A situation of sorts is developing in Renfrew at the corner of Stewart and Bruce Streets, a location shared by two fast-food franchises, Tim Hortons and Wendy’s.

At its beginning, things started slowly enough with a green van positioning itself in the Tim’s/Wendy’s parking lot that runs adjacent to Stewart Street as it approaches the intersection with Bruce Street.  The van, displaying at least two Canadian flags, became noteworthy as it was to be found in the same spot, all day, every day.  As the days passed, this vehicle was joined by other vehicles, also sporting Canadian flags in various stages of distress.  Outdoor furniture made an appearance amidst the vehicles and along the space that runs parallel to the sidewalk.  Then a guitar showed up, and before long we had what appeared to be a minor cell of anti-government types encamped right next to the drive-thru of these two businesses.  All that was missing were some jugglers, a sword-swallower and maybe an organ-grinder with his monkey.

Continue reading “CAMPING OUT AT THE LOCAL COFFEE SHOP” →

Okay, who owns this place?

To call it an eyesore is an insult to eyesores.  It’s been sitting there empty for as long as I can remember.  Ten years?  Fifteen?  Maybe even twenty?

How long must a community endure such a piece of crap sitting along it’s main street, in this case Renfrew’s Raglan Street?

Is it owned by some carpet-bagger absentee landlord who is content to let it sit and rot until somebody comes along and pays big dollars for it?  Is it someone waiting for the Town of Renfrew to step in with their tax-payer dollars?  The town is no stranger to real estate transactions, just not so much with successful ones.  The old post office was unloaded for pennies on the dollar to a private concern who was promising to convert it into a boutique hotel.  But that was several years ago now, and the heritage building sits today exactly as it did many years ago, but probably in even worse condition.  Whoever bought it has become just another in a string of historical absentee landlords who sit on vacant, dilapidated properties in the heart of this Ottawa Valley town’s main business and retail area.

Continue reading “DOWNTOWN RENFREW COULD USE A WRECKING BALL” →

It’s obviously not very easy being a prominent member of Britain’s royal family.  Aside from wealth, privilege, and noble status, life in a fishbowl can’t be all that enticing, your every move and non-move the point of discussion and debate among tabloids and a public seemingly insatiable for news of the royals.  And not just news, any news, pedestrian news.  They want the salacious stuff, the gossipy stuff, the stuff that scandals and conspiracies are made of.

So it is with Kate Middleton, former Duchess of Cambridge and now Princess of Wales, a queen in waiting and wife and mother to future kings.

Continue reading “A PICTURE SAYS A THOUSAND WORDS. JUST ASK KATE MIDDLETON.” →

You were looking in the mirror the other day, just like every other day, and you decided that your face looked a little uneven.  Hmm, what’s a person to do?

Well, if you’re like most Canadians, you keep calm and carry on with an uneven face, perhaps doing other cosmetic things to distract the gaze of others away from your facial imperfection.  Or, if you have disposable income, you can book an appointment to your nearest and most trusted medi-spa, where you can get fillers injected into your face to sort of, you know, plump it up and sort of even it out.

Recently, another option has emerged, one known as a PDO (polydioxalone) thread lift, a procedure that spas claim can mimic the effects of a facelift without the surgery and can be performed in the time it takes to have one’s lunch.  With no attempt to be punny, it’s basically an in-and-out procedure, although not quite with the drive-thru window.  And all for a little more that $2000 a pop.  You come back from lunch a new man or woman or neither or both, and the results are advertised as lasting as long as two years.  It’s sort of an intermediary step between doing nothing, using fillers, or getting the much more expensive facelift.

Continue reading “LUNCHTIME FACELIFTS NOW A THING. THERE’S JUST NO FACELIFT.” →

It’s been almost thirty years since I moved tables in a restaurant after a woman, another patron, made a big scene about the cologne I was wearing.  Embarrassing to say the least, but also somewhat maddening given I wear my cologne tastefully and am the last person who would ever dream of trespassing upon another person’s quality of life.  But yet it happened, my wife and I already seated at Rialto’s, a North Bay restaurant that made the best burger I’ve ever experienced, something I still feel the same about today despite the place having closed long ago.

We were already seated and had placed our order.  Another party of six showed up that included the woman who, almost immediately, began to create a scene.

Continue reading “FRAGRANCE-FREE SPACES BRING CHALLENGES TO COMPANIES AND CONSUMERS ALIKE” →

It looked to be pretty uncomfortable there in the front row occupied by members of the U.S. Supreme Court during President Biden’s State of the Union address. In front of America and the world, Biden chastised the court for overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark case in American jurisprudence that for years stood as the standard for female reproductive rights and sovereignty of their own bodies.

Biden reminded the court that women are an electoral and political force. And with Roe v. Wade as a backdrop to congressional and senate elections in both 2022 and 2023, the Democrats surprised many with their robust success against Republican candidates saddled with the burden of defending the Republican-dominated Supreme Court’s decision.

Continue reading “BIDEN SCOLDS SUPREME COURT ON NATIONAL TELEVISION” →

They are people who are willing to put their own personal interests ahead of those of their country.  They lie at will, cheat at will, and want to see the end of American democracy as currently constituted.  They obstruct the work of government to create chaos in government, using an arcane and needlessly confusing political system in the United States to sow the seeds of disarray.

Two are convicted criminals who have been pardoned by a defeated president, himself the subject of nine criminal indictments and several lawsuits.  Several others have been found guilty of criminal charges, some related to the coup attempt on January 6, 2021, others for transgressions in their personal lives.  One is a pathetic ex-mayor of America’s largest city, now a sleazy caricature of his former self, a boot-licker eager to be close to power and a man who has destroyed whatever personal legacy and personal fortune he may have attained.  One faces an indictment related to the trafficking of teenaged girls across state lines for the purposes of sexual exploitation.  Two have personal lives that are an absolute mess leading to divorce, of which one has watched her immediate family disintegrate into a low-level crime family while she gropes a male friend in a public theatre.

Continue reading “THE FACES OF AMERICAN TREASON” →

Never in my experience have I seen so many people, otherwise normal people, become radicalized to the point where they’ve lost themselves in some sort of vortex of anger.

Continue reading “PATRIOTS VERSUS TRAITORS” →

If there was any convoy merch that this guy didn’t buy and slap on the back of his truck, it clearly wasn’t for a lack of trying.

I remember when I was a kid, any fascination with something would end up displayed on my pyjamas, my clothing, my bike, my glassware, and my lunchbox that I brought to school.

Batman, Superman, Sergeant Fury, my favourite hockey team, you name it, if I had a crush on whatever it was, it would end up all over the physical elements of my existence.  It was like this for most boys and girls, and it remains that way today.

We were kids and it made us happy.

We grow up to be adults, sometimes unhappy ones, but the markings of the things we like/admire tend to disappear from the public face of us, or at least become somewhat less obvious. But I guess some adults like to carry this need with them as they grow. Lord knows there’s no shortage of adult cartoon characters like Donald Trump out there selling merchandise for the disaffected.

I watch television, follow sports, have a casual interest in politics, and am generally still interested in things, some more than others.  But I can’t, for the life of me, see myself plastering my $100,000 truck with decals for any cause, much less one that reveals to the general public my lack of acuity when it comes to legal freedoms, public health, contagion, and what it means to be a responsible citizen.

If it makes this fellow super happy to display his anti-government sentiments, or more likely his anti-Liberal sentiments, then so be it.  I mean, really, he’s not going to be alone in that. And at least he’s not disrespecting the flag.

I wonder if his man cave is all decked out in a similar fashion.  Does he have the corresponding t-shirt, sweatshirt, and hoodie?  Did he name his goldfish “Convoy?”  Does he have the lunch box?

Not to be picky or anything, but to me, anyone driving around with a “fuck you, anything” decal in public loses a lot of credibility quickly and doesn’t seem to really give a shit about much, other than perhaps his own personal beliefs and the all-too-many others who believe similarly.  

Well done, dude.  Don’t let anyone or anything tell you what to do.  You’re your own man, not some fringe guy who can be ordered around. Don’t let anyone tell you any different.

Good for you.