Tag: immigrant experience

Excremental vision

La version française de ce texte suit la version anglaise. Excremental vision By her own admission, my mom began toilet training my sister and me when we reached about six months of age. Her fervent desire to get us out of diapers was a rather extreme reflection of the prevailing zeitgeist of the 1950s where..

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Georgetown, Ontario, 1962, Chapel Street School: Skipping Grade 5…a crippling blow

Georgetown, Ontario, 1962, Chapel Street School: Skipping Grade 5…a crippling blow My grade skipping saga began oh so long ago, in 1961, when I was in 4th grade. Back in the day, kids were routinely “skipped” if deemed academically meritorious by some individual or board. This fate was my social undoing. During first term in..

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Reigning cats…and dogs

Reigning cats…and dogs When I was a small child, I had the gooiest of soft spots for all animal creatures, fictional or otherwise. Every night before bed, my dad would read me a story featuring the little forest and meadow people of Thornton W. Burgess, including Grandfather Frog, Jimmy Skunk, Johnny Chuck, Jerry Muskrat, Paddy..

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She’s dreaming of a Weetabix Christmas

She’s dreaming of a Weetabix Christmas My wife Anne cannot live without Weetabix. This is a serious addiction. On Christmas morning, she will devour a delicious bowl of Weetabix as always. She has wolfed down Weetabix in many countries and on several continents and can provide a detailed, granular analysis of Weetabix variants world wide…

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Random Thoughts on “Black Friday”

Random Thoughts on “Black Friday” My wife Anne is a latecomer to North American culture. Growing up in Communist Czechoslovakia, she learned at a very early age to tune out the constant drumbeat of mendacious propaganda. This impermeable filter has served her well in the Ameri-Canadian commercial sphere where orgies of greed punctuate a perpetual..

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Are the bees for the birds?

Are the bees for the birds? The custom of “telling the bees” is a charming and ancient tradition where beekeepers inform their bees about significant events in their lives, such as deaths, births, marriages, and other major occurrences. This practice is believed to have its roots in Celtic mythology, where bees were seen as messengers..

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The Russians are coming/ Les Russes sont à nos portes August 22, 1968

The Russians are coming/ Les Russes sont à nos portes August 22, 1968   The English version of this text in honour of my wife’s birthday immediately follows the French.   Aujourd’hui, c’est le 66e anniversaire de mon épouse Anne. Le 22 août marque également le 56e anniversaire de l’invasion de son pays, alors connu..

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New Canadian Class 1968

New Canadian Class 1968 On August 21,1968, my wife Anne’s country was invaded by the Soviet Union. The invasion of Czechoslovakia took place the day before Anne’s 10th birthday. The Soviet Union was intent on putting an end to what is known as the Prague Spring, a period of reform in Czechoslovakia that challenged the..

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Je suis ton Père/I am your Father

Je suis ton Père/I am your Father Dans mon livre, je parle de mon beau-père originaire d’Europe de l’Est. Il est décédé de complications liées à la maladie d’Alzheimer en 2009. Aujourd’hui, en 2024, j’ai l’impression que mon déclin s’est amorcé et que mon destin sera bientôt semblable à celui de mon beau-père. In my..

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Place à l’humanitaire / Make way for humanitarianism

Place à l’humanitaire / Make way for humanitarianism English to follow: Dre Joanne Liu est une éminente humanitaire québécoise, un médecin urgentiste pédiatrique et un professeur à l’École des populations et de la santé mondiale de l’Université McGill de Montréal. Elle a également été présidente de MSF (Médecins sans frontières).   Joanne est une passionnée..

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