The Freakin' mural
Regarding your story about the new artwork on Freak Lunchbox's Barrington Street building ("The mural of the story," Shoptalk by Allison Saunders, September 10): Cool. Love it. —posted by Señor Campana at thecoast.ca
I hope the owners also make this a living art space, and every five-to-10 years put something new on it. This is amazing—energetic, colourful, vibrant—but I like the idea of non-permanent art as well. —posted by Brian Crocker
Cups up
I had a couple of heart attacks and I need to walk. So I take a plastic bag with me, and I pick up garbage as I walk down Sussex Street. I fill this bag with garbage and I put it in the garbage at The Captain Spry Center. I am not surprised that there are no refundable containers; what I do pick up are a lot of Tim Hortons and McDonald's cups. Why not put a deposit on these cups and they would be picked up by the people who pick up all the other containers? Our city would be cleaner and these people would make a little more money. It's a win-win as far as I can see. —Wayne Rhyno, Halifax
Studying pharmacy
"Whatever happened to the Connaught Pharmacy?" is an interesting story (The City by Jesse Ward, September 10). I actually worked there from 1956 to around '76. The store was a graduation gift to Wanda Bianco from her parents, and it only opened one Sunday a month—we used to alternate with three other pharmacies. I still remember the time she bought a green 1956 from Beacon Pontiac in Dartmouth. Fond memories. —Tom Jeffries, Halifax
I lived upstairs for 21 years: The first 17 years of my life, and then when I moved back with my folks for another four years. Wanda was robbed so many times. Knives to her throat, tied up, blindfolded. She was terrified most of the time. One night guys broke in and stole the huge safe thinking that's where the narcotics were. It was later found in Kearney Lake.
She used to get me down to catch mice for her. She knew I owned gerbils, so I was very helpful. She was an amazing woman. She could have been a symphony violinist in New York but her family needed her. Her father designed and built Halifax's first elevator in a home to get her invalid mother to the second and third floors of their house on Willow Street. —posted by Saltydog
I passed this place nearly every day of my life, but I never dared enter until prompted by my history teacher at Queen Elizabeth High School. My friends and I found an odd place with a somewhat clueless clerk, filled with old stock from at least 20, if not 30, years earlier. I'll never forget the "Sheaffer's" lever-fill fountain pen I bought, complete in its yellowed packaging and emblazoned with the price 75 cents, which is all the man charged me in 1992. A similar pen would have cost at least $5 back then at Coles in the shopping centre. Glad to see a place for us to share our memories! —posted by Charles Tetreault
Harbour dining
The "Squid goals" article (Food + Drink by Allie Sweeting, September 17) says it's "completely legal" to catch lobsters in Halifax Harbour, but it it completely legal WITHOUT a license? And who in their right mind would eat anything that comes from that harbour, including squid? Gross. —posted by Ghost Jesus
Lobster isn't open for recreational fishing, so no. You bring up a lobster without a license and DFO will take everything. (By the way, the places in Bedford pump in water from the basin for their lobster pounds, so yum yum, anyone buying from a grocery store.) I get mackerel down in Eastern Passage sometimes, but I won't fish any farther up the harbour than that. —posted by SwampDonkey