As one person said, "Well, maybe.... if the US will exchange it's currency at par with ours." My previous snow stomp art: Don't Wanna be #51 (This post) Going to Sarasota Florida Kite Act III Into the Rabbit Hole God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen Tribute #3 Tribute #2 Tribute Vanishing Point Ukraine (in Cyrillic) Calla Lilies A Birthday Cake for... Continue reading

From February through May, I'll be teaching Economics of Sports at New College in Sarasota, Florida. [X marks the spot!] It seemed appropriate to celebrate this opportunity with this morning's snowstomp art on the condo lawn. As most of you know, I haven't been around in London much during the past year and a half, and the times I've been... Continue reading

From Arnold Kling's substack, Jodey Arrington and Phil Gramm write, Since funding for the War on Poverty ramped up in 1967, welfare payments received by the average work-age household in the bottom quintile of income recipients has risen from $7,352 in inflation-adjusted 2022 dollars to $64,700 in 2022, the last year with available household income data. They are including Medicaid,... Continue reading

Last weekend, we were in Niagara-on-the-Lake to attend a couple of shows at the Shaw Festival and decided to take afternoon tea at The Prince of Wales Hotel on Sunday afternoon.We opted for the traditional afternoon tea, eschewing any bubbly or other additions. The setting was great -- a table in a solarium-type room off The Drawing Room overlooking the... Continue reading

Gasoline has a much higher price now than it did in the 1950s, and it has had some big swings, but when you correct for the rate of inflation,... 1950 or so: $0.27 in 1950 equates to about $3.52/gallon in today’s dollars. 1953-56: in Omaha, Nebraska, gas was $0.179 per gallon in 1953. That’s about $2.11 in today’s money, while... Continue reading

Following the failed policies of the 1930s, Trump and now Biden are both indicating there will be more restrictions on U.S. imports, especially from China. Policies like these will greatly harm both th e U.S. and the world economies. Regardless of any other argument, we saw in the 1930s that when one country starts a trade "war" by raising tariffs,... Continue reading

A couple of years ago I published a small volume of three mystery dinner theatre plays. In the summer of 2022, the Marathon (Florida) Community Theatre put on three performances of "Shrink-Wrapped Murder". I was delighted that someone who had bought the book actually liked one of the plays and, what's more, paid me some royalties (I spent much more... Continue reading

The campus at The University of Regina is a large collection of buildings constructed around a central ellipse and all connected (presumably so that people can get from building-to-building without having to go outside and freezing to death in the winter). One result of this design is that there are some very long corridors. The longest hallway, by far, is... Continue reading

Through a series of fortuitous events, I am once again teaching at The University of Regina. But this time for only the summer term (no more winters in Saskatchewan for me!). After my previous experiences (and as I rethink my experiences over the past 84 years of teaching), I have decided, once again, to revise and update my open letter... Continue reading

It's spring! We should be flying kites, not drawing them with snowstomp art! My previous snow stomp art: Kite (this post) Act III Into the Rabbit Hole God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen Tribute #3 Tribute #2 Tribute Vanishing Point Ukraine (in Cyrillic) Calla Lilies A Birthday Cake for Laura and Elise Tecumseh Ringing in the New Year (2022) Cruising (for... Continue reading

After a beautiful snowfall and a glorious couple of weekends, Nancy and I decided to do today's snowstomp art together: My previous snow stomp art: Act III (this post) Into the Rabbit Hole God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen Tribute #3 Tribute #2 Tribute Vanishing Point Ukraine (in Cyrillic) Calla Lilies A Birthday Cake for Laura and Elise Tecumseh Ringing in... Continue reading

It's the year of the rabbit. My previous snow stomp art: Into the Rabbit Hole (this post) God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen Tribute #3 Tribute #2 Tribute Vanishing Point Ukraine (in Cyrillic) Calla Lilies A Birthday Cake for Laura and Elise Tecumseh Ringing in the New Year (2022) Cruising (for Murder) Lest We Forget Goose Fibonacci's Balloon Waiting for Our... Continue reading

As some of you know, for the 2022 holiday season, I'm planning to take a huge break from the past traditions that Carolle and I had. I've put up lights on the balconies, but that's about it. Beginning tomorrow (Wednesday), I'll be house-sitting a very large 'cottage' near Lake Erie for two weeks. Alone. My plan is to go away,... Continue reading

After a very late night of strategic planning (i.e. finishing far too much scotch) with relatives and friends, I woke up to see the delightful snow on the ground. Since Encore... the Concert Band is playing a concert of 'seasonal' music this afternoon, I decided that the initial piece of snow art for the 2022-23 season should relate to that... Continue reading

Let me ask yet again, what is it about the famous Milton Friedman quip about monetary policy that today's central bankers don't seem to get? According to Friedman, monetary policy had (has?) an effect but only with a long and variable lag. Were all of today's central bankers trained by rational expectations cowboys to believe that all markets always clear... Continue reading

DOUBT is a play about two nuns who suspect the priest at their school is sexually abusing one of the boys. The priest is such a well-polished offender that he is able to make them doubt their suspicions. Ms. Eclectic used to work with sex offenders. Everything in this play rings true and is consistent with all the things she... Continue reading

Gratitude Forgiveness Stubbornness Gratitude Moving on Problem-solving Gratitude Perseverance Acceptance Gratitude Support Toughness Gratitude Adventure Diligence Gratitude Loyalty Feistiness Gratitude Feminism Expectations of personal responsibility Gratitude Humour Wit Gratitude Grumpiness Kindness Gratitude Generosity Sports Gratitude [This 'poem' appeared in the Summer, 2022, issue of Fine-Lines, and is posted here with their kind permission.] Continue reading

Carolle died at home this morning from a combination of congestive heart failure and renal failure. Last fall, it looked as if her health was improving, but it deteriorated during the winter. Carolle was grateful for everything: every opportunity, every friend, every relative. She always said, “I’ve had a wonderful life!” And that's what she meant: she loved her life.... Continue reading

A late spring snowfall. Two photos. One at 5am when I did the snowstomp art and another at 7am after it got light out. There's more snow on the way, but there's also more warm temperature coming. This was snow-shuffle art, not snow-stomp art. The outline will likely last on the lawn for many days after the snow melts. My... Continue reading

My previous snow stomp art: Tribute #2 Tribute Vanishing Point Ukraine (in Cyrillic) Calla Lilies A Birthday Cake for Laura and Elise Tecumseh Ringing in the New Year (2022) Cruising (for Murder) Lest We Forget Goose Fibonacci's Balloon Waiting for Our Covid-19 Vaccination 2020 -- Spiraling Wear me The Meaning of Life Peter Cottontail Visits the Condo Fight CV19 and... Continue reading

My previous snow stomp art: Tribute Vanishing Point Ukraine (in Cyrillic) Calla Lilies A Birthday Cake for Laura and Elise Tecumseh Ringing in the New Year (2022) Cruising (for Murder) Lest We Forget Goose Fibonacci's Balloon Waiting for Our Covid-19 Vaccination 2020 -- Spiraling Wear me The Meaning of Life Peter Cottontail Visits the Condo Fight CV19 and STAY HOME... Continue reading

The forecast high for three days from now is +17C [+63F]. I expect much more will vanish by then than just the imagined point off in the distance and down the hill from our lawn. My previous snow stomp art: Vanishing Point Ukraine (in Cyrillic) Calla Lilies A Birthday Cake for Laura and Elise Tecumseh Ringing in the New Year... Continue reading

My previous snow stomp art: Ukraine (in Cyrillic) Calla Lilies A Birthday Cake for Laura and Elise Tecumseh Ringing in the New Year (2022) Cruising (for Murder) Lest We Forget Goose Fibonacci's Balloon Waiting for Our Covid-19 Vaccination 2020 -- Spiraling Wear me The Meaning of Life Peter Cottontail Visits the Condo Fight CV19 and STAY HOME Skool Daze I... Continue reading

When we lived in Hawaii (35 years ago), we fell in love with calla lilies. As I looked at my original snow art, I thought, "It could use some fixing, and it probably could also use some leaves. I'll do it tomorrow after we get a couple of centimetres of snow tonight. We may have gotten some snow, but we... Continue reading

I know this is sacrilegious, but despite the fact that I'm triple-vaxed, I am beginning to have some doubts about whether continuing to push vaccines is an efficient way to deal with Covid. First, there is increasing evidence (which I raised here) that being vaccinated doesn't necessarily protect people from being infected with Omicron. Vaccines probably slowed transmissions of the... Continue reading