The liabilities of bearing your father's names, of being Junior, The
Third in a line of like-named family members had never occurred to me
until I heard Sherman Alexie talk about standing at the foot of his
father's grave as the coffin is lowered and seeing his name on the
tombstone as it comes into view. At issue is personhood, of having an
identity that is uniquely one's own not to mention the pressure of
living up to the reputation attached to that name and the
apprehension of failure if you don't to live up to those
expectations.
Ben Mulroney to cohost morning TV. Son of The Jaw that walks like a
man, until the Harpie Canada's most despised Prime Minister.
Fortunately we have the option of ignoring the son. Remember, a
biography of Mila was first remaindered and then pulped because no
one wanted to read it.
Taylor Lautner. His dimpled chin and bulging bis and pecs got him
through 4 episodes of Twilight. Unfortunately there's more to acting
than flashing a cute smile and flexing sans shirt.
Woodstock, Ontario. What makes it a hotbed for teen suicide? I've
been there. A sleepy little town with no major industrial operations
surrounded by farmland on all sides.
Prudery in NA
If you want to see the difference pick up a European Magazine at a specialty news stand. Even in America sex sells in advertising and
social media sites are full of pictures of teenage boys proudly
showing off their boners and girls show little more discretion.
Contrast this with the screaming meanies that occur when some
repressed harridan catches sight of a mother discretely breast
feeding her infant on a bus, in a mall, or a restaurant. And then
there's the phenomenon of children expressing revulsion at the sight
of their parents sharing physical affection or horrors stumbling upon
them "doing it". Just how do they think they got into the
world. In third world countries where an entire family and their
livestock count themselves lucky to have a single roof over their
heads children are not scarred for life by witnessing "the
primal scene". Nudism and clothing optional beaches are no cause
for excitement outside America. Contrast this with Muslim cultures
where only family members are allowed to see their female relatives
and women appear in public, if at all, covered from head to foot lest
they tempt the appetites of a man.
Canada Day
I'm visiting this site on CBC:
To Peter Mansbridge, I have one of those RCMP pocket knives.
To Jay Baruchel, my flag will ever be the Canadian Ensign under which
generations of Canadian Soldiers fought and died.
To Kim Campbell, recent scandals have tarnished the image of our once
proud RCMP: the commissioner convicted of perjury – lying to
Parliament, the deaths, their image including knives such as
Mansbridge's sold by Disney.
To Joseph Boyden, early trains were indeed flying bombs – large
boilers of high-pressure super-heated steam.
To Murray Sinclair, I regret the past and have met people subjected
to residential schools. Schools in general throughout North America
need to promote true learning and teach students to think for
themselves. The school I attended was a place of rigid conformity,
ringing buzzers and lines of students heading from class to class.
Anthems tend to jingoistic, martial affairs with unsingable ranges
and tunes. They are what they, I just wish they'd leave it alone so I
can remember the lyrics dated though they may be.
To Charlotte Gray, humour and the art of the insult are credited with
being one of the pillars of all civilization. The attempt to reach
accommodation rather then reach for a gun is so Canadian.
Elizabeth Hay, frugality, practicality, ingrained in me since birth.
Making do rather than grasping for more.
Like the founders of this nation I may not agree with all those
opinions but I defend the right to hold them and join with all in
affirming a country that logically cannot exist but has despite that
for nearly 150 years.
