filed under: Opinion

I don’t agree that familiarity breeds contempt. For me, familiarity leads to taking things for granted. When such familiarity has been jolted in the past, it has caused me some short-term awkwardness, but in the long term, it enabled me to grow as an individual. I certainly felt this when I moved from England to […]

Until I was around 30 years of age, my preferred way of procrastinating was what I can safely call now the TPOT method. TPOT stood for “There’s Plenty Of Time” and was my way of convincing myself that there was no need to hurry, as there was always another day when the necessary work could […]

"Give me a nation with arrogant fruitsellers and meek politicians."– Paul Claudet Did you see the cloud shaped like Aladdin’s lamp over Allaben last Tuesday? A Letter Dear Sparrow: When I was a kid, I thought Popular Mechanics was a magazine profiling well-loved garage mechanics. J. T. Bumper sticker: I’M TOO LAZY TO LOOK UPTHE […]

I ran into Thurston Moore, guitarist for Sonic Youth, at the book party for Up Is Up, But So Is Down: New York’s Downtown Literary Scene, 1974-1992, an anthology we’re both in. I told him I am beginning an anti-Beatles blog. "The Beatles are The Beatles," said Thurston, tautologically.  Then he added: "There are innovators […]

Here are a few suggestions for some new sports to be included in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver/Whistler. These new sports will ensure that Canada “owns the podium” in 2010.       The Bertuzzi Biathlon.     This new sport is named in honour of one of Canada‘s greatest sporting icons, that true […]

My fellow, patriotic Americans,   Today, I speak to you as the President of the United States of America, your President, not as the Leader of the Free World. I want to talk to you about patriotism, about preventing terrorist attacks on our country and about how you can all be involved in our War […]