For a few years MoneySense, a Toronto-based magazine, has been ranking cities in Canada from best to worst. For the third year in a row they’ve decided Hawkesbury is one of the worst places to live in Canada, and the … Continue reading →
Continue readingTag: writing
mark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Memories of Antietam
child of the corn, a photo by imagecarnival on Flickr. Little Jehoshaphat was born in 1832 to a family of carnival performers and technicians that roamed the Americas. From Georgia up to New England, as far west as the Mississippi … Continue reading →
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Yet another NEW piece by Mozart discovered
As you may know, I’ve written a novel in which Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is alive and well, and supporting himself by writing “lost” Mozart pieces. Another one was discovered earlier this week in an attic in Austria. According to the … Continue reading →
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: The history of English in 10 minutes
This is really quite impressive, and even funny in many places: -via Jim Anderson, who’s book, DEADLINE, you should check out if you like mysteries. Alltop speaks funglish!
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Pirate Therapy and Other Cures
My new collection is now available on Amazon and on Kindle: Ever wondered what might happen if your therapist was replaced by a pirate? Or how disquieting it would be to receive postcards from your future self? If William Shatner … Continue reading →
Continue readingcultural sn:afu: Sunday Blues Spotlight: Derek Miller
I first saw Derek Miller when he was featured on the live music TV program, ‘Arbor Live’, on the APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network). Arbor Live is a fantastic show to catch great new and independent bands. Unfortunately the budget … Continue reading →
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Kurt Vonnegut on the shape of stories
The lecture goes on, but unfortunately the video doesn’t; this is too bad, because then Vonnegut describes Kafka’s The Metamorphosis: Poor old Gregor Samsa. Not only does he start really low on the GI-axis (good fortune, ill fortune), he turns … Continue reading →
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Ad hominem rules for writing
drooling pinheads open their stories with the weather, or a prologue fatuous knobs use the passive voice corpulent prose-pederasts use a verb other than “said” to carry dialog (and only a complete asshole would use an adverb to modify “said”) … Continue reading →
Continue readingFusing and Musing: Poem of the day
image source An Almost Made Up Poem I see you drinking at a fountain with tiny blue hands, no, your hands are not tiny they are small, and the fountain is in France where you wrote me that last letter and I answered and never heard from you again. you
Continue readingcultural sn:afu: Pregnancy Update | she’s a girl.
Thronged were the streets with people; and noisy groups at the house-doors Sat in the cheerful sun, and rejoiced and gossiped together, Every house was an inn, where all were welcomed and feasted; For with this simple people, who lived … Continue reading →
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Orwell: The Prevention of Literature
“In our age, the idea of intellectual liberty is under attack from two directions. On the one side are its theoretical enemies, the apologists of totalitarianism, and on the other its immediate, practical enemies, monopoly and bureaucracy. Any writer or … Continue reading →
Continue readingcmkl: What does it mean to ‘scan’ web content?
Trying to use numbers to settle an argument today at work I found this (somewhat old) Jakob Nielsen column about how much reading most people actually do on the internet. The answer? Of the words you write, about 28 per cent on average get read.
Continue readingcultural sn:afu: Little Victor Update | the TV zombie
I think I’m about to find out how much TV is too much TV in the safe development of a child’s mind. My two-year old son can recognize Dog The Bounty Hunter’s voice, and has now started to respond to … Continue reading →
Continue readingcmkl: Wanted: a readability calculator that doesn’t offend writers
All my life I’ve considered myself something of a writer. It always got me my highest marks in high school, it came easily to me and for a long time I fancied a career as a journalist. And it is part of what I do for a living. But there
Continue readingcultural sn:afu: The greatest Christmas movie miracle of all time
This originally appeared as a column in the December 22 print and online editions of the North Bay / Nippissing News, the weekly newspaper I’ve been writing for recently. I’ve been recovering from some fairly serious illnesses over the past … Continue reading →
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: My blog: Reviewing 2011, Previewing 2012
Following in the custom of New Years, I take a look at the past year for this blog and set some goals for the coming year. Almost necessarily, this results in something of a broader look at blogging in general, webpage design, and my place in the broader blogosphere and political
Continue readingcultural sn:afu: How the death of Steve Jobs could save Canadians
This originally appeared as a column in the November 3 print and online editions of the North Bay / Nippissing News, the weekly newspaper I’ve been writing for recently. I’ve been recovering from some fairly serious illnesses over the past …
Continue readingThe Skwib: The six essentials every writer must have
According to the semi-famous writer, fake expert and shiller of Mac products, John Hodgman — not to be confused with John Hodgeman, inventor of alligator pants — there are six essentials that “every writer must have at his command.” empathy the willingness to endure solitude the belief the world cares about what you have to […]
Continue readingcmkl: Good web content is not about writing “punchy”
And in fact, that headline breaks another cardinal rule about web writing. You’re supposed to write positively – what things are, what you will do as opposed to what they aren’t and what you won’t.
Continue readingThe Skwib: A writer writes
april 26 grading blues, a photo by dewberry1964 on Flickr. Ignatius was working. That was the first rule for writers. It wasn’t about the tools, his teachers had said, way back in school. It was about discipline. Work. A writer must write, even if, as Thomas Mann said: “A writer is someone for whom writing […]
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