Summer is over at the end of this week and I am not looking forward to the season’s change. I love spring, because it signals five months of good weather. Autumn, on the other hand, reminds me that winter is just around the corner, and I cannot find anything good to say about the coming weeks of cold weather. I’m not saying there is no beauty in the year’s third season, but rather, that it is fleeting. The leaves going…
I am a child of the 60’s. When Beatlemania hit in 1963, I was seven years old, but even at that age I loved their music and, honestly, about ninety-five percent of the music from that decade. Were those ten years the pinnacle of musical achievement? In my humble opinion, while some fantastic compositions were penned in that period, they don’t hold a candle to Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, and a host of other composers from the previous three or four…
As tempting as it is to compose a maudlin, sorrowful essay, I am instead celebrating my mother’s life. She passed away on Sunday morning, one month to the day before her 97th birthday. I loved my mother deeply. She was a kind, thoughtful woman who I think deserves to be lauded for putting up with me, her oldest and always rebellious son. She and my father did their best to raise me to be a righteous, Christian man. Unfortunately, until…
Monday is Labor Day in Canada and the US. It’s a federal holiday that celebrates the contributions of workers, whether or not union, to the country’s development. The three-day weekend it falls on is called Labor Day Weekend. Alternative accounts of the event’s origin exist. Descendants of two men with similar last names claim their great-grandfather was the true father of the holiday. One early history of Labor Day suggests it started in 1882 during a Knights of Labor meeting…
Today is Heritage Day here in sunny Alberta, Canada. Although this is not a national holiday, the first Monday in August is a provincial holiday in most of Canada’s ten provinces. The name of the day varies from one province to another, but the day off is a welcome diversion as we pass through the end of the dog days of summer. We had some hot days between 38 and 43 Celsius (100 to 110 Fahrenheit), but it’s cooler now….
Today I want to talk about Douglas Adams’ science fiction masterpiece, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I discovered the novel a few years after its publication and fell in love with his irreverent and quirky sense of humor. I cannot remember where or when I found this book, but what I do remember is the strange looks my wife gave me as I giggled and chortled my way through it. Yes, it is classed as science fiction, but the plot is…
I am not a big fan of film musicals. I love music, but when it comes to throwing songs into a film, I’m of the mind that 99% of them should stay far away from each other. In my opinion, they rarely achieve an amiable collaboration; either the music overpowers what the actors are doing, or vice versa. Of all the films I have seen that attempted this marriage, I consider no more than three or four watchable and of…
As I have stated in previous posts, I love the Black Hills of South Dakota, especially the world famous memorial to democracy on Mount Rushmore. Although we haven’t visited in more than a decade, past trips to the area are still some of my favorite memories. The four presidents are not unique in South Dakota, however. Less than an hour away is the site of the world’s largest mountain carving currently in progress, the Crazy Horse Memorial. The facts surrounding…
Today was Victoria Day here in Canada, or as I and my high school friends always called it, May Two-Four. It was named in honor of England’s Queen Victoria and has been observed in this country since 1845, originally on her birthday, which was May 24, hence the nickname, although now it is always on the Monday immediately preceding May 25. The holiday is a federal statutory holiday, as well as a holiday in six of the country’s 10 provinces…
I don’t have much today, other than a blow by blow description of the trouble I have run into preparing my home for the installation of new windows next week. It is doubtful that is of interest to anybody except for me. What I have instead is an early excerpt from my latest WIP, If Not for the Entail. The story revolves around the fate of Elizabeth and her family following the unanticipated passing of Mr. Bennet, and a despicable villain’s…