Joking about extra toe a big no-no

A Brandon man has been found guilty of killing his 71-year-old mother with a hatchet in the fall of 2023 after his lawyers argued he should be held not criminally responsible.

Winnipeg, the capital of ‘Friendly Manitoba’, is becoming far less friendly to anyone who is struggling to survive. The city is also less and less supportive of the not-for-profit sector which struggles to support those struggling to survive.

Municipal politicians have long insisted that social services are provincial responsibilities. However, the city charter makes it clear that mayor and council are “to promote and maintain the health, safety and welfare of the inhabitants.”

Mayor and council are empowered to decide how they do that. Every four years, we citizens get to vote on what we think and feel about those decisions. That’s our democracy, weighted against the disenfranchised though it is.

In 2022, only 37.17 per cent of eligible voters, the lowest percentage since 1989, voted. Recent Probe Research data demonstrates that only one-third of Winnipeggers believe the next mayor and council will make even a minor difference in addressing Winnipeg’s challenges, and another third believe they will make no difference at all.

A rural Manitoba physician is warning that Ste. Rose du Lac could face significant emergency department closures after its doctors were stretched thin helping absorb the fallout from the flooding and prolonged shutdown of Dauphin Regional Health Centre.

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: My latest boyfriend has an extra toe, which I think is hilarious. He doesn’t see the humour in it. If I had an extra nipple I wouldn’t think it was any kind of tragedy. I see the humour in everything, especially in myself. If we don’t laugh at his toe, what are we going to do — cry over it? Is this guy too sensitive for me? I am a lighthearted person and I refuse to see his toe as something we have to whisper about. The toe doesn’t turn me off, but his wimpy attitude kind of does.

— Funny Lady, Winnipeg

Dear Funny Lady: There’s a big difference between laughing at someone and laughing with someone. That’s especially true when it concerns your lover’s body. As a child, there were probably times when he was teased to the point of crying about his extra toe. Your best attitude would have been a casual acceptance and not giving it much attention at all, unless he brought it up. But it’s too late for that. You’ve been mocking his digit, and he’s not feeling good about it. You would be better to move on to someone who’s more like you and will tease you back about your body.

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: I came home from work one day last week feeling nauseated with the flu, and my wife was at home. She was wearing my suit and had her hair slicked back with some gel. She looked like a guy. She had some guy’s shoes on that weren’t mine — they fit her perfectly — and a tie loosely knotted because she couldn’t do it right. I asked from behind her: “Want me to fix that tie for you?” She turned around and started crying.

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: My mother is coming to visit and our little kids want her to sleep in their bedroom, where there’s a double bed and a single. My husband thinks this idea is ridiculous and says grandma needs her sleep, but I disagree.

I remember sleeping with my grandma — who’s now with the angels — and she told us grandkids (two girls) some wonderful bedtime stories she made up herself. She even put our names into them, making us the stars of the stories.

The best part was getting into our pyjamas with our grandmother, who showed us the magic cord from the little thing that ran from her near-deaf ear down to the secret battery pocket hidden in the bra of her slip. It made her hear us better in the daytime. We thought, “Wow!”

Not surprisingly my own mother has inherited her mom’s fantastic storytelling talent and who knows what else she has to teach the kids when she’s alone with them? I want them to be close.