X marks the spot
First off, LOML and I had a great time at the Parkinson’s SuperWalk in Belleville. Yeah, yeah, it rained and rained and rained, but that’s just weather. We met some truly strong people who live with challenges that can only be managed, at best. To these people I say, “Thank you for making my day.” […]
The war of attrition
One of the sidebar stories emerging in the federal election campaign is the number of candidates who have been forced by their parties to resign after documentation of their dubious behaviour has come to light—thanks in large measure to the long memory of social media. A Liberal candidate from Alberta was done in, in part, […]
Horizons
Dear young people: Travel. If you feel like a lost soul, get on a plane, get on a bus— hitchhike if you must—and go somewhere you can get truly lost. If you live each day with the creeping fear that your world is getting too small, go out there and see how big it actually […]
The Journey of a Hockey Mom
Allyson Tufts is a hockey fan. She grew up with the game in a large family. She married a hockey player. She raised a hockey player. That does not make her much different from many other mothers in Canada. The difference, in her case, is that she took the time to write about her experiences. […]
My friend Charlie
Charlie Lemmex will close up shop at the end of September. He is planning to watch the Yankees and the Red Sox at the Rogers Centre, then go quietly into the night. Charlie has attended a few ball games over the years. He has worked in media for more than 30 years. He told me […]
The sommelier’s duty
It seems strange now, but in the North America of the early 1970s, sommeliers were as rare as happy dispositions are in the service industry of southern France in September. Unlike today’s wine stewards, whose job is to sell wine, the great sommeliers of the past were instrumental in the purchase of the wine for […]
Only human
Last week, letter writer and colleague Ramesh Pooran called me out on my column, which highlighted a young female politician who was forced to step down after a heated online exchange she had been involved in as a teen was revealed. Pooran wrote that indiscretions made by young people should be given some leeway, and […]
A bit of a smell
We normally honour a person’s last wishes without much thought. We will happily play a Frere Brothers’ song at Muriel’s funeral, or scatter Donny’s ashes on the Loyalist Parkway. If the wishes seem a touch irrational, no big deal, as long as they are basically harmless. However, the innocuous sounding last wishes of a recently […]
Walk this way
Labour Day is behind us and Saturday, September 12 brings the Parkinson’s SuperWalk in Belleville. This will be the first time I will participate in the fundraising event, and I’m doing it for a number of reasons. Oh, you want to know why I’d walk for a cause? My late mother-in-law had Parkinson’s disease. While […]
Greetings from a spider
There is wonder in a spider’s web, drenched in the fog of early morn; an untouched quiet of heavy dew drifting off the lake and now resting on our island. Then, in a breakthrough, the sun throws light over tall grass, onto high branches, over windrows close and far away. Nearby, a leopard frog stirs […]