Alex Carrick’s Blog

On a number of occasions and over quite a span of years, one or another of our three children has invited a young friend to spend the weekend with us at the cottage. This has always been fun, but it has also involved some interesting twists and turns along the way.

[Read more →]

In the movie, The French Connection, the Gene Hackman character, “Popeye” Doyle, asks one of the drug- dealing suspects if he is still “picking his toes in Poughkeepsie?” He knew one of the great secrets of comedy. The letter “p” is the funniest letter of the alphabet.

[Read more →]

Please keep in mind this story was written in 2008, since it has a bearing with respect to the ages of our children, as noted in brackets.   Towards the end of May, our daughter, Tammy-Li (aged 5), needed ten dollars for the “book fair” at her school. This set off a chain reaction of serpentine financial […]

[Read more →]

Nothing symbolizes the start of summer in our neck of cottage country more than a mattress. And that’s not due to the strange alchemy and hormonal urges that meld dangerously when sand, sun and teenagers mix. No, it’s rather because June 1 is traditionally big garbage day.

[Read more →]

A woman, working in a Tim Hortons donut shop in London Ontario, was recently fired for giving away one free “timbit” to a baby.   This has become a public relations nightmare for the company.   Timbits are the punched out centres of donuts – the empty holes, as it were – and, in some […]

[Read more →]

There are quite a number of reasons it might be “neat” to be the Governor of the Bank of Canada. Here, arranged in no particular order, are the Top 10.   (1) Guv’nor just sounds so great and fits in with this nation’s British heritage.   (2) You always win at Monopoly cause you can just print […]

[Read more →]

My wife can read my mind, which makes it easier for her to steal things from me.   Okay, before I get into big trouble, “steal” is too strong a word. Borrow long-term is a better description.  

[Read more →]

Over the weekend, I had some fun imagining how certain celebrities and politicians would seem to be ideally suited for second careers, in their golden years, as “greeters” at Wal-Mart. Try to imagine being met by these people and these words on your way into the store.

[Read more →]

  There has been a major casualty of the digital age that you may be noticing only peripherally. Has it entered your consciousness that there are fewer punning headlines anymore?

[Read more →]

It has often been said there are two driving seasons in Canada, winter and construction. We are currently in the transition period from the former to the latter.   My wife and I were talking about this the other day as we made our way to the cottage on Georgian Bay for the first time in the […]

[Read more →]