4 | AUGUST 5 • 2021 

PURELY COMMENTARY

for openers

Unlock Your Speech
I

n the morning, as part of 
your mad dash to work/
class/exercise, you grab 
your essential equipment 
before running out the 
door. A major element in 
what you take: 
keys. These are 
needed for the 
car, your office, 
your locker at 
the gym, your 
bicycle padlock, 
etc.
However, 
the word key is often a key 
element in expressions we 
use daily.
Your key to success may 
often be defined by how up 
to date you remain in your 
field of expertise. Are you a 

key figure in your company’s 
operation? If so, you may 
be asked to be the keynote 
speaker at a training session.
Do not expect to be 
recognized for your 
contributions if you are 
always low-key. Sometimes 
it pays to speak up; you hold 
the key to your progress.
It is not uncommon these 
days to discover latch-key 
children; working parents are 
quite common. Do not leave 
sugar treats for after school, 
however, or the kids may get 
too keyed up. (All children 
are special and hold the keys 
to our hearts.)
To be an integral part of a 
choir you must not sing off 
key. Listen carefully to each 

piano key.
A church 
key (bottle 
opener) is not 
going to get you 
into a place of 
worship. Use one too 
often and you may find that 
police will lock you up and 
throw away the key.
Depending on your age, 
you may recall vividly such 
things as skate keys (used 
on roller skates) and a can 
key (used to open sardine 
cans). The latter often broke 
and left one with a partially 
opened tin; ugh!
Pennsylvania is known 
as the Keystone State. Just 
as a keystone is the central 
support in an arch, this state 

was central to the original 
colonies. (Let that be your 
lesson for the day.)
Do you read the credits 
at the end of a film? Then 
perhaps you have seen the 
term key grip. This person 
directs the crews of off-
camera workers.
I shall now stop keying in 
information and let you go 
with the reminder that you, 
too, can unlock — expand — 
your daily conversation. 

Sy Manello
Editorial 
Assistant

continued on page 6

guest column

Masked Windsorites Look 
Across the River with Envy
D

espite Canada’s recent 
announcement that 
fully vaccinated U.S. 
citizens and permanent resi-
dents will be able to enter for 
non-essential 
travel starting 
Aug. 9, the 
Department 
of Homeland 
Security has 
regrettably decid-
ed to not recipro-
cate and renewed 
its ban on non-essential travel 
for most foreign nationals — 
including Jewish Windsorites — 
at the U.S.-Canada land border 
until at least Aug. 21. 

As a U.S. citizen who lives in 
Windsor and works on both 
sides of the border, I am per-
mitted to travel relatively freely 
between the two countries, 
which I do several times a week. 
This puts me in a somewhat 
unique position, as I am one 
of a handful of members of the 
Windsor Jewish community 
who has experienced first-hand 
how two different countries 
have adapted to living with this 
rollercoaster of a pandemic. 
These days, driving between 
Windsor and Detroit is what I 
imagine crossing East to West 
Berlin might have felt like in the 
1980s. Although the situation 

in Ontario has improved due to 
Canada’s accelerated vaccina-
tion campaign and subsequent 
loosening of restrictions, it has 
not been this way for the major-
ity of the nine months I have 
lived here.
Up until earlier this month, 
even fully vaccinated Canadians 
were required to enter quaran-
tine for 14 days upon returning 
to the country, and non-essen-
tial travel was banned between 
certain Canadian provinces. For 
a good part of this year, Canada 
trailed behind the U.S. in vac-
cinating its population due to 
lack of supply. Canadians were 
waiting four months between 

doses and encouraged to mix 
vaccines, whereas our American 
neighbors were waiting the 
standard three to four weeks 
between two doses of the same 
vaccine.
For many months, we looked 
across the river with envy as 
our neighbors in Detroit were 
awash in vaccines, and our 
mayor even attempted to lobby 
the federal government to allow 
Michigan to share some of its 
surplus vaccines with Windsor. 
Finally, the flood of vaccines 
arrived, and similar to the U.S., 
now most Canadians who want 
to get vaccinated have already 
had the opportunity to do so, 

Dan Brotman

