Alex Carrick’s Blog

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Ode to an Audience (Part 1 of 3)

August 5th, 2008 · American Humor, Amusing, British Comedy, British Humour, Canada Humor, Cop Humor, Crossed Wires, Economic Humor, Economics, Farce, Funny Banter, Funny Dialogue Story, Funny Embarrassment, Funny Workplace, Human Nature, Jokes, Lifestyle, Offbeat, Public Speaking, Romp, Screwball, Zany

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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 Argue over a Plant

July 28th, 2008 · American Humor, British Comedy, British Humour, Canada Humor, Charming, Clash of the Sexes, Cute, Family, Family Humor, Feel Good, Funny Dialogue Story, Funny Family, Funny Husband & Wife Story, Funny Husband and Wife Banter, Funny Rant, Funny Workplace, General Humor, General Interest, Heartwarming, Human Nature, Jokes, Lifestyle, Oddball, Offbeat, Plants, Rant, Sardonic, Screwball, Slice of Life, Surprise Twists, Twisted, Whimsy, Witty

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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, a tale of innocence and guilt. The conversation proceeded as follows.

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Doing the Economics Tango

July 21st, 2008 · Celebrities, Economic Humor, Economics, General Humor, Lifestyle

Alex Carrick

What I like about the study of economics is that literally everything is of interest and has an impact. Religion, politics, science, medicine, the weather and social factors are all grist for the economist’s mill.

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Taking Someone Else’s Child to the Cottage

July 14th, 2008 · American Humor, Amusing, British Comedy, British Humour, Canada Humor, Charming, Children and Pets, Cottage Life, Cute, Family, Family Humor, Feel Good, Funny Banter, Funny Cottage, Funny Family, Funny Generation Gap, Funny Weather, Heartwarming, Human Nature, Jokes, Lifestyle, Slice of Life

Alex Carrick

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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Which Letter of the Alphabet is the Funniest?

July 7th, 2008 · American Humor, British Comedy, British Humour, Canada Humor, Cute, Entertainment, Family Humor, Funny Celebrity, Funny Editorial, Funny Language, Human Nature, Jokes, Lifestyle, Lyrical, Movies, Outrageous, Prose Poetry, Puns, Sardonic, Sexual Innuendo, Slice of Life, Surprise Twists, Whimsy, Witty

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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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High Finance, Carrick Family Style

June 30th, 2008 · American Humor, Amusing, British Comedy, British Humour, Canada Humor, Charming, Children and Pets, Coming of Age, Cute, Economic Humor, Family Humor, Feel Good, Funny Economy, Funny Family, Funny Generation Gap, Funny Husband & Wife Story, Heartwarming, Human Nature, Jokes, Lifestyle, School Days, Screwball, Slice of Life, Whimsy

Alex Carrick

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 dealings that was awesome in its complexity.

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Thirteen Ways to Lure American Visitors to Canada

June 23rd, 2008 · Canada Humor, Celebrities, Economic Humor, Entertainment, General Humor, Lifestyle, Political Humor, Uncategorized

Alex Carrick

The number of visits by Americans to Canada has dropped way off over the last couple of years. We, as Canadians, have to find ways to turn this situation around. The following are 13 action steps or things to highlight about Canada that will attract U.S. tourists, business associates, relatives and friends back over the border.

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The Dawning of a Bright New Day in Garbage Collection

June 16th, 2008 · Canada Humor, Family Humor, General Humor, General Interest, Green Environment, Jokes, Lifestyle, Political Humor, Politicians

Alex Carrick

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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Death of a Mattress

June 9th, 2008 · Afterlife, Allegory or Fairy Tale, American Humor, Anthropomorphic, British Comedy, British Humour, Canada Humor, Charming, Cottage Life, Cute, Fairy Tale, Family Humor, Fantasy, Funny Animal, Funny Cottage, Funny Fable, Funny Horror, Funny Outrageous, Halloween, Imagery, Jokes, Lifestyle, Lyrical, Macabre, Oddball, Offbeat, Romp, Screwball, Silly, Slice of Life, Twisted, Whimsy, Witty, Zany

Alex Carrick

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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The Timbit Affair and a List of Bogus Firings

June 2nd, 2008 · American Humor, Amusing, British Comedy, British Humour, Canada Humor, Charming, Cute, Economic Humor, Family Humor, Funny Economy, Funny Office, Funny Workplace, Human Nature, Irony, Jokes, Lifestyle, Oddball, Offbeat, Outrageous, Satire, Screwball, Silly, Whimsy

Alex Carrick

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 theoretical sense at least, may not even exist. This gets into a branch of quantum physics or Descartian philosophy with which I am not familiar.

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