A lost grammatical by this stage:
Fewer/less have become increasingly blurred.
Few/er refers to a specific number that can actually be counted as in few/er cases.
Less refers to a more general abstract quality. You wouldn’t say less cases, but you’d say less sunlight or less kindness.
during the pandemic to get back to some version of non-pandemic life, it is the time factor that is perhaps most important.
We, all of us, only live so long–we have our limits; have only so many days to live. How many have we lost or ‘wasted’ to Covid 19?
Which is why it’s important to maximize these days, committed to who and what we most value; possibly even reducing our ‘bucket lists’ in the process. Serious priorities and the like.
Importantly, focusing and keeping a clear, organized head really matters to facilitate the above and whatever higher goals, ideals, and core beliefs.
Joseph Campbell’s “follow your bliss” is also some kind of bottom-line for each pandemic day.
“Upward and onward.”
who have banded together to dispense true and factual statements about the pandemic in Alberta.
A smart, common-sense, fact-based, scientifically-based, helpful (to the public) alternative to Kenny, Hinshaw, and the stupid anti-maskers and anti-vacciners. Credible, realistic authorities that the Alberta people can trust.
this Saturday morning.
Warm inside the house with the heat on, running.
A view through the patio window-doors of a relatively peaceful world outside. No snow to shovel.
Tv on, with the Shaw Frame channel fireplace crackling away warmly in the corner.
Munching a good oatmeal-raisin cookie from the Organics store.
Sipping a post-coffee drink, two hours later, of diet Coke with caffeine.
Listening to a Tchaikovsky piano concerto playing in another room.
Still wearing a cozy dressing gown, lounging on a comfy love seat.
A vague notion of reading the delivered Globe and Mail.
A mind and feelings completely at ease/in sync, savouring the above, in no particular rush to change or advance the day thusfar.
Works.
And the latent thought that if It were to be now, t’would be perfect timing.
Highly recommended.
Clean copies. 1 hr. shows narrated, critiqued, and dramatized.
Tons of ideas and insights. Each writer with a focus work.
Take your pick:
Eliot Waste Land
Conrad The Secret Agent
Dostoevsky Crime and Punishment
Ibsen The Master Playwright
Joyce Ulysses
Kafka The Trial
Mann Magic Mountain
Pirandello in Search of an Author
Proust Remembrance of Things Past
Woolf Mrs. Dalloway
The Seminar –summing up/overview with Melvyn Bragg hosting and Anthony Burgess, Malcolm Bradbury and others.
I Google the ones want/ed like so:
The Modern World + Ten Great Authors + author’s name
Enjoy!
on a cloudy winter afternoon: String Quartet No. 1 in D, Swan Lake–Odette & the Prince (Act 1), and Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor to start.
Then I brought my Tchaikovsky boxset of 60 CDs into the living room for a longer listen. A good musical end to November and the beginning of December methinks.
leaving our city in wasteland condition. Thanks for gutting it with your useless, grandiose, mega-expensive LRT wet-dream on the backs of taxpayers. We will remember you every time we travel torn-up roads and ash heaps everywhere. We will set up plaques in the mud to your keen vision and commitment in laying our city to waste. The garbage plan coming in in 2021 will also be a disaster for many reasons. Again, our heartfelt thanks for cowardly exiting.
when he said he was quarantining last week, then slipped when he mentioned he was talking to someone at a store.
He runs the province like a random Trumpian dictator. He purposely ignores experts like educators, doctors, and nurses.
For instance, despite the doctors’ letter three weeks ago suggesting a valid lockdown, he ignored it and went into hiding from the media and their questions. Instead of shutting businesses down as recommended by experts and as has been done in other provinces, he is keeping them open, thereby, recklessly increasing public Covid contacts. This is as ornery as refusing to use the federal tracing app while his expensive app is broken and useless.
And, instead of consulting with school boards, he just randomly announced a shutdown for 7-12 at the end of the month; a real f-you move. He is just an arrogant little bastard who wants to micromanage this province and its inhabitants. At the rate he’s going, we’ll have scorched earth here by 2023.
for Christmas in November. Every year, starting December 1, I observe that people’s behavior and kind, considerate attitudes toward others improves, spiking just before Christmas. It’s always truly enjoyable to see people on their best behavior. In this terrible, different year, I fully expect that best part of people to be ramped up even more than ever.
One doesn’t need to be more exposed to Covid than necessary. There are several local charities that one can donate to. They could use the money more than most householders these daze.
Here in Edmonton, I’ve signed on for Winnifred Stewart. They will pick up and the money from donations goes to their worthy causes.
Speaking of causes, according to recent polls, the one that has the lowest admin costs with most money going to the needy remains the Salvation Army. One can donate online.
Everyone has their favorite charities, in any case. Nature- and animal-lovers, we often give to the SPCA, the zoo, or other animal groups.
Donating to the local Food Bank is another good no-brainer human charity. (Online cash donation this year, again reducing the risk of Covid exposure.)
Charity remains the most humane, civilized aspect of what’s left now of civilization. As Aldous Huxley remarked, it is the most significant aspect of any human progress. We have to remember the less fortunate in our relatively well-off Western world. Every little bit helps.
