Tomorrow is the day!

HAPPY CANADA DAY 2020

may all of you stay healthy, happy and successful,

all year long and then some more.

Rose is a Rose is a Rose

.... so said Gertrude Stein to Ernest Hemingway?

How did she know?

She was never in our garden!

Big Flower, Little Bug

"Go fly a kite" she said to him.....

so he went and did

Will they never learn English Grammar?

Once again I read in the English language News Paper the below mentioned mistreatment, or let me say "rape" of the English Language.
I addressed this problem in this Blog some time ago, but now I feel compelled to repeat my comments about this simple grammatical issue.

English is not difficult !

Off of.....

It does not exactly drive me crazy, but it causes a slight annoyance when people, who should know better, misuse the English language.

You may read it in Newspaper columns, in Books, and in Magazines. The living shall remain nameless, since I want to spare them this degrading embarrassment.

This is what you may read: “With his right hand he brushed the snow flakes off of her hair.”

or this: “She took the book off of the table.”

If they ever bothered to look up the word “off” in a dictionary, or just go to Google and ask: define:off, they would be able to read : “away from the place in question.”

In other words: “off” already means: away from, so there is no need, in fact it is inaccurate, to add the word “of”.

It would suffice if “he brushed the snow flakes off her hair.” or if she “took the book off the table.

When famous writers, like the late Thomas Wolf, as well as current Journalists, use the words “off of” it does not “drive me off of my mind,” but it gently annoys me.

There is another common, all too common, mistake made in the respective use of the words: “waiting on” and “waiting for”.

Particularly in conversational English, but also in the written form, people will say and write:  "Where were you? We've been waiting on you for hours.”

Of course they have not done such a thing! They have “been waiting for you.

The difference is quite simple to remember:

A waiter stands at the entrance of the restaurant, waiting for his guests.

Once they have arrived, taken their seats, then the waiter can start “waiting on his guests.”

Yeah, I know, why worry about little things like that?

Because it's the English Language which gets maltreated in a way it does not deserve.

That's what annoys

Bertstravels

Champs... All of them...

51 years ago, in 1969, a Soccer Team of players under the age of 16, won the North York, East Division, League Championship.

LONG; LONG LONG AGO:::

Many games of hard work, dedication and the will to win brought these boys to this illustrious point.

I had the unadulterated honor and pleasure of coaching these boys to this final victory over "Lansing SC."

So now, let's hear it for "WILLOWDALE UNITED"

The winners of:

1969 North York, East Division, Bantam Championship!!!

Dale Chihuly

On my annual visits to Toronto

 I again visited the Royal Ontario Museum.

There I lucked into the Exhibition 

of Dale Chihuly, Glass Artist.

The ROM

American Artist Dale Chihuly, born in Tacoma Washington in 1941

has revolutionized the art of glass blowing.

His monumental creations defy the fragility of the material.

Unfortunately I can show you only a few of his brilliant creations.

Once again, compare the size!!

Textiles, designed by Chihuly

Little "knick-knacks" of exquisite beauty.