Anticipating March Madness
I do not often make predictions. Basically, it is because I am a coward. But I am predicting that Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry will repeat as the MVP of the National Basketball Association this year. A very safe prediction. Following last year’s remarkable season, he has taken his game to greater heights. He has […]
Dynamic wines
Portugal has 14 primary wine regions, two of which are UNESCO heritage sites. They are the acclaimed Douro region, located in the north of the country, and Pico Island, located in the Azores archipelago. These areas began to develop over the course of the 12th and 13th centuries, when Portuguese grape growers planted Burgundian varietals. […]
A difference of night and day
Diary note: King Street, seven a.m.: Cobourg’s Coffee Place. A double espressolong, to go please, as I’m heading home. Teri just opened for the day and I’m her first customer. I got unwired barely forty minutes ago: unwired as in the Sleep Clinic around the corner beside the old jail where I just checked out […]
Calling Bob and Ray
Today is the day after “Super Tuesday,” the event that separates the wheat from the chaff in US presidential nomination politics. It’s one of those days during which you can legitimately wake up and say, “If this is Morning in America, give me late-night insomnia!” But in order to deal squarely with the subject, let’s […]
Wobbly pop
When I was five years old, a “kindergarten baby,” I was hit by a car driven by a drunk driver. The incident occurred just a couple of blocks from our home. In those days, we didn’t have the luxury of sidewalks and I was walking on the shoulder of the road. Even at the tender […]
Inspiring moments
As mankind has progressed from hunter-gatherer to crop-producing civilizations, little recognition was given to the farmers who provided the food necessary for this development— and the trees that helped shape agriculture. Over the millennia, farmers in Portugal have transformed—through their sweat and toil— malarial swamps into fertile, crop-producing lands. In recent times, however, reclamation of […]
Do you know who I am?
Don’t you just hate it when you’re on the VIP list for entry to one of the exclusive late night discos in Wellington and some boor barges his way up to the security guard and tries to bamboozle his way in? It very quickly degenerates from an “Oh, there must be some mistake. I’m an […]
Thankful
Sorry to have missed you last week. I wasn’t feeling great. I wasn’t even feeling a little bit good. I’m still a bit messed up but want to say a huge “thank you” to the wonderful people who, together with the bricks and mortar and the complicated accoutrements of health care, make our local hospital […]
Number 68— so great!
For a number of years, I have sent out little signals that Jaromir Jagr was not quite finished as a hockey player. He proved that, yet again, last Saturday night, when he moved into third place on the NHL all-time goal scoring list with his 741st and 742nd goals. He now trails Gordie Howe and […]
Feel free to disagree
A disgraced CBC host’s trial for sexual assault charges draws to a close, and while no verdict has been reached—it won’t be reached for a month—it’s been difficult to go anywhere this past week without hearing his name and some discussion on the proceedings. Reactions to victim testimony have ranged from skepticism to empathy to […]