Glenn Kubish

John Sexsmith was good with words. Let's try that again. John Sexsmith was magic with words. He loved to cast spells with words. He loved to use words to make meanings appear and disappear out of thin air. That's what a pun essentially is, right? A bit of hocus focus.  I first saw Johnny's deftness with the language in a TV news feature sports story he did back in the ITV News/Global Edmonton days. All I can really remember about the piece is that he did his standup in a military tank. "This," he said to the camera, "is the tanks we get?!" Boom. I laughed out loud.  For years, we kept the joke going. If either of us saw a propane tank or an acetylene tank or a septic tank, we'd send each other a note. The joke grew. If we were chatting about bicycles, someone would use the line, and this is the cranks we get? A Bugs Bunny reference would lead to, and this is the Mel Blancs we get?! An actor in the news: this is the Tom Hanks we get?! A hotdog stand: ...

So the noticing equipment doesn’t completely seize up, here are approximately three things I noticed that made me happy or grateful, notwithstanding everything else, of course.                          1. Stopping   For all of the good things about moving in the city by bicycle, and the list is legion—fresh air, exercise, smelling home cooking when you pedal by a house with a working kitchen, being under the sky, the stars, the clouds, in the snow and the rain, smiling hellos to strangers as they pedal by, primo parking by your table at OTTO, propelling yourself, not having to pay 5 bucks a gallon, and so on—the prime good of getting there by bicycle is how easy it is to stop on the way. Stop to talk, stop to listen, stop to look.   “Hey, that’s Mrs. K,” Auntie Shelagh said as we pedalled by the boys’ elementary school teacher walking with her daughter and husband. Back Shelagh flew on the 142 Street service road...