The mine-removal NGO Mines Action Canada has released a statement expressing gratitude for Irving’s wisdom, commitment, support, kindness, generosity and sense of humour for many years. Money quote: In the mid-90s many people in Canada were caught up in the enthusiasm of the Canadian-led initiative to ban landmines. Irving went one step further and founded CIDC which has became Canada’s leading landmine clearance organization. There are children and innocent civilians in Bosnia, Croatia, Mozambique and other countries who can go about their daily lives without the threat of landmines because of the efforts of this amazing man from Sydney, Nova Scotia....

20 September, 2010

Irving Schwartz, whose death yesterday leaves a gaping hole in Cape Breton, loved to trade stories, so I offer this space to share a few about him. I hope you'll send me yours. [caption id="attachment_6585" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Creative commons photo. "][/caption] Irving's outrageous TV furniture pitches — always ending with his over-the-top delivery of the tag line, "I guarantee it!" — earned him nearly universal face recognition throughout eastern Nova Scotia. When my own weekly television debates brought me a tiny fraction of his notoriety in the 1990s, Irving liked to embarrass me by introducing me to strangers. At the Mull Cafe in...

19 September, 2010

Salon's Glenn Greenwald digs out a prescient morning-after column by Hunter S. Thompson of all people, published on 9/12/2001: The towers are gone now, reduced to bloody rubble, along with all hopes for Peace in Our Time, in the United States or any other country. Make no mistake about it: We are At War now -- with somebody -- and we will stay At War with that mysterious Enemy for the rest of our lives. It will be a Religious War, a sort of Christian Jihad, fueled by religious hatred and led by merciless fanatics on both sides. It will be guerilla warfare...

13 September, 2010

Last year, James Fallows illustrated the growing girth of North American's by digging up photos from the 1950s of Jackie Gleason, Alfred Hitchcock, and Ramond Burr. Gleason was a notorious fatso. Hitchcock and Burr were celebrated symbols of portliness. None would draw a second look today. Now comes evidence that the shift in our perception of what constitutes fat has been getting a quiet nudge from pants manufacturers in the form of "vanity sizing." Abram Sauer, of Esquire's Style Blog, snuck a measuring tape into the change rooms of a series of men's retail chains and came back with this heartbreaking news...

10 September, 2010

Phil Shackleton reports on a little known border problem: Canadian border farmers say it’s not uncommon to see dozens of sociology professors, animal-rights activists and Unitarians crossing their fields at night. “I went out to milk the cows the other day, and there was a Hollywood producer huddled in the barn,” said Manitoba farmer Red Greenfield, whose acreage borders North Dakota. "The producer was cold, exhausted and hungry. He asked me if I could spare a latte and some free-range chicken. When I said I didn’t have any, he left before I even got a chance to show him my screenplay, eh?” In...

09 September, 2010

When John "Jack" William Carew, 82, of  Shores Cove on Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula, died Saturday, his family faced the usual quandary of whether to accept flowers or request donations to a favorite charity. Mr. Carew's obituary in the St. John's Evening Telegram offered a uniquely Newfoundland solution: Blueberries and bakeapples will be accepted in lieu of flowers. A relative of yours, Stan? Hat tip: JP....

02 September, 2010

The five occupants of this 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan — my son, daughter-in-law, and three grandchildren — survived a head-on collision on the TransCanada Highway Thursday evening. I offer the following details in hopes that other families will find it helpful to understand the factors that decisively improved their chances of survival. Shortly before 5 p.m, August 26, my family was westbound on Route 105 in Lexington, Nova Scotia, just north of the Canso Causeway, when a severe rain squall hit the area. Daughter-in-law Jenn had just slowed down when an eastbound car apparently hydroplaned and spun across the centerline into...

31 August, 2010

What's up with Queens County, Nova Scotia, and orange vehicles? Top to bottom: Ford Ranger 4x4, Charleston; Harley Davidson, White Point; Custom two-door, Liverpool....

30 August, 2010

The Herald's Pat Lee has a lovely piece about Contrarian's friend Jane Kansas, currently walking from Montana to Halifax. The layout is also gorgeous, if you can scare up a physical copy of the paper. (Previous Contrarian mentions here and here; Kansas's own blog here.)...

20 August, 2010
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