Once again today it was impossible to wallow beneath the duvet.  The blue sky and yellow sunshine were already appearing brightly behind the window coverings. The magic of another perfect day beaconed. Before eight o’clock this morning I was stationed in the shower and subsequently performed my customary ablutions at the bathroom counter.

Later in the morning (after breakfast and a not-so-usual fade for almost an hour on the balcony in the increasingly warm sunshine), while waiting in the car for Denis to finish grocery shopping and getting shot in the arm at the pharmacy by Yuriy Vlasenko, BScPhm, I chanced to see George Yaremchuk. George was engaged in casual conversation with a chap loading his groceries and parked nearby.  When they finished their communication, I called to George from my car window.  He drew closer and we subsequently chatted.

Yuriy” is a Russian-origin male name, a Slavic form of “George,” meaning “farmer”. It’s a common name in Russian-speaking communities and shares its roots with other names like “George,” “Yuri,” and “Yury”. The name has a significant historical background, and many notable people throughout history and in the present day have this name, including actors, athletes, and business professionals.

Though George was by his own account recovering from a recent knee replacement, he looked terribly fit.  In fact he referenced an agenda involving the gym and kayaking on the river in addition to other preoccupations I have already forgotten (though I believe one may have involved a beer at the Barley Mow). He said today is Jill McCubbin’s birthday.  She is his co-vivante and has been so since 2010 (as he told me in response to my native curiosity). He had bought her a birthday card. In addition he had bought a small bag of dried fruit, the contents of which to his surprise he had already consumed.  He commented that one doesn’t get too many fruit pieces for $1.50.  I asked where he had purchased them. He said the Dollar store adjacent the grocery store. This intelligence inspired me to comment that the things I have garnered from the Dollar store are sleep masks, picture frames and silk flowers (all or which I extolled with the qualification of appropriate and propitious search-and-find tactic).

Though I once worked for both Jill and her parents, I have only been indirectly associated with George’s legal involvement. I recall seeing George first when he lived in a lovely red brick home on the corner of Tatra and Larose Streets around the corner from where we lived at the time on Laura Crescent. Following Jill’s separation from her spouse, she purchased a country property nearby a rural estate owned by George at what was then the edge of town (before amalgamation with the Townships of Ramsay and Pakenham). In unwitting consequence I confronted an anomaly of residential real estate; namely, legal entitlement to cross a privately owned rail line in order to gain access to one’s property. If I recall the arrangement correctly, the railway company distanced itself from liability for the occasional crossings (for which there was no gate or mounted alarm). Probably the de facto entitlement or right-of-way was endured by the railway company because of the limited potential users.  I suspect too that Jill and George have sold the properties. The tarnishing matter of access has presumably been discounted or otherwise negotiated since the rail line is now a public thoroughfare owned by the province or perhaps by one or more of the municipalities or townships.

After connecting with George I fumbled about the internet and my library of books on my iPhone The current market activity did not escape my interest and applause. Seemingly I owe it to the President of the United States to thank him for inspiring new ventures for Canada and its allies. I note however that the American labour market is still perishing and it may require more than national investment promises from China and Japan (each in the billions of dollars) to buoy the people on the receiving end of these much lauded commitments.

Market mechanics

Econ101 teaches us that a key function of free markets is to facilitate the optimal allocation of capital. Free markets are the arena where those with excess funds are introduced to others in need of funding for their operations or growing an innovative product or service. For centuries, the most basic units that facilitated these exchanges were stocks (a.k.a. partial equity ownership in future earnings and dividends) or bonds (a loan featuring future repayment of principal along with interim interest payments). There are notable sums of both in circulation: according to SIFMA, a leading industry trade organization, global public equities totalled nearly $127 trillion by year end 2024, with global fixed income clocking in at over $145 trillion.

Oddly I found my brief read of Plutarch’s Lives to be less recherché and more apt than Economy 101. Plutarch was born probably between A.D. 45 and A.D. 50, at the little town of Chaeronea in Boeotia.

Without denying that Plutarch is often inaccurate and often diffuse; that his anecdotes are sometimes absurd, and his metaphysical speculations not unfrequently ridiculous, he is nevertheless generally admitted to be one of the most readable authors of antiquity, while all agree that his morality is of the purest and loftiest type. The first edition of the Greek text of Plutarch’s Lives appeared at Florence in the year 1517, and two years afterwards it was republished by Aldus.

Excerpt From
Plutarch. “Plutarch’s Lives, Volume I of 4.”