Mennonite rules vary by congregation; some are very restrictive and others hardly at all. Any time I go to Canadian Tire or Zehr's supermarket, I see Mennonite women in bonnet, apron, and dress down to the ankles charging through the aisles with loaded carts and packing their booty into minivans (usually black) in the parking lot. My favourite garden centre employs packs of teenage Mennonite girls who pair the uniform t-shirt (scarlet!) and shorts (very short!) with a little white pleated cap that looks just like a muffin-tin liner pinned over their up-done hair. At the other end of the spectrum, at the doctor's recently I saw an elderly gent so pious that his coat and waistcoat (black) were hooked together in front, eschewing buttons; only heaven knows how his trouser flies work.

Amish mileage probably varies.

Perth County joke: What goes clop, clop, bang bang, clop, clop, clop? A drive-by shooting in Millbank.

I woke up this morning with a nasty, suspicious stiffness across my lower back from hip to hip and no idea what caused it. My tentative plan to haul the vacuum cleaner downstairs to de-fur the parlour has moved to the Pending file in favour of a long walk. The weather is beautiful: brilliant sunshine, very light breeze, not too cold.