Gerry Fostaty's Blog

Ninety-Nine Cents

I know a few people who, for the most part, are good people. They pay their taxes, do benevolent work, give to charity, return the tools they borrow, and teach their children to be responsible citizens, and not to lie or cheat, because it is wrong. You get the idea.

But the thing that irks me, is that they think nothing of stealing music, books and videos online. I have tried to reason with them, but they just don’t understand. They have no problem buying a coffee and paying five dollars for...

“Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes said “Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.”

I sat in a union hall this morning. There were hundreds of seniors, PSWs (personal support workers) and others, listening. To cut costs, in fifteen days, the Ontario provincial government wants to remove the senior’s on-site support workers from their residences and replace them with an outside agency which will be located at least 15 minutes away. That means, if a senior falls, which is not an uncommon occurrenc...

Language is Evolving

Language is evolving. This is nothing new; language began to evolve when the first person grunted and another responded with a grunt. It grew somewhat since then, but think language peaked some time ago, and is now currently in a decline, and I am going to blame it on technology.

I was sitting next to an eighties-something woman in an office waiting room the other day. She felt she had to break the silence to tell me she disapproved of the fact that all but the two of us in the waiting room we...

Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal

I had the honour of being presented the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal on December 29, 2012. In a surprise twist, I found myself standing beside another recipient whom I hadn’t seen in almost thirty nine years. The last time we were together was the event that sparked my writing the book As You Were: The Tragedy at Valcartier. Indeed George wasmentioned in the book. To cap it off, the man who pinned the medals on our chest, was Charles Gutta, our former company sergeant-major. It wa...

Lab Report

Nothing could have prepared me for the dog hair. Blonde Labrador retriever dog hair. It is everywhere. We had a cat once: a cute, long-haired, nasty, spitting tabby that shed like it was an Olympic sport, but this . . . this is something for the folks at Guinness. Not the beer people— the longest, shortest, fastest and hairiest record keeper people. I knew she would have to be walked, fed and cared for, but the hair! The hair doesn’t just fall off her and lay on the floor either, although som...

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder ( PTSD )

I have been travelling around lately, speaking to groups about post-traumatic stress disorder.

At the start of my talks about PTSD to folks, I tell a story about a neighbour, a toad and me. The story isn’t important. The important thing is that it illustrates that we sometimes make assumptions, when we don’t have all the facts. That’s the way it is with post-traumatic stress disorder. People make all kinds of assumption about PTSD. It used to be known by many descriptions: shell-shock, battle...

Spring — I’m waiting.

I don’t care what the calendar says, spring hasn’t officially arrived for me, yet. When I was young, I had milestones that I teased myself with to give myself hope that spring was coming. March 1st gave me the promise of spring, even though the snow would still be thick on the ground. By March 15th, there was a good chance that the snow would be gone, but I was under strick orders from my friend Jumper that I was not to put away my shovel until that date. For him, putting the shovel awaywas a...

Casino

There is much talk this week about the government building and opening a new casino in Toronto. This, the government says, will increase revenues and help to drive down the provincial debt.

Right.

There are a few things about this that don't sit well with me.  First, I am not a gambler. I understand that it is exciting for some folks and I have heard all kinds of pro-casino arguments from people. I know one fellow for instance, who tells me he is not a theatre patron. He rationalizes budgeting ...

The mind is a great decoder.

Our brains adapt very quickly to patterns and codes.  That is why it is easy to overlook our own mistakes and typos.
That is the reason I need an editor.  Have a look at this.

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7H1NG5! 1N 7H3 B3G1NN1NG 17 Wa5 H4RD BUT N0W, 0N 7H15 L1N3 Y0UR M1ND 1S R34D1NG 17

4U70M471C4LLY W17H 0U7 3V3N 7H1NK1NG 4B0U7 17.

B3 PR0UD! 0NLY C3R741N P30PL3 C4N R3AD 7H15. Pl3453 F0RW4RD 1F U C4N R34D 7H15.

Memoir is fiction, she said.

I was listening to an interview on CBC one Saturday — it was Writers and Company, I think. There was a novelist being interviewed on her new book.

"How much of this is autobiographical?" asked the interviewer.

"Nothing," replied the novelist. "But at the same time, it is all true. Although it is fiction, it expresses truth in a way that memoir can't.  That is the way it is with fiction," she continued. My ears perked up. She went on to point out that memoir asserts that it is fact, but in...