What it is that compels perfect strangers to cast the mustard seed of their evangelicalism upon the infertile territory of my being I shall never understand. Nor in the meantime have I any intention to withstand the impropriety and trespass. I am strictly apostolic in that regard.  I accept that my determination to preserve my individualism and personal identity renders me close competition for those blackguards who insist upon remaining unvaccinated as though the recommendation were a violation of their entirety. Apart from that inconvenient and otherwise inapplicable likeness I persist to ride my bicycle without a helmet.

Continue reading →

Picture this: six hedonistic gentlemen in Provincetown, Cape Cod late September; nestling into a cultivated ambience of maritime antiquity, dissolving from the Tea Dance at the nearby iconic Boat Slip; dining upstairs in a restaurant on Commercial Street overlooking Cape Cod Bay.  The customary perfect, dry, warm weather abounds, the declining sunset over the dunes. After dinner at table, Johnnie nudges me, inviting me to retreat with him to the quiet bar adjoining. We do so. No doubt I lit a Winston cigarette en route to the dark mahogany bar to signify my retirement from the present scene.

Continue reading →

Our little country town has been overtaken by swarms of people erecting numerous large tents in the centre of town in preparation for the “Puppets Up!” weekend. And the weather could not be more perfect!  The air is decidedly fresh and breezy; the temperature 72ºF and the same is forecast for tomorrow.

Continue reading →

Endorsement of anyone for anything is to be contemplated cautiously. Although endorsement in the political arena is a public proclamation of support, it is more significantly an assertion of validation.  When appraising the pros and cons of an individual for public office, it helps to know more than the advertised credentials (such as the library board, the textile museum, the HUB, Almonte Centennial Celebrations and 2008 Mississippi Mills Cultural Volunteerism Award – all of which just happen to apply to Mary Lou Souter). The acid test however is more personal.

Continue reading →

“It isn’t the first time I’ve fallen off my bike!”, I cheerfully exclaimed from the ground as a young woman approached to ask if I were Okay. Seemingly I was of the opinion that the frequency of my bicycle accidents somehow diluted the embarrassment of struggling to remove my right leg from the bicycle which had collapsed onto the ground, throwing me onto the sidewalk.  And all this commotion while merely stopped – in the middle of town in the middle of the morning at the most prominent intersection directly across from the Town Hall – to press the button to activate the pedestrian crosswalk. I had lost my balance. I augmented my mortification by continuing my effort to remove my right leg from within the central crossbar of the bicycle. Meanwhile the curious woman babbled on about my having to rest and other matters about which I lost the thread.  Finally I succeeded to put myself upright and to ask the woman to elevate the downed bicycle to my awaiting grasp.

Continue reading →

“The traditional position of the Roman-Catholic church was absolute monarchy by divine decree, meaning the king has absolute power by the will of God, and that God gives a country the king it needs or deserves. At the end of the 18th century, this idea was being replaced by the Age of Enlightenment which used reason, scientific rigor, and reductionism – examining the differences in philosophical positions and reducing them into simpler statements.”

Excerpt From
War of 1812: A History From Beginning to End
Henry Freeman

Continue reading →

Our third floor bedroom balcony door is wide open. The air outside is foggy and seemingly motionless. Occasionally a vehicle squishes by. The dullness inspires tranquillity and indolence. And the operatic aria of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro sung by Kiri te Kanawa.

The Marriage of Figaro is a commedia per musica (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 1 May 1786. The opera’s libretto is based on the 1784 stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro (“The Mad Day, or The Marriage of Figaro”). It tells how the servants Figaro and Susanna succeed in getting married, foiling the efforts of their philandering employer Count Almaviva to seduce Susanna and teaching him a lesson in fidelity. Considered one of the greatest operas ever written, it is a cornerstone of the repertoire and appears consistently among the top ten in the Operabase list of most frequently performed operas.

Continue reading →

As I lackadaisically drove eastwardly late this afternoon, windows and landau roof open, with the blazing sun at my back along the rise and fall of the clear highway, there was an advancing mountain of dark grey cloud in the distance. Within minutes a deluge of rain fell. The cloudburst was so torrential that cars stopped alongside the road, emergency flashers on. Then the rain passed. It stopped as precipitously as it had begun. The ambient temperature fell from 32°C to 23°C.

Continue reading →

“As the authority of the Church, the monarchy and the government began to wane in the late eighteenth century, a new public sphere emerged. For the first time in Europe, people from many different walks of life were able to socialize together in the city, and it became far less scandalous for people from different social classes to mix.”

“In England, the emergence of the coffee house was pivotal to this new public sphere. The first coffee houses emerged in England and the trend soon spread into Paris and across Europe until, in the late eighteenth century, establishments where people met to drink coffee became commonplace. Far more refined and sociable than the taverns that preceded them, coffee shops became places to meet for intelligent conversation and enlightening debate. Suddenly people became coffee and chocolate connoisseurs and spent hours in their favorite cafés reading and discussing whatever it is they might have read.”

Excerpt From
Age of Enlightenment: A History From Beginning to End
Hourly History

Continue reading →

Seldom nowadays am I out of bed before 7 o’clock in the morning.  Though it resounds of discreditable inertia and is clearly offensive to the Protestant Work Ethic, it is but the evident sequel to retirement and old age. Normally there is not a great deal that is otherwise compelling. But today we prepared for the arrival of new bedroom furniture.  I arose sharply at 6:30 am. Shamefully my motive was to remove myself as quickly as possible from the anticipated commotion.  My current condition is such that I readily acknowledge my inutility in these matters of critical strength.  Accordingly I attacked the usual ceremony of ablutions and by 7:22 am I was on my bicycle and moving. Out of the way! Besides a short ride about the neighbourhood was the precise tonic on an ideal Saturday summer morning.

Continue reading →