You might have seen the recent online CBC column written by a Slave Lake fellow on the fire that community suffered in 2011.
It’s one of the First Person stories CBC features regularly.
This particular column was penned by Joe McWilliams, who happens to be the editor of the Slave Lake newspaper, the Lakeside Leader.
In the piece, Joe recounts some of his experiences from back then, given the timely nature of fires here in Western Canada.
We mentioned to Joe we saw the column.
We also said, “That was interesting, how you and your wife drove up to your part of town and found the access blocked by a guard. So you drove down the street and ran in on foot.”
The story goes the guard told them it was too dangerous and only people could get out, not in.
Joe says, “Yeah, we sneaked into a burning neighbourhood. What were we thinking?!”

Last week’s Regional Commentary in this newspaper talked about a judge in Ontario who said he was ‘sick and tired’ of criminals showing up in his courtroom with the same ‘song and dance’ how they were sorry for their crime.
For those who inquired about where they could read the story, here is the link online:
https://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/news/local-news/brantford-judge-tired-of-same-old-song-and-dance
The writer of the column, Jeff Burgar, says on reflection, he should not have said at the end of the column about the judge, “One down, 49 to go.”
Says Burgar, “I should have written “One strong judge standing up, waiting for 49 more.”
Burgar also points out the column said Facebook’s top shareholder, billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, would not be giving a $3.00 per hour “raise” to Facebook moderators of postings.
In fact, almost all Facebook moderators are volunteers, earning nothing for the work they do trying to keep discussion boards clean. That’s good ol’ Zuck for you.

Speaking of news stories, last week’s photo essay on a get-together at Pleasantview Lodge in High Prairie brought some thoughts from another local old timer, who shall remain nameless.
“Heck, here I am, looking at these photos of old people. Then I read the captions, and I realize I know a bunch of them. I just didn’t recognize them it’s been so long since I’ve seen them. Then I look closer, and I realize they just about all look younger than me. For sure, they all look a whole lot better!”
Yup. Time flies when you’re having fun, as they say.

They say it wasn’t a palace coup.
But is there really any other way to explain how American president Joe Biden got pushed out the door during a weekend, and Vice-president Kamala Harris took over.
And in a few days raised over $100 million in campaign donations to “help” her get “nominated” to be the Democrat candidate in this fall’s election.
Gosh, are voters really that stupid thinking this was all just, sort of a coincidence?
Somebody is sure pulling strings down there.
And it looks like Kamala is the one being pulled the most.
Cackling Kamala should soon be known as Puppet Kam.
But her string-pullers won’t even let her out to do interviews. Crazy.

You might have heard about the Bidenomics. That’s President Joe’s idea how he is going to make Americans rich.
To explain, we will use an old description of what Bidenomics is, borrowed from commentator Morris Udall: “It’s based on the principle that the rich and the poor will get the same amout of ice. In Bidenomics however, the poor will get all of theirs in winter.”
There you go.

In this week’s editorial, economic development is talked about.
For those thinking of starting up a business (there are a few here and there, aren’t there?) one place to get some thought is the local Community Futures office. There is one in Peace River and another in Slave Lake for openers, but they are right across Western Canada.
Now, before you get all excited about your great business idea, here’s a thought from all kinds of people who have been in business, or still are: Ideas are a dime a dozen.
In fact, there are more ideas out there than you can imagine. Ideas are easy, execution of that idea is everything. Repeat: Execution is everything!
Surprisingly, a lot of supposedly intelligent people don’t know what a business plan is.
Others can’t read a financial statement.
Still more don’t know how to get a business loan or attract some investors in their “fantastic” idea.
Then, it’s getting down to actually running your business. Nose to the grindstone and all that, you know.
Community Futures is a good place to start.