Why are first things so interesting to us? I had no idea that hack was a 1920's invention at MIT for a gag or prank or that, as we learn in page 41 of the 9 June 2003 New Yorker, that hip-hoppy scratchity records was invented in 1975 by a guy, perhaps only later called Grandmaster Lester, trying …

Alone in the house for ten days what with my wife and kids starting the holiday out East early and all I can think of is making sure I don't start not talking out loud to the cats.

While I think writing on a weblog about others who do so is possibly the lamest thing I might do on a Sunday morning, I have to say that Ian Williams is on fire. His recent use of photos, his generous sharing of both personal political opinion and his prescriptions for meds on top of his daily …

I was delayed on my drive to work this morning by a parade of soldiers in battle fatigue marching up Princess Street past Market Square here in Kingston. D-Day ceremonies. It reminded me that when I was a kid in the early 70's, Dad's church in the Annapolis Valley still had WWI vets. In Scotland I …

That's about all the Nederlands I can recall.  Probably spelled all wrong.  No...I can also recall weerserwachting: TV weather report.  Don't forget all the w's are v's and you have to to hork when you hit the "ch".  •  It was '86. It was spring and I worked in the burbs of Amsterdam.  Just me, my …

Have a go at anything you like at this thread.

It was a rough drive back from Owen Sound.   Newmarket, Whitby and the 401 east stop around exit 462 all failed my goodly wife, the ever patient Ellen, in her quest for a Tim Horton's Iced Cappiccino available via her bank card.   I thought it was only on PEI, home of the smallest fritter in the …

On the road writing from the Owen Sound Library here on the shores of Georgian Bay. Not as grand a trip as this or this but you do what you can.  •  It's grannie-in-law's 87 and, as she has been a mad hockey fan since before she attended the opening night of Maple Leaf Gardens, it is a good time …

I have had the real pleasure of the acquaintance of a person whom I referred to as Fontman and his firm which now is apparently headquartered in Finland. While I have had the golden silverorange touch applied to the visuals here, I wonder what it might be to have pages that look like his.