Creative commentary plus crafty composition

An Optical Disillusion

Except for those wearing rose-coloured glasses, or are sycophantic party or personality loyalists, it’s almost impossible to go through adult life without being disappointed by the performance of politicians, at least much of the time.

We don’t have to go far to see negative optics and results. Read the rest of this entry »

Here we go, another batch of enlivened clichés (with the original in italics):

  • Did you hear about the horticultural investor who had mixed feelings about his account portfolio growing like a weed?
  • He couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn because of endless respect for its interior wall hangings Read the rest of this entry »

Light Switch with Emotion

In the past few days we’ve had new opportunity to witness how easily emotional light switches can be triggered.  Instead of the conventional image of the latter changing darkness to light and vice versa, there’s been ample illustration from a human perspective. Read the rest of this entry »

Memorable Quote # 14

Too Frightening to listen to a stranger

Too Beautiful to put your pride in danger

You’re waiting for someone to understand you Read the rest of this entry »

More to Disclosure

In dealing with many professional service providers, an increasingly pervasive part of the experience is sourced by some degree of official disclosure.

As noted in an article in the year end version of The Insurance & Investment Journal (published in Montreal), financial industry disclosure intends to “…help Read the rest of this entry »

And yet again, a batch of enlivened clichés (with the original in italics):

  • If we had three of them, getting off on the wrong foot wouldn’t be a big problem
  • I know a show-off ballplayer who will play any position, and he’ll handle it with kid gloves Read the rest of this entry »

Speed Ills

Be aware, this may come soon to a street or intersection near you…

Our residential street is under attack from the remote, bureaucratic forces of city hall.  The war room is in the Area Traffic Management department.  If militaristic terms seem a bit harsh, it’s because of the battle we’re facing. Read the rest of this entry »

In the Black

Today is ‘Black Friday’.

Unlike conventional associations with the word black, outside of its description as a colour (notwithstanding the view that black represents an absence of colour), today’s version means seeing green ($$$) for retailers and perhaps a rainbow of high and low emotions for shoppers. Read the rest of this entry »

The theme of our Toastmasters meeting today was “Your Dream Job”.  As Table Topics master, I challenged fellow members to imagine how this precept would apply in various professions. Read the rest of this entry »

What Gets Stressed

There are gruesomely fascinating illustrations of stress. Not only does the word have intrinsically different meanings (putting ‘stress’ on a pronunciation, or a piece of wood, or causing mental discomfort), but also the discomfort interpretation itself has myriad sources. Read the rest of this entry »