Opinion

Some generally agreed upon concepts discovered in a survey of the egg-peeling literature (mostly found on food websites).

The founder of the S ōtō Zen school is a 13 th century monk named Eihei Dōgen. He was a prolific writer and his writings form the definitive parameters of this school of Zen.

When the European Union announced recently that it had settled on yet another massive round of borrowing, the Versailles Peace Treaty came to mind. That settlement, which ended the First World War, is now recognized as lunacy.

As we look at the year ahead, one thing we can predict with confidence is another federal election. This one will be the most interesting political contest we have had federally for some time.

This is not the time to climb onto the “ain’t never gonna happen” bandwagon that is rolling on and over the promises of a bright LNG-funded future for B.C.

Last year, Paul Glassen of Nanaimo wrote to me: “We all walk in the first couple years of life, many start cycling and riding buses in grade school. We don’t drive the auto until we are in our later teens.

If you think Canada’s national bird is the Canada goose or the common loon — those are common misconceptions — you are not alone, but you are wrong. Canada doesn’t have a national bird. The U.S. has its bald eagle, the most famous national bird.

It’s the gap-toothed nature of the retail landscape on Government Street that seems to have prompted most of the recent concern about its vitality. There are 13 vacant street-level spaces in the eight blocks between Humboldt and Fisgard streets.

Basically there is no effective social response to terrorism except to render it unnecessary. Growing numbers of our youth and young adults are in the intolerable situation of feeling alien, disenfranchised and hopeless.

The stream of bad news from Alberta’s oilpatch is a reminder of the boom-and-bust nature of being a resource exporter.