Alex Carrick’s Blog

I made it. I’m free. I can’t believe it. This is so great!   I can hear them talking below me. They think this is a tragedy and it’s making them sad. They suspect the tree was lurking to ensnare me. They couldn’t be more wrong. I saw my opportunity and I took it.   The […]

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North of the city, this past weekend, I eaves-dropped on the following conversation in a local diner.   MAN: Do ya suppose it’s okay to bury Barry in Barrie?   WOMAN: He wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.   MAN: Bad how he bought it, though.

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“When one scoop of ice cream is too much, two scoops can sometimes be just right.” That was something my wife, Donna, said one summer evening – perhaps unwittingly, we’ve never been quite sure – when the family walked to the local ice cream parlour for a cool treat. Then she demonstrated her belief in this […]

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In another romantic space, long long ago, I wrote the following lyrics to a song that can only be heard in my own head. Nevertheless, I think they make for entertaining reading, particularly at a time such as this, when the economy is in rough shape. Furthermore, I would suggest these words could only have been […]

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Six co-workers were gathered in a hotel room in Dallas, Texas because they were concerned about one of their own. Raj had come to work for the large consulting firm a year before and he was liked by everyone.   Lately, though, he seemed bothered and distracted. Far from his home in Mumbai, he was stressed […]

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I was driving in my car the other day when a news item came over the radio that made me really pause and think. Apparently there has been such a shopping spree for guns in the United States that there is now, not just a shortage of ammunition, but a “critical” shortage. That’s how the […]

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Hank and Harriet, single and alone in their own separate worlds, saw the ads on late-night TV. Their friends encouraged them to give it a try. Now here they were, staring each other down across a tiny table in a hotel ballroom filled with 100 other hopefuls.   They were about to start their final session in […]

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Whenever I hear a major celebrity has died, I am reminded that there is no such thing as time. Our most vivid memories of these individuals are when they were at their prime. Their vitality and life force made them seem indestructible. Then suddenly, ten or 20 or 30 years later they are gone. It seemingly […]

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My nose knows and it is telling me that I need to write about Toronto’s garbage workers strike. We’re about to enter the fourth week. Negotiations between the mayor’s office and the union are getting overheated. Everyone is sweating over the details. The situation has become sticky. You see the problem? There is going to be a lingering […]

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The weekend started off badly for me when Donna, my wife, announced she had purchased a couple of inflatable boats to take with us to the cottage. These were to help amuse two friends of Ted, our middle child, that we were bringing with us from Friday night through Sunday.   I hate rafts. They are […]

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