Fashion back in the day when we could go out in public without a mask. Remember when? Friday, January 30, 2009 My wife, the Pearl of the Orient is an exercise nut and she does her best to encourage me to bestir my bloated carcass. Winter at the resort in […]
Jack Elliott – Squirrel Pie
What better way to start out the New Year than with a Squirrel Pie retread. The spots and scales of deteriorating skin are popping up all over again. But there is no way I am going near the Health Centre here just now with Covid 19 seeming to be lying […]
My younger son, Mark, aka Oreo used to write for the Times. Here are some excerpts from the Xmas letter he sent me this year. …. In a word, Christmas this year was… different. Spend a month studying curses from the Old Testament, and you’ll find COVID-19 fits right in […]
I originally wrote this in 2007. It is worth a reprint. Some of our most vivid memories are of childhood events. We old codgers may not be able to remember what we had for breakfast, but can recall every detail of our first Christmas concert. At my first, I was […]
What do you do when you have a problem you can’t solve? Chew on it like a dog with a bone that’s too tasty to leave or give up. Real men unfortunately don’t give up. Women on the other had are more practical. Take Washboard Westover, the countryside’s most proficient […]
Back in the pre-COVID days when we could travel, after being rooted out of bed by the grandkids I would head for the Koffee Klatch at the City Mall Food Court. One morning it was like viewing a UN collection of the walking wounded – literally. The group clustered around […]
Mark and Jack Elliot
In Memory of Norma Elliott, the Pearl of the Orient If you had ever been to a party hosted by Norma Elliott, chances are you had these wonderful, golden-fried cylinders of goodness. Often called lumpia, sometimes referred to as “egg-ah-rolls” in the Rainy River District, I’ve always just called them […]
Everyone knows that real men don’t ask for directions, but few know the real reason why. It’s fear plain and simple. Not fear of being lost, or being wrong, or any minor shortcomings the fairer sex might heap upon us. The real reason we males are more than reluctant to […]
The secret to a happy, long, and lasting marriage is mutual respect, devotion, and truthfulness, right? Well maybe the truthfulness part should only be attempted as a last resort. The Pearl of the Orient and I kept the knot tied for 51 ½ years and we kept the divorce lawyers […]
We are well into what looks to be a fairly successful deer season. At the debating table at the Bakery in Rainy River, this month has been filled almost exclusively with tales of the great hunting prowess of those gathered round this fount of knowledge. “It was a 12-pointer with […]
Undoubtedly you noticed the strange creatures skulking around the bus stations and airports over Thanksgiving- those wasted looking souls with the strange haunted looks. Not vagrants or terrorists, they’re just first Year University and College students returning home for a substantial home cooked meal. “I ate the last of the […]
At the Bakery in Rainy River there was quite a collection of long gloomy faces gathered at a social distance around the debating table. There was some sniffling, but it wasn’t a virus. It was tears of sadness at the passing of summer. Snowflakes were drifting down out on the […]
