I talk a lot. This comes as zero surprise to anyone who has ever met me. But it’s not just a personal preference. No, really! It’s also pretty much required for what I do. I run an independent bookstore: talking to customers is a large part of my job. […]
I’m going to flat out admit I know very little about the Roaring Twenties. What little I do is mostly cribbed from still images and movies like Chicago. You know: jazz! Drinking! Dancing! More drinking! Guns! And did I mention drinking? Not exactly what you might call a rigorous examination […]
Now is the summer of our discontent… We’ve finally gotten down to actual summer weather in the last two weeks. So of course I spent the last two weeks without AC as I dealt with a series of cascading electrical problems. One complete power shut-down later, things are finally […]
By some strange quirk of timing and location, I am currently involved in or gearing up for three different elections at once. On the federal front it’s just a by-election to fill a recently vacated seat: it is the least visible and strident of the three. The provincial […]
Generally I try to keep my columns from retreading old ground. There are so many great books, authors and ideas out there that it seems a waste to repeat any of them. But today I’m going to revisit Simone St. James. Because… damn. Shropshire isn’t the kind of […]
I own several shares of a cat. It’s not a weird as it sounds. A friend with a cat travels travels a lot, so the kitty spends a fair amount of time with me. She’s spending this week with me in fact, while her owner is off swimming, running, and […]