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

The scrapbook version of our lives

Last week a cousin of mine (through marriage) lost his dad. I saw the notice in the Globe and Mail. Good thing, because I wouldn’t have known otherwise. Made me think back, to when I was a kid.

My mother used to read the Obits every single morning. Never missed. When she saw a familiar name, she’d get on the phone and call my aunts and my grandmother. Sometimes, even friends who knew the deceased. I can still hear the conversations, all these years later.

It drove me insane. I used to tell her it was macabre. Ghoulish. Gross. A miserable start to an otherwise nice day. It almost felt like prying, because for the most part she didn’t even know who these people were.

And then she’d tell me it was important. “I have to know”, she’d always say, “so I can send a sympathy

A question for Margaret Wente …

Most of you won’t know who Margaret Wente is (because you live all over the world), so I’ll tell you.  She’s an OpEd columnist for the Toronto Globe and Mail.  There was a time I really enjoyed her work; and actually looked forward to reading each and every one of her columns.

That time has come and gone.

Now, for the most part, I find her way too full of herself, way too arrogant, way too pompous and, very often, condescending.  And kinda irrelevant, too, now that I think about it.  She no longer represents my views.

Other than that I think she’s fab.

Last week she wrote a column on climate change.  Well, preached, actually.  And, in the end, she decided we’re way too hysterical about global warming — the planet will survive and so will we.  Well, she’s certainly entitled to her opinion, there’s no arguing with that.  And she may even turn out to be right.  But until then …

What might her explanation be for the fact that, in Toronto today, it is currently -1 celsius (feels like -5 with the windchill) and it’s snowing?  On April 15.  And yesterday it was 21 celsius. I went out wearing a T-shirt, without a jacket.  I didn’t need socks, either.  Convertible tops were down, terrace cafes and restaurants were doing a booming business and it felt almost like summer.

Day 228. What’s Next?

I ‘celebrated’ my birthday this week.  On Wednesday.  I waited until it was safely over to mention it.  Hate making a big deal of it.  And not being such a lover of either attention or sweets, my preference has always been to avoid the cake and candles bit.  Especially now.

With the number of candles I’d need, once they were lit, it would look like a minor forest fire.  And I don’t honestly know if I still have the lung capacity to blow them out.  At least all at once.  Call in the fire fighters!

Never mind.  It was grand.  And it turned out to be a two-day affair.  Some work in the morning, some pampering in the afternoon and dinner with a friend on Wednesday.  Work during the day on Thursday.  Dinner, drinks, jazz and blues on Thursday night.

Several blog posts ago, I wrote about Errol Fisher, a local singer, I’ve enjoyed for years and years.  Well, lo and