Seven mysteries of life

1. Why whenever a plane crashes is there always so much earnest blather about finding the flight recorder when the resulting information won’t be available for months?

2. Why did Stephen Harper run for office, finally win a majority, and then show no particular vision of the country as a whole place in the recent budget?

3. Why are Canadians so introverted? Yesterday I came upon a lineup of maybe fifty people outside my local fish and chip store. I asked those at the head of the line, “What’s happening? Are they giving it away?” No one said anything. Not a word. I might just as well have been a street person begging for a handout. Fortunately, an employee I know stuck her head out the door to check on the line, and explained this was a Good Friday ritual. If I’d asked a similar line-up anywhere in the United States I would have heard half a dozen tales about this family tradition that went back for years. I used to blame the weather for freezing our national psyche, but this past winter was sultry by comparison to some. I guess we’re just tight-assed for no good reason.

4. The Middle East. The people who have tried to solve the Israel-Palestinian problem have been as numerous as they are intelligent and yet we are no closer to an answer.

5. Canadians forgive Bill Clinton for his foibles by welcoming him with praise and applause whenever he ventures north of the border. Yet at the same time they refuse redemption for another politician of the same vintage, Brian Mulroney.

6. Why was Luck cancelled and Smash renewed? How low is the bar for intelligence in television? (I think I know the answer to this one.)

7 How can gas prices jump four cents overnight everywhere at once?