The eat beat
Upon reading Liz Feltham’s column, I was of the opinion that it seemed a bit incomplete. She mentions that restaurant owners are having a hard time finding good servers due to a labor shortage. Logically, wouldn’t the solution to this be to actually raise a server’s wages above minimum wage? If minimum wage plus tips…
The eat beat
Upon reading Liz Feltham’s column, I was of the opinion that it seemed a bit incomplete. She mentions that restaurant owners are having a hard time finding good servers due to a labor shortage. Logically, wouldn’t the solution to this be to actually raise a server’s wages above minimum wage? If minimum wage plus tips…
Letters to the Editor
Just want to say kudos on two of your recent cover photos. I loved Terry Arsenault in the Santa suit by Kate O’Connor — I hardly recognized the super Sam’s salesman without a smile! And Shannon Hennigar’s shot of Stephen Kelly and Eleanor King is gorgeous. (It helps to start with two pretty people.) Besides…
Thom Take
Take One — the magazine about the Canadian film and television industry — has recently released a $24 special edition (available at better newsstands near you and online at www.takeonemagazine.ca) that purports to have chosen the “1001 Greatest Canadian Films and Filmmakers of All Time.” “All time” is a bad concept for lists. It’s out…
Kick-grass
The latest product of Darmouth’s consequential alt-country tradition are the kind of like-minded friends who perpetually have their instruments in hand. Whether the members of The Grass are sitting in their living room or around the kitchen table, there is rarely a moment of dead air in their Vernon Street flat. Strangers and acquaintances alike…
Clothesline
Biscuit’s annual Boxing Day sale saw a line-up down Argyle an hour before opening. “We do a big blow-out because our attitude is that we don’t hesitate; when we go on sale, we go full on,” says owner Wendy Friedman. “There’s no halfway: we’re either on sale or we’re not. We’re not going to do…
Some nukes are good nukes
To the editor, I see the nuclear-phobic “Edge of destruction” warranted cover-page treatment in the Dec 15 issue, over “Oil rigging.” Which of the following is most likely to effect the health and welfare of HRM residents: the microscopic possibility of a nuclear accident during an infrequent visit by a nuclear-powered ship, or the continual…
Our pal Jim
To the editor, Regarding the Dec 22 letter, “Machine green,” I used to be a lifelong, well-known NDP activist (to admit my biases, I was also the provincial organizer for the federal Greens in the 2004 campaign in NS, the official agent for Michael Oddy in his recent by-election effort and the Green who nominated…
Sting ops: Way of the future
To the editor, Offering a bribe isn’t a real crime (though it’s written as one). It becomes real once the other party accepts it. That’s robbery of taxpayers’ money. Both parties become guilty of conspiracy against the citizens at that moment. Let’s say our city councillors did report these guys at the time. What would…
The Producers
The new screen version of The Producers doesn’t establish itself as a distinguished entity from the 1968 film. But it doesn’t disgrace the original either. The success of The Producers on Broadway made the film cash-in inevitable. Unlike when Little Shop of Horrors took the same path, the result of a movie inspiring a stage…
Home and the range
If 2005 was the Year of Bad Service then 2006 might very well be the Year of Eating In. Continuing poor service will be just one of several factors leading to a decline in restaurant attendance this year; television chefs and food and equipment availability are also encouraging kitchen divas to be more adventurous and…
New Year, New You
For many people, Christmas is all about dietary over-indulgence. For a few glorious weeks surrounding the holiday, all anyone thinks about is stuffing as much turkey, trifle and Quality Street chocolate as possible into a stomach constricted only by the elastic waistband of their stretchy pants. But then the holiday winds down and the leftovers…
SAVAGE LOVE
Boring question gets an awesome answer, that’s Dan Savage
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Conjure up beautiful illusions, Capricorn, says Rob Brezsney.
The fun of horror
Eli Roth doesn’t like the cold. On the phone from Toronto he bitches about weather he finds a great deal less comfortable than the mild California breezes to which he’s grown accustomed. “I grew up in Boston,” he says, “but it’s clear how much of a pussy I’ve turned into.” Roth isn’t one to couch…
War torn
As a new year begins, let’s ask a simple question: Why are Canadian soldiers fighting and dying in Afghanistan? The government says we’re helping to rebuild the country, establish democracy and maintain stability. It adds that, “Canada’s overarching goal is to prevent Afghanistan from relapsing into a failed state that gives terrorists and terrorist organizations…
Zoned out
The Nail and Kneecap on Quinpool Road looks like a pub. It acts like a pub. It even has the word “pub” written on its awning. But as manager Shari Calder knows, it’s impossible open a traditional pub on Quinpool Road. “That’s why we’re a pub-style restaurant,” explains Calder. “You can’t have a drink without…
Life of death
I sang along to “Auld Lang Syne” this New Year’s, in blithe contradiction to that part about auld acquaintances being forgotten. You see, 2005 was the year I found my long-lost best friend, my first best friend, Karen. We talked about entering kindergarten together, about rollerskating shows we put on in my basement and how…
Soundtown
When sitting beside audio artists Eleanor King and Stephen Kelly, the surrounding sounds in the room become more noticeable. Almost on cue, as King is talking about how she instinctively connects sound to personal memories, someone drops a dish on the cafe counter, its tinny boom resonating across the floor. “See,” she says, pointing to…
Fletcher won
Jon-Rae, minus the River, will flood Gus’ Pub with his elated gospel-country tunes on January 12. “There are so many references to rivers and water in my old songs,” says Jon-Rae Fletcher over the phone from Toronto. “Whether it’s crossing over the river or going into the river. To me it’s about abandonment; letting the…
Proper conduct
It is, to use Dinuk Wijeratne’s word for it, serendipitous that he is here in Halifax, of all places. Wijeratne and his mother, Vino, a well-known ballet teacher in Dubai, wanted to be residents of Canada. Why Canada? Because Vino’s best friend lives here. In Toronto? No. In Vancouver? No. In Clayton Park. So Wijeratne…
