Alex Carrick’s Blog

A spate of public rudeness lately has raised the question of how society has come to this sorry pass. Kanye West in the world of hip hop, Serena Williams in tennis and Joe Wilson in Washington’s political hot house all stepped over the traditional bounds of civility in the past week. What are the trends that […]

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To understand the current medical-coverage debate in the United States, you have to know your history. When President Bill Clinton was first elected, his wife Hillary took on the task of comparison shopping around the world to determine the best medical plans. The conclusion was that the most outstanding coverage was offered by Hogwarts Academy in […]

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I was driving in my car the other day when a news item came over the radio that made me really pause and think. Apparently there has been such a shopping spree for guns in the United States that there is now, not just a shortage of ammunition, but a “critical” shortage. That’s how the […]

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Who are you, carbon, that everybody is chasing you? Why do they want to capture and store you? What have you done to deserve such approbation and disapproval? Don’t you have rights too? How did things come to this sorry pass?   You are such a renegade. I’m sure there is a background story. There […]

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Sometimes, I feel worn out and I think I know what the problem is. It’s the extra five minutes. You must know what I mean. We’ve all been saddled with a whole list of extra chores that nominally are supposed to take five minutes each, but often take longer. Plus just about everything now takes five minutes more than it should or used to anyway.

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As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I’ve discovered (through virtually no research) that many of the place names in Canada still bear the names assigned to them by the original native peoples. They knew what they were doing when they gave us some of our most unique calling cards. Here are some more examples.

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There are few things in life much more fun than taking the kids to a movie in an actual theatre. You load up on popcorn, Pepsi and Twizzlers; the lights go down; the sound starts to reverberate; and the fun begins. You look over and your youngest ones are looking up at the screen, wide-eyed […]

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In an earlier blog entry, I discussed how “P” is the funniest letter in the alphabet. Today, I’m going to argue the letter “L” is the most serious.   “L” is used for Legal and Licenses. People speak about obeying the Letter of the Law. Hopefully, the best-made things Last. When we’re enjoying ourselves, we want […]

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The one spectator sport I am still really interested in is the NFL on television and I have to admit it may not be for the best of reasons.

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Cities rise and fall. Currently in Canada, Calgary and Edmonton are bursting with commerce and energy as a result of the construction boom in the nearby Oil Sands. However, events can pass a city by more easily than might seem possible. The story of Venice presents a cautionary tale.

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