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I was paddling around the many online lexicons seeking some enlightenment on the verb “blindside.” One offered a rather odd illustration of its usage with the declaration that “you could blindside your family by suddenly announcing you’re moving to China.” Speak for your own family, Dictionary.com. I know lots of families where the parents or the offspring talk about nothing else. They love China. They watch full reruns of the Beijing Olympics twice a month. Play ping-pong all day. If one of them up and told the rest they were going to move to China, it’d be the most natural thing in the world.

And why the hang-up with China? If a family member were to say he was going to move to Sweden, would that be “blindsiding?” Sweden’d be fine. Sweden’s OK. But China? I detect traces of despicable “orientalism” rearing its occidental head here.

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I had come to this a couple of weeks ago after reading all the articles about Stephen Harper being slated for “blindsiding” the Trudeau government with a trip to Washington. Unfortunately, it came in the brief interval between the Trudeau family’s prêt-à-porter triumphs on the Indian subcontinent and the prime minister’s marvellous elucidations on groping allegations as they pertain to “national” as opposed to “local” female reporters.