Opinion

Back in 1968, when he was in his mid-20s, Paul Simon wrote Old Friends, a song recorded by he and Art Garfunkel on their Bookends album.

It’s not one of the nobler stories from the Second World War, but it’s a very human one. For that reason alone, it deserves telling. Sometimes we forget that the good old boys we’re all so grateful to, were once just that – boys.

For most of us in our everyday lives, even if we have accumulated solid knowledge and developed good critical thinking skills, there is simply limited time to exercise our full capacity for reason. We end up accepting things on faith.

With Remembrance Day just around the corner, we think of the poppy. It is difficult to imagine how delicate poppies could grow in the war-torn fields of Ypres in 1915, inspiring John McCrae to write “In Flanders Fields”.

View from the Cheap Seats is an extension of the newsroom, which is frequently a site of heated debate on topics ranging from the extremely serious to the utterly ridiculous.

Why governing parties and journalists don’t much get along has to do with their very different approaches. A governing party’s prime directive is to remain in power so it can do what it feels is best for the public.

I am proud to be part of Operation Legacy, in which members and graduates of The War Amps Child Amputee (CHAMP) Program pass on the Remembrance message to the younger generation.

“Check rear park aid.” That’s what my 2011 Ford Expedition Max’s instrument panel computer told me yesterday after I drove over some muddy gravel. Just a small bit, but still, it was wet. Maybe some mud got onto a sonar sensor.

November has arrived and there are still thousands of acres of crop still in the field not harvested. Simply put, that is a financial catastrophe for farmers across the Canadian Prairies. The 2016 crop had looked so promising only a few months ago.

Most Canadians are aware of our country’s involvement in the Second World War and are familiar with names such as Dieppe, Normandy and Juno Beach.