How to move into a new apartment safely in the time of COVID
Moving day always sucks, pandemic or not. But at least before COVID-19 you could lean on your friends for help, and if a lot of other people were moving at the same time—as happens around the start of May and September—in all that carrying of boxes and squeezing past each other in the hallway…
You officially have things to look forward to as Mayworks Halifax moves online
Mayworks Halifax—the festival celebrating workers and the arts—isn’t gonna let COVID-19 hold it down. The annual event—which kicks off tomorrow and has socially distant programming available all month long—is rife with the sort of content that makes you feel seen and helps you learn about the labour movement. Even better? It’s a slice of normalcy…
What Team Coast is currently streaming
Working from home tip number 546? Create a boss-ass playlist to keep you psyched and capture some calm. Here, we share a handful of tracks we’ve been playing on repeat this week—all linked below for your listening needs. “Their Love Was Alive Before They Were Dead” by Joshua Van Tassel Sound architect Joshua Van Tassel—a…
Norma MacDonald’s Old Future and new vision
Talking with singer-songwriter Norma MacDonald, it becomes clear almost immediately that she doesn’t just draw her creative waters from the same wells as Loretta Lynn or Kris Kristoffersen: She also drinks deeply from them, saying things like “most songwriting is nostalgia anyway”—which could be a lyric ripped from the songbook of either alt-country great if…
Nova Scotians are still dying from the overdose crisis
Just as Nova Scotia tries its best to contain COVID, and Canada’s largest mass killing in recent history leaves 22 people dead from an unimaginable act of violence, there are other tragedies that have been swept under the rug amid the chaos. Canada’s overdose crisis continues to claim the lives of our neighbours and friends—on…
How much libido is too much libido?
QI’m a 31-year-old female. Last week I suddenly started to experience an overwhelming, compulsive and near-constant state of physical arousal. I’ve masturbated so much looking for relief that even though my entire lower region is super-sore and swollen and still, it’s like my whole body is pulsating with this electric arousal telling me to ignore…
It’s time to give yourself permission to ask dumb questions, Sagittarius
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAURUS! (April 20-May 20) Is there an area of your life where you would like a do-over? A chance to cancel the past and erase lingering messiness and clear a path for who-knows-what new possibility? The coming weeks will be an excellent time to prepare—not to actually take the leap, but rather make…
About that gun lobbyist at the Nova Scotia shootings press conference
The RCMP has a reputation for being so careful and cunning, its investigators “always get their man.” But Tuesday, during what was supposed to be a press conference about Nova Scotia’s mass shootings, the man they got was a registered gun lobbyist. Nova Scotia RCMP superintendent Darren Campbell did most of the talking at…
3,000,000 cases
With the numbers getting so high, moving so quickly, tracked at so many levels, you could find a scary new coronavirus statistic every day. Nova Scotia hits 900 cases of C19. The United States reaches 1,000,000 cases. There are 3,000,000 cases around the world. Actually, those are all from Monday. The last time we looked…
Psychologists step up to offer free services in wake of shootings
On Tuesday, just nine days after the worst massacre in Canadian history, Nova Scotia announced mental health supports for anyone living in the province who needs it. The Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA) says is it arranging one free-of-charge psychological support session per Nova Scotian thanks to a roster of psychologists who are volunteering their…
The Coast’s first TikTok: Regional council votes to look at looking at changes for pedestrians and cyclists during COVID-19
@tikcoast Our first Tik Tok: here’s what happened at regional council today ##halifax ##hrm ##covid ##cycling ##politics ##newspaper ##news ##novascotia ##fyp ##autotune ♬ original sound – tikcoast There was a nothing-but-pleasantries discussion about pedestrians, cycling and what to do about tiny sidewalks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Please enjoy our first ever TikTok to learn what…
RCMP continue to investigate what gunman wore, drove and where he went
The gunman in Nova Scotia’s mass shootings on April 18 and 19 was caught on camera at least a dozen times during the course of his 13-hour rampage. Provincial RCMP revealed more information about the ongoing investigation in an update on Tuesday, April 28. “Having provided an account of the incidents this past Friday,…
Six questions with Sue Goyette, Halifax’s new Poet Laureate
Hot off yesterday’s news that the city has selected the incomparable Sue Goyette—author of seven poetry books and heart-disarming lines like “I bulldozed a dream on waking from it last night. Drove around, pushing, until it was compact and easy to carry”—to be its latest Poet Laureate, we called up the Masterworks Award winner to…
Just the news on COVID-19 in Nova Scotia, for the week starting April 27
NOTE: This week is now over. For the very latest news, please go here. But for an informative look back at exactly how Nova Scotia responded to COVID-19 in realtime, keep on reading. Click here for a smaller, mobile-friendly version of The Coast’s Nova Scotia COVID-19 case graph. Editor’s note: The Coast has never aimed…
Bring Halifax culture home with our arts streaming guide, April 27-May 3
Monday, April 27 Trivia for Shut-ins Halifax trivia hosts-about-town Jason Dorey and Andrew Evans have shifted their popular triv game from pubs like Durty Nelly’s, the Lion’s Head and The Fickle Frog, to a Facebook livestream. Three 20-question rounds will challenge, amuse and delight, and with no prizes on the line, you won’t even mind…
RCMP release detailed timeline of Nova Scotia massacre
Friday morning, after days of media outlets publishing unconfirmed details, Nova Scotia RCMP finally gave an updated timeline of the events of April 18 and 19. The update came from Supt. Darren Campbell, officer in charge of support services for Nova Scotia RCMP. He began by reiterating how small of a community Portapique is,…
Why talk to downplay COVID-19 and climate seems so similar
For a long time, the story went that the tobacco industry cooked up disinformation and then spread it to the fossil fuel guys, the chemical industry, pharma, you name it. But one thing that became incredibly clear when we began digging into PR firms and specific publicists was that this version of history is not…
Call it by its name: Misogynist violence
Nova Scotians are spending the weekend with heavy hearts as they mourn the loss of 22 innocent people in one of the worst mass shootings in our country’s history. Yet along with this sorrow, feminist activists in Nova Scotia and across the country are also feeling outraged because women and girls in this province continue…
“Solar chickens” and the future of farming
When Jackie Augustine opens a chicken coop door one brisk spring morning in upstate New York, the hens bolt out like windup toys. Still, as their faint barnyard scent testifies, they aren’t battery-powered but very much alive. These are “solar chickens.” At this local community egg cooperative, Geneva Peeps, the birds live with solar…
After two incidents and lots of scary rumours, there are no further threats
There have been two significant incidents involving police today in HRM. The first involved an airsoft gun at the Canadian Tire in Dartmouth Crossing. The issue has been resolved and there was never any serious threat to the public. The store was locked down when the incident was first reported. The second incident involves an…
How to donate to families of the shooting victims
The Red Cross and the Province of Nova Scotia have created the Stronger Together Fund to provide support to the individuals, families and communities affected by the tragedy of April 18 and 19. Donations can be made online, or by calling 1-800-418-1111 and specifying it is for the Stronger Together Nova Scotia Fund. Donations are…
How to tune in to Nova Scotia’s virtual vigil
A vigil to honour the 22 killed in this weekend’s mass-killings in Colchester county will take place online beginning Friday, April 24, at 7pm Atlantic Time, allowing Nova Scotians to recognize their grief together. It will be hosted by the Colchester- Supporting our Communities Facebook group. It will also be streamed on YouTube. The website…
Make room for the chaos
In grief—in horror and shock and disgust and pain and death and murder and anguish and sadness and fear and being alone—in grief, “overwhelm is the primary starting place.” Roy Ellis, the bereavement coordinator for the central region of the Nova Scotia Health Authority, says grief is our response to loss and change. Over the…
Have compassion for your failures and weaknesses, Leo
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAURUS! (April 20-May 20) Renowned Taurus composer Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) completed his first symphony when he was 43 years old—even though he’d started work on it at age 22. Why did it take him so long? One factor was his reverence for Ludwig van Beethoven, the composer who had such a huge impact…
Stop with the secrets already
Q I was raised in a religious home and didn’t lose my virginity until the embarrassing age of 26. I was told by the church to save it for marriage, and I was a virgin until I met the woman who would become my wife at a party. I said to hell with it, we…
The history of Earth Day, from radical roots to big green in 50 years
If you ask Adam Rome, Earth Day isn’t as punk as it used to be. “Earth Day is so tame nowadays,” says Rome, the author of The Genius of Earth Day: How a 1970 Teach-In Unexpectedly Made the First Green Generation. “For adults, it’s often a trade show where you can see the latest green…
Why didn’t Nova Scotia’s RCMP use the emergency alert system?
During last weekend’s tragic shootings, RCMP kept the public updated online via social media. The police didn’t take advantage of the province’s Emergency Alert System, which has previously been used for everything from missing people to COVID-19. “Public Health ordered us to put the COVID one out, we were happy to support them,” said Nova…
The coronavirus has lessons for journalists covering the climate crisis
The coronavirus pandemic is a tragic reminder of just how essential fact-based, outspoken journalism is, especially in times of crisis. Without it, people die. In China, the lack of an independent press made it easier for the government to hide the danger of the virus, putting many more people, especially health care workers, at risk.…
And then there’s the climate crisis
Today is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, but it feels a world away. As if the coronavirus wasn’t enough, now Nova Scotia is in a state of mourning. We are struggling to make sense of the senseless, to understand the unthinkable. How are we supposed to pay attention to the climate crisis? The Coast…
Nova Scotia in mourning: What we know about the victims
Heidi Stevenson Stevenson was a wife to Dean, mother of two to 13-year-old Connor and 11-year-old Ava, and a former community liaison officer with Halifax District RCMP. Constable Stevenson had 23 years of experience in the force and colleague Commanding Officer Chris Leather called Stevenson “a true hero” who died in the line of duty on Sunday…
Nova Scotia RCMP give update on mass killings
A briefing from Nova Scotia RCMP on Monday afternoon confirmed that the death toll in the Nova Scotia shootings now totals at least 19. “We continue to gather information and seek out answers, but we can confirm now that there are in excess of 19 victims,” said Nova Scotia RCMP’s Criminal Operations Officer Chief Superintendent…
What we know about Nova Scotia’s mass killings
Late in the evening on Saturday, April 18, RCMP first got word of an armed gunman in Portapique near East River Nova Scotia. Within 12 hours, the rampage would end with at least 19 dead, including an RCMP officer. The rural cottage community of Portapique on the Bay of Fundy is about an hour-and-a-half from…
Bring Halifax culture home with our arts streaming guide for April 20-26
Monday, April 20 Cris Derksen The Juno-nominated cellist and composer known for the work Orchestral Powwow (which marries traditional Indigenous Powwow music and dance with classic symphonic stylings for the ultimate mash-up) continues blending hues on a cross-cultural palette with a Facebook Livestream at 9pm. Tuesday, April 21 Lennie Gallant A suppertime show with the stalwart…
Voice of The City: Abuse and violence thrive in isolation and silence
The first person to die from a COVID-19-related death in Nova Scotia was not someone who contracted the virus. It was a woman murdered by her abusive male partner, whom she was forced into isolation with due to social distancing measures. In early April, Stephen Beckett was arrested at his home in Hammonds Plains and…
Stay up to date on what we know about the Nova Scotia mass killings
Wednesday, April 29 Psychologists offering free sessions Over 100 psychologists have volunteered to give their time to help Nova Scotians cope with recent events. A one-hour free session comes at $190 value, and there are further referrals for those who have been more closely affected by the tragedy. Tuesday, April 28 RCMP continue to gather…
Just the news on COVID-19 in Nova Scotia, for the week starting April 20
NOTE: This week is now over. For the very latest news, please go here. But for an informative look back at exactly how Nova Scotia responded to COVID-19 in realtime, keep on reading. Click here for a smaller, mobile-friendly version of The Coast’s Nova Scotia COVID-19 case graph. Editor’s note: The Coast has never aimed…
How to watch Nova Scotia RCMP press conference about today’s shootings
Nova Scotia RCMP will be giving a press conference about this morning’s killings in Portapique NS and area at 6pm AST. You can watch a live stream on CBC’s Youtube channel. Click here. RCMP were providing updates as the story unfolded this morning via their Twitter feed. On April 18 at 11:30 RCMP reported a…
Quarantine smells like some old fashioned Jewish penicillin AKA chicken soup
The Coast is collecting and sharing dispatches from around the world about what life in the time of COVID-19 looks like, smells like and feels like. Some people are beyond the worst of it, some don’t know the worst yet. Most are just trying to keep afloat. Share your own story here. Who are you?…
“The only time I see other people is when I run across the street to get milk”
The Coast is collecting and sharing dispatches from around the world about what life in the time of COVID-19 looks like, smells like and feels like. Some people are beyond the worst of it, some don’t know the worst yet. Most are just trying to keep afloat. Share your own story here. Who are you?…
How to do karaoke at home with your friends like you’re at the Lion’s Head with Laurie The Guy
Step 1 Download Zoom. Step 2 Get someone to make a Zoom meeting. Share the link with your friends. Step 3 Go to watch2gether.com and make a room. Step 4 Invite your friends to the room. Step 5 Once you’re on a Zoom call and in the room with your friends search in the bar at…
“The weather has been very nice these past few days (a big deal over here)”
The Coast is collecting and sharing dispatches from around the world about what life in the time of COVID-19 looks like, smells like and feels like. Some people are beyond the worst of it, some don’t know the worst yet. Most are just trying to keep afloat. Share your own story here. Who are you?…
“You worry when you hear that an elderly life is worth less than a 50-year-old’s”
The Coast is collecting and sharing dispatches from around the world about what life in the time of COVID-19 looks like, smells like and feels like. Some people are beyond the worst of it, some don’t know the worst yet. Most are just trying to keep afloat. Share your own story here. Who are you?…
Don’t do boring stuff, Cancer
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARIES (March 21-April 19) Aries artist Vincent van Gogh got started on his life’s work relatively late. At ages 25 and 26 he made failed attempts to train as a pastor and serve as a missionary. He didn’t launch his art career in earnest until he was 27. During the next 10 years,…
The trouble with swallowing and more quickie answers to sex questions
QI am a super-queer-presenting female who recently accepted that I have desires for men. My partner of two years is bisexual and understands the desires, but has personally dealt with those desires via masturbation while my desires include acting. Her perspective is that the grass is greener where you water it and that my desire to act…
2,000,000 cases
Doctor by doctor, hospital by hospital, the COVID-19 patients are diagnosed. Town by town and city by city they add up. Collected in states, provinces, counties, territories, earldoms and duchies, the numbers just grow and grow and grow. Country to country, continent to continent until, literally, around the world—the coronavirus spreads its disease. The good…
Federal government updates the CERB to help seasonal and casual workers
The Federal government is planning to extend the Canada Emergency Response Benefit to cover some of the people who were left out of the first draft of the plan. When the CERB was first announced it didn’t apply to seasonal workers whose jobs disappeared due to COVID or who had run out of EI while…
Because we still need art to live, the Sobey Art Award’s long list just dropped
While every April the Sobey Art Award (the biggest prize in Canadian art) crowns new royalty with the release of its long list, 2020 feels a little different: This year, the jury behind the prize is forgoing its usual five-artist shortlist and corresponding exhibition. Instead, for the first time ever, everyone on the jury-selected long…
Bring Halifax culture home with our social distance streaming guide
Wednesday, April 15 Giant Killer Shark: The Musical A sing-along livestream of the 2019 Fringe Fest hit play that’s a comedic reworking of Jaws. Read more about the play here and hit up tickethalifax.com for your (free) virtual ticket. Rudy Pacé plays The Carleton Singer-songwriter vibes from the Halifax Presents Facebook page to your sofa…
The premier’s new haircut
Over the long weekend Stephen McNeil freshened up his look. The change was subtle, but Robert Strang noticed. “The premier got an Easter haircut,” Strang said at the first provincial news briefing after the holiday. “You’re looking good, premier.” McNeil laughed and thanked the chief medical officer of health. And then they were just a…
The Halifax Common: the grass is lava
The park closure saga is becoming Halifax’s smoking ban 2.0. For the most part, Nova Scotians have embraced the provincial orders that shut down parks and trails in an effort to limit the spread of COVID-19 via public interaction. “Stay the blazes home,” we scream with delight into the ether. But HRM and the province’s…
I miss all my people. I miss the people who aren’t my people.
Editor’s note: When lauded Halifax poet Sue Goyette—the Masterworks Award-winning author of seven books—offered to share what she, in an email, called “a strange diary I’ve been keeping,” we knew it’d be full of the sort of beauty and strangeness and jumping-off-the-screen aliveness needed in this time of stale air and cramped quarters. These days…
HRM’s tax deadline pushed to June 1
Halifax Regional Council voted to postpone the due date for tax bills from April 30 to June 1 as step one of its financial response to the unfolding Coronavirus crisis. The municipality’s Chief Financial Officer Jane Fraser fielded questions from councillors about how they can best help their voters with a calm assurance that was…
Just the news on COVID-19 in Nova Scotia, for the week starting April 13
NOTE: This week is now over. For the very latest news, please go here. But for an informative look back at exactly how Nova Scotia responded to COVID-19 in realtime, keep on reading. Click here for a smaller, mobile-friendly version of The Coast’s Nova Scotia COVID-19 case graph. The Coast has never aimed to be…
The no-pandemic challenge
QYour last two columns and your last two podcasts were all about the pandemic. Everything everywhere is all about the pandemic right now. Can you give it a rest? For maybe a week? Could you answer some questions that aren’t about pandemic? Any fun kink questions come in this week? I could use a break…
Prepare for the future that comes after the COVID-19 crisis, Libra
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARIES (March 21-April 19) Moses did 40 years’ worth of hard work in behalf of his people, delivering them out of slavery in Egypt. Yet God didn’t allow him to enter into the Promised Land. Why? At the end of his travails, he made a minor mistake that angered God beyond reason. Petty?…
Emily Lawrence’s likeable feast
The world of Dartmouth-based artist Emily Lawrence feels like a pastel-filled, Betty Crocker spin on Willy Wonka’s factory: Her work is a visual feast (pun fully intended) as she makes portraits of people’s favourite desserts and lines gallery walls with tiny, climbing shrimp tails and petit-fours. With her, you never question that we eat first…
For those incarcerated with their babies, COVID-19 puts two generations in peril
Yesterday, we heard two prisoners at the Nova Institution federal prison for women in Truro were awaiting results on COVID-19 tests. Fortunately, by early afternoon, it appeared both were negative— spared for now from being added to a list that’s being compiled by Justin Piche at University of Ottawa. Piche is tracking positive coronavirus cases in…
Friday update: looking for hope on the holiday weekend
Key points as of the latest provincial news update: Our death toll is rising Waiting for Nova Scotia’s COVID-19 model The essential Easter Bunny Calling out Costco for real this time Our death toll is rising Nova Scotia’s second death from COVID-19 was announced at Thursday’s news briefing, in Halifax. The patient was a woman…
Halifax Regional Council approves pedway over Summer Street for QEII redevelopment project
Halifax Regional Council met today for its second virtual meeting since COVID-19, and if this story was being written in the “before times,” it’d be dabbled with budget deliberation, likely someone’s meandering thoughts on the morality of supporting developers over renters and certainly, someone standing to say “I don’t have a question, but I…
Beauts and the beats
“There’s something fleeting about the idea of a dalliance,” says Beauts lyricist Jeff Lawton. Lawton and bandmate Darryl Smith cradle pints at a dimly-lit table at The Local. It is late February, when COVID-19 was but a murmur in the news cycle, and the Halifax indie band’s debut LP was about to drop. “I looked…
An updated guide on how to assess yourself for COVID-19
Now that Nova Scotia has confirmed cases of community spread, (and has worked its ass off to increase its testing capacity) in order to keep ahead of coronavirus’s wrath, health officials are asking you to phone 811 if you’re experiencing two or more of these symptoms: 1. A fever of more than 38 C or…
There are still lots of ways to support small business in Halifax right now
In such a close-knit community like Halifax, where cafes, restaurants, local shops, and evenings at local watering holes fill our downtime, it’s tough to imagine a vision of the neighbourhood where we’re all confined to our homes. What are we without casual banter, brunch lineups and the ability to pet dogs in the Common? …
Week 3 recap: Blazing mad
The biggest news of Nova Scotia’s third week living under COVID-19, March 27 to April 3 Provincial briefing hijinks—and tie-jinks Case numbers keep hitting milestones McNeil’s meme-making mic drop Community spread arrives Reaching seniors where they live When every school is a home school Ringing in the new fiscal year Provincial briefing hijinks—and tie-jinks Three…
Tuesday update: Your party could kill and other stern reminders from McNeil and Strang
Everybody loves a good chart in the time of coronavirus, and while this chart sucks because it now has a green line that’s counting deaths in the province, it’s possibly a welcome sign that the red line—which shows how many new cases of COVID-19 are diagnosed in the province each day—is sort of, kind of…
NS supreme court says environment minister “committed palpable and overriding error” around Alton Gas
Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia overturned the environment minister’s approval of the Alton Gas project, citing inadequate consultation with Sipekne’katik First Nation. Alton Gas must now resume consultations for 120 days, or until both parties are satisfied. Given the present circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, no start date has been set…
Nova Scotia reports first official COVID-19 death
A press release from the Nova Scotia department of health and wellness says a woman in her 70s died yesterday due to the novel coronavirus, the first in our province—but the 324th nationwide. The release says the woman died in hospital in the Eastern Zone (Guysborough, Sherbrooke, Antigonish and Cape Breton area.) “This virus is…
Monday update: Thirty one new cases of COVID-19 in Nova Scotia
After the highest one-day jump in cases since this whole “unprecedented time” began, Nova Scotia now has 293 confirmed cases of COVID-19. There is now enough community spread (meaning cases can’t be tracked down to a single source) in Nova Scotia that travel or a connection to travel has been removed from the requirements for…
So, should you be wearing a mask?
First things first: Medical masks need to be reserved for healthcare workers. There is a brand-new, very central circle in hell emerging for anyone who hoards them the way they did with toilet paper. But, in addition to social distancing, washing your hands and, yes, Staying The Blazes Home, wearing a homemade mask could be…
“Always tell people you love them as much as you can.”
The Coast is collecting and sharing dispatches from around the world about what life in the time of COVID-19 looks like, smells like and feels like. Some people are beyond the worst of it, some don’t know the worst yet. Most are just trying to keep afloat. Share your own story here. The construction worker…
Starting today you can apply for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit
The CERB (Canada Emergency Response Benefit) combines two previously announced streams—the emergency care benefit, and the emergency support benefit. The CERB has two main objectives: Catch Canadians who don’t qualify for regular EI and relieve some of the burden on regular EI by funnelling some of those who do qualify into this quicker-to-release relief program.…
A guided mediation to help you get through today
The birds are back. The flowers are starting to climb skywards. Something I can’t stop thinking about these days, as I gaze out my window more than I ever have before, is this weird duality of nature waking up and stepping out as I cocoon myself inside more and more. It feels like poetry. A…
So, why is everyone watching dystopic films right now?
Last week it was reported that Contagion—Steven Soderbergh’s nearly-decade-old drama about a global epidemic—climbed back into the iTunes top 10 movie rental charts. And the 2011 thriller was not alone. Dustin Hoffman’s largely forgotten 1995 virus-thriller Outbreak has also experienced a surge in streaming popularity on Netflix. Book publishers are even reporting a rise in…
How to get your farmers’ market fix during the lockdown
Whether you’re a Saturday regular at one of the city’s farmers’ markets or a local veggie ingenue, there are a lot of options coming online when it comes to Nova Scotia produce. Recently the provincial government announced it was providing $30,000 to Farmers’ Markets of Nova Scotia to help various markets make the transition to…
Parks, beaches and trails are still definitely closed
T he province closed all parks and beaches to slow the spread of COVID-19 by taking away opportunities for people to get dangerously close to one another. This means that all parks and beaches and most trails are closed. You need to stay fit, but in the oft-repeated words of Nova Scotia’s straight-talking chief medical…
Federal wage subsidy helps Bedford pizza place rehire staff
When Brenden Sullivan’s wife first started telling him about COVID-19 back in January, his first reaction was mild curiosity. He didn’t think it would get too bad here. That changed and it all became real for him when the NBA cancelled the season. “You could feel it in the air,” said Sullivan, owner of On…
Dalgona Coffee is my new self-isolation coping strategy
I’m a lactose-intolerant, strict americano drinker—or at least I was pre-quarantine. But today, I made that cool whipped coffee thing that’s all over Instagram (I know you’ve seen it too) and I might never go back. Borne from the rich cafe culture of South Korea and carrying no pedigree (it’s made from instant coffee, so…
Having sex six times a week is about right for Virgo
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARIES! (March 21-April 19) “If all the world’s a stage, where the hell is the teleprompter,” asks aphorist Sami Feiring. In my astrological opinion, you Aries are the least likely of all the signs to identify with that perspective. While everyone else might wish they could be better prepared for the nonstop improvisational…
Open and shut: pandemic polygamy
QMy husband and I got married in August of 2019 and we were together for over five years before getting married. I’m very happy and love him with all my heart. I want to have his kids and support his entrepreneurial efforts as he supports mine. We don’t fight, we just have some tiffs here…
Here’s everyone who won at Theatre Nova Scotia’s Merritt Awards this week
While COVID-19 meant that the local theatre scene couldn’t gather IRL to celebrate another smashing year of stage productions, that doesn’t mean the (awards) show wouldn’t go on. Rather, Theatre Nova Scotia crowned the best plays, performers and producers (to name a few) via streaming on Monday night. As theatre as a form feels threatened…
Foreign exchange
Kyle, at this point, has lived in China most of his adult life. He works a communications office job and lives in a high-rise apartment in central Beijing. I have lived in Halifax most of the time Kyle’s been away. I work at The Coast and live in the top floor of an old house…
Voice of the city: Making the case for play
For many adults, the pressure is on since children are out of school—and will be until at least May 1. The absence of a structured environment that includes bells signalling the next activity or timed eating and recess, is no longer part of a child’s day. Afterschool sport and recreation programs have stopped. The result…
Tune in to 25 for 25, The Coast’s anniversary podcast
[2020 note from the editors: Since you’re in self-isolation but want to keep feeling connected to your city, now’s the perfect time to binge on The Coast’s original podcast that we created back in 2018 to celebrate our 25th anniversary. A yearly audio archive of both the paper and the city it loves, here’s a…
Week 2 recap: the leaders we need
Friday the 13th has a bad rap in popular culture, but it might be for good reason. When did the province impose the first of its coronavirus-related restrictions? That’s right, it was Friday, March 13. And you don’t have to be triskaidekaphobic to think that’s a dire milestone in Nova Scotia history. The story of…