I am now a grandfather. Congratulate me.

As of March 15th at about 1:45p.m. – the Ides of March, whatever that means – I crossed the last threshold into senior citizenship. I am now a grandfather, and, by extension, I am now married to a grandmother. My youngest son, with a little help from his wife, increased the population of our already…

Why Brian Mulroney looks so good today

Have I ever told you about the time I met Brian Mulroney? It was 1984, and Mulroney was running to replace the exhausted and deeply unpopular Pierre Trudeau/John Turner government. He stopped by Red Deer, and I decided to go see him. I stood in line just outside Red Deer Ciy Hall, and shook his…

In search of valuable cardboard

Hockey cards are having a moment, aren’t they? Recently, an entire carton of unopened 1979-80 hockey cards, found in a Saskatoon basement (could this story be any more Canadian?) sold for $5 million. There could be 20 Wayne Gretzky rookie cards in the box, potentially worth many millions. Last week, collectors lined up to buy…

Oscar predictions from a guy who hasn’t seen most of the nominees

If Barbie wins the best picture Oscar on Monday, it will mark two years in a row that I didn’t finish the best picture winner. I stopped watching last year’s Everything Everywhere All At Once when I became hopelessly lost, intending to finish it later. Later has not arrived. And this year, I got about…

You – yes, you – can be scammed

One day last week, I got a phone call from my mother-in-law. I know this sounds like the set-up for a joke, but it isn’t. “Where are you?” she practically shouted. A strange question, in that she phoned me at my home. Then she asked me, in an even more panicky tone, where my wife/her…