Where has the summer gone? Older students have already returned to universities and the younger ones are counting the days until class starts. Many summer visitors are packing, boarding up their windows and bidding a fond farewell to the Island. I, myself, had to say goodbye to my parents, who have spent the summer close by - enjoying every minute of their visit. It feels as though they just arrived, but all too soon we watched their fifth wheel slowly pull away, headed for warmer destinations.

Many families are experiencing the same phenomenon across the island, judging by the convoys of vehicles I’ve noticed creeping down the highways. 

What a summer it has been, a few weeks of hot temperatures mixed with rain and an infinite number of earwigs appearing in every nook and cranny. 

The first thing I felt after the impact was sheer,  murderous rage at the driver responsible for what I knew was going to be a very expensive fender bender.
The second thing I felt was a gentle wave of compassion and forgiveness for the poor fellow, because we all make mistakes.
And then I asked myself an important question: "How am I going to explain to my wife that I just backed my car into her parked vehicle with enough force to tear the bumper off not just her car, but mine as well?"
Oh, dear. 
I live in an old farmhouse in the country. At the back of the house is a generous parking area. Normally, my wife and I park alongside one another, leaving room behind for any visitors.

 Weight training has been around for well over 100 years. Back in the early 1900s it was mostly practiced by strongmen who made their living by performing at circuses and in cities. Barbells were solid one piece fixtures with completely round metal balls attached to each end of the bars. Rather than being interchangeable, they were just made in different sizes.

Even up until the late 1900’s weight training was mostly pursued by men interested in gaining muscles. Gyms were more prevalent and mostly frequented by football players, wrestlers, bodybuilders and strongmen, but very few women. Weight training was also discouraged by the medical community, as the myths of becoming muscle-bound, slow, or causing damage to the joints and heart still prevailed.

Well Montague town council is at it again. But this time PEI’s most infamous council is acting ... well ... almost like a council should.
All too often commonsense was ignored by Montague’s elected representatives in the past two years. It peaked with council’s very public split – municipal coup is a better phrase – with former Mayor Pat McGowan. Councillors didn’t like how the mayor managed municipal affairs. The mayor didn’t like council questioning her decisions.
It got very ugly. Eventually councillors decided they could no longer work with McGowan, who at the time was enduring significant health issues. The renegade council even passed a motion giving it the right to appoint committees.

The other evening I was out with some friends and one of them noted a slight chill in the air.
"Well, that’s it," she said. "So much for summer. Winter’s on its way."
It was such a Canadian thing to say. We just love to whine about winter, even when winter is still months away.
You hear it all the time.
"Wow ... here it is, the middle of August. Summer’s almost over."
"Boy, it was chilly this morning when I woke up. Winter’s just around the corner."
I actually had someone say this to me: "Gosh, already late July. Where did the summer go?"
I tell you what, Mr Glass Half Empty: if it’s only late July and you want to know where summer is, look around you. It’s there. You’re just too pessimistic to see it.

When it comes to increasing lean muscle mass the most common belief is that weight training with lower repetitions and more weight is the only way to do so. It is also a common belief that higher repetitions are only good for losing weight. In reality, you can increase your muscle size with six to eight repetition training or with 15 to 20 repetition training. The most important factor is the actual applied intensity, not the number of repetitions. You have to train with high enough intensity to work your muscles harder than they are used to being worked.
High intensity training means working the muscle to the point of temporary fatigue. Where another repetition would be extremely hard or even impossible to complete, this can be done with heavy weights and low repetitions or lighter weights and higher repetitions. Each way has its advantages and disadvantages.

Jim Brown editorial

Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa, of Live! with Regis and Kelly, have made an impressive landing on PEI, with the first two shows of their four-show visit earning raves from fans who watched their performance at the Confederation Landing Park or on the small screen.

But it’s an open question whether many Americans, the target audience, will feel compelled to actually visit the Island. 

It is, after all, so far away, the Canadian dollar is near par with the greenback and they need a passport to travel here. Reportedly fewer than one in four Americans hold passports.

There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Mad Hatter were having tea at it, a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep and the other two were using it as a cushion, and talking over it."
"Very uncomfortable for the Dormouse," thought Alice. "Only, as it is asleep, I suppose it doesn’t mind" ... The Mad Tea Party, by Lewis Carroll
The noted conservative commentator David Brooks penned a column in The New York Times a couple of weeks ago, entitled "Politics In The Age of Distrust", in which he lambasted Barack Obama for using what he termed a "big bang approach" during the first year of his term in office.
It was a plea for gradualism in  political reform. 

They (the Haitians) swore a pact with the Devil to get rid of the French, and ever since they’ve been cursed with one thing or another ..." Pat Robertson
Entitle that quote - Notes From The Lunatic Fringe. In this case from Mr Pat Robertson, publicly (and often) professed Christian, and leader of the Christian Right, the same Pat Robertson who called the events of 9/11 the vengeance of God brought about by gays, lesbians and those of the liberal political persuasion.
"A true story," he said on television as he tried to raise money, supposedly for Haitian relief.
Mr Robertson is a nut case, of course, and should be stored away somewhere where he would no longer have occasion to cause extreme embarassment to others of the human race. It is sad to see someone obviously afflicted with severe dementia still concocting fantasies in public.