Posted on December 10, 2020 under Thursday Tidbits with no comments yet

“Imagine all the people, living life in peace.”

 

Imagine.

Imagine all the people.

Can you believe that it was 40 years ago that John Lennon of Beatles fame was killed? What is even more shocking is that it was almost 60 years ago that The Beatles burst onto the scene. Their first number 1 hit song, I Want to Hold Your Hand, was released in 1963.

As I have mentioned on more than one occasion, I grew up in a musical household. We were exposed to a lot of different music from big band, to classical , the crooners (Perry Como et al) and of course the ever popular war songs. Lots of other stuff too but I don’t remember country and western getting much attention in our house. My parents seemed open to all new music. We would often crowd around the old black and white television on Sunday Night to watch Bonanza but the big treat was to stay up and watch the Ed Sullivan Show. All the up and coming musical acts like Elvis Presley eventually made it onto Sullivan’s stage.

If I’m not mistaken, the Beatles first single release was Love Me Do. The hits came cascading week after week, month after month, and year after year. We all loved The Beatles, even mom and dad. Our family band, The Escorts, covered a handful of Beatles tunes at many dances.

I must say that as time moved along, I didn’t care for some of the Beatles offerings. I guess when you heard all the greatest hits from Day 1, that’s the stuff you remember the most. It would require several pages to list the entire Beatles discography but here are some of my personal favourites: Here Comes The Sun, Eight Days a Week, All My Lovin’, Something, Saw Her Standing There, She Loves You, Twist and Shout, And I Love Her, If I Fell, Yesterday, Michelle. I could go on and on, but I won’t. What was your favourite?

I have saved my two most memorable for the last.

Hey Jude. If I had to pick just one song , not just a Beatles song,  but any song that will remain etched in my memory forever, it is Hey Jude and the reason is quite simple. At almost every dance that I attended as a teenager, Hey Jude was invariably the last waltz. All night long you eyed the girl of your dreams, sitting up in the bleachers, hoping against hope that she would accept your invitation to dance. Now you knew the odds were slim because just about every other pimply faced guy had exactly the same idea. Once in a blue moon you struck gold and got to press a young female body against yours, knowing that this indescribable pleasure would last exactly 7 minutes and 11 seconds. I wonder if this is where the Seven Eleven convenience store got its name?!

It probably wasn’t the same sensation for the girls. Ladies, please feel free to weigh in on this one. A Whiter Shade of Pale would rank as a close second for a last waltz. I will accept other suggestions for the greatest last waltz song of all time.

The other Beatle song is Let It Be. The opening piano chords haunt me to this day but in a good way. When I was in India in 2016-17, I taught English to a group of young girls studying to become nuns. Besides teaching them liturgical music, I also threw in a handful of secular pieces including Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. For some reason, they became fixated on Let It Be. I think it had something to do with the opening lyrics: “When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me….”. Now I don’t claim to be a music history whiz but I don’t think that The Beatles were referring to the mother of Jesus. The girls, on the other hand thought that the song had religious overtones. I taught them for 30 consecutive days, and they could flawlessly sing every word of the song. On International Women’s day, I had the great honor of standing on a stage in front of 500 women dressed in colorful saris to sing Let it Be with my girls. It was truly one of the great moments of my life.

I had the pleasure of seeing Paul McCartney in Toronto twice. On one occasion, on the day of the concert, I was at the Air Canada Centre to pick up my tickets. It was early in the morning and there was only one other person in the ticket area, none other than Stuart Mclean of Vinyl Café fame. We struck up a conversation and he ended up interviewing me for one of his CBC radio shows, a treasured tape sitting in a box somewhere at home. We ended up becoming friends. Now HE was a storyteller, a Canadian treasure.

Enough nostalgia for one day? I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane. I hope you’ll hum a Beatles tune today just for old times’ sake.

Have a great weekend.

P.S. A reminder about my current fundraiser for the Christmas dinner.  If any of you would like to contribute, there are three ways to do this: 1) You can send me an e-transfer at lenpdmacdonald@gmail.com. 2) You can mail me a cheque at Len MacDonald C/O Arsaniq School, C.P. 160, Kangiqsujuaq, Quebec, J0M 1K0 3) If you live in Antigonish, drop into the Bergengren Credit Union. I have an account set up there in my name called Christmas Dinner Fund. Should we happen to exceed our target, any excess funds will go to The Family House which is a safe house in the village for families experiencing challenges.

 

Posted on December 3, 2020 under Thursday Tidbits with no comments yet

Thanks for the mask, SC. Looks like I’m about to have twins!

 

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year”.

It’s hard to escape the fact that three weeks from today is Christmas Eve. The bad news for me is that I won’t get to spend it with my family. I can’t go to Antigonish or Halifax. I can’t go to Montreal. I can’t go to Victoria and I can’t go to Mexico. Yes. I received an invitation to go and lie on a beach for two weeks and bask in the warmth of the sun, but I have chosen short, dark, cold days in the Arctic. “Etes-vous fou, Len?”

The good news is that I am quite handy to Santa’s Workshop. And while I can’t be with old friends, I will be surrounded by the many new friends that I have made in the community that I now call home. Most of my colleagues from the south have opted to stay here. Those who are traveling will be with family in safe places. We are already planning some events along with those that will be hosted by the community, albeit scaled back drastically because of Covid.

If you can’t be somewhere warm at least you can dream about it. I plan to host two evenings during the holidays. I will share images and stories from India and also from my Camino walk in Spain. We will have  potlucks for certain and I plan to organize some caroling for shut-ins and elders in the village. I suppose singing in front of a mirror would achieve similar results!

One of my granddaughters has organized a “secret Santa” for the family. Gifts will be exchanged via mail and on Christmas morning we will have a Zoom call where we’ll open our present from a secret family member. My gift arrived a few days ago. I sent mine last week. The recipient will likely be able to tell the identity of their secret Santa. I can’t imagine he/she will receive many parcels from Kangiqsujuaq.

Ok. I got all the warm fuzzy stuff out of the way.

Well, well, well. Hell, hell, hell. Bell, Bell, Bell.

I plan to open an ad agency and will specialize in tag lines for businesses. I have already chosen one for Bell. “The gift that keeps on giving”. Yeah, I know that that’s not original. I have been told by reliable sources (Wikipedia) that the Victor Talking Machine Company used this slogan to sell its products which included phonographs and records in the 1920s… one hundred years ago. But the slogan is ageless as it turns out. You see, this is the fifth time that I have been able to carve out a few hundred words in this space compliments of my good friends at Bell.

As mentioned a while back, after several months of trying to pay my bill and the threat of disconnection, Bell took three months of payments twice: once from my chequing account and the other from my credit card. I waited breathlessly for the next billing cycle to see what would happen. I was pleasantly surprised to see a credit balance on my account. However, the credit was not nearly as large as anticipated. In examining my bill, I discovered that Bell had billed me for double the amount of monthly charges from what I was quoted. Luckily, I had written down the date and time of the original call when I set up the contract along with the name of the friendly agent who helped me set up the plan. I also wrote down the exact amount of the monthly charges.

If it had been a minor discrepancy, I might have let it go but an extra $50 a month for a Scot, I felt it was worth pursuing.

Early this week after school, I took the plunge and called Bell. The menu options were clear and after waiting patiently for several minutes, I was connected to the billing department. In great detail I made my case while the charming Customer Service Representative (CSR) listened intently. When my harangue ended, she politely told me that this wasn’t her department and that she would connect me with a “specialist”. I was put on hold. Just for fun (if you’re masochistic) call Bell and listen to their muzak in the background while you’re waiting to speak with a human. It is enough to incite a riot.

I waited for a long time.

I stated my case once again to a nice young man. I came up for air after about five minutes. “I’m sorry but you’ll have to speak to my supervisor.” Does anyone know the precise tipping point between frustration and rage? This might make an excellent psychology project.

I’m only joking of course. Sort of.  I am not prone to rage, but thoughts of violence often cross my mind when I’m dealing with incompetence on a grand scale.

I was put on hold for another 20 minutes. “Hi. My name is Jay. How may I help you?” My head went into overdrive. I wondered if this was Jay Traynor of the musical group, Jay and the Americans. I started humming, “This Magic Moment”’ one of their hits from 1969. I was praying for a bit of magic. For the third time, I registered my concern about the overbilling. “Can I put you on hold for a few minutes?’ It was now suppertime. I had a gnawing hunger and a minor headache. I told Jay that I had to be in school by 8:30 the following day. Of course I didn’t say that but I was thinking it!

Jay came back on the line and admitted that a mistake had indeed been made and that it would take some time to do some calculations. I turn 70 next August. It would be a welcome birthday gift to hear that the matter has been resolved. Stay tuned.

I used to like Kurt Browning, the decorated figure skater until he started to shill for CHIP reverse mortgages. I don’t watch a lot of television, but it seems that every time I turn it on, there’s Kurt in his dorky hat expounding the virtues of taking equity from your home. It’s not that I don’t like Kurt but when he pirouettes at the end of the ad for the 5000^th time, I feel like doing a Tonya Harding on him. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, just Google Tonya. Man, these companies must think we are a bunch of stooges to listen to the same tripe incessantly.

Ah. That feels better.  There’s nothing so cleansing as a good rant.

The Christmas spirit has returned.

“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas”.

Silver “Bells” anyone?

Have a great weekend.

Posted on November 26, 2020 under Thursday Tidbits with no comments yet

You need running shoes to teach in elementary

 

“Running on, running on empty,

Running on, running blind,

Running on, running into the sun,

But I’m running behind.

Running on Empty – Jackson Browne

I never thought I would be chasing a bunch of 11- year olds around a school at the age of 69. This might be one reason why I seem to be perpetually ‘running on empty’.

I had planned to write a serious piece today about “Eskimo Tags”, a program ushered in by the Federal Government in the 1940s as a way of identifying Inuit people. Looking through the lens of history, this was yet another example of “colonialism on steroids”. I plan to interview someone with intimate knowledge of this topic and hope to post the story next week.

In the meantime, I have absolutely nothing to write about which I seem to do well with this, my 1,169^th post. So, I’’ just ramble on about nothing for 500-600 words.

Will I start with a rant about Bell? I have done several already but this one takes the cake. My faithful readers already know about my debacle getting a landline from Bell and then trying unsuccessfully for three months to pay my bill until they threatened to cut me off. Then they took three months’ worth of payments out of two different accounts which should result in a credit. However, my November bill hasn’t shown up so I’m expecting more drama and confusion.

But this is not why I just wasted about 62 words. You see, the fine workers at Bell were in the village a week and a half ago doing some line repairs. Somehow, they managed to sever the competitor’s main line that provides cable to just about every household in the village. I’m not suggesting subterfuge but the only other provider of cable in the community (drum roll….) is none other than Bell. They provide satellite TV. I am not a subscriber! We’ve been without cable for 10 days. Did Joe Biden win the presidency? Has Coronavirus been eradicated? Did the Leafs win the Stanley Cup? Oooh. That was a cheap shot. Sorry Leaf fans.

I must say that I have been missing my daily fix of news and sports reports but not all the ads. Honestly, I think that TSN has more ads and promos than CNN, and that’s saying something. Truth be told, I don’t get CNN or Fox which suits me fine. The only thing more annoying than ads are the talking heads. The networks are probably very sad to see Trump leave office although it looks like he’ll have to be dragged out of the White House kicking and screaming…once they get him off the golf course.

No television and very sketchy internet. I was mentioning this to some colleagues when one couple came to the rescue. “You can have our DVD player and several hundred movies.” This sounded like an amazing offer. The bad news is that my television, given to me last year is ancient… like me. No, it doesn’t have rabbit ears but the screen is small and the picture isn’t the best. My friends tried to hook up the DVD player but the TV was so old that there were no ports to plug in the cords. One of these friends suggested that I up my game and treat myself to a new flat screen television. As fate would have it, my neighbor in the upstairs apartment (who is away on paternity leave) has a 50’ flat screen TV. With his return to the north uncertain, I reached out to him and within 10 minutes, I bought his television. Some people would call this purchase impulsive, but I choose to use the word decisive!

I am NOT a movie buff. I think the last movie I saw was ET. I’m joking, sort of, but I don’t go to a lot of movies and the names of actors and actresses don’t come easily especially when I’m looking for a solution in a crossword puzzle.

The first evening that I had my new (used) TV, I binged and watched two full length movies back to back – Collateral with Tom Cruise and Rainmaker based on the book of the same name by John Grisham. Over the past several days I have watched Pulp Fiction , possibly one of he worst movies I have ever seen along with Silver Linings (Bradley Cooper), Notes on a Scandal (Dench and Blanchett) and Goodfellows (De Niro and Pesci). And one of my all time favourites, Forrest Gump. Tom Hanks is masterful in this role. Do you have any recommendations?

I rarely talk about school for reasons of discretion and privacy, but I don’t mind telling you that my students have been very excited lately receiving the very first letters of their lives from pen pals across Canada. Many of you reached out when I came begging for stamps a month or so ago and several of you also agreed to correspond with my students. Getting a real handwritten letter in the year 2020 is a rarity. Thanks to all of you for this act of kindness.

My students are incredibly artistic, their teacher, not so much but I do my best to bring an art project to class once every few weeks. While they create, I always have music on in the background. Sometimes it’s even live! I usually let them choose the music. Lately I have been combining classical music with art. Mozart and art, anyone? The other day, I gave them a taste of Beethoven. They tell me it’s “boring” but then again, they say that about everything I do. It does seem to have a calming effect.

Wow! I’ve outdone myself. Just about 1000 words on nothing at all.

I’m running on empty. Have a great weekend and see you next Monday.

P.S. Thinking about doing a Christmas Pillow Talk someday soon. Any takers?