Ideal temperature
Finding the correct temperature to serve wine can be daunting. Most of the pleasure of enjoying a glass of wine with friends is in the aroma. The palate (within the chamber of the mouth) can only determine four basic aspects: sweet, sour, salty and acidic. The finer nuances are determined by the nose, and are […]
The robin’s nest
Turns out that a robin has signed up to use a decrepit birdhouse as a starter home. This is all fine except the house is missing its front wall and I am supposed to be the birdhouse and feeder reno-guy around here. Wouldn’t you know it, but robin jumped the gun moving in before I […]
The streets
Ah, the streets of the County! Word on the street is, “the sexual assault didn’t happen.” Whisky Tango Foxtrot! What did happen? In spite of the questions we have right now about the event of April 1 and 2, as a community we came together to support each other. As a community, we are talking […]
Safety in numbers
I grew up in the city. When I was a kid, I was constantly reminded by nervous parents to stay in touch, be home before dark and avoid isolated routes. Constantly reminded that, as a girl, I was vulnerable. My most important lesson from the self-defence classes provided by my school came at home, when […]
Rats
Kerry Fraser put quite a few miles on his blades on National Hockey League rinks. He began his career as a referee in 1973 and broke into the NHL in 1980. He blew the whistle until 2010. At that time, he had adjudicated more regular season games, and more playoff games than any other official […]
Hidden delights
Wine is not complicated— we just tend to make it so. With today’s explosion of interest in wine, we tend to over-analyze the glass in front of us, instead of succumbing to the hidden delights that await within the glass. Last week, we outlined some simple steps for detecting flaws in a wine that apply, […]
Helping The Donald choose
Donald Trump has been all over the news for weeks. However, one thing that hasn’t been the subject of speculation—yet—is his choice for vice-presidential running mate. So how about we help him out a bit? Before we do, we have to accept that there are different techniques for running mate selection and depending on which […]
Our front door
April 1, April 2, 2016. Less than one block away from our front door, a brutal sexual assault was reported to have taken place on Friday night/early Saturday morning. While most of us were comfortably ensconced in our homes, the victim was fighting, for her life, in our community. The female victim, seriously injured, was […]
Big Papi
David Américo Ortiz Arias has made it clear that he will play baseball in 2016, and no longer. With that in mind, the powersthat- be in the offices of MLB have decided that they will provide “Big Papi” with a victory lap around the track. As he plays his way through the stadia of the […]
Witnesses and victims
Victims, in the real world, are not innocent. They are as flawed as any other person. They are just as likely to do things they’re ashamed of. Make mistakes. Lie. They are just as prone to humiliation and shame. It makes it easy to fall into the trap of victim-blaming. I’m sure we’ve all been […]