What’s a Decent ROI on Retirement Time?

IN DOING THE HARD WORK OF WRITING THIS column, I came to frame its evolving concept as: “French Cinema vs. the Trailer Park Boys.” The idea popped into my head during a conversation with my wife, Pam, about how much sense it makes to “invest” in certain activities in semi-retirement.

- BY BOB SIPCHEN

Many readers are presumably rocketing toward or have matured beyond my age of 71, so you may not be familiar with the Trailer Park Boys oeuvre. The 12-season series’ intricate plot follows the fictional adventures of three foulmouthed, pot-smoking, petty criminals, one of whom is a shopping cart thief and repairman named “Bubbles,” in a Nova Scotia trailer park. I started watching the show in a gloomy phase of my life. It does not require the slightest investment of time or brainpower to appreciate its hilariousness.

The same cannot be said for, say, French director Louis Malle’s 1987 film Au Revoir Les Enfants, which I’ve been meaning to watch for years. Sadly, after investing mightily in learning French in college, the Spanish I’d labored to learn in junior high and high school flooded back into my brain, creating a new, blended language even I don’t understand.