Cabin fever
we get a little cabin-feverish. So it’s time for a game. I’ve taken my cue from the old dictionary-based game where you pick a real word with an obscure defintion, and try to lure guessers into picking a false definition. Sometimes, guessers will vote for your false definition on the basis that it was a […]
Perfectly edible
If you’re among those who can afford to make environmentally friendly choices about the way you buy fruits and vegetables, you’re lucky. More and more, the produce aisle at the grocery store is becoming more daunting, with prices soaring and some commonly used veggies falling to environmental disasters like the California drought. But perhaps you […]
Eating disorder?
Canada’s Food Guide is changing. Yep, you read that correctly. That poster of a gauge, the triangular pyramidy thing, the multi-coloured roadway of deliciousness that we’ve been following to justify our consumption of seven to ten pieces of bread a day, far too much fruit or juice, an abundance of protein and enough dairy to […]
Devil’s scholar
When the Ontario government presented their budget last week, they had some bad news. Gas and energy prices would be rising. So would the provincial debt, with interest taking a big chunk of provincial spending. Of course, there were goodies to offset that news, including a pleasant surprise for low-income families: free tuition to people […]
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 […]