My favourite store
I’m just as much a fan as the next person of your bookstores, bakeries, art galleries and craft stores. I’m also a big fan of the small town department store, Stedman’s; and I’m sorry to see it close up shop in Picton. But the store of which I’m the biggest fan probably separates me a […]
How to talk to kids for dummies
As parents we can be just a bit dumb when it comes to talking to our kids. We never know if what we say to our children will scar them for life or give them the push in the right direction. When my kids were young, and living at home, I learned to listen to […]
Going with the grain
Barrels are wonderful in the way they allow wine to breathe and develop. The effect of its wood on the wine is profound. Through the course of a year, a barrel will lose up to nine per cent of contents through evaporation— most of which is water and alcohol. But, over time, this process allows […]
Bronko Nagurski Part 1
In the early days of the twentieth century, the eastern ports of Canada and the United States were inundated with immigrants from Eastern Europe. They were often fleeing the turmoil of revolution—Russians, Poles, Ukrainians. They were young men and women, some not yet in their teens, hoping to find a better life after arriving on […]
A robotic rant
I’m not sure I’m ready for another revolution. We’ve had the computer revolution, then the globalization revolution. Next on deck is the robotics revolution; or so says Thomas L. Friedman of the New York Times. Robotics. That’s robots. When I think robots, I think of clunky, lights-flashing creatures who talk in monotonic loops and end […]
A little forgetful
When I had my sixtieth birthday, a few years ago, I got just a little bit scared. Well, not really scared but I most definitely became acutely aware of the passage of time. I started to do the math of longevity. You know what I mean. Every once in a while I’d think about how […]
Belleville Bulls 2012-2013
The Belleville Bulls are gearing up for their thirty-second season. They split a pair of games last weekend against the Kingston Frontenacs, winning Saturday night at home in front of a respectable crowd of more than 2,700. Before I sweep into a nuts-and-bolts hockey discussion, might I suggest a trip to the rink where the […]
Private Ruben Pearce
A sweet alfalfa breeze ruffles the shadows while a rise of hill opens to plains of corn. Mourning doves haunt the shade of marble headstones here in the village cemetery. “He lived, he went south, he came back home, is the simplest way to put it,” Gerald Collette tells me. Yet neither the story of […]
Wood and wine continued
The story of barrels continues. At first, barrels were constructed from whatever trees were available. Archaeological digs in London’s Canary Wharf have unearthed fragments of barrels containing a wide selection of wood. In Beaujolais, the early monks used chestnut barrels to store and ship wine. Monks in Burgundy were attracted to the sturdiness of oak […]
Can bacteria save Greece?
You know what the current big food thing is, of course, because like me you’ve tried it and you think: how can something that tastes like cheesecake be good for me? I’m talking, of course, about Greek yogurt. On September 3, The Globe and Mail had this to say: “You are attracted by its low-fat […]