Louche Leaves

A Third Death in the Family

And so, yet another death in 2024. This time it was our beloved cat, Cream. Cream came to us as a rescue about 17 or 18 years ago. My son found her as a wisp of a calico kitten, abandoned and trapped in a construction site. Since that moment, Cream

Brain Fever - The Difference Between Compassion and Empathy

Several years ago I watched a wonderful film called “Awakenings” which was based on the autobiographical book of the same title by Dr. Oliver Sacks. When I originally chose to watch the movie, I had little idea of the subject-matter. The story follows Dr Sacks (played by Robin Williams) working

The Ugliness of a Beauty Pageant Cleaning Service

Recently, a commercial has been shown over and over again, and each time I see it I find it increasingly disturbing. It is disturbing because it is misleading, panders to the pretentiousness of potential clients, uses incorrect terminology, objectifies women and youth, and is breathtaking in its disdain toward workers.

The Melancholy of the Mall

It has been at least ten years, and perhaps more, since I’ve walked through a mall. Of course there have been occasions, always brief, where I had to stride through a mall on the way to some specialty retailer (like a clock repair or a jewellery appraiser). Those visits,

Biographies of "Ordinary" People

As some of you know, I write biographies and memoirs. Often they are focused on someone's ancestor; other times they are my ghostwriting of an individual’s recollections. Here is why I write this sort of thing and why I truly love memorializing stories of others. And, by

Sophia Holness: An Intrepid Woman, from a British Workhouse to Canada (1850–1922)

Here is another fascinating story of a real person whose story had been lost until now. Sophia is unrelated to me; she is the ancestor of a client. Born on June 2, 1850, in Blean, a village in Canterbury, Kent, England, Sophia Holness lived a long, eventful life. The civil

Whatever Happened to the Hunchback’s Mummified Penis?

What a nice day for a family picnic! Sometime during the late summer of 1976, a friend and I were rather aimlessly driving around the Friuli region of Italy. I wasn’t seeking anything in particular but was interested in seeing what had remained of the gorgeous medieval towns that

Social Media: Promulgating Memes and Slovenly Thinking

To paraphrase Lesley Gore: It's my soapbox and I'll preach if I want to… Know that I really don’t want to devolve into the kind of person who trolls Facebook for the sole purpose of becoming enraged. Still, there are days when I can’t

It’s Raining Fallacies: Shakespeare and Bob Marley on the Internet

Question: What do Shakespeare and Bob Marley have in common? Answer: Facebook attributes the same incorrect quote to both.  I saw this posted on Facebook the other day.  First, let me say that it’s a nice little poem.  Simple, straightforward, good meter, excellent use of alliteration.  But it does

From Another Time: The Māori Voice of Albania

It was in the late summer of 1974. I had recently come to live in northern Italy, had not yet begun my final year of high school, and could not yet speak Italian. There were no English language television or radio programmes. I was sixteen years old, unhappy about my

Losing the Mysticism

I was raised a Roman Catholic, and then I grew up. For the most part I find Paul in Corinthians to be despicable, but there is one verse — 13.11 — that I can get behind. Here is the King James Version (which I prefer because I like the flavour of

Caterina Vizzani (AKA Giovanni Bordoni): A Transgender Life in the 1700s

Transgender issues are nothing new. Ancient Egyptians had gender bending rulers, as did many other ancient cultures. But let us explore an intriguing individual from the 1700s. Born female in Rome in 1719, Caterina Vizzani lived a short life, dying in Siena at the age of 24 years in June

What Smells Like Corn Chips, Buttered Popcorn, Lemons, Almonds, Cherry Cola and Mint?

If Moses supposes his toeses are roses, Then Moses supposes erroneously; For nobody's toeses are posies or roses, As Moses supposes his toeses to be. These lyrics from a 1895 nonsense tongue-twister song were made popular in the 1952 movie Singin’ in the Rain. Enjoy the incomparable combination

St. Patrick Digging Up a Grave

Sometimes the Saints were… hmmm… jerks? St. Patrick is one of those saints that even non-Roman Catholics know to some extent. Perhaps most recall that he is the Patron Saint of Ireland, and that he drove the snakes out of that country. Some may know that he is the patron

Marozia: A Medieval Lesbian Ghost

Look what happens when you don't confess to "wanton lust"! The stories are there, but you sometimes need to seek them out.  Marozia is less than a mere footnote in history, but at least she is noted. She lived and she had a story, and thanks

No Permission Required: A Sea Change into Something Rich and Strange

At first, I was going to use the idiomatic expression “sea-change”.  Then I double checked its present meaning, which gave me pause. The expression goes back to William Shakespeare in ‘The Tempest’ ; specifically in the  song ‘Full Fathom Five’. A supernatural spirit, Ariel, is singing to Ferdinand, the Prince of

Another Death in the Family

Just two months ago, on July 6, we lost our beloved German Shepherd, Luna. Now our equally beloved Sally is gone. She was in her 18th year, born in 2006. Supposedly a Miniature Pinscher, she was likely mixed with Manchester Terrier. Sally was a rescue and came to us unexpectedly.

Enheduanna: The First Known Author of All Time

The Triumph of Literature over Violence Enheduanna is the first author to sign her name to works of literature. She signed her name like this:𒂗𒃶𒌌𒀭𒈾 Think on it: The first and most significant literary event in all history — and it is a woman who first had the notion of appending

Exorcism of a Colleague

Craig is not his real name. I chose this pseudonym for reasons that should become apparent as this sketch progresses. I worked with Craig for a brief time, decades ago. He did not report to me, nor I to him. We were “colleagues”, peers reporting to the same higher manager.

So Pure it Floats: Ivory Soap or An Accused Witch?

Imagine that you are living sometime in the 1600s in America or England, and have been accused of witchcraft. Only a few things might save you: being very skinny, underfed, very lean or very muscular. Or being a man. There were not many ways of proving innocence to witchcraft, but

A Story about the Truth — Or Not?

Usually titled “The Truth and the Lie” (sometimes the title contains slightly different wording), it is a story that has appeared many times on the internet, from social media to blogs to LinkedIn. Most websites cite Jean-Léon Gérôme as the author, but this — ironically — is incorrect. Gérôme was a French

It's Been Weird Lately – or is it Fate?

Recently the news has latched onto a comment made in the United States’ political arena, and now the word “weird” seems to be everywhere. The word itself has an interesting pedigree. Most etymologies tend to move from the present and go backwards through time, but let’s take a different

Eat your Heart Out Castaneda: The Canadian Origin of the Word Psychedelic

Back in what we might consider a more “conservative” decade it was a Canadian who, in 1956, coined the word “psychedelic”. The orthography took some time to settle, and in its early years it was sometimes spelled “psychodelic”. No longer quite so popular a term (see n-gram chart below), the

John Moore Perkins: The History of a Missionary in Liberia

From time to time I research and write histories about the ancestors or family members of various people. I am not personally related to John Moore Perkins, but I did write his biography for an individual who is part of his extended family. Perkins’ background and story is fascinating: John

Wolf Pelt: A Fairy Tale Retold

All the best stories come from long ago, and this is one such story. This is my retelling and re-imagining of it: There once was — or there once was not — a story, in the oldest days and ages, in a land so far away it was beyond seven mountains, beyond