What is it about some people?

Have you ever wondered why it is you like some people and can’t stand others?  And vice versa, I’m sure.  I’m not talking about people you know pretty well and develop an aversion to at some point, for some reason.  The answer to that is obvious.  I’m talking about people you barely know, or even those you’ve never met– and still, they rub you the wrong way.

You know, dislike on first sight.  Or even without sight.  Just plain dislike.

Do they send off some sort of scent that’s off-putting?  Or pheromones?  Really bad vibes?  Do they have an aura about them?

Logically it makes no sense.  How can you not like someone you don’t know?  And yet
it happens, at least to me.

Take Margaret Wente, for example.  She’s an OpEd columnist for the Toronto Globe

At odds with myself …

For as long as I’ve known myself I’ve been a proponent of privacy, mine and everyone else’s.  So much so, naive as this may sound, I believe it’s an inalienable right.  Clearly neither the press or politicians agree with me because God knows nothing seems to be sacred any more.  Nothing.

Whether you’re famous or not your life, and any secrets you may have, or mistakes you may have made are up for grabs.  Doesn’t matter if it’s a jealous co-worker or vicious ex telling tales out of school, Presidential candidates trying to smear each other into losing elections or TMZ reporters and ordinary citizens with cell phone

Cautiously optimistic …

Yes, I’m superstitious.  And that’s why I try to be careful about making predictions.  Prognosticating.  Assuming.  Planning ahead.  Counting my chickens.  Because the last thing I want to do is jinx myself.  Put a hex on things.  You know.  Screw things up.  And then curse myself forever and a day for having such a big mouth, for blowing it.

So let’s just say the signs are all pointing in the right direction.

Saturday, while I was out and about, I could see that restaurants and cafes had their terraces open; and, people were out there, enjoying the weather.  The streets were packed.  Old folks,

Holidays sure aren’t what they used to be …

Guess I’m showing my age here, but I remember when statutory holidays, like Christmas and New Years and Easter and Victoria Day and Labour Day, were just that:  Statutory.  Everything was shut down.  Banks, the postal service, schools, offices, grocery stores, all retailers in fact.  But now, at least here in Toronto, that’s definitely no longer the case.

This past weekend was Easter weekend.  I naturally assumed everything would be closed on Good Friday.  I know it used to be.  I remember in Montreal, where I’m from, you could have rolled a bowling ball down any major street in the city and it