Category Archives: Children

Missing

Missing

Mary Two Rivers stood quietly in the place along the edge of the reservation she’d come to so often, the band Chief agreeing to one last visit even as the heavy machinery roared around her.

The pain had not softened in the years since her Emily, the dark-haired girl with a spirit set alight by a spark from the Creator’s fire, had been taken.

The worn and weathered doll she’d been gifted by the widow from the secondhand shop in town, herself long since dead, marked the last known location of the girl who’d vanished some 21 years earlier.

In a few short hours, the landmarks that provided Mary with the last links to her baby’s existence would be erased in the name of progress; another girl added to the list of the forgotten.


There is an epidemic across North America that has seen tens of thousands of Aboriginal women and girls murdered or go missing. In Canada that number is about 1200 since 1980 however it is believed to be much higher as many cases are never reported or reported incorrectly. Information on Canada’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls can be found at MMIWG.


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めんどくさい | Mendokusai

めんどくさい | Mendokusai

Leave me alone! I know the kids are running amok like a category five hurricane. Being a parent feels mendokusai. I don’t need you judging what a horrible human I am, I just don’t care.

mendokusai ( めんどくさい ) – A Japanese word that loosely translates to something along the lines of tiresome, bothersome, troublesome, rough, difficult, annoying, or a bother to do. It perfectly sums up my week so far and might be my new favorite word/phrase!

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Budda Boom, Budda Bing

Swirlies

Just chilling with the family today. We’ve been laughing and carrying on most of the day. My six-year-old has just learned about swirlies. He was being silly, saying he would put Mommy’s head in the toilet and I may have explained that if he flushed, he would be giving Mom a swirly. Now, with uncontrollable giggles, the little bugger keeps threatening my wife and me with a trip to the sewers.

A Real Cracker

I swear this part is not a recipe post although the Spaghetti Pomodoro from The Floured Kitchen looks delicious. My hunger has caused me to digress so let me bring it back on point.

In our travels earlier today, we saw a sign with this cracker of a joke out front of our local East Side Mario’s restaurant. Being an Italian-American themed restaurant with New York City as its design motif, put on your best NY accent and have a go at what the sign read…

Q: What do you call a fake noodle?

A: An impasta!!!

Budda boom, budda bing…


Photo Credit: Bek at The Floured Kitchen
Copyright 2022 Greg Glazebrook, All Rights Reserved.

WTF

WTF

Eighteen deadly days. Buffalo (10), Uvalde (21), Tulsa (4). What the f*ck is going on in America?

Today’s mass shooting in Tulsa marks the 233rd mass shooting in the United States this year. A mass shooting is defined as four or more shot or killed not including the shooter. That currently projects out to 560 mass shootings or 1.53 per day for 2022. That is a ridiculously insane number that needs to change.

So again I ask…

What the f*ck is going on in America? I’d love to hear your thoughts, feelings, frustrations and solutions to the United States’ gun violence problem.

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Same Shit, Different Day

The following is in response to Fandango’s Provocative Question #166. The prompt is:
Do you feel that President Biden’s plea to take action and to do something to stem the rising tide of gun violence in America have any impact? Or will lawmakers at both the federal and state levels do nothing more than offer their useless “thoughts and prayers,” which is all they ever do?

Content Warning: Offensive Language

Same Shit, Different Day

Ten days, 21 more lives, 19 of them ten-year-old children. The same old news with different names, different faces, and subtly different storylines. The one thing they all have in common is the same all too familiar outcome.

Unfortunately Fandango, I don’t believe Biden’s call for action will have any effect on Federal and State politicians, the NRA, individual gun owners, and most everyday Americans. These types of pleas have fallen on stone deaf ears in the past and there are no signs that America’s views on guns are any different now than in the past.

I have already heard from family and friends in the United States and in particular, Texas that don’t believe gun control is the solution. Instead, they believe training and arming teachers to carry in school is the answer. It appears the best option is to shoot our way out of these messes.

Hell, I suggest we not stop there, empty the entire gas can on the dumpster fire. Let the elementary kids carry too, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday they should take several hours out of science, math, and literature (but not religion) classes and learn how to shoot stuff (or each other.) If that sounds ridiculous, it’s because it absolutely is ridiculous. If you are reading this and it doesn’t sound absurd to you then let me spell it out…

The answer is NEVER more access to guns! NEVER!!!

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The Human Race

The following is in response to Fandango’s Provocative Question #165. The prompt is:
How do you feel about what is going on in the United States in regard to racism? Do you see any way of reconciling the concepts of White Replacement Theory and Critical Race Theory?

The Human Race

I identify as human, yes I have skin that categorizes me as Caucasian, my recent ancestors are of European descent and can be traced back to England, Ireland and France. That is how others identify me but I am human, we are all human.

As an outsider, I see the American race dilemma as an observer. I have a sister who moved and married in Texas and although I would not call her racist she and her family certainly represent conservative white America. From what I see that Trump supporting rabid white right is a scary place right now. Not from external threats but from within. Seemingly bright, educated people who have lost all perspective on reality.

Canada is not without our own racial discourse. Our treatment of Japanese Canadians during World War II and two centuries of oppression against aboriginal populations have been appalling.

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Final Moments

This story is loosely based on real-life events in a neighbourhood in my native Toronto. Names, ages and details have been altered but the story of loss is the same. My heart goes out to the family who lives this horror every day.

Note: Please be aware of the graphic nature of the content presented.

She stood graveside, wrapped in her husband’s arms, nothing but the rhythm of the falling rain to hide the painful beat of a broken heart and the stream of tears running down her face. Today marked their 7th birthday, Amir and Sunil, her precious twins cut down as they played peacefully in their own driveway.

Nine months had passed since a sixteen-year-old demon raced through the neighbourhood in Daddy’s Mercedez Benz; completely unaware of the precious lives surrounding him as he caught the curb at three times the limit, vaulting the steel monstrosity he commanded it into the afternoon air.

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day Challenge 🍀

Alrighty, I’ve never posted one of these challenge prompts before so this is a first.

Before I get started I am fully aware that ‘Monday’s Child’ is an English nursery rhyme but growing up it was first an Irish poem to me.

My Irish Nana from Ballywalter in the North of Ireland (before emigrating to Canada) had a decorative plate that sat on her fridge. It was decked out in full Irish motif with the poem printed prominently in the center. I was fascinated by it. Almost every time we visited the plate came down off its pedestal and Nana would read it to me.

Today I ask:

“On what day of the week were you born? In what ways does the line about the day of the week you were born resonate with the person you are today?”

Poem, prose or whatever catches your fancy. I look forward to your responses. Feel free to respond in the comments section below and/or through pingback. Remember to tag your post with #spdq for quick searching.

🍀🍀Happy St. Patricks Day.🍀🍀


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Christmas Message 2021

As December draws to a close and the hustle and bustle of the holiday season reaches its crescendo we all begin to reflect on the year that was 2021.

Of course, COVID continued to play a significant role in all our lives. Vaccines and variants became household words and we’ve all become expert virologists. Well, not really, although some of us are certain we know something our doctors and scientist just can’t figure out. For the record, you don’t. These people along with our nurses and other healthcare professionals are working tirelessly to save lives. Trust them, trust the science. Most importantly do everything you can to protect yourself, your family, and your community and get vaccinated. We’ve all got or are scheduled to get our third doses here and there have been no side effects, I mean other than the three Microsoft computers I was compelled to buy shortly after each shot. Damn Nanobots!!!

Personally, it has been a busy year. In August we moved into our new home and we are now pretty much settled in for the long haul. Of course, there is still some unpacking to be done.

In preparation for Christmas, I built some decorations for the yard. I built these three colourful trees out of wood from old pallets. It was a fun project and as you can see Nathaniel was an excellent helper. I hope to build a snowman for next year as well as another tree for inside. Expect to see them in next year’s message!

It is hard to believe Nathaniel is five this year (and only a couple of months away from six) He has grown so much. Below he is catching snowflakes on his tongue from early December of this year. I have also assembled a collage of images from Christmases past. Where has the time gone?

That’s all folks! I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday.