A good month for beer
It’s been a good month for beer. Karl Meltzer, on his third attempt, has set a new record for the completion of the 3,524- kilometre Appalachian Trail. His time of 45 days, 22 hours and 38 minutes eclipsed the previous record by some nine hours. That works out to more than 75 kilometres a day. […]
Thank you
How many years now? Go on, count how many years the PEC Marathon has been a fall event in the County. Lost count? Well, to save you the time it takes to put the newspaper down and go to your computer to Google “how many years”, it has been 13 years. Yup. Yessir. It has […]
Represent
When Transparent debuted, the reaction from the LGBT community toward the webbased television series, produced by Amazon, was mixed. On the one hand, it was a funny, sweet, clever representation of creator Jill Soloway’s own experience with her transgendered parent. It was a much more sensitive and realistic depiction of one experience with gender transition […]
Belleville Senators
Hundreds of hockey fans crammed into the main lobby of the Sports and Wellness Centre in Belleville to hear the news regarding the relocation of the AHL franchise of the Ottawa Senators. In perhaps the worst kept secret of the century, Belleville’s mayor Taso Christopher announced that the city had approved significant renovations to the […]
Harvest time
At this time of year, all things within the vineyard come down to harvest, and rain (such as fell on Monday) can make the process miserable. The rows turn into mud, making travel through the vines difficult. But if the brix are correct, you are obliged to harvest. And even if certain varietals have not […]
Four corners
Maybe it was the slow white light of the dawn that triggered a string of thoughts that kept me awake this morning. I began to thinkin’ that this County of ours, this place we live in, is very much a metaphor for Canada as a whole. Sure it’s not quite ocean to ocean to ocean. […]
From boil to simmer
I looked at the front page of my daily newspaper last Friday and every single article on it made by blood boil. The first article stated that Premier Li of China, while visiting Ottawa, had defended China’s use of the death penalty while at the same time urging Canada to adopt an extradition treaty with […]
Origin story
Here’s a common question I get: Where are you from? It’s a loaded question. In the County, I’m sure some people simply mean, ‘you’re not a Bongard or a McFaul, so obviously you arrived here from elsewhere.’ It could also mean, ‘wow, what an unusual name, what is its cultural origin?’ Or it could mean, […]
Chief cook and the bottle washer
As some of you may know, LOML had lifesaving heart surgery almost 10 years ago. It was an overwhelming event in our lives. We thought our lives were damn near perfect. And then? Well, and then we went from having it all to almost losing it all. It is from this perspective I approach this […]
Late summer hockey
It is always a bit of a shock to see the Boys of Winter on the ice pads when there are still people flocking to our beaches; however, that is exactly the case now as many leagues are now underway, and the World Cup of Hockey is in full swing in Toronto. Some of the […]