Still Complaining: More Humorous Something-or-others

Lynne Perras teaches communication arts at the University of Calgary.

This collection of 60-plus comic editorials follows on the heels of Jim
Foster’s previous book, I Hate to Complain, But … (1999). Foster, a
columnist, comedy writer, and public speaker, addresses the differences
between Canadians and Americans and covers topics ranging from marriage,
weight gain, politicians, and aging to raking leaves and composting,
surviving Canadian weather, and navigating the metric system. While not
all of the entries are actual complaints about human and societal
frailties, a majority of them raise interesting and humorous questions
about why the world works as it does.

How can you tell if the romance has gone out of your marriage? “[I]f,
while you are making mad passionate love,” the author writes, “your
wife mentions the ceiling needs painting, that is considered a bad sign.
If she actually gets up and starts putting on a primer, it may mean that
... it’s time for you to retire from connubial activities and join the
Canadian Alliance.” Foster even has an explanation for Ontario’s
unpredictable weather: “I think we are being punished for electing
Mike [Harris] again. You would think we would have been bright enough to
know we should never let a man run a province whose sole accomplishment
in life was shooting one under par on a North Bay golf course.”

Although Bill Richardson, Arthur Black, and Rick Mercer have produced
more clever and satisfying collections of musings on urban life, Still
Complaining provides a generally amusing read.