Saturday, July 25, 2026
Like a lot of people, I didn’t think that much of George Michael at the outset. Wham! was a huge pop act in the early and mid-Eighties, and were hard to escape. Nothing really against… Read More
Thursday, July 23, 2026
“Ideas brush past fleeting and insubstantial as moths. But I let them go, I don’t want them. What I want is a voice.”— Joyce Carol Oates Having turned 88 last month, the American author Joyce… Read More
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
“No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.”— W.H. Auden So wrote the British poet W.H. Auden, during a period of his life after he had… Read More
Saturday, July 18, 2026
In November 1986, I went to see New Order at the Congress Centre in Ottawa. Peter Gabriel was playing that same night in an arena across town; instead of a nosebleed seat there, I went… Read More
Friday, July 17, 2026
Martha and I were in Toronto in early June, just before FIFA launched the World Cup matches in cities across North America. Toronto was clearly expecting some hoopla — and not just in anticipatory (actually,… Read More
Thursday, July 16, 2026
For many years, I’ve delighted in telling people about a library in St. John’s that most folks have never seen — nor even heard of. I’ve written an article for the summer issue of NQ,… Read More
Wednesday, July 15, 2026
“We have things that grow outside of the house but I wouldn’t really call it a garden.”— Roz Chast A prime attraction of The New Yorker for almost five decades, the cartoonist Roz Chast draws… Read More
Monday, July 13, 2026
“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it emotionally.”— Flannery O’Connor You won’t find photos of the American author Flannery O’Connor as an old woman, nor even really of a middle-aged… Read More
Sunday, July 12, 2026
Even before I started reading up on dementia in early 2024, when my mother’s Alzheimer’s was presenting itself, I knew about the phenomenon of wanting to go home. I heard about it from friends, who… Read More
Friday, July 10, 2026
For almost a year, I’ve been eating from a breakfast bowl that often isn’t much to look at, but I can say without reservations that it’s had a great effect on my health. The goal… Read More
Tuesday, July 7, 2026
Like hundreds of millions of others, we’ve been watching the men’s World Cup. Sometimes we’re at home, but we’ve been making a point of joining others for a communal watch at bars downtown. This is… Read More
Sunday, July 5, 2026
You’re not supposed to have a special auntie, but we all do, I think. I was fortunate to grow up with plenty of aunts and uncles, and wonderful family connections, but Trish Cogswell was the… Read More
Thursday, July 2, 2026
On Wednesday, Martha and I stopped for a pint and caught the final stretch of the England-Congo match at the World Cup. Congo was leading 1-0, and then — boom. Harry Kane scored not one… Read More
Wednesday, July 1, 2026
I’ll be on CBC Radio’s The Signal with host Adam Walsh this Friday for the kick-up-your-feetest hour of radio. Well, that’s the intention. It’s time for another trivia show, and I’m … what? thrilled? ecstatic?… Read More
Tuesday, June 30, 2026
“I believe the climax of our troubles will be reached within the next few days, (after which the day of peace will quickly draw near), though they will undoubtedly bring trouble to many. Jim and… Read More