Lately I’ve been thinking about Clinton. He was the salesman who first called on our business in 1987 when we were closed for repairs following Edmonton’s tornado. I was always pretty good at shooing away unwanted solicitation but somehow he managed to charm his way into our store. Over the course of several years he… Read more »
Focus on Bruce Willis This film is a real departure for the very good-humored Mr. Willis. He first appears as a scruffy guy in army fatigues–almost Fidel Castro-ish–FBI agent, Art Jeffries. I found myself liking his bearded and burly look. Then off it comes and he’s in a business suit… ah well, whatever. Bruce looks… Read more »
I have a friend who teaches high school math. Every year on the first day of school he asks his students in each grade to pack away their pocket calculators and try to work out a mental problem. He tells them to imagine that they are in a rowboat on a lake, and they are… Read more »
A few years ago I heard a CBC radio interview with the American counterculture novelist Tom Robbins, author of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and Skinny Legs And All. He said that the ultimate archetypal battle facing the human race is not the struggle between good and evil, as we have been conditioned to believe… Read more »
Finally! The United Nations has just published its Gender Resource Package for Peacekeeping Operations–a comprehensive guide for those serving in the field and at Headquarters aimed at integrating concerns about equality and the particular concerns of women into the workings of missions across the globe. http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home?page=news http://www.unifem.org/index.php?f_page_pid=6 The Coalition for Women’s Human Rights in Conflict… Read more »
Are you in Need of Financial Assistance? AUSU Can Help You AUSU has many financial assistance, emergency and computer bursaries available to help students in need. Every year AUSU will give away 10 financial assistance bursaries, $6000 in emergency bursaries and $4800 in computer bursaries. Visit our website at http://www.ausu.org/services/scholarships.php to find out if you… Read more »
Dear Barb; I love your column Barb. I would love, though, to be able to ask for relationship advice but that would require a relationship. How does one go about meeting the opposite sex when you are so busy with school and work and there isn’t much time for play? Nameless in Seattle Good question,… Read more »
Every year I wear a poppy pinned to my jacket. When he was a child, my father would hide under a big wooden kitchen table while his stepfather, probably moved by demons he could never comprehend, mercilessly kicked at him with work-boots and tried to thrash him with the buckle of his belt. When he… Read more »
The Name of the Rose (1986) Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud Based on book by: Umberto Eco Actors: Sean Connery, F. Murray Abraham, Christian Slater, Elya Baskin, Feodor Chaliapin Jr.,William Hickey, Michael Lonsdale, Ron Perlman. Narrator: Dwight Weist BRIDEY: Don’t it transport you, Bud? The old monastery, the monks, the robes, the singing… BUD: The steam coming… Read more »
We Remember Veterans Day, or Remembrance Day, if you prefer, is here again. For many of us, it is a day of formality, but not feeling. We wear the poppies because it is the thing decent people do. We pause for a moment, out of respect, or to give thanks, to those people who fought… Read more »