Try it. You’ll like it
It’s not that I dislike the music of Leonard Cohen, it’s that I don’t like being “told” that Leonard Cohen is good for me. Or hearing that someone can’t believe I’m not a fan of his work, or worship at the altar of Cohen. Maybe I haven’t been told as much in as many words, […]
The Big Push Blues
I’ve got the Big Push Blues this week. All I can think about are the negative aspects of the vaccination campaign that’s Coming To A Major Public Facility Near You. First of all, I can’t bring myself to watch the COVID-19 news on television anymore. It’s not that I’m squeamish (although my wife would say […]
Sense and Scent-sibility
When I think about 2020, my memories are very sensory. Twenty-twenty is a bit like music. Whenever I hear The Fifth Dimension sing Bill, I am transported to of our apartment in Toronto in the early ’70s. But more than music, 2020 is the smell of bread baking. I don’t think I know any adult, […]
Comparing the Great with the Small
The feat of coming up with an approved vaccine for COVID-19 within a year after the pandemic was first declared reminds us just how capable we are of doing great things. At the other end of the spectrum, however, are the trivial and banal things that persist in bothering us because they should, by comparison, […]
Anything but housing
Whenever I sit down to write a column, I’m never really sure where it’s going to go. Never. Lots of ideas are left “on the cutting room floor”, or just erased. This week I thought for sure I was going to say something about The Times’s edition published last week. Wall-to-wall opinions on the housing […]
Musical chairs
What has been described as possibly the last affordable housing project for quite some time in Prince Edward County was not approved at last Wednesday’s planning meeting. The events that unfolded have caused many questions to start circulating. What truly is affordable housing? How dense is too dense? Is this the type of community we […]
Councillor Harper’s Saturdays
Wellington Ward Councillor Mike Harper had the summer from hell last year. He spent his Saturdays interceding in fights between those trying to turn their boat trailers around by the Belleville Street boat ramp, and the owners of the adjacent properties who didn’t want interlopers in their private parking spaces. And when he wasn’t doing […]
Backseat driving
The week of February 21st! Time flies, as you know, when we’re having fun. Are we having fun, yet? I sure hope so. I think I have decided we all need a real break. Yeah, I know we’ve had a break from each other for a year now. I mean a break from the break […]
Out of the lockdown and into…?
So what did you do last Wednesday? Did you go hog wild in celebration of the fact that our area—the Hastings and Prince Edward public health unit—was tied with the Renfrew unit and the Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington unit in the race to be first out of the lockdown gate? Did you go […]
Chit Chats and other Consumables
It’s half past February and Valentine’s Day, as I write this column. LOML and I have barely picked up the last of the errant tinkel, a.k.a. tinsel, and we’re still working on Christmas chocolates and candy canes. This morning, Valentine’s Day, we have added a little pile of heart-shaped sugar cookies, a bag of dark […]