Alex Carrick’s Blog

A good joke is a thing of beauty. Furthermore, shorter is often better than longer. For example, did you hear about the couple who met while bungee jumping? They got married on the rebound. Yes? No? Maybe?

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So far, I’ve spent time with the police, then time with the emergency task force and now I can’t find anybody to listen to what I have to say. Picking up from where I left off yesterday:

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This story picks up from yesterday when I started to describe one particularly strange day I had last fall while scheduled to make a public presentation. At this point, I’ve just said my good-byes to the police.

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I do a lot of public speaking and let me tell you how much I appreciate having an audience. All of what I’m about to relate really happened.

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My wife and I argued over a plant tonight and it isn’t even our plant. During our usual de-briefing after a busy day, she told me the following story about her workplace that I think will resonate with many readers. I am changing most of the names to protect the innocent and this is, truly, […]

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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.

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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.

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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 […]

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The day I have been dreading has finally arrived. Yesterday, a flyer arrived in the mail from the City of Toronto requiring the Carrick family to decide about our future garbage handling requirements. Specifically, we have to choose the size of bins we will need and the resulting extra charge this will entail.

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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.

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