Four Strong Winds
I've been thinking about Ian Tyson lately. With the recent death of Leonard Cohen, the songs and the songwriters of Canada - and an era - have been heard a…
Secret Path
Chanie Wenjack died October 23rd 1966. He was twelve. He and two other boys ran away from their residential school, taking a secret path north into the bush. They wanted…
Olympic Games of Chance
Two days to the Rio Olympics opening ceremonies, and the games of chance are still being played. The Zika virus, polluted water venues, and a bacterial risk to horses. Glanders is…
Earls of Grantham
Below is the lineage of the Earls of Grantham. The family name is Crawley, and their home is Downton Abbey in Yorkshire. It is a fictional family in a television…
Apples to Apples
TV writer David Shore was on CBC Radio's q (formerly Q) today. He was introduced as creator of House and Battle Creek, writer on Due South and originally from London…
Turcotte, the movie
If you live in or are from New Brunswick, if you’re Canadian, if you like horse racing, the NFB has a film for you: Secretariat's Jockey: Ron Turcotte (2013). In…
She Loves You
Some things you will never ever forget. One, for me, is Ed Sullivan introducing “these youngsters from Liverpool.” Hands clenched on head, pulling at hair, “eek, aah, oohh.” In the…
Ford Branding
Tobacco companies are probably heaving a huge sigh of relief. As far as we know, no cigarettes were smoked by Mayor Rob Ford. So they do not need to distance…
A Nation’s Songs
Whatever one might think of the US of A, they got good national songs. Watching Monday’s Presidential Inauguration, the high point for me was the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir giving it…
Reading History
Well-written and well-researched historical fiction gives the reader a two-fer: a good story and a history lesson that you may have slept through during school. Recently, I’ve been living in…