I am waiting for the 52 Crosstown at the Dartmouth Bridge Terminal. Across from the platform is the row of parked out-of-service buses. The one right across from me has a placard on its side promoting the Start By Believing campaign of Avalon Sexual Assault Centre. It’s a nice seafoam green. The text says, “25% […]
Jane Kansas
Posted inNews + Opinion
The monument in front of the North End Library is a horrible mess
North is Freedom is the name of the nasty monument outside the Halifax North Memorial Public Library. This summer it was absent for more than two months, carted off to Cowie Hill for storage while its base was chipped out and replaced, leaving the library plaza an ugly construction site. But now it’s back. Curses! […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Cimex lectularius report
Day One On way to bed see first bed bug on floor. Time: 11:24pm. Momentarily paralyzed by shock and sense of disaster. Apprehend with wad of toilet paper. Flush. Return to the bed, flick down top sheet. Bed bug skitters away from light. Apprehend. Flush. Retreat to the living room. Fire up computer. Play games. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Dave Nauss, the fixer
If you were stuck on a sinking boat in the middle of nowhere with only chewing gum, four feet of wire and a claw hammer, and could choose one companion, you could do no better than Dave Nauss. He could do anything. What he has done is fight fires and repair bicycles. Dave’s dad Jack […]
Posted inArts + Music
25 years of Pride
On Saturday, tens of thousands of folks will enjoy the 25th Halifax Pride Parade. The parade and the week of events around it are listed in tourist guides. It will be broadcast live on TV. Banks and governments and businesses will have floats. I won’t be there. Back in 1987, the date thought of as […]
Posted inArts + Music
Barry Bennett sees animals
Barry Bennett ends his stint as artist-in-residence at Veith House with a show of new paintings. This is a world away from his old life. Bennett was a chartered accountant and CEO of an insurance corporation for 10 years. He burnt out and in 2000 switched gears, attending NSCAD to study drawing and painting. In […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
John W. Doull moves to Dartmouth
You know what a pain in the ass it is to move books? You go to the liquor store, get eight boxes, bring them back and then realize you need four more, but then those still aren’t enough and you end up shoving a bunch of books into grocery bags. Down at John W. Doull […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Via Boston
Bridge by Santiago Calatrava I am on Concord coach 912, en route to Portland, Maine with a 90 minute layover in Boston. Boston is the place of a sad day for me, in 2004 when I am on a bicycle trip. I had turned 50 in June, and to celebrate I buy a bike (beautifully […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Manchester, New Hampshire
Hugh Jackman in a wife beater. I am in a small hotel room on a fourth floor in Manchester, New Hampshire. I have arrived into town by bus from Burlington, Vermont. The night is calm and warm; the days have been very hot. When I get off the bus I start asking anyone I see […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The Thugs of Rensselaer Falls, New York
In the middle of lovely Amish country there are three of these guys. I cross the bridge from Johnstown, Ontario to Ogdensburg, New York. It is very very windy, and maybe the most scarey thing of the trip. Most of the way over, the railings disappear. They are gone. There is construction and I am […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Ellen
Ellen and Noisy Ellen is another sister, living in Ottawa. We grew up there, so as Sue, Ellen and I drive out to Westboro and then IKEA it is Ellen who knows the way the best, and she calls out turns to take and lanes to occupy. Ellen is, I think, the sister most like […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Cute Puppy Interlude
I meet a cute puppy named Brandie. She has a little Newt Gringrich doll. Her mother is a lab and her father is a poodle, but the milkman is an Irish Greyhound. She’s going to weigh 50 pounds someday.