The mid-term elections having defied predictions and avoided catastrophe, it would be a wise decision for the U.S. and a welcome relief for the rest of the world, if Americans heed an observation from one of their most trenchant homespun philosophers, Mark Twain: “The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.”… Read the rest
PLEASE BE ADVISED: The following includes cynicism, mockery, incredulity and what the subjects of the exercise may consider an insulting tone. Children exposed to adults who require this and similar ‘trigger warnings’, however, may find it useful.… Read the rest
Watching the palette of the changing leaves that have graced the rolling forests girding the lake where I spend the summer flutter down, I found myself thinking that if the participants of the upcoming COP27 climate change gathering did the same thing, metaphorically at least, it would be time well spent.… Read the rest
An activist is universally defined as a person who campaigns to bring about political or social change. Being one ought to be a badge of honour. How unfortunate that it now covers everyone from the genuinely committed to those who equate volume with veracity, vandalism with civil disobedience and do not understand that self-righteousness only serves one person.… Read the rest
When it was written, there was no obvious connection to the Beatle’s profitable lyric “money can’t buy me love” and the Paul the Apostle’s warning that “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil’. In a coincidence you couldn’t make up, however, money is the basis of an unholy link-up of two reprehensible regimes and an easing of a record-breaking enmity between two others.… Read the rest
Autumn has arrived. For the next several weeks the inexorable change in the colours of the forest that envelopes us here challenges description. A fitting word would be “awesome”. Unfortunately, despite at least a dozen synonyms, it’s a rote response to everything from the truly awe-inspiring to the most prosaic, which strands it in a verbal wasteland.… Read the rest
A twelve minute end-to-end digestive tract notwithstanding, Canada geese have evolved to one of Nature’s finest examples of working for the common good. By sharing the lead in their distinctive Vee formation, a migrating flock can travel up to 2,000 kilometers in sixteen hours. Humans, on the other hand, keep evolving new ways to flock together in greed that defies logic and decency.… Read the rest
Opening an Internet browser ought to come with a “viewer advisory” warning: “You are about to be carpet-bombed with scare-mongering advertising and the media’s obsession with doom and health stories”. That being unlikely, I suggest those us of old enough to remember it adopt the catchphrase of MAD Magazine’s Alfred E.… Read the rest
Pronouncements and speculation about why Queen Elizabeth II was beloved invariably include her dignity, demeanour and dedication to duty. While all those are valid, I think the simple answer is that even as she conducted herself in a manner to which most of us can only aspire, she was in a subliminal way, perceived as ‘just like us’.… Read the rest
The glories of Nature and a literary giant may seem an odd combination to help slow climate change, but in fact, they’re a perfect match. Nature provides the encouragement, the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy penned the wisdom: “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”… Read the rest