Category: Chagrin
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A Six Week Challenge
On Tuesday I found myself admiring an X-ray of my right knee. I apparently have a frayed meniscus (fibrocartilage in knees that acts as a shock absorber), but my leg bones themselves look mighty solid. Perhaps it is from eating lots of salmon, yogurt and broccoli. But I like to think it’s because I have…
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Mrs McLean is Called a Name
As an oldster, I am supremely fortunate in the youngsters who form part of my social set. They are kind, intelligent, affable, modest, devout, polite, well-dressed and generally calm. A few of the youngest are greatly addicted to cookies, of course, but as they age they learn to hide their inordinate desire for sugar and…
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Whatever happened to Britain?
“Sin has its own built-in punishment,” said Sister Mary Wilfreda O’Flaherty, IBVM, 40 years ago, and sad experience shows me that this is absolutely true. Tragically, it isn’t true just on a personal level but on a societal level, too. Today X is full of video and outrage over rampaging youthful mobs in London, and…
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Girl Shortage
When I was in high school I wrote short stories called “Man Shortage,” “Man Shortage II” and “Man Shortage III.” One of my characters anticipates Catholic Match and its competitors by calling out for a catalogue from which one could pick boys for dates. Now that I think about it, it was also groundbreaking in…
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Surviving the Scene
The other night I downed tools and went to a new block of swing-dance classes. Several years have travelled under the South Bridge since I took my first Lindy Hop lessons in Fair Edina. Back then I felt awkward and also lonely when the unmarried female friend I was accompanying wasn’t with me. Eventually I…
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A New Challenge
This week I eagerly hurried off to a dance class held by a branch of the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society (RSCDS). Inspired by a year-and-a-half of learning ceilidh dances, I decided I wanted to grasp The Real Thing. Meanwhile, I thought that having figured out how to dance “Hamilton House” would stand me in…
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Listening to the Beat
The big reveal for the November Waltzing Party is that no young women came to it. There were a mum, her little girl, the dance teacher, and me. The rest were men, and so the teacher led an expert and enjoyable Leads’ workshop. The party was, in its way, a success, but Catholic partner dance…
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Social graces
I have a bad cold and so was unable to dance this week. And the cold got me because of a pipe that blew up in the bathroom floor, necessitating the immediate shutdown of the boiler and thus of the heating system. My shock and horror at the damage to our downstairs neighbour’s bathroom probably…
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The Empty Building
I do not remember why the notion of ballroom dancing seized my childish fancy. What I do remember is that ballroom dancing was mentioned in the municipal activities catalogue. This was, of course, still printed on soft paper, and listed all the lessons that were available to the taxpaying public for a nominal fee. These…