Y’know, I’m feeling a bit nostalgic today, because it’s been a good run. I’ve been writing this column since the days of Bob Rae and Mike Harris.For those of you who weren’t around then, or weren’t paying attention because you were in grade school, those were the heady days when, for the first time, government payers decided to reduce what they were paying pharmacists instead of allowing us the small but steady increases we had become used to.At the time, they described the cuts as a temporary measure. Those of us who were around back in the day will remember that things weren’t so bad then, after all.Of course, now it’s a new day, and my editor has suggested that maybe the place for commentary is in the electronic media instead of print. I admit feeling sad about this, because I have been writing this column for a long time and I’m not ready for the run to end.I’ve often thought about what it will be like to tell my grandchildren about how grandpa used to write a column in a magazine. I envision sitting on the porch and they are asking me all kinds of questions like why is the sky blue, and why does chocolate taste so awesome.They will ask me “What’s a column?”and I’ll say it is what they used to call a blog because it was written in a column on paper. Then they will ask me what paper was, and I’ll say it was stuff made from trees that we could write on. Then they will ask me what writing is and … you get the idea.I don’t know how things will work going to the blogosphere, but I guess I had better get with it before I get too old and uncool for my grandchildren (to be). Let Vicki know what you think.Ken Burns is pharmacist at the Diabetes Care Centre at Sudbury Regional Hospital.
