In 1993, Len Simms took the Progressive Conservatives into a provincial election in Newfoundland and Labrador, against Clyde Wells and the governing Liberals. It was an uphill battle, and Simms knew it. By the end… Read More
This is me on my living room couch. In my latest Substack post, I write about a brief moment of panic earlier this month, when I looked at the clock and a wave of stress… Read More
“You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.”— Jeannette Rankin Jeannette Rankin was a political force a century ago. In 1916, she became the first woman to win federal office… Read More
Red Nose Day yesterday posted to YouTube this sketch from 2001, of a satire of music competition reality shows. Lenny Henry and Simon Pegg are among those auditioning for the likes of Rowan Atkinson, who… Read More
Michael Penn may be best known as the brother of Sean Penn, perhaps as the husband and sometime collaborate of Aimee Mann, but I think of him primarily for his debut single. No Myth is… Read More
“The guilty think all talk is of themselves.”— “Geoffrey Chaucer” The quote of the day is a well-known proverb from Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, although of course that’s not how he wrote it … modern… Read More
[Most of this was published earlier today as my newsletter on Substack.] Congratulations on making it to the weekend. We’re being advised via Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro to conserve electricity and that rolling outages are… Read More
Later this month, a revamped version of the 1984 Style Council album Cafe Bleu will be released, and Paul Weller & co. have been goosing the deluxe treatment with social media posts. On YouTube, there’s… Read More
“Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reasons.”— Robertson Davies A note: the cat above was Bellybutton, the much beloved cat Martha and I… Read More
I learned a lot in Brian Jay Jones’s wonderful biography of Jim Henson, including the fact that Henson had mapped out The Muppet Show — right down to the colonnades, with the dancing muppets introducing… Read More
It’s standard practice that when a new party takes over a government, things change. Some shifts are dramatic and soon, and others take a while. On Thursday, three months and a week after ousting the… Read More
“In department stores, so much kitchen equipment is bought indiscriminately by people who just come in for men’s underwear.”— Julia Child A note: Julia Child’s kitchen (not the TV set version, but the real one… Read More
Like a lot of townies, I love a stroll in Bowring Park. The park, in the traditional west end of St. John’s and nestled near the Waterford River, is a magnet for people looking to… Read More
Looking for some company while you walk the dog, hit the gym or do the laundry? Here are three new episodes of podcasts made here in Newfoundland and Labrador. (From time to time, I’ll point… Read More
“You can’t put off being young until you retire.”– Philip Larkin