A Few More Interesting Stories

What I like to do is to add some of my own comments at the beginning of a Webpage before I complete the rest of my articles. It is just something which I just seem to like to do these days. I hope that you appreciate some of the comments I have made.

I must admit that these opening remarks are generally very personal. I don't plan them in advance. I just write remarks that just seem to me to be interesting when I do so. Something just seems to rise up in my mind and I feel the need to give my comments about it.

Let me give you an example of something that impressed me but, for most of you, I expect it is not something that you think too much about. 

For all of the years that I can remember, I used to drink quite a bit of coffee. No, not really strong coffee, but coffee nevertheless.  I never really felt any strangeness after drinking a cup, but just enjoyed it. Every so often I also used to have a cup of tea. Not very much of it or for any particular reason but just something else to drink.

I'm not sure why, but after returning from the hospital several years ago, I just stopped drinking any coffee at all. I'm not sure why exactly but probably because I was afraid it might not agree with me and might cause me some physical problems. Instead, I just drank a cup of warm milk after each meal.  That seemed to satisfy my needs and I must admit that I really enjoyed its flavour.

However, something strange happened. I started drinking tea as well. I don't think it was because of the caffeine in it, even though I no longer drank the caffeine loaded drink coffee. Moreover, I was also drinking some teas that had no caffeine in them at all. I just liked the taste of the various teas that were purchased. Moreover, its warmness was its big treat as well because it just stayed warm for a longer time.  In fact, sometimes, holding the warm teacup was an additional treat on a cool day.

I would have tea in the afternoon in between lunch and dinner meals. And then sometimes, I would have it about an hour and a half before I went to bed. I found that the non-caffeine tea helped me go to sleep very quickly.

There are a number of teas that I drink now. I must admit that I certainly have not had a huge number of different teas, but I am having several new brands these days. However, dear reader, and I expect that you will find this rather bizarre, my favourite tea right now is still one that I have had for many years.  <Gulp> It is: Red Rose® Orange Pekoe Tea Bags!

Sure the new ones are fantastic and I expect that I will be buying many other types just to try new ones to see which ones I like. However, and I don't know why it is like this, but I like the Red Rose tea! It just tastes so good that I need to have it whenever I want to have tea in the afternoon. Obviously, I don't drink it before I go to bed because it does have caffeine in it. But when I want tea in the afternoon… that is my first choice because it tastes so good. 

Moreover, I now buy the large box of 216 Red Rose tea bags, which this time around was on sale at about $3-$4 off the regular price! The price per tea bag is now very attractive, a real bargain for something so good tasting.

There it is. If you want something truly enjoyable and very tasty to drink but does not cost a fortune to do so, then Red Rose tea will be ultimately your best choice. Try and see if you agree with me!  If you do not, then in Red Rose tea's old ad word: "Pity."

HUGE RESIDENTIAL DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT

Wow, what a great story eh after reading the headline:

"Biggest downtown residential development in 25 years sign of things to come — Marra

"I think that's pretty significant, that after 30 years, something is happening on Ouellette Avenue," Coun. Hilary Payne said Monday after city planning committee approved biggest downtown residential development in 25 years." (Brian Cross, Windsor Star, February 12, 2018) 

You can read for the story for yourself, dear reader. However, as far as I am concerned, it really was not that much of a story other than the fact that I did not realize that there had been no big residential project in the downtown for such a long period of time. It is just incredible, especially considering how much money was spent by the City on real estate projects in the City. So many millions of dollars. Mind you, some of them were actually money losers. Oh well.

Seriously, here is what Councillor Marra hopes might happen:

"There could be as many as 100 more (residential) units if they’re all approved under the plan,” he told reporters after the meeting. “This is exciting and you can expect a few other applications coming very, very soon…

Marra said there are additional projects in the pipeline”

Really, 100 units are supposed to be so wonderful, and "additional" developments? I must admit I don't understand that.

I'm not going to spend much time on this, dear reader. All that it may seem to me is that Councillors Marra and Payne may be starting on their re-election campaign with all of this fantastic news.

WHO CARES ABOUT THE GORDIE HOWE INTERNATIONAL BRIDGE

Oh yes, I understand that Canada supposedly puts in most of the money for the Government Bridge Project but aren't the Americans supposed to put in many million dollars as well for work on their side of the river that is not covered by the Canadian Government? From where is that money coming?

Perhaps people were believing that the US President, Donald Trump, was going to put in the money that was necessary to pay for all of that stuff. I hardly think so. You might want to read this article to see that it is highly unlikely for US Federal Government money and/or private funds to be going in to be used for projects like these. Here is what the New York Times wrote:

"In this new competition for federal funds, a plan to, say, build a better access road for a luxury development — a project with the potential to bring in more dollars from private investors — could have a strong chance of getting the green light. By comparison, a critical tunnel overhaul that has trouble getting new money might not be approved.

“Instead of the public sector deciding on public needs and public priorities, the projects that are most attractive to private investors are the ones that will go to the head of the line,” said Elliott Sclar, professor of urban planning and international affairs at Columbia University. “Private investors will become the tail that will wag the dog, because they’ll want projects that will give returns.”

Proposals intended to serve more impoverished communities that require more state and local money, including improving drinking water in a place like Flint, Mich., could be given short shrift. Financial investors may not see a big profit in such a project." (Patricia Cohen and Alan Rappeport, New York Times, February 12, 2018)

What we are seeing again is just one more reason why spending $10 billion on a new Government bridge between Windsor and Detroit makes so little sense and the likelihood of it ever happening is so remote