Can We Talk?

A Feel-Good Thank You Card

Leaving behind a thank-you note
Posted: Friday, February 26, 2010 10:56 AM by Daily Nightly Editor
Filed Under: Brian Williams

Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor

After tonight’s broadcast and after looting our hotel mini-bars, we’re going to try to brave the blizzard and fly east to home and hearth, and to do laundry well into next week. Before we leave this thoroughly polite country, the polite thing to do is leave behind a thank-you note.

Thank you, Canada:

For being such good hosts.

For your unfailing courtesy.

For your (mostly) beautiful weather.

For scheduling no more than 60 percent of your float plane departures at the exact moment when I was trying to say something on television.

For not seeming to mind the occasional (or constant) good-natured mimicry of your accents.
For your unique TV commercials — for companies like Tim Hortons — which made us laugh and cry.

For securing this massive event without choking security, and without publicly displaying a single automatic weapon.

For having the best garment design and logo-wear of the games — you’ve made wearing your name a cool thing to do.

For the sportsmanship we saw most of your athletes display.

For not honking your horns. I didn’t hear one car horn in 15 days — which also means none of my fellow New Yorkers rented cars while visiting.

For making us aware of how many of you have been watching NBC all these years.

For having the good taste to have an anchorman named Brian Williams on your CTV network, who turns out to be such a nice guy.

For the body scans at the airport which make pat-downs and cavity searches unnecessary.

For designing those really cool LED Olympic rings in the harbor, which turned to gold when your athletes won one.

For always saying nice things about the United States…when you know we’re listening.

For sharing Joannie Rochette with us.

For reminding some of us we used to be a more civil society.

Mostly, for welcoming the world with such ease and making lasting friends with all of us.

March 3rd, 2010 Posted by Lugatz | Wonderful | no comments

Tom Brokaw’s Explains Canada To Americans

Wow, how cool is this?  It must have been broadcast before Christmas of 2009 because after that, Parliament was prorogued until March.

February 26th, 2010 Posted by Lugatz | Wonderful | no comments

Americans And Their Fear Of Socialized Medicine

Why is that?  What are they so afraid of?  Socialized medicine.  That’s a bad thing? 

There has been this ongoing brainwashing of the American mind, and Canadian also but not to that extent.  Fear of Socialism.  Not sure why but it probably has something to do with Russia and their revolution. 

Stepping back in time, all countries ruled by royalty treated their people like so much dirt under their feet.  All that class system like one was better than another.  Blue blood.  Where did that come from?  Prick Prince William with a needle and show me where you see blue.  And don’t talk to me about it’s a metaphore.  It’s bullshit, that’s what it is.

Industrial revolution and it’s OK to have children work in factories beside the adults.  They’re nothing special.  They’re commoners, not worthy of any respect.  They’re like cattle or oxen.  Livestock and born to toil for their masters.

But I digress.

I hope ordinary Americans have the good sense to see past the fear-mongering Republicans and see where it would benefit them, their children and generations to come.  Even if they have to pay a little more income tax.  So what?  It’s a damn sight cheaper than facing over-the-top medical bills that could ruin them financially.  Personally, I prefer an across-the-board government run program.  It simplifies things.  Hey, but anything is better than what they’ve got now.

So, do my views make me a Socialist?  Maybe they do.  Yeah, I guess they do and I’m proud of it.

Go, Barak.  I’m proud of you.  Well, I’d be more proud if you brought your troops home.

January 27th, 2010 Posted by Lugatz | Socialized Medicine, politics | no comments

Socialized Medicine In The Trent Hills

We’d heard so many horror stories about the lack of doctors in the country.  I don’t know where the stories originated.  There was even a Canadian woman on an American commercial that the Republicans ran over and over.  She claimed she had to go to the US to get medical treatment for something.  I can’t remember what.  Maybe her heart?  She claimed her doctor said there was a two year waiting list for the treatment she needed.  I wonder how much she was paid for that commercial?  She’s a liar of the first order. Read more…

January 25th, 2010 Posted by Lugatz | Life In Small Town Ontario, Socialized Medicine | no comments

Announcing My New Blog

Let’s face it, Can We Talk, is a general blog about so many things.  It was the first one I ever had and I really needed to focus but I didn’t.  Now, looking back and reading some of the entries, I see where posts were all over the map.  I’m trying to change that so, I have begun a new blog http://countrygarden.ceconn.com .  It is primarily a gardening blog.  After all, that’s where my focus will be during the warm months.  Well, gardening and taking pictures of my garden.

I hope you’ll visit and add to the conversation.  I’m hoping it will be a site for gardeners who want to exchange ideas.  For a greenhorn like me, any input is good input.  All input is appreciated. 

Wish me luck as we sit here in sub zero temperatures, dreaming of wildly wonderful gardens, admired by all. Well, I can dream, can’t I?

One thing I’d like to mention before I go, I will still keep this blog up but I’m going back to my ranting days when I let off steam about anything that bugged me.  After all, it’s a good, safe venue for this sort of thing.

January 19th, 2010 Posted by Lugatz | Life In Small Town Ontario | no comments