I say make hay while the sun shines. Not in the same way weekends revved you and saved you in the past. But in a new way. In other words, this weekend, do something you’ve never done before. I’m not talking about climbing Mt. Everest here. Just some way others spend their weekends that you […]
The Last Weekend of the Summer Read More »
Jean and I are newbie road-trippers. Last summer, we strapped our kayaks to the roof of our car and set out to Lake Superior from what was once our cottage on Georgian Bay which the pandemic had transformed into our ‘sanctuary-home’. At least that’s what the real estate people call it. On fabled Highway 17
In 2009, Jean and I went to Afghanistan for two reasons. The first was to see the Kabul Widow’s Feeding Program in action and raise money for it when we returned. It had been set up by Care Canada before the Russians arrived, before the Taliban arrived, before the Americans and the Canadians arrived. Among Afghanistan’s 38
It’s short for “Omnium-Gatherum” which is the long, Latin way to say “Things I fell across on my way to tomorrow.” As always, we start with something newsworthy and end on something musical and hopefully inspirational. This week’s OG comes to you from Spatsizi Wilderness Plateau in northern BC where we’re fly-fishing. This must be
Why we call Saturday’s blog “OG.” Read More »
We’re in them right now, the hottest, most sultry time of the year. Their name comes from the rising of Sirius, the Dog Star, in the sky at this time of year. But the phrase likely entered our brains when Noel Coward wrote the song “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” in 1931. Why mad? Because they
The Dog Days of August Read More »
Paul Goldberger had dinner at our home 10 years ago. Back then Goldberger was the architecture critic for the New Yorker having done the same at the New York Times. Goldberger was speaking the next day at a RamsayTalk and we’d invited a tableful of Toronto architects to hear from the dean of the profession’s
Broke, In More Ways Than One Read More »
“Of course we should form a women’s pro soccer league in Canada.”
Yes, we should. But not like how we did women’s pro hockey.
The Beautiful Game Read More »
“Of course we should form a women’s pro soccer league in Canada.” Yes, we should. But not like how we did women’s pro hockey. This time, let’s make it work for the players and for the millions of girls who form pro soccer’s growing fan base. It should also work for Canada, of course, which
The Beautiful Game Read More »
No one knows before an Olympics what it will be remembered for. We knew when the Tokyo Games opened on July 23rd that COVID would play a role. But we now know before they close tomorrow they’ll be remembered for three things. The first is, if you’re a Canadian, our winners are overwhelmingly our women. This
Faster. Higher. Stronger. Quitter. Read More »
An essential chapter of the fascist playbook is to blame foreign actors for your troubles. Poland, Hungary, and China do it today as a matter of official policy, as did America under Donald Trump. But Alberta? In July 2019, just three months after Jason Kenney’s United Conservatives defeated Rachel Notley’s NDPs to become Alberta’s ruling
The Anti-Everything Inquiry Read More »
I’m tired of the phrases “award-winning” and “best-selling.” Tired because they signal puffery and bullshit over skill and achievement. Which is odd since they were born meaning the opposite. I don’t mean award-winning as in the Nobel Prize, though a friend once peevishly noted: “They’re giving them out every year now, right?” I also don’t
The “August Long Weekend” began as a bank holiday, which is the term to describe a day when the banks are closed in the United Kingdom and the Crown dependencies.” It’s not that banks get to willy-nilly declare a holiday like the one on Monday. It’s that all holidays, like Christmas and New Year’s, are
Happy Bank Holiday Weekend Read More »
