The Suckiversary

Yesterday, March 11, 2021, was the one-year anniversary of the day the WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Canada declared a day of mourning and remembrance for the more than 22,000 people who died of COVID in that last year. I remember March 11, 2020 -- still three days before we got our first case …

Mother, May I?

Kids probably have more interesting pastimes nowadays, what with video games and everything, but does anyone Of A Certain Age, like me, remember playing "Mother, May I?" One kid would be "Mother" and stand facing a row of other kids some distance away. "Mother" would say something like "Take three giant steps," or "Take two …

Five Is a Good Round Number

As 2020 draws to a close, I'm doing a bit of what we all do at the end of a year: look back, evaluate what we did, thought, and experienced, pick out some of the high points, make best-of-the-year lists. I've already posted a Best Books of the Year list, as I always do, but …

Trudy’s Best Books of 2020

This year, I read somewhere between 90-95 books, which is lower than previous years -- and lower still when you realize that a sizeable chunk (maybe close to 20?) or those 90+ were rereads of old favourites. There were weeks during the height of the COVID lockdown here in March/April when I couldn't wrap my …

The Endangered Species

  I checked Twitter this morning to find out that some white, male, British* writer who won the Booker Prize in 2005 has decided to use his one wild and precious life to complain that he wouldn't be able to win it today, as a straight white male, because of a "'woke' movement" that he …

I’m Breaking Up With You, America

Dear United States of America,We've had a good run. Our relationship goes back to my mother, who was born on your soil in the beautiful borough of Brooklyn, New York, and proudly held onto her American citizenship all her life despite having moved to Newfoundland at the ripe old age of 20 months and remaining …

All My Decapitated Heroes

In the spring of 1979, when I was thirteen years old, I fell in love with two men. It was an impossible romance from the start. Not only were they both inaccessible to me, but they were each other's sworn enemies, standing for starkly different values -- one doomed to die at the other's hand. …

Lighting Candles in Corners: Some Thoughts on Charity

Above is a not-very-great picture of me doing the thing that has, hands-down, given me the most personal satisfaction and enjoyment during the long weeks of pandemic lockdown: preparing food hampers for home delivery out of our (otherwise unused) church basement. For five years we've been running a hot meal program every second Sunday, but …

Strange Times with Trudy, Day 100: End of an Era

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjra8ELd2uM&lc=Ugy0N4zZVN_erfL7m7N4AaABAg I like round numbers, and the school year is really over now, so Day 100 seems like a good time to say this is the end of my "strange times" videos, though not the end of the global pandemic. Mostly for my own benefit when looking back later: here's the whole playlist of my Strange Times …

Strange Times, Day 96: Success!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_iCM_A5nxk Here's a look back at a goal I set for myself at the end of April, with some updates and a real-time glance at how my COVID-19 hairstyle is going. That's not what the video is about, but it's a free bonus feature.