Category: Niblet

Re: The U.S. Mid-Terms

Could have been worse.

T. S. Eliot had it wrong when he said “April is the cruelest month.” That distinction belongs to November; the suicide statistics are there to prove it.

The party that doesn’t stand for something will quickly become the party that no one can stand.

Politics, American Style

The best lack all conviction; the worst have multiple convictions.

More crickets today on Jacques-Cartier. Not as loud or insistent as yesterday’s crickets–but still crickets. . .on a day nearly halfway from the fall equinox to the winter solstice. Will they still be here for Guy Fawkes Day?

Observing the intense enthusiasm displayed by the Philadelphia Phillies’ fans, and listening to their at times deafening din as their team wiped the floor with the Houston Astros, 7-0, I actually started to feel sorry for Houston. For them to enter the Phillies’ stadium is a bit like a Roman gladiator entering the arena. Neither can be sure they will leave alive.

If Houston doesn’t win at least one of the next two games, it will not be leaving Philadelphia alive, so to speak. As one of the many colorful placards in the stadium proclaimed, “Houston, we have a problem.” Indeed.

Who’d have thunk it?

Were my ears deceiving me? As I headed back down Jacques-Cartier toward home after a long and satisfying walk, I thought I heard a cricket. But no. Couldn’t be. In November? Must have been my tinnitus acting up again.

After three fairly soft “chirps,” though, one came in loud and clear. One of the loudest cricket chirps of the entire summer. This time there was no mistaking it. My ears could not make a sound like that even if they tried.

I thought cricket season was over last week. As for hearing crickets in November, I had never even dreamed of such a thing. And the only time I’d ever heard crickets during the World Series was decades ago when there were just two rounds of playoffs–the League Championship series and the World Series–not four as there are now, and the World Series happened during the second or third week of October.

No doubt this extraordinarily long continuation of Cricket Season is due to climate change. But given all the negative impacts of climate change, we may as well take the few positive ones we get and enjoy them to the max. Crickets on Remembrance Day, anyone?

I like trivia quizzes, and usually I do pretty well on them. But there’s trivia–and then there’s trivia. I’m not going to lose any sleep over not knowing whether it’s papaya, pomegranate, or something else that is the ‘active’ ingredient in grenadine syrup, even though my ignorance cost me a perfect “10” on a quiz yesterday.

As I say, there’s trivia–and then there’s trivia!

Cows may need to be milked twice a day, but we, as supporters of political parties, universities and other good causes should not have to be. Constant fund-raising binges, often accompanied by highly emotional language (jubilation or despair), keep us weary and depressed, sometimes almost to the point of despair. The deluge of political posts, with their hyperbolic language, also keeps us from knowing what the true situation is with regard to our chosen candidates. Please! Enough! We cannot give to every good cause.

So, while walking down a nearby street in Gatineau, I come on this sign. Typical West Quebec sign, white letters on a red background, and they spell “Fenemax.” Who or what could this be? A real estate broker? A candidate in the forthcoming provincial election? A drug to address incontinence or erectile difficulties?

None of the above, it turns out. Rather, it is a company which installs doors and windows, and the sign is there to advertise its successful completion of a job. I’ll be damned. Learn something new every day.