Cold Mountain Poems
I first became aware of the Tang dynasty poet, Han Shan, in the late 1960s, when I was engrossed in reading the poets of the earlier Beat generation. It was…
history
The Cold War
I was reminded by an article on Slate that the (to me) iconic film of the Cold War, Fail Safe, was released fifty years ago this week. And as the…
People’s Climate March: Economic resistance went mainstream
Kate Aronoff, a freelance journalist based in Philadelphia, argues that the recent People’s Climate March and Flood Wall Street protests made climate change “impossible for even the most mainstream of…
keith olbermann: derek jeter is not god. (a must-see!)
Dog, I am a glad this baseball season is over. And not only because the Red Sox finished in last place.
The Forgotten Gulag
In the introduction to Anne Applebaum’s Pulitzer-prize-winning book, Gulag: A History, she ponders why the “crimes of Stalin do not inspire the same visceral reaction to the crimes of Hitler.”…
Amazing Discovery
Have you heard about the amazing discovery the Harper Government is responsible for? No, not the Franklin Expedition which remained known to the Inuit for almost 200 years through oral…
what i’m reading: indian horse by richard wagamese, a must-read, especially for canadians
Indian Horse, by Richard Wagamese, is a hauntingly beautiful novel about an Ojibway boy’s journey into manhood. It was the Readers’ Choice winner of the 2013 Canada Reads, CBC Radio’s…
revolutionary thoughts of the day: kareem abdul-jabbar, the new yorker, howard zinn
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has an excellent essay in Time, something only a big-name writer can get away with in the mainstream media. Abdul-Jabbar names the stark truths behind the uprising in…
The First Dark Age
The causes of the first “Dark Age” have long been the topic of debate among historians and archeologists. Many ideas and theories have been put forward; none have found universal…
Perks #nlpoli
A story in last weekend’s Telegram documented all the perks that former Premiers get. Aside from a severance package, a couple of extra months pay, and a government car allowance…
My Grandfathers’ War
One hundred years ago World War I began, a war that started as a clash in a tiny, almost unknown Balkan state and blossomed into a violent, gruesome war that…
babe ruth was not a fat red sox: thoughts on historical fiction arising from dennis lehane’s "the given day"
I recently read The Given Day, Dennis Lehane’s novel about 1919 Boston, especially the Boston police strike, and the widescale rioting that followed. The book is an engaging hybrid of…
nadine gordimer, 1923-2014
Nadine Gordimer was a great writer, and a steadfast voice for justice. Gordimer, a white South African, was a member of the African National Congress when the organization itself was…
Lawrence in Arabia
I recall with some vividness seeing David Lean’s masterpiece film, Lawrence of Arabia, when it was first shown in Canadian theatres. I was 12 and utterly astounded by the movie. Not…
A Cup of Dragon Well
Legend has it that, in the Qing Dynasty, Qianlong (1711-1799 CE), the grandson of the Emperor Kangxi, went on a holiday to the West Lake district, in the Hangzhou area…
Reflections On Canada Day: The Impact Of Canadian History
I’m writing this on the morning of Canada Day 2014, thinking about all the fascinating things I’ve read about and seen, and all the people I’ve met. One thing I’ve…
On the centenary of Gavrilo Princip’s fateful shot in Sarajevo, let’s learn the right lessons from history
Gavrilo Princip under arrest. Below: Princip and the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Today is the centenary of the day Gavrilo Princip took his little Belgian pistol to Sarajevo and blew the…
National Aboriginal Day Celebrated in Canada
On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people from all backgrounds gathered all over Canada to celebrate National Aboriginal Day, which honours First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples’ invaluable contributions to…
The Hollow Crown: Henry V
As I started to watch the last film in the Hollow Crown series, I wasn’t sure whether Tom Hiddleston was up to playing the iconic role in Shakespeare’s most patriotic…
what i’m reading: the book thief, an anti-war novel
I’m sure many of you have read The Book Thief, Markus Zusak’s youth novel about a German girl and her (non-biological) family during World War II. If you haven’t yet…