According to Paul Rimstead (I think), Bud Grant, the old Winnipeg Blue Bombers coach from the USA, used to say that “Canadians should be more like Texans.” Today it might be said that Stephen Harper from Alberta has now realized this dream. And whether you approve or not is the main ballot question in this […]
TORONTO, ONTARIO STREETCAR SUBURBS, AUGUST 11, 2013. When I bought the Summer Issue of the New York Review of Books at my local magazine store several days ago, it came wrapped in a plastic bag, with a red and white seal on the outside saying “FREE 1963 premier issue reprint!.” Technically, the summer of 2013 […]
Our Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper is supposed to be making a big cabinet shuffle this week, but I couldn’t care less. He is the only important person in his cabinet. And how many times can he shuffle himself? Anyway, it has been hot and humid in the summer in the city. We’ve had unexpected […]
Like many others in the true north, strong and free, I was saddened to hear that Stompin’ Tom Connors passed away, at the age of 77, on Wednesday, March 6, 2013. I can’t pretend to be any great fan of Stompin’ Tom’s, or any kind of expert on his life and times. All I can […]
A few nights ago I caught up with the second latest episode of “Downton Abbey” (ie season 3, episode 4), as received here in the wilds of North America (and stored on the “Recordings” section of our current Bell Fibe cable TV service, here in the particular deep wilderness of Southern Ontario, Canada!). I was […]
GANATSEKWYAGON, ONTARIO. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2012. In my advancing age, it takes longer to catch up with the latest trends, racing by your brain at what sometimes seems close to the speed of light, etc. So my apologies for starting with a post on the Think Progress website from last Friday (September 14, 2012). It’s […]
Ernest Hemingway was one subsidiary subject that crossed my mind during the Spanish sections of our recent counterweights Western Europe conference circuit. That no doubt had something to do with the editors’ message of this past May 9 : “We go to Europe for inside story (back for Hemingway and Gellhorn on May 28).” [And […]
[UPDATED WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, AUGUST 22, 2012 ; TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2016 : scroll to bottom of page]. Tuesday, November 29, 2011 marks the 30th anniversary of the death of Natalie Wood, aka Natalia Zakharenko, aka Natasha Gurdin, aka Natalie Wood Wagner – “a movie star, from probably the last period when stars were still […]
I discovered Ernest Hemingway’s lean and evocative writing as a teenager in high school. For a few years he was the hero of my adolescence. Then he blew his head off with a shotgun in 1961. By 1964, when his memoir of his triumphant young adulthood in Paris was published posthumously, I had left Hemingway […]
TORONTO. TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2009 (and kudos to whoever waved the Canadian flag last night, in front of the MSNBC booth, on the National Mall in Washington). [UPDATED : MONDAY, AUGUST 16, 2010 ; SUNDAY, MAY 15, 2011 : see below]. “Who cares about local media personalities in Toronto, Canada?” is a good question. And […]
