Humour and Satire

So, the boy arrived home from the school this week wearing his swimsuit. He had lost his shorts. And those other shorts, also. Yes, those other shorts. The conversation went like this. “How was your day at school, son?” “I lost my shorts.” “Oh.” “And my underwear too.” “That’s great Jon.” The swimsuit my son […]

So, after some months in our Canadian home, we’re back in Africa. The commute over the Atlantic was non-eventful with the exception of two notes. One is the passing of Oliver Sacks, the neurologist and so-called “poet-laureate of medicine,” a man rich in words and spirit, both. I saw the report on the BBC somewhere […]

Before the news of the week, the sad news, let me say that my new life motto is “Doing less and liking it more.” This is why the doc says I’ll live to be 100 and why I’m at my second summer camp in two weeks, this time on a lake of undisclosed location with […]

It’s the other day in Pittsburgh and a friend emails with the news … “Hey, you’re on TV!” A couple of nights later I got around to watching online. I wanted to see this brief interview, quite honestly, by myself. TV is not my thing. I felt somewhat embarrassed about it all. My Bride, some […]

There’s little left to say about the theft of My Bride’s and my computers while in Ottawa, except that, as we all know, things can always be worse. Yesterday we learned that friends who work in Thailand had not only their laptops, but their passports (with critical visas), ID, wallets and anything else of any […]

We’re  on the 6.46 am  train from Salzburg to Munich, somewhere near the German-Austrian border, with Bavarian countryside and snowy Alps and children curled up and asleep, The Children’s Mother nodding off too, a couple of days to go in this family holiday, this, what has turned into an annual European respite while returning to Canada from Africa. […]

The best time to talk to your nine-year-old boy about women’s plumbing and these sorts of sexually delicate territories is when he’s asleep. This is what every trying father discovers after said boy lays splayed on the living room floor pretending he’s having a baby. Yes, my son Jon was in obvious pain – it seems no epidural […]

Some days I wish I was more musical, at least as musical as the rest of the family. I think the dog wishes the same for himself. Sensing this, yesterday I let Zack listen to Handel on my i-pod. It was Handel’s Concerti Grossi Op 3. I held the buds in his big German Shepherd dog ears. He […]

Next time we have Nutella — a food item I allow my children to eat every 6th Monday of the month – we will have a moment of silence. This is to mark the rich contribution made by Michele Ferrero, the inventor of Nutella, who died this week. And not just Nutella, friends, but Kinder […]

This is from Peter, a Ugandan music teacher explaining one of his first interactions with his future bride-to-be. These two youngish Ugandans were around our dinner table last night. Their initial conversation went like this: Her: Do you remember my name? Him: No. Her: What kind of teacher are you that you don’t remember your […]

Here, or below, we’re continuing on the theme of The Nature of Peace, this the fourth of several excerpts from an address I gave in Hamilton, Canada in November 2014. Excerpt #1 is here and #2 is here and #3 is here. But first, about the kids. + Liz gets a phone call from a friend. […]

Here, or below, we’re continuing on the theme of The Nature of Peace, this the third of several excerpts from an address I gave in Hamilton, Canada in November 2014. Excerpt #1 is here and #2 is here. But first, this brief conversation: Dad: “And, guys, whenever you feel down about school, just remember, you only […]

It was at the dinner table, Sunday evening, and the kids and Mom were telling me about the morning service where some brave Ugandan kid got up in front of hundreds of university students and adults too and boldly rhymed off a poem expressing his sincere wish that Ugandan parents would just listen to their […]

The question came in the UnGame the other evening. “Who is the funniest member of your family?” We’d have to put it to a vote. Jon – “I am!” This from the boy who, when he scores a goal in soccer, pulls down his sports shorts and wiggle his, uh, rear. That is when he’s […]

After ensuring the children did indeed still have all their limbs attached, the first order of business back home here in Uganda was to play some hockey, the sort reported earlier this year here in the Hamilton Spectator, that is ball hockey with Ugandans who are getting too good at Canada’s game. Too good, indeed. Joining us for […]