So three lawyers walk into the Ontario Legislature…
…but this is no joke! There’s a friendly exercise each morning that the Ontario Legislature sits when Members have the opportunity to introduce guests seated in the gallery – family…
Kenn
Recalling the optimism of Expo ’67
It’s hard to believe that it will be forty-five years ago this spring since the opening of Canada’s first World’s Fair – Expo ’67. I have assembled a number of…
Finding Émile
I reached another marker this week in my posthumous, intriguing, fan-like relationship with Montréal poet Émile Nelligan (1879-1941) when Craig’s partner, Claude, drove me to the site of his burial…
An authentic winter weekend in Montréal
Click here for a link to an album of pictures from my busy weekend in Montréal. (As I write this I still have a half-day left here so there will…
Perth & environs, Lanark Cty., Ontario, Canada – December, 2011
Perth & environs, Lanark Cty., Ontario, Canada – December, 2011, a set on Flickr. It looked like it was going to be a green (more like brown) holiday in eastern…
Something that made me think “Huh?” on World AIDS Day
As I do every Thursday, I spent two hours late this afternoon with a group of gay men. We range in age from something like 35 to just over 60.…
Medical update: I could do better if ‘good enough’ wasn’t still good enough
It’s been quite some time since I had the run of tests for HIV and diabetes, in part because of my fear of the results, so today’s news was quite…
Pig Penn
Very puzzling, but markedly less infuriating than the sexual abuse and cover-up scandal shrouding Penn State University, is the thoughtless, pigskin-headed response last night by student mobs to the sackings…
Pte. Thomas Earl Butler: 17 March 1896 – 1 March 1917
It’s been over ninety-four years since my paternal grandmother’s brother, Tom, died on the World War One battlefields of France, roughly five weeks before the final assault on Vimy. Grandma…
Rest in Peace, Jamie Hubley
“I’m tired of life, really. It’s so hard, I’m sorry, I can’t take it anymore.” “I don’t want my parents to think this is their fault, either. I love my…
Walking the Glen Tay Block
This time last year, visiting Perth for Thanksgiving, I set out for a walk, the route of which I could easily picture in my mind but the distance (see map)…not…
Bursa – and not the city in Turkey!
The ever-increasing pain I have experienced recently now has a name – bursitis. It follows the hip-femur repairs in 2003 and from years of strain on my minimal maximus –…
A most memorable trip to London long, long ago
I have been scanning some photos stored in shoe-boxes and managed to touch up several from a class trip to London which took place during March Break in 1976. (How…
The Winchester – from draft beer to coffee since before Confederation
I did a short double-take walking up Parliament Street today, approaching the former Winchester Hotel. At the sreet-level entrance to what are now apartments upstairs – to the south of…
Follow-up on my aches and pains
The x-rays (not exactly as pictured) last week were negative for anything untoward. All bones, and metal objects substituting for same reinforcing my femur, are intact. That’s a relief! The…
My journey with AIDS…and more! 2011-09-08 20:29:15
This post serves as a reminder of what has ailed me in recent days. On the day of Jack Layton’s funeral I spent an inordinate amount of time on my…
Final tributes to Jack Layton in pictures
Click for pictures from Jack Layton’s final journey today from Toronto City Hall, and then Roy Thomson Hall. It was an emotion-packed, life-affirming day.
There are some blog posts I’d like to forget – on returning to the NDP
I’ve always tried to make this blog somewhat of a record of my life, however fragmented, warts and all. Here in the archives is my defiant abandonment of the New…
The Town of Perth, Ontario’s appreciation of her past
My heart goes out to the people of Goderich who learned this week how quickly our architectural heritage can be severely damaged or wiped out completely. Having recently returned from…