Superwalk
Everyone has a cause. For LOML and I, it has been heart disease and stroke. For several years, LOML and I, along with a couple of our children, cycled in the Ride for Heart fundraising event in Toronto. With the help of our friends and family, we raised thousands of dollars for heart and stroke […]
Schoolyard politics
When I was still very young, I learned many of the unhelpful platitudes that go along with being bullied. “Just ignore them and they’ll stop,” “Children are cruel,” and “They’re just jealous” were common. But in all the mess of ineffective advice that seems bizarre to deliver to an emotionally vulnerable eight-year-old, no adult in […]
Creative solution
Tomorrow night, residents and friends of the village of Wellington will gather at its town hall, one of the many historically significant buildings on its main street, to discuss the preservation of a building on its main intersection. They will reflect on the history of downtown Wellington and think about its future. But they will […]
Busy times
Ah, the crazy days of summer. Action has heated up all around the world, on the sports scene. Toronto is hosting the Pan American games for athletes on the left side of the Atlantic Ocean, according to my globe. They will be wrapping the games up soon, always amid some controversy. Apparently the lead act […]
A sweet niche
Vin Santo has a fabled history as a sweet dessert wine from the island of Santorini that was exported by the Ottoman Turks to Russia, for the express use of celebrating Russian Orthodox mass. Some say the Venetians imported this wine for distribution throughout the Italian peninsula, and called it Vin Santo to identify the […]
The fourth brouhaha
There are three brouhahas currently underway concerning the future of the Wellington convenience store at the corner of Wharf Street and Main. (That has a nice ring to it: perhaps they should turn it into a blues song based on the one about standing on a corner in Kansas City.) Of course, there is nothing […]
Thanksgiving
I know it’s only slightly halfway through July, but I have so much to be thankful for, these days. And I have a bit of a list. Yep, a list of things for which I am thankful, and not one turkey was carved, nor one pumpkin pied. To start, I am most grateful to the […]
The 50 Greatest Dodger Games of All Time
There was a knock on our door last fall, just after we had settled in. It is a long and exhausting journey to Fort Myers from Wellington, and it takes me some time to adjust. I opened the door to my good friend Mike Richey. He handed me a baseball. It had been signed by […]
Barrelling along
The solera system became the norm in Jerez simply because dynastic wars closed off many of their markets. Solera is a method of fractional blending using a minimum of three barrels. Up to half of the wine in the oldest barrel is drawn off and bottled. The remainder in the oldest barrel is then carefully […]
Youth suffrage
The Times’ youngest columnist, Grace Conroy, has just reached voting age, and will be able to cast her first ballot in the next federal election. Anyone who has read her column as she travelled to Chile for a year of exposure to a new culture, language and landscape knows she is a bright, interested and […]