Brad Clapp wins at Loyalist
After finishing his third round, Brad Clapp was escorted to a small media scrum behind the scorer’s tent. He had maintained his lead in the tournament. “It’s a huge confidence boost,” he told the group. “I expected to start the day without the lead. I really appreciate the work my caddy has done for me […]
Public behaviour
The Internet is an unforgiving place. Fleeting, impulsive actions have serious, long-term consequences. Lulled by a false sense of anonymity—feeling safely hidden behind a glowing screen, people speak too frankly, share too much and delve into the darkest parts of humanity to satisfy some crude sense of curiosity. And those dark parts of our humanity […]
Chasing the dream
Last Monday, more than 100 golfers took to the fairways at Trillium Woods Golf Club north of Belleville in an attempt to qualify for this week’s PGA Tour Canada tournament. The qualifiers will head east to the Loyalist Golf and Country Club in Bath, the ninth stop on the Mackenzie Tour- PGA Canada Tour. Just […]
Arising from ashes
Coal mining in northern France ended nearly three decades ago, but it left an unexpected legacy for wines. Three hundred years’ worth of industrial mining slag heaps, of various heights and shapes, dot the landscape in an east-west line just south of the France-Belgium border. The tallest is about 1,500 metres high and is shaped […]
The ‘dies caniculares’ theory
Not even the hammock is moving in the still of evening. Well, maybe a light jingle on the occasions when lying here I curse out loud and swat at mosquitoes. They jet through the rise of smoke from my nearby now-dying burn pile. Jet through like water bombers through a forest fire: my plan for […]
Hear, here
Okay, all you old rockers and rollers, you metal heads, you users of headphones, you turners-uppers of volume to setting 11, you boomers. It’s time to listen up, if you can. Can you hear me? Probably just so-so, right? Say what? I was a teen in the ’60s. In the ’60s, we liked our music […]
Innovation from the disco sector
Innovations are a dime a dozen. Ho hum. Most of them will lead nowhere. But every so often, an innovation comes along that makes you feel like dancing. This one is called “silent disco.” It’s the hot new trend, according to the New York Times. In a discotheque, patrons are connected to the music through […]
Forgotten history
There are countries with a history of wine that has been all but forgotten. Such is the case with India. Traders from the Persian Empire introduced viniculture to India as early as 4,000 BC—not long after wine was first produced in Georgia/Armenia. The indigenous people of India welcomed this new intoxicating beverage. Vineyards were planted […]
The five minute difference
You know how my columnist colleague and good friend Steve Campbell is always ranting about how the County should consider separating from the rest of Ontario? Not physically— although putting our shoulders to the wheel and moving it a little further away from Toronto does have a certain appeal, so long as we don’t end […]
For Julie
On August 4, my cousin sent me a message, via Facebook, about a Huron County triathlete named Julie Sawchuk. A CTV news story reported Sawchuk had been preparing for the cycling portion of the Goderich Triathalon when she was struck from behind. The motorist claims he didn’t see her. Sawchuk sustained multiple injuries, many of […]