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