01 Nov

Posted at 21:54h in That's life by
Since 1996, Halifax resident Dan Conlin has kept close track of the vampires, witches, and ninjas who show up at his Duncan St. home on October 31. The numbers plummeted from 2005 to to 2012, but have edged up for the last three. Yesterday they topped 100 for the first time in eight years. The annual dental industry nightmare got underway at 5:45 p.m.,  peaked around 7 p.m., and vanished into the ether by 8:45 p.m. Vampires and witches continue to top the list. Skeletons are up, princesses and superheros mercifully down. The most striking feature of Conlin’s meticulous list...

03 Nov

Posted at 10:28h in That's life by
West End Halifax Hallowe’en statistician Dan Conlin has updated his 18-year record of ghouls, goblins, and octopi with this year’s totals. The numbers continue to sneak upward from their 2012 trough. The little sugar fixers began arriving at 5:58 p.m. and peaked around 7:30 p.m., with the tardiest monster straggling in at 9:50 p.m. All these times are later than usual, probably due to the pagan ritual falling on a Friday. There were “no surly, un-constumed teenagers — once a late night constant.” Conlin’s Best-costume honours went to a Giant Eyeball with its bloody optic nerve dangling. Honourable mentions to a homemade octopus with...

01 Nov

Posted at 16:56h in Design, Food, InfoGraphics, Magical beliefs by
Dan Conlin has kept track of the trick-or-treaters who called at his Duncan St., Halifax, home for the last 17 years. Yesterday’s numbers showed a modest uptick, but the overall trend is dramatic and downward: This year’s visitors began arriving at 5:35 pm, peaked at 7 p.m., and had vanished into the night by 8:15. Vampires, Princesses, and Ninjas led the parade, at six each. Only one cat made an appearance, likely the one pictured, feline fancier Rosa Eileen Barss Donham, who lives one street over from Dan. Conlin gives his Best Overall Costume Award to an eight-year-old walking box of Ritz...

06 Jul

Posted at 23:49h in That's life by
On Monday, Pier 21 curator Dan Conlin, whom Contrarian readers know from his annual tally of Halloween revellers on Duncan St. in Halifax, carried out a curious experiment. Using a 24-page railway timetable from July 4, 1914, which the Nova Scotia Archives has made available online, he tabulated the trains and steamships arriving and departing the village of Kingsport, in the Annapolis Valley. As Dan explains: I used a replica station board, the kind stations used to post on their platforms, to recreate a day in the life of a long-gone station 102 years ago.  (Rail service ended there in 1962.) It is interesting that Kingsport in...