asked one of my regular servers.  "They are only permitted to marry outside their race if the woman has money," she told me.  So there you have it:  A complete analysis of Chinese family mores.

I guess that means that a Chinese woman who marries a Caucasian has money, otherwise that pairing would be prohibited too.  How sensible, I thought.

Speaking of the Chinese, we are watching a fabulous series on Netflix called 'American Rust'.  It's about a derelict midwestern US town decimated by the collapse of the steel and manufacturing industries.  Drugs have replaced everything and everyone is on them.  Starring Jeff Daniels, he of the marvelous 'Dumb and Dumber movies, the show made me think that the Chinese don't have to go to conventional or nuclear warfare with the US, they are doing it just as successfully with fentanyl.  

How brilliant!  The Chinese own every drug manufacturing company going and they are successfully killing the West with their products.  Think about it, folks.  That's what's happening.

____________________________

On a cleaner note, I have discovered that I am not alone in my love of clotheslines.  I have joined the 'A World of Washing' facebook group, where I enjoy postings and paintings of laundry flapping in breezes around the world.  I love my clothesline and so, apparently, do millions around the world. 

I am part of the 31,500 members of this group who share our love of this old-fashioned, low-tech, green household appliance:

Laundry day in Naples

Another beautiful painting of laundry lines.

Magnificent painting

My own line last summer.