On my most recent appearance on a trivia episode of CBC Radio’s The Signal with Adam Walsh, I called back to a show that had a particularly cheesy quality. The actor Lionel Sander, playing Max,… Read More
There are many songs that came out of the British invasion, but there’s one — a veritable anthem to this day for football fans in the United Kingdom — that often comes to mind when… Read More
“I was a voracious reader, but you would be mistaken if you took that as evidence of my quality.”— Mordecai Richler The phrase “voracious reader” can be a loaded one, often without meaning to be…. Read More
“I guess I don’t subscribe to the twee school. I remember trying to lose our copy of Thomas the Tank Engine before I had to read it again. Life is a more dimensional and interesting… Read More
What kind of person was David Feder? I learned a story this morning, when I was watching the recording of his funeral, which was held Tuesday in St. John’s. When he was recovering from one… Read More
“Where we have strong emotions, we’re liable to fool ourselves.”— Carl Sagan Carl Sagan uttered these words in the groundbreaking TV series Cosmos, which aired on PBS in the fall of 1980. Sagan’s documentaries, and… Read More
Here’s a story about a gift that left me speechless. Well, for a good few moments. Years ago, I had a wonderful scarf — until I no longer did. It was long, warm, striped and… Read More
It might seem unusual, but I’ve been leaning into the main rule of improvisational comedy as a way of helping my mom, especially in moments when her Alzheimer’s disease is posing a challenge. A few… Read More
“I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man. I will not. And the government will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man. Not now, not ever. The leader… Read More
“For better or worse, it is the commentator who has the last word.”— Vladimir Nabokov This observation from Vladimir Nabokov is spoken by one of the Russian-American novelist’s characters, and not a nice one, either…. Read More
“One should never trespass on kindness. Human kindness is like a defective tap: the first gush may be impressive, but the stream soon dries up.” — P.D. James I had come across a truncated version… Read More
“I hate it when actors use the word ‘journey.’ That’s not a f–king journey, winning a Spirit Award. Escaping from Ukraine is.” — John Waters I’ve been a fan of John Waters and his trashy-chic… Read More
“The other creatures with which we share this world have their rights too, but not speaking our language, they have no voice, no vote; it is our moral duty to take care of them.”— Roger… Read More
“Never apologize, never explain — didn’t we always say that? Well, I haven’t and I don’t.”— Marianne Faithfull Those words appear in the first of Marianne Faithfull’s memoirs, Faithfull: An Autobiography, which was published in… Read More
Language can get in the way when you travel to another country, and that apparently can involve some Americans who would prefer to speak English their own way, thank you very much. We were at… Read More