The next really big thing
Everyone has been getting down on Apple recently. They say it is more preoccupied with protecting its turf, like Microsoft did, rather than with innovating, which is what made the company great. Well, according to our sources, the company is not far off roaring back, big time, with an innovative new product that has been […]
Remembrance
It seems appropriate to write about Remembrance Day, especially on a cold and overcast day in November. It’s easier now for me to understand and appreciate the sacrifices made by those brave men and women who lost their lives in the line of duty. Yet each year, as November 11 approaches, I am a nine-year-old […]
Hockey— southern style
You can only keep a good man, or a good woman, out of a hockey rink for so long. For that matter, bad people count as well. Once we settled into the southern lifestyle here in Fort Myers, we scouted the possibilities of upcoming games of the Florida Everblades. They began the season with six […]
Never forgotten
There is always a visionary who imagines the potential of a region and then—through force of personality— makes his dream a reality. In 1983 Ed Neuser decided to plant grapevines on his property in Prince Edward County. Today we mourn his passing, and extend sincere condolences to his life partner, Rita Kaimins. We should also […]
The 67-day itch
I confess to complete hypocrisy. I have always derided the Sunday Coronation Street afficionados, for whom the weekly fix of a slew of back-toback episodes is as addictive as their morning coffee. And now here I am, a wretched soul who marks down on his wall the number of days that will pass until Season […]
Don’t blame the wind
It’s not always easy to write a column. Sometimes there are many false starts, piles of notes and oodles of heated discussions before the show really “gets on the road.” This past weekend I spent 11 hours in the car with LOML while the Canadian portion of Frankenstorm began to blow and bluster. Every time […]
Two worlds
Until recently, New World wineries mainly endeavored to reproduce classic French wines. Identification by region—not grape variety—reflected an enduring mystique that has been hard to dispel. Copying the culture of an adjacent civilization is not a new phenomenon. The patrician class of Rome worked to produce wines in the Greek style, while demonstrating their erudition […]
Smoke and mirrors
I had a few minutes to kill last night. I poked my nose into a computer report on the labour situation in the National Hockey League. Remember? The hockey league that plays all of its games in North America, with the best players in the world? Yes, that’s the one. At any rate, I listened […]
The world’s greatest humourists
I have to hand it to them. Without a doubt, the world’s greatest humourists are teenaged children. Under the pressure of an exam, they sometimes manage to answer adroitly the very question they are asked, but—courtesy of the nuances of the English language — not the question the examiner had in mind. And sometimes, they […]
Kids these days
Teenagers, eh! Remember when you were a teenager? Did you just shudder? I remember. Like now, I knew it all when I was a teen. I put on a sweet face for my elders when advice was being dispensed—but, inside. Oh, the dialogue that was going on inside my head. Somewhere, on the timeline between […]