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 »
America is such a rich well of strangeness that you can uncover almost any belief about anything and hold it up as proof of whatever strangeness you fancy. Like only brown cows produce chocolate milk, or dinosaurs and humans co-existed, or “a group of Satan-worshiping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to
Fake News. Real Death. Read More »
I generally write one blog on a subject and then move on. This is because the world is a fascinating place for a hedgehog like me who likes to dart – oh, look, there’s a squirrel! – from one idea to the next. But mix in a pandemic, and the columnist’s lament of what to
The Vaccine-Hesitants — and Lunatics Read More »
