The Timms Times

44th year

The 2010 Issue

last updated December, 2011

HEADLINES in this Issue

TWO ! Doctors

in the House

Apr 2010  Chicago

Jun 2010  Pensioner

Aug 2010  Doctors

Sep 2010  McGriffen

Dec 2010  Ellie

Dec 2010  Dublin

BY THE NUMBERS

Caution!

Strong opinions ahead.


Where have all the economic gains of the last 50 years gone? Mostly to the top.

The economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty examined tax returns from 1913 to 2008. They discovered an interesting pattern. In the late 1970s, the richest 1 percent of American families took in about 9 percent of the nation’s total income; by 2007, the top 1 percent took in 23.5 percent of total income.


No wonder the kids are protesting!


We need to do this research in Canada, but to bring it home with a small example, when Roger and I finished university in the 1960’s, with no parental assistance, we had a grand total of $300 owing in student loans -- hardly a dent in our first year’s income. Kids today come out of university owing tens of thousands of dollars -- more than a dent in their first TEN years‘ income.  What’s wrong with this picture?


Rising tuition fees, for a start. And why are they rising? Because we don’t provide enough public funding to post-secondary education. And, why not? Either because we don’t pay enough in taxes, or, we choose to spend public money elsewhere -- expensive heath care for aging boomers, anyone?


What! We can’t afford to educate our kids? But we can afford to lose all the potential of kids who just can’t take on that debt?


We can’t afford breakfast or lunch programs in our primary schools, even though we know that growing brains need nutrition to function? We can’t afford public daycare or early childhood education, even though we know that giving kids an early start almost guarantees their future success?


There is something seriously wrong with a society that doesn’t put its kids first.


WE are the ones who can  do something about that.

Let’s do it.

THE TRAVEL SECTION

Ahhh ... the magic of Christmas in Dublin.

THOUGHT of the YEAR

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.


                          Will Rogers

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Feeling nostalgic?

Indulge yourself by reading an issue or two from our archives.


The 1997 issue

The 1998 issue

The 1999 issue

The 2001 issue

The 2002 issue

The 2003 issue



The 2009 issue





  Any comments?


Please send them on to us.


Simply put any of our first names in front of

@timms.ca


For example:

mcgriffen@timms.ca

Granddaughter abducted to Chicago

April 18, 2010

CHICAGO     Just because Stefan’s employer sent him to Chicago, did that mean he had to take Kate and Alex with him? Unbelievable! Now we have to brave U.S. Customs and Border Protection every time we want to see them. The latest word is that they will be there until 2013. By then we will be able to travel the world with our accumulated air miles.

Born

July 7, 2008

-

Died

September 30, 2010

©2011 Kathleen Timms

August, 2010

For years this is the view we’ve had of Laura and Steve whenever they visited ... sitting in their ‘office’ (otherwise known as our living room) working on their theses (thesi?).


The result of all their work? Two Ph.Ds earned at the University of Toronto.


Unfortunately, we didn’t get photos of them in their graduation regalia. They were both too busy working at their new post-doctorate positions in Montreal ... Laura at McGill and Steve at the University of Montreal.

Canada Pension Finally Pays Off

 

Our Early Christmas Gift

The Magic of Christmas in Dublin

December 8, 2010

CHICAGO

Kate and Stefan presented us with a beautiful new granddaughter, and a new little sister for Alex.

     Known as Ellie, she is becoming a core of smiling serenity in the whirlwind of her Chicago home.

June 7, 2010

PORT PERRY     All those years of deductions have suddenly switched to the other side of the ledger. Turning 65 does have at least one benefit -- you get to have a great party.

Elizabeth Kennedy Timms

McGriffen

And may the driver who hit him -- and did not stop -- know the suffering he caused.

December 19-26, 2010

TORONTO > CHICAGO > DUBLIN     Dublin is a magical place to spend Christmas -- IF you can get there. Our Dec 19th flight was cancelled when the snow that fell on Heathrow airport overwhelmed their snow-clearing equipment (two guys with brooms).

                                                  Photo from The Globe and Mail, Dec 20, 2010 Steve Parsons/AP


     Well, just try to find two empty seats on any airplane around Dec 25, but we managed to rebook through Chicago to Dublin and had no sooner arrived in Chicago when the Dublin flight was cancelled. Which did have the huge benefit of allowing us to meet our new granddaughter, but wasn’t quite the plan in either son’s household.

     Finally, on Dec 26th the planes were able to land and we arrived in Dublin to national acclaim. Seriously. We were featured on RTE’s 6 o’clock newscast, and recognized on the street in the following days. (As of writing this, you can still see the newscast)

     So, all’s well that ends well, and oh... the magic of Dublin on New Years Eve!