I write my subordinates a letter/newsletter every week. This week’s theme: The French word “pire” means “worst.” It is pronounced like “pyrr” and sounds very much linked to “pyrrhic victory.” Our acting-Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant-General Eyres, announced that OP HONOUR has “culminated.” “Culmination” means the “highest point of development,”…

News has been interesting this and last week. In addition to the normal schedules and vaccine updates, I wrote my junior officers and non-commissioned officers another weekly letter. Sharing with you in case you are interested. ++++++++++++++++++++++++ I had a lot of thoughts go through my head at my morning…

Keep Comms, Care On As an Officer-Cadet or a Second-Lieutenant, my Operations Officer sent me to walk over to the other Regiment (when there was a long-running deep hate between our trades) to investigate some administrative or disciplinary measure. I knew I was out of my league walking there. I had never been trained…

Spectr-um On my Mother’s side, two of my cousins have a parent of Italian descent; most of my maternal cousins and their offspring are American also of Filipino descent, located from West Coast California to East Coast New York, with many of them over the pond in Chicago. My maternal…

Eye Do You might see a lot of runners in the earlier hours of the day in the upcoming weekend. This week-end, were it not for pandemic lockdown, would have been Ottawa Race Weekend. While there may not be blocked off roads, tens of thousands of volunteers, supporters and athletes…

Mulan and MOOOOlah and Stubborn Goats More ghosts. Matthew McConaughy was in this chick flick Hubby got me to watch once… “Failure to Launch,” a version of the problem of velcro children, with the added twist of parents actively seeking hired-help to get their adult child hitched, migrated into fatherhood…

The Bottom My high school teacher emailed me last Friday. The same teacher who handwrote a two-page, single-spaced letter, 30 years ago, to the Recruiting Centre in Montreal, recommending a then-fifteen-year-old for Military College. I still have a copy of that letter; the same letter that I was surprised to…

eNAIL Perhaps a better week for me with ups and downs of small wins and losses. I hope your week is turning out well, too. WIN: My highschool basketball coach (he was my basketball coach 35 years ago) emailed me on Sunday (likely in response to men who wear cotton…