We'd just finished celebrating Ellen's birthday; a meal of wild boar, mashed potatoes and fried potatoes covered with cowberries and a bottle of Argentinian Malbec. I was rubbing my roundish belly and started wondering if we North Americans are being duped. These people appear stronger and healthier than we do. All those advertising campaigns about the values of different coloured vegetables and the number of servings you should eat each day; then I thoug...

Upon our return from British Columbia.

    Vancouver was a last minute deal. Ellen and I had been thinking of investing in property there for some time. Upon arrival, we picked up a rental car and headed for the hills. Our first night we stayed at a B&B in Kelowna. On the way there we passed Penticton. It was just after Stockwell Day had himself photographed while buzzing around on a noisy fricking jet-ski machine. It was a stunt that almost blew him out of the water, so to speak. Shortly after, he...

  This was the first baseball excursion Lloyd and I ever went on. We stopped at a pub in Pittsburgh for a beer and the bartender managed to have a pair of seats right beside the Pirates dugout. And it was a very special night. The club was honouring the 1979 World Series Championship Pirates. Almost all of the old players were on the field, standing right in front of us. Roberto Clemente's widow and son were there to accept the great fielder's award. Th...

 April 17, 1961 - Playa Giron, Cuba  Frogmen came ashore at 2:00 am. Their objective was to set up lights to show where the main assault force could land. Half-an-hour later, approximately 1,300 CIA-supported counter-revolutionaries stormed the beaches of Cuba. Their goal was to rid the island nation of its new President, Fidel Castro, and restore democracy. But the military loyal to Castro were lying in wait. Many of the invaders were captured or killed in th...