Keith Dryden

Salute December December is a month dominated by the Christmas season, but it does have a few other facets worth noting. It contains the shortest day of the year and when we’ve passed that our daily quota of natural light increases so we can gradually ease off on using the light for which we’re billed. […] Read more

Black paper As has been threatened for months, Conrad Black has launched his new “national” daily newspaper, the National Post. The line-ups to buy it at Elkhorn, Eatonia and Etzikom were notably absent. I dutifully read the paper when it arrived as part of the Saskatoon daily package. Since Black owns newspapers across the country, […] Read more

On goring oxen This move by nations around the world to set up a court to deal with those accused of genocide and murder for political reasons sounds like a progressive idea but it has its perils. Trying war criminals means that some authority must decide who are the villains of the piece. To convict […] Read more

The anti-chair “This meeting needs a chair. I nominate Mary Collins.” We people of the modern era apparently are prepared to put up with a lot of fatuous nonsense in the interests of promoting equality for women. The term “chairman” has gone into disuse because it was considered sexist. Good riddance, say I. But why […] Read more

The sing-song That song of last century’s American Grange, “The Farmer Feeds Them All,” was played on the CBC the other day and that prompted some memories. Remember the 1940s when there was a Farmers Union of Alberta, a UFC Saskatchewan section in the wheat province and a United Farmers of Manitoba? Their annual meetings […] Read more

Halfway located Met a farmer-radio broadcaster recently who claims to have a location that is exactly half-way between Regina and Saskatoon. Rod Parker’s farm is located near Simpson, Sask. Taking into account the curvature of the earth, he may be right, although if you lay a ruler on a road map the centre point is […] Read more

Get to the point “Hello. How are you?” This standard Canadian greeting implies an interest in hearing about another person’s health but really is just a conversation opener. If the reply provides a dismal set of facts about a gall bladder operation or various aches and pains, the eyes of the questioner tend to glaze […] Read more

Eden revisited Back in the depression years of the 1930s we had some neighbors who had been dried out, blown out, rusted out and had had enough. They called an auction sale, sold their machinery and livestock and announced they were heading for that heaven on earth, British Columbia. They would grow fruit, apples, peaches, […] Read more

Facial language Some years ago a photographer published a book of pictures of cow faces. He had discovered that these so-called dumb animals do develop expressions on their faces. The cows may not realize they look bemused or cynical or angry or contented but they do. What he did was write some appropriate comment to […] Read more