Randy | May 25, 2014
I personally espouse and teach what I hold to be the necessity of being as self-sufficient and savvy as one can possibly be in seeing to the welfare of you and yours. I believe in community and lending a hand in defense of those who can’t help themselves, and in knowing how to recognize evil […]
Randy | May 3, 2014
Bloody Foreigners is the name of a four part series that aired on British television beginning in 2010. It tells the story of how pivotal events in British history were brought to a successful conclusion in no small part through the efforts of non-British people. The series title alone spoke to me because I am […]
Randy | May 2, 2014
For reasons that don’t relate to anything I can remember dreaming about last night, I woke up with a particular song in my head that we’ll get to in a moment. Like most things in my life, it reminded me of a story from personal experience. In this case it’s one that, as in the […]
Randy | April 22, 2014
Today’s title is taken from the vast body of sage advice that flows from the mind, pen, and lips of Hanshi Stephen F. Kaufman; a treasured Friend to whom I have referred here on many occasions, and will again. I invite you to peruse and reflect on these representative pieces from the LFM Archives that […]
Randy | April 12, 2014
Nursie: “You’re so clever today, you’d better be careful your foot doesn’t fall off!” Queenie: “Is that what happens to people when they have brilliant ideas?” Nursie: “Oh yes! My brother had this brilliant idea of cutting his toenails with a scythe, and his foot fell off!” ~ Blackadder the Second ~ If you follow […]
Randy | April 8, 2014
Literacy is a set of skills based upon three legs; one passive, and the other two active. The passive one is Reading. It requires no output on the part of the participant, necessitating only the ability to comprehend the written word. The two active legs of the Literacy tripod are: Writing; and Speaking. Now, when […]
Randy | March 20, 2014
On this day, Peter Ashley Thompson has succeeded in turning 58 years of age – a thing so singularly amazing that it’s unlikely he’ll ever manage to do it again. To commemorate this occasion, we’re offering this. Ode to Thompson by LFM Peter Thompson’s fifty-eight, Above the sod, don’t call him late, He’s white of […]
Randy | March 13, 2014
In my 17 years overseeing operations at Central Dispatch – the emergency communications centre that I established and operated from 1984 to 2001 in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia – I had regular cause to call in to the RCMP communications centre in Halifax (call sign 416), and speak to the (mostly female) dispatchers there. I have […]
Randy | February 5, 2014
To many a modern fencer, the “weapon” in hand is no weapon at all, but an instrument of athleticism no different and more deserving of noble regard than a tennis racquet. In discussion with one who openly brings concepts of martial artistry into fencing practice, even accomplished fencers routinely ridicule any such idea as archaic […]
Randy | January 25, 2014
On the subject of that famous Christmas confection called fruitcake, Johnny Carson once said, “The worst gift is fruitcake. There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other.” He appears to have had little of the sort to say of The Haggis, and that was wise of […]