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Lytton

Lytton

Lytton was a wee village in British Columbia. It was in the dry belt. It was peopled by a variety of peoples including a First Nations clan. Three years ago it was burnt to the ground in one of the many fires that plague our province every summer. It has yet to be rebuilt. This …

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Prevarication and Procrastination

Prevarication and Procrastination

When I was a student both at school and Teacher’s Training College, I achieved mastery at prevarication and procrastination. This, Dear Reader, is not something of which I am proud. It is true of my life that I do not get bored. But it is also true that I drift in different directions. I am …

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Vicarious Vicissitudes

Vicarious Vicissitudes

“We have seen the enemy and he is us.” Everything somehow came together in that split second. The football arrived at his feet. He hit it on the volley and it sailed into the topmost corner of the net. The goalkeeper barely moved. It was over in an instant but the memory remains. The West …

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64, 65 or 66 Days!

64, 65 or 66 Days!

Dear Reader, this blog is about numbers but I hope that you will find it more interesting than that. I recently read In a British Newspaper that the 20th Century lasted 36,525 days. Apart from the shock that 100 years is merely that number and the implications that that has on our own mortality, I …

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The Ears Have Walls

The Ears Have Walls

Sometimes, Dear Reader, it is important to listen to the quietly spoken voice at the back of the room. It is true that the person at the front, the groomed suit with the polished shoes and purpose built haircut, the extrovert, the orator-come-demagogue, the populist with mellifluous effluent, his plunge into the pool does make …

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High Horses, Beggared Beliefs

High Horses, Beggared Beliefs

Some years ago now when North Vancouver Railway Station was still running passenger services, I was out for a walk and minding my own business. A car pulled over, an older man, the driver, wound his window down. He asked how to get to the station. I told him that there was no way through …

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Apart yet A Part

Apart yet A Part

“No man is an island, Entire of itself Every man is a piece of the continent, A part of the main.”                                  John Donne  The road wound out of the town. There seemed to be no reason for the sharp left other than the fact that there was a long well established wall. Soon the driver …

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Bigger Therefore Better !?

Bigger Therefore Better !?

It is true that I don’t understand economics or business. So the idea that ‘zero growth’ in a firm, country  or continent as a negative is unfathomable to me. ‘Zero growth’ means room to breathe, space to step back. But hard- nosed business will have none of that. According to an article in the ‘Globe …

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April 1st and All That!

April 1st and All That!

I don’t know when we, as children, first became involved in April Fools’ Day but I do remember my entry into the work force and trying to understand the ways of the world. Like most 18 year olds, I was more worldly-wise than my teachers, I knew better than my parents about everything. I knew …

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Throwaway Remarks

Throwaway Remarks

I was, Dear Friends, a teacher for 43 years. I still marvel at the elusiveness which allowed me to get away with it for so long. But, Dear Reader, I was lucky that I received some good advice early on and even luckier that the arrogance of youth did not bar me from taking it …

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