Family secret: Making something out of nothing is a Harrison trait

One day when I was a wee tad I watched my mother stretch a pound of lean ground beef into a mighty meatloaf for seven.

She added oatmeal and bread crumbs and a bunch of other stuff to a mixing bowl, stirred in the beef and for the umpteenth time created a hearty meal fit for a king, queen and their brood of five runny-nosed kids.

[She usually included a can of peas, a few potatoes and tall stack of sliced bread on a Melmac plate to round things out.]

So, after I read a short story about Tim Horton’s plans to introduce self-serve coffee machines to Canadians, I knew that with a bit of oatmeal etc. I had myself a new weekly column.


[Photo: faithful customer worries about prospect of pouring his own coffee in the near future]

First thing I did was come up with a scary title:

Unfair! Un-Canadian! Tim Horton’s will pass hard times onto its faithful customers

(Twelve words long. Geez, I’m half done already.)

Then I fiddled around with ideas for the beginning, middle and end of a stretched-out story and posted them at the fastest growing group blog in Canada - Four Mugs and a Crock.

Though the posts are just practice, by deadline I’m sure it will be a brilliant column, almost as good (I hope) as meatloaf for supper.

gah