My first job in Calgary as advertising manager of The Albertan meant that I could spend part of my mornings with two great cartoonists – Ben Wicks and Sid Barron. In the 1970s, the morning newspaper published a book of Barron cartoons that could be reproduced as happenings in the city today. Food prices at Spendaway Stores; taking down Christmas lights; painting the mountains; getting rid of city garbage; and, of course, city road crews.
I wish I could print one showing a confrontation between two city boss men. One yelling, “Well I don’t care what your department schedule is…you can’t re-open this hole until we’ve finished repaving it.”
Think I’ll donate it to Merchants Restaurant on 33rd Avenue in Marda Loop.
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Hope I’m not too late to say what a wonderful job Paris did in organizing the Olympics. And the TV coverage was so good – except the American channels concentrated too much on their own instead of letting us see competitors from other countries.
Great to see such proud athletes after training so hard; but I was a little embarrassed for the Canadians who had to parade in those awful outfits.
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I don’t usually comment on restaurants but felt I must mention Il Chianti on 20th Avenue and Edmonton Tail N.E. Mum and dad in the kitchen creating great Italian dishes and daughter serving tables dressed with white tablecloths. The big bowl of ‘best in class’ minestrone is a meal in itself.
And I had my first visit to the much talked about Blue Flame Kitchen at the ATCO complex on Crowchild Trail South. Such a good choice of food, so spacious and airy looking out onto well manicured landscapes. Another showpiece worthy of the Southern family.
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There is an abundance of healthy trees on the property. How come there are so many dead and really sick trees on city-owned properties? When the dandelions were in bloom driving was a lot pleasanter than the lack of maintenance shows along boulevards and on city golf courses.
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The richness of Calgarians is easy to gauge by the number of storage facilities opening to hide away household goods that are not in use. Somewhere to put the skis for the summer months I get, but there must be a lot of furniture items that just don’t fit the new décor.
As one who downsized recently, I can say, “Get rid of stuff.” You won’t need it again and your kids certainly will never want your once treasured spoon collection and tea sets with flowers painted on the bottom of the cups.
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We do have some fine public relations practitioners here, but others drive me crazy. I get lots of emails that tell me if the sender is a she/her or he/him, but don’t bother – I guess, intentionally – to give their telephone number.
I responded to a recent plea to ask me to mention a client by informing the sender that you should not address someone you don’t know with “Hey David” and I had no way of knowing where the person was from. Probably Toronto!
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Must find the space to congratulate friend George Brookman who is celebrating 40 years as founder, operator and visionary of West Canadian Imaging.
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Final Words: “People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” – Isaac Asimov