Chuck Brown
WR Record
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Past articles by Chuck:
Out There: Make your own kind of music even if nobody else sings along
Music can change anything and everything. It can set the tone for rocking out, working out or even making out. It mended my first broken heart. Thank you, Poison. “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” indeed. Music can alter a mood in simpler ways. Mowing the lawn and cleaning the bathroom are a little easier with Earth, Wind & Fire helping out. The other day I finished snowblowing and was fetching the… → Read More
Out There: Can your passwords stand up to cyber creeps?
Your internet passwords probably stink. And now that I’ve said that, I’m going to get hacked. I’m not trying to be smart or judgey. I’m here to help. New Year’s is long gone. A lot of resolutions have slid. I’m still eating slightly better, drinking slightly less, and walking on my treadmill to nowhere a few times per week but we’ll see how long that lasts. Resolutions are hard. Self-improvement… → Read More
Out There: Love it or hate it, this list is for you
As a society, we may not truly appreciate where men’s underpants technology has gone. There is something like a space race happening right before our eyes. Or, well, between our … er … in our crot … mmm … you know what I’m trying to say. When I was growing up there were two types of underpants. Three if you include “commando.” You had the whiteys that were tighty and you had the loosey boxer… → Read More
Out There: What do you mean the 1970s weren’t 30 years ago?
We’re flipping the calendar, and this annual milestone is yet another reminder that I am getting old. OK, I’m not “I don’t trust online banking” old, and I’m not “carry my debit card in an RFID blocking sleeve” old. But I’m old enough. I have, and love, slip-on shoes. My jeans are stretchy. I have a collection of quarter-zip sweaters. Just this season, I retired from playing hockey. Not just… → Read More
Out There: Shoppers defeated by price checks and clogged aisles
Let’s just get real here. I don’t like shopping and shopping doesn’t like me. Here are the top five things that bug me about shopping. 1. No prices Several times per trip to the store I will look at something interesting, scan the shelf looking for a price, scan some more, and walk away. If I don’t see a price, I am not taking my chances. I know I could probably take the item to the checkout,… → Read More
Out There: No, our phones aren’t giving us claw hands
There are some really great things about self-driving vehicle technology, I’m sure. Still, I have concerns. For example, without distractions like steering, braking and accelerating, drivers will be free to watch TV, play video games or do work. It looks like our cars will be transforming into entertainment pods and the change could be coming faster than we think. Aren’t we already spoiled with… → Read More
Out There: There’s a chill in the air and fear in our hearts
It’s the most scariest time of the year. I’m not a big fan of scary. Even growing up in something of a golden age of scary movies like “Halloween”, “Friday the 13th”, “Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Cocktail”, I never got into the horror genre. Why do people like being scared? I have peeked in on scary movies here and there and they scared me while I watched them, and they terrified me for many… → Read More
Out There: Don’t let those essential chores falling through the cracks
If you haven’t started your fall chores yet, you are officially behind schedule, playing catch up. And I for one would like to welcome you to the club. Every year I have the best intentions to get ahead of the seasonal to-do list, and every year I am shovelling snow off my patio furniture so I can move it into storage. In fairness to all of us procrastinators, it is tough to keep up with the… → Read More
Out There: Full of thanks and other stuff
I’m not a fan of mint Girl Guide cookies at all, I said to myself as I popped three of them into my mouth while waiting for a cup of coffee to brew. Even worse — I was eating from the communal office box of cookies by the coffee machine while I had my own box in my office. Hey, why get into my own stash when there were some available for free? Besides, I don’t like them anyway. I just bought a… → Read More
Out There: Pumpkin spice is nice but dill brings a new thrill
Fall is here. This is fantastic for so many reasons. Autumn is awesome. It’s Au-sumn! Today I wore a real jacket for the first time since … I don’t even remember. It seems like I’ve been sweaty forever. The jacket is a welcome addition to my wardrobe for a lot of reasons. Once again, I have somewhere to put my wallet and phone. I don’t have to carry them around the store or stuff them into… → Read More
Out There: Silver anniversary treadmill lands with a thud
Remember a few weeks ago when I was agonizing over what to get my wife for our silver anniversary? I was torn between getting her the ring that she strongly hinted she wanted and something more practical. Naturally, I asked a worldly golf buddy for advice thinking my boy, Charlie, would tell me that his 73 years of experience told him that you can’t put a price on love and that shiny baubles are… → Read More
Out There: Protein with a conscience stirs up mixed feelings
Well, clearly I am a failure of a columnist with absolutely zero ability to connect with readers. Two weeks ago, I wrote about an invasive cricket problem in my garage. Now, I don’t know much about cricket behaviour. I don’t know if they can be invasive. I know ants and hornets are malicious, organized invaders. They collude, they gather and they set out on a mission to damage dwellings and do… → Read More
Out There: The art of doing absolutely nothing
Chilling, chilling words: “What should we do today?” They make my stomach drop and my eyebrows squinch up. It gets a little harder to breathe and I can’t find any words. The only words I have are best kept inside. What should we do? Aren’t we doing it? We’re sitting. We’re sipping coffee. We’re (or I am) already thinking about a nap even though we’ve (or I’ve) only been up for an hour. What more… → Read More
Out There: Mowing over the rough patches of a relationship
Relationships are really hard. When I say relationships, I’m defaulting to marriage because that’s where I’m at. For example, I’m sure my wife would say that I don’t talk enough and that I am so averse to confrontation that I won’t offer opinions, or if there’s a problem or a conflict I don’t generally want to talk them through. I can’t offer a contrary opinion on that. Not because I don’t like… → Read More
Out There: Dumb aliens among us are easy to spot
OK, we’ve dealt with COVID and we’re still reacting to monkey pox with a bit of terror but mostly with an “are you kidding me?” yawn. I mean, monkey pox? After all we’ve been through? Whatever. But the news gets even better. There’s another threat out there that also seemingly wants to try to eradicate us humans and not by some crazy viral infection but by, I don’t know — phasers? Light sabres?… → Read More
Out There: Real workouts may be needed to drop to cruiserweight division
Here’s something you should try just for fun. Go online and try to figure out what your ideal healthy body weight range is. I’ll give you a minute. OK, now that you’ve found this information, you might want to do what I did and Google around for a second opinion. And a third opinion. And a 16th opinion. I looked long and hard for any kind of semi-reputable source to tell me that a person of my… → Read More
Out There: It’s just a merge, not an act of aggression
I just had a minor near-death experience, thanks to an attempted zipper merge. Have you tried this zipper merge technique? And did you survive? I don’t get why we’re still fighting over zipper merges in this country but we most certainly are. Drivers here are saying, violently, that they would like to keep sitting in gridlock and leave a full traffic lane empty rather than calmly and… → Read More
Out There: It’s all fun and games until — wait, was it ever really fun?
I very much enjoy sports but I don’t know why because almost every sport has caused me great trauma. I’m a lifelong Leafs fan so, yeah, go ahead and insert your own joke here. I’ll wait. OK. Moving on. Golf is scary. What if I hit a bad shot? Or what if I hit someone with my bad shot? Swimming is scary. Sharks can survive in indoor pools for sure. Basketball is scary. One of the worst things I… → Read More
Out There: A life shielded from divorce leaves questions
This week, I have some questions about divorce. I’ve lived a solid 51 years and almost half of those have been as a married person. And, as a married person, I’ve naturally been around a lot of other married people and that, over time, leads to being around divorced people. I’ve seen quite a few married couples part ways but oddly, I haven’t been touched by divorce in any really, really close,… → Read More
Out There: Embarrassed about your YouTube search history? Well it’s all right
I saw a meme the other day and it said something like: Remember when you thought The Travelling Wilburys were a bunch of old dudes? Bob Dylan — 47 Jeff Lynne — 41 Tom Petty — 37 Roy Orbison — 52 George Harrison — 45 Well, you people who create memes, yes I do remember The Travelling Wilburys and yes, I do remember thinking they were very old dudes. And if your meme was authored with the intent… → Read More