I first met Gail Scott in the early 1970s when I was press secretary to Robert Stanfield so dealt with her and all members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. After graduating from Carleton she had spent a year in Paris studying and teaching. As a result when she returned to her birthplace of Ottawa she was fully bilingual. The two dozen Press Gallery reporters from Quebec publications were all bilingual but hardly any of the English-language members of the Press Gallery spoke French. Scott’s other strong points were her manner and reporting skills – first for CBC Radio then CTV....
My son-in-law recently emailed me an interesting missive involving the library in Hamilton, Ont. where he and my daughter live. What he sent was an article published earlier this month in the Hamilton Spectator listing the top ten most popular holds in the Hamilton Public Library system. The most popular hold was an unlimited pass to the Niagara Peninsula Authority NaturePlus. So popular was this pass that the 19 available passes had 582 holds, meaning that anyone who is registered as one of those holds will likely wait months before her/his turn arrives. A similar number of holds cluttered demand...
Some of my favourite songs are about dreams. As it happens, they all come from my youth in the previous century. Here’s my short list of top dream songs: Sweet Dreams by Patsy Cline, Dream Baby by Roy Orbison and Sweet Dreams Are Made of This by The Eurythmics. While all three have dreams described as “sweet” in their titles or opening lines, how sweet are those dreams when you actually listen closely to the lyrics. It’s surprising – not very sweet at all. Patsy Cline’s song about a sometime lover has heartbroken lyrics such as, “You don’t love me,...
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