Louche Leaves

Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics: A Primer for Tyranny

With all the news about A.I. it seems reasonable to recall Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. They first appeared in a 1942 short story entitled “Runaround”, which was later included in the 1950s collection “I Robot”. Asimov (1920-1992) was both a science fiction writer and a

We Really Love Working Here — Really…

There was a comedy game show on television not so long ago called “Whose Line is it Anyway?” The tagline was: Where the show is made up and the points don’t matter. I always thought that tagline could have been an insightful summary of the North American workplace. Was

Providing Tech Sarcasm since…1975?

Perhaps I should be more understanding. Perhaps he has spent decades fielding calls from computer-challenged people like me. In the words of Louis Armstrong, his theme song could be: Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen Nobody knows my sorrow Nowadays, everyone has an IT guy (usually a guy for

The Invisible Woman — My Superpower

I have a superpower. My superpower is a cloak of invisibility. It’s the cloak bestowed upon elderly women, whether we want it or not. This cloak is hard to remove, and once relinquished, punishment is swift. Let me give you the most recent example of my invisibility. The other

What George Orwell and I Have in Common

I would like to think that Orwell and I have a few things in common, but I can confidently say that our bookshop experiences are quite similar. Orwell worked for a few years in a secondhand bookshop, and he memorialized some of that experience in two works. One was an

O Canada

Before you read any further know this: I am Canadian. My parents were both Canadians, and my mother’s ancestors came here in the late 1500s. Yes, more than 400 hundred years ago. Some intermarried with the Mohawk First Nation at Kahnawake. I have always been quietly proud of being

Cunctipotence: Has Anyone Seen Mike Hunt?

All sacred things must have their place. It could even be said that being in their place is what makes them sacred. — CLAUDE LÉVI-STRAUSS , I am happy to report that “Cunctipotent” is a legitimate and bona fide word.  Here is the definition as provided by the Oxford English Dictionary. Cunctipotent

I Have a Dream

I have a dream, and it’s NOT about me. I’ve written about the interconnectedness of people and the importance of everyone’s stories (links to those essays below).  Earlier today I had an encounter at a big box store and felt compelled to write it down. Normally I

Pronouns of Acceptance

Firstly, I would like to thank my dear friend Frank. I came to know this remarkable man almost a decade ago and have nothing but respect and admiration for him. It should also be stated that we come from very different backgrounds (he was raised and lived in various southern

Checking Under the Hood: A Brief Look at Little Hills, Flags, and Tickling

Yes, it looks like what you think. The first European description and reference to the plant was made in 1678 by a Polish naturalist Jakob Breyne, a brave naturalist who named it based on a resemblance to the clitoris. What’s in a Name? The Controversy Disturbed by the clear

Is "Wheel of Fortune" too "Woke" for Fox?

Oh, no. It was eventually going to happen… the dreaded “political” post. Have you ever noticed that all the contestants on “Wheel of Fortune” appear to be the same height? This is because, behind the scenes, they are standing on adjustable risers. Called “Scully Boxes” (in previous decades, simply called

You Should Smile More, or Five Decades of the Patriarchy

Let's start in the remote past. From the dark reaches of the 1970s. Having completed my University studies – in Humanities (art, literature, and other high-minded topics), I quickly realized this would lead to no employment opportunities beyond that of being a lowly tour guide (which I briefly did,

It Isn't Just About Kevin Bacon

Most of us have heard about the “Six Degrees of Separation of Kevin Bacon”. Something of a parlour game, the idea is to connect an actor with Kevin Bacon in six steps or fewer. An oft-cited example of how the game works is where we start with Elvis Presley in

The Victim: From Sacred Power to Exploited Weakling

All sacred things must have their place. It could even be said that being in their place is what makes them sacred. — Claude Lévi-Strauss Most etymologies tend to looks backwards from current usage to the possible origins of a given word. When looking into the concept of a “victim”, I

Weri What?

There is a word or meme that pops up from time to time on social media: It is “Werifesteria”. Here is a cropped image of a typical post citing this “word”: Does it matter that the word doesn’t actually exist in any dictionary and that it is not in

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