Growing up in Toronto in 1967 – 1970 while attending Glendon Hall for undergraduate studies was an eventful time of my life.  I am today reminded of those colourful events because I distinctly recollect starting university in what was then a picture-perfect autumn much like today, over 50 years later. I had just graduated from an all-boys boarding school, I was 18 years old and I was studying Philosophy.  While there were several of my boarding school classmates who had also chosen to attend Glendon Hall it was of course a gateway to a new crowd. Most of the students within my orbit lived in residence. In that respect the place was very much like boarding school; viz., there were (separate) residences for men and women, and the residences were identified by individual houses (which, if I recall, were no more imaginative than A House, B House and C House). The women’s residence (l think it was collectively called Hilliard Residence) was located on the opposite side of the huge grassy courtyard that separated the two.

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On Sep 13, 2024, at 4:24 PM, <sheila@lauzonmusic.com> wrote:

Hi Bill,

Thank you for your interest in the Casio Privia PX-S7000. It’s a real showstopper!  We have the harmonious mustard colour currently in stock and we welcome you to visit us to try it out. It includes a free “Casio Music Space” app to download which you will also find interesting.

Sheila Alain
Lauzon Music
613-725-1116

Home

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Whatever physical energy I may once have dragged with me into the eighth decade of my life is now inexorably on the decline. The well is running dry. I have today forced myself to do what was planned and a bit more but none of it happened without visible difficulty and an unflattering corporeal effort, nor without an accompanying feeling of obstruction and complaint, hobbling bent over with stick-in-hand, face to the ground, the veritable picture of withering decrepitude. This is especially objectionable when the tasks were not uncomfortable tasks or feats I did not wish to perform. Rather my aging and contorted carcass simply refused to rise to the occasion, refused to greet the challenge, refused to endure the petty hardship even for the sake of dignity. I felt in the throes of perpetual defeat!

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Since I awoke this morning – an ideal late summer day – I have been imagining life in Provincetown on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. I have pictured in my mind the misty skies of early morning over the Ocean; or the smell of freshly made donoughts from the bakery at the Lobster Pot where the night before I had eaten overlooking the bay; smoking cigarettes and drinking neat Scotch whiskey from a tiny tumbler; swiming in the sea and sunbathing on the beach; or breakfast at a restaruant among the noisy crowds on Commercial Street.

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Whether you choose Grid View or List View you’re looking at the same thing. But you’re regarding it from a different perspective. And while it is often repeated that everything depends upon how you look at things, I am not so certain one is always looking at the same thing or even a different thing. The variety exudes not from the construction or disposition of the ingredients being examined but rather from within ourselves. Altering the linear or proportional dimension of the things we see may indeed look different but the impression upon our mind may be quite unintended or intended but obstructive (like hunting for a trademark in a millefiori).

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Last evening in anticipation of our housekeeper’s scheduled visit today we had fashioned that we’d brunch at the golf club this morning.  But that plan failed for lack of appetite. Not because we were not interested in food but because we had already had toast and porridge for breakfast and that naturally dampened scrutiny of anything as substantial as brunch. So instead of wandering along the Appleton Side Road as we had proposed, we redirected ourselves aimlessly in the opposite direction further adjacent the Mississippi River towards Renfrew County.

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Quite unintentionally we remarked in unison today, “This is Paradise!”  Although I don’t normally predicate my temperament upon the weather, it was unreasonable today not to have attributed a fully warranted blitheness to the brilliant sunshine. The sky was an azure blue without a trace of cloud. The temperature, though earlier this morning on the cool side, quickly rose to balmy by mid-afternoon. The wind was calm. There is a waxing crescent moon. And according to my iPhone 10-Day Forecast we can expect the same to follow. I don’t know if it is popularly acceptable to label the sunny seasonal conditions as an “Indian Summer” but that was what I expressed in my enthusiasm.

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Artificial Intelligence was reportedly the rage headline during Apple’s promotional stunt today, exciting and inviting its consumers to absorb the upcoming technological modifications to the Apple iPhone et al. While the specific application includes naturally electronic games (a sphere frankly I know nothing about, not ever having cottoned to playing games artificially or otherwise) I did however perk up to the suggestion that AI can rewrite, augment and improve one’s literary production whether mere notes or novels. As a lawyer who has spent most of his life reading and writing words, I find this universe to be attractive. To this point I have remained predictably skeptical about the substance of the improvements. However history has taught me to accept my recalcitrance as that of a mere old fogey who scoffs at anything new. More specifically, I recall when desktop computers first appeared on the retail stage, I initially persisted in resisting the benefit of the invention but not long afterwards crawled remorselessly. Nonetheless in the instance of the application of AI to legal matters I presently hang unequivocally to the belief that, because AI is “no smarter than the people who manufactured it”, there remains the distinct possibility that a clever mind may still outweigh AI on perhaps the more esoteric conundrums (specifically for example those which to date represent propositions not yet challenged or re-interpreted, as opposed to merely regurgitating already recorded assimilations).

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There is no question that the upcoming USA presidential election (the 60th quadrennial) on Tuesday, November 5, 2024 is of incomparable interest throughout the world. Keeping in mind however that the Universe is ultimately personal, my especial interest in the election surrounds not its political platforms rather my acquaintance with Americans whom I have met throughout my life. The upcoming election is guaranteed to be a reflection upon the American people, a signal of a global agenda and an unqualified estimate of the republic and democracy. Though the election, in its broadest terms, is a contest primarily between Democrats and Republicans, or what some prefer to characterize as a contest between socialism and capitalism, government interference or freedom from government, liberal and conservative, left and right, I on the other hand think of nothing but the nature of my relationships with the Americans whom I have met.  And broadly speaking the nature of those relationships has been positive and gratifying.

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