Rose's Cantina

I was recently Facebooking about the fact my son, Nick, finally got his G licence and a job so he can start paying rent. The post ended with me saying that all seemed to be right with the world. Then I got blindsided by a model train loving, crankypants senior who was lurking in the weeds, ready to bounce. Someone asked the question: will your son be getting a car? Before I could answer, I saw this posting. Gord Lovelace :  If your son bought a car, it would be like a self-professed poor person publicizing efforts to repair effete Italian coffee machines and imported furniture that millionaires like me could never afford. Well, well. The glove has been thrown down. He has been at me in the past few weeks over the fact that, while my family may be fiscally challenged, I continue to spend my money repairing  luxury items such as a Starbucks barista machine (gift from my son) and an Ekornes chair (which I won in the divorce settlement). Gord then blorges on abou...

You know you're getting old when you sign up for ObitMessenger, a service that delivers the latest obituaries right to your iPhone. Ever since I signed up to get the Ottawa Citizen on my Kindle, I've missed the obituaries which, for some reason, the Citizen doesn't relay onto the Kindle edition. I can't understand it. As today's Census will attest, and what we already know, is that we are an ageing society and with that ageing society comes more dead people. I want to know who they are. I've lived in this strange burg more than half my life, so I know a lot of people. I want to know who exactly is dropping dead. I don't get out much, so funerals provide an important opportunity to network with the living. My former colleague and press club friend Gord Lovelace was recently asked whether he might consider getting his buddies back together for a Bad News Band reunion. Gord shot back on Facebook that he'd love to, except that most of the band is pla...