Columnists

See, like tourists do

Posted: April 7, 2017 at 9:40 am   /   Columnists

In the big scheme of things, travelling should be on the top of everyone’s to-do list. Having said that, I know lots of all y’all can’t afford to travel, at least the way you think I mean “travel”. The thing is, I’m not talking about a cruise or a flight to the other side of […]

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Shelter belts

Posted: April 5, 2017 at 9:48 am   /   Columnists

Chokecherry, hawthorn, hedge rose and willow. Farmland that was once partitioned into 10-acre plots; bordered with split cedar fences and filled in with rows of trees and shrubs that when seen from on high transform into a hand- stitched quilt spread about the land. The partition of farmland in previous centuries was a working system […]

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Pandora’s box

Posted: April 5, 2017 at 9:46 am   /   Columnists

Depending on your point of view, our species’ ability to metabolize alcohol has been lucky or unlucky. We’ve had this “gift” for a long time. Purposely carved jugs from the late Stone Age show a close association between deliberately fermented beverages and sentient hominidae. Chemical analysis of jugs uncovered in northern China, dating from 6500 […]

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Charming with song

Posted: April 5, 2017 at 9:44 am   /   Columnists

One of the talents that Canadian public figures have become known for in recent years is the ability to charm with song. Think of Margaret Trudeau and the song that she made up for the wife of the president of Venezuela; or of her daughter-in-law Sophie Grégoire Trudeau’s foray into public song on Martin Luther […]

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Along the curve

Posted: March 31, 2017 at 8:59 am   /   Columnists

I confess I am not an early adopter, especially not for my age. I understand technology, I use it because it is useful, but my disdain for it and resistance to it has probably been to my detriment. But like many human beings, I can give in to laziness. When a thing makes my life […]

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Off the road again

Posted: March 30, 2017 at 8:53 am   /   Columnists

The one local issue we hear about most is roads. To maintain our roads properly would subsume the whole of the County’s annual budget, so we do triage and only repair the ones that need repair the most, or that have the noisiest advocates. The situation is untenable. I have a solution to offer, which […]

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On the road with mom

Posted: March 30, 2017 at 8:49 am   /   Columnists

By the time The Times hits the street, on the 29th, I’ll be making my way from Heathrow to Upper Street in Angel with LOML and my brother. Yep, I’ll be “over ’ome”. It’s been a busy month, March has been. I’ve been to a lot of places in my time, but have never made […]

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The home stretch

Posted: March 24, 2017 at 9:00 am   /   Columnists

Most of the NHL teams have about 10 games remaining at this point in their season. Some teams have already locked up a post season berth; some are planning for next year; several teams are on the bubble, playing for a chance to earn some playoff cash, and an opportunity to drink from the Stanley […]

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Mistakes

Posted: March 24, 2017 at 8:59 am   /   Columnists

Last month, a night nurse in the Belleville Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit sat with a premature infant, bottle feeding. It was 3 a.m. She fell asleep. The baby’s cries startled her awake. He had fallen from her lap and was on the floor. Later the parents learned their child’s skull was fractured. Last week, […]

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The Natty Nostalgist

Posted: March 24, 2017 at 8:54 am   /   Columnists

Well, Prince Edward County has done it again. Fresh from being chosen as one of the world’s top 10 must-see destinations, we have now triumphed in that one of our number has made it onto the list of Canada’s 10 bestdressed individuals. The list, published last Saturday by The Globe and Mail, includes an “extravagance […]

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