Transient this and transcendant that

Well first of all Carolyn,

I was partway to flabbergasted to read that this is the 91^st entry. It seems like a couple of weeks ago that we were acknowledging the 50^th - tempus does fugit when one is having fun, eh ? Five weeks on will see entry 100 and that’s pretty cool!




Before I forget, I have to ask you about what you mentioned in the last entry as your “ flexible outline “ for your next Tracker episode. Just what is a “ flexible outline ? I can get the basic idea but I’m curious as to just how you do it.

 
 
 
 
 
I’ve also seen the “international student” phenomenon first hand especially in the first part of my career when we lived almost within sight of the Toronto airport for 13 years. It did give one a sharpened sense of where things were going here in the first world vis-à-vis the third world.

















I guess you and I are both blessed and bereft in that we didn’t have to adjust to a completely new culture in our younger lives. Blessed because we didn’t have to endure the jolting experience of being parachuted into a new and fundamentally alien culture. We’re also bereft ,methinks, since the kind of constant intense thinking on your feet to survive exercise that such a a situation involves would keep our grey matter at it’s A-Game for sure .




Also, it must be gratifying  to “ click in “ to things that are parts of the daily life around you in this new culture. Those members of your family that are out there on the international teaching circuit and are dealing with that kind of thing almost as we speak/blog can ratify that situation for sure.




Surprisingly though, all of the students I dealt with who came from other cultures came with a basic toolbox of English simply because it was there in their popular culture. I remember from my three weeks in Sarajevo and other parts of eastern Europe that if tee shirts are any indication, these folks are not unfamiliar with English slogans and logos that we are bombarded with here in North America as well. I saw AC/DC and Michael Jackson tees, NBA stuff all over the place and graffiti about Metallica  and Guns and Roses  in Romania . 


 And, Saints be Praised, I saw lotsa Beatles and Lennon stuff ! Music and sports, it would seem,  cross cultural borders with relative ease and impunity.

I had a couple of other things I wanted to yap on about but that’ll have to wait since I’m in danger of setting off the brevity alarm.


So, on to the riddles ( I gotta admit, I do like the wordsmithing stuff ! )

Wheelchair it is indeed. I do a volunteer stint for one afternoon a week at the hospital here in Owen Sound and I have come to realize just how crucial these chairs are. Sometime I must devote a blog to the whole hospital experience . Hospitals are the ultimate levellers. Rich, poor, famous or unknown, you come thru the same front door.
　

I’m gonna guess that yours from last time is white-out ( or beige-out, I guess ) I used to chide my students about using it by calling it pigeon-poop. If that’s not the answer then I am supremely gabberflasted on this one.



Here's my current offering:

Sublime liquid

from the blood of a

Canadian icon.

 

Sounds kinda vampirish, n'est-ce-pas?



Don




All Images sourced from Google Images

Fig. 1 - maxwilsoncd.org
Fig. 2 - tiptoptens.com
Fig. 3 - selfmadescholar.com
Fig. 4 - finishline.com
Fig. 5 - nuuniform.com
Fig. 6 - sketchartist.tv