I was talking to a friend yesterday, remembering the meaning of “His Master’s Voice” – the slogan for RCA if I remember correctly - with a picture of a dog cocking its head at a horn?trumpet? (what did they call that thing?), and listening. Obviously you couldn’t hear the voice. I was very young then and it took me a while to understand what the ad meant. That led me on to memories of other ads with puns or double meanings which slowly dawned on me.

Like, “Hasn’t scratched yet,” over a picture of a baby chick – an ad for Bon Ami cleaner.

Or, “Time to Re-tire” with a picture of a little boy in a nightshirt holding a candle stick with a lighted candle in it. Was that Fisk Tires?

Oh, remember LSMFT? “Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco"

And, “Sal Hepatica for the smile of health and Ipana, for the smile of beauty.”

Hey, remember the song:

BrylCreme, a little dab’ll do ya,

BrylCreme, youll look so debonair.

Brylcreme, the gals will pursue ya –

Simply rub a little in your hair.

I can sing it, too. Did I spell BrylCreme correctly? There might be two Ls.

I was never a hockey fan but I know someone who knows all the words to the Hockey Night in Canada song.

This may be too hard for you. I’m much older than you are and I remember these things. I read that younger people today will not have these universal memories embedded in their psyches because the media sources that influence them are so diverse: Netflix and Shomi and on and on, projected not merely on TV screens, but on iPads, that is, tablets, and e-readers, and iPhones/Smartphones, etc.

What do you remember?

Ai me

So after being destroyed, no, erased, by Safari yesterday, I tried Firefox but they think I was just trying to read my blogs, not write a new one. When I encounter a logical, unfeeling, technical mind in computerese I go to pieces. . But I’ll try Word and a cut-and-paste. You may never get this. Is it worth it?

I’ve already encountered other difficulties this morning- Sunday morning at 8:14 a.m. – too early for frustration and incomprehension (on whose part?).

As some of you may know, who still read newspapers, specifically The Globe and Mail, I had a piece in the regular column Dispatch (December First) on retirement cruising . One gets paid after publication so I was instructed to register with a company that looks after that. It took a few days to get a notice, then it took me a few days to get to it (I do have other work to do), and they(it) wrote again reminding me. So this morning I responded, and ran into a question I couldn’t answer. Like, I don’t have a company. I’m just me, not incorporated or limited (well, I am limited, but not like that). Then I couldn’t find a place to enter my GST number (Writers have to be tax collectors for the government).

So I asked for help. And I have received a notice telling me they/it received my quest for assistance. Maybe it doesn’t work on Sunday. Wait for it.

My big question, that I didn’t ask, is: will I get paid in this fiscal year?

Ai me.

You don’t want to read this. But if anyone out there – you out there – has any advice for a computer-illiterate writer, I’d like to have a comment, a helpful comment, please.

Perhaps I am not meant to be doing this. Is Someone Out There (not you) trying to tell me something?