This Christmas I received two absolutely wonderful books, about two of the most interesting people -- Margaret Trudeau and Keith Richards. It's interesting how their lives intersected. Margaret Trudeau was married to the Prime Minister of Canada, and she threw it all away and ran off to be with ... the Rolling Stones. Like Princess Diana, Margaret Trudeau became obsessed with her own celebrity, and was often seen dancing -- scantily clad -- at Studio 54 in New York City. She also admits to having had an affair with U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, among others. She was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and this book is about that journey. She has an interesting story to tell, and I can hardly wait to read it.
Today is my birthday. It has always felt perfectly normal having a birthday sandwiched in between Christmas and New Year's, almost as if I were an important part of the whole celebration. Christmas ... my birthday ... New Year's. It's as it should be ... right? This year my birthday actually falls on a statutory holiday, so I don't have to go to work. Usually by the time my birthday rolls around, everyone is so pooped -- including me -- that it is never really a big celebration, per se. I feel a bit like the Mad Hatter, et al...
For the past few days I have been too busy to do much blogging, or to visit my favourite bloggers. And what spare time I have has been spent catching up on my sleep. Ahhhh.... So, I take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, even if you don't celebrate Christmas -- Merry Christmas, anyway. Christmas is a spirit as well as a time of year. Political forces in the past few years have done their best to expunge Christmas, and they have tried to turn Bedford Falls into Pottersville. But, try as they might, they just cannot do it.
This year I have decided to concentrate on having fun. Christmas should be the time of year when we put away our cares from the previous months, and just enjoy the celebration. It doesn't have to be perfect. Perfection is highly over-rated, in any case. Fun is always spontaneous -- the unexpected moment -- but, we have to keep our hearts and minds open for it. We can't do that if we are too busy striving for perfection. We all suffer from a common malady -- the human condition. And thank goodness for that.
We are all familiar with those little peppermint Christmas candies called Humbugs. They're delicious and pepperminty, but once they're placed in a candy dish and exposed to the air, they eventually weld themselves together until they are one solid mass. Pick up one humbug, and the whole bowl of candies comes with it. But, what would Christmas be without them?
During the rest of the year, Humbugs are a butterscotch/peppermint candy, brown and white striped. In Canada they are often flavoured with maple syrup. And yes, they still retain their ability to meld together into one big lump of candy, once they bag is opened. They're known for collecting lint in the recesses of pockets and hand bags. But, brush off the lint, and they're as good as new.
At work today we tried to find the origin of the name of this candy, without any success. We Googled it, we Wikipedia'd it, we did everything, without any luck. So, your mission -- should you choose to accept it -- is to discover the origin of the name "Humbug" as it relates to the little striped candy. And no, it has nothing to do with a certain Mr. Scrooge and his opinion of Christmas. A bag of Humbugs, complete with Canadian maple syrup, will be awarded to the person who finds the history of the name of this candy.
I have just taken down my last post. I'm afraid I was feeling a bit uncharacteristically discombobulated (say that ten times fast...) by recent events. I have decided to just be cheerful instead.
I was so happy when I picked up my latest New Yorker magazine, and saw that the cover was by my favourite cartoonist, George Booth. I recognized his style immediately, especially the Booth 
