A father and his daughter were strolling along the shore of Sir Sandford Fleming Park Tuesday when the father spotted a seabird on the opposite shore. Father (age 39): Look, Rosa, over on the far side. I think it's a loon. Rosa (age 3-1/2): It's a black guillemot. Father: Maybe it's a red-breasted merganser. Rosa: It's a black guillemot. Later, at home, the photo was enlarged. Verdict: Black guillemot, winter plumage....
Displaying customary humility, atheist showboat Christopher Hitchens takes a stab at re-writing the Ten Commandments in the current Vanity Fair and on YouTube. Andrew Sullivan responds by recalling a parallel attempt by Walt Whitman, in the prose preface to Leaves of Grass: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any...
The Halifax Fire Marshall temporarily halted a reading by Alistair MacLeod (standing, back to camera, left side of photo) tonight so the overflow crowd of more than 600 could be rearranged to clear clogged aisles. Officials turned away another 100 people as the 73-year-old MacLeod, who splits his time between Windsor, Ontario, and Dunvegan, Cape Breton, read his 1976 story, The Closing Down of Summer. The Saint Mary's University event marked the first time MacLeod had publicly read the story in its entirety. Moneyquote: When I write a story, when I'm halfway through, I write the last sentence. I think of...
Here's a curious Olympic postscript: a printout of Halifax water consumption on the afternoon of the Olympic gold medal hockey game: The spikes correspond with the three intermissions, and with the immediate aftermath of Crosby's sudden-death goal and the medal ceremony. Epcor, the company that runs Edmonton's water system, produced a similar graph for that city on the same afternoon, with the previous day's spikeless consumption superimposed in green: Hat tip: R.S....
Around this time of year, I like to dig out You May Know Them as Sea Urchins, Ma'am, Ray Guy's 1975 collection of newspaper columns, and re-read the last essay in the book: "This Dear and Fine Country (Spina Sanctus)." Well, we made it once again, boys! Winter is over. Oh, but there is still snow on the ground. So what? It hasn’t got a chance. It is living in jeopardy from day to day. We should pity it because it will soon be ready for the funeral parlour. It is only a matter of another few paltry weeks and we shall see...
Contrarian amused himself yesterday by seeing how long a non-sports fan living in Canada without television and with the radio turned off could avoid learning the outcome of the Canada-US hockey game. Answer: Until a 6:59 p.m. AST email bulletin from the New York Times. Herewith some of the very few Olympic nuggets that actually tweaked my interest: What a difference a second makes: Amanda Cox of the New York Times uses a musical interactive graphic to illustrate the extent to which elite athletes cluster near the winning time in various events. When you "play" each event, a staccato musical tone represents each contestant...
By 7:30 a.m., today, it had stopped snowing at Kempt Head. Total accumulation: 2-5/8ths inches. Cancellations: Cape Breton Victoria School Board; Strait Richmond School Board; NSCC Marconi Campus; NSCC Strait Campus; Mayflower Mall (until noon, except for anchor stores); and pretty much every other event you could think of. Imagine! Two and five-eighth inches of snow! In February, in Nova Scotia! Gadzooks! Why hasn't the army been called? What on earth has happened to us? What has turned us into a nation of cowering, cringing, 'fraidy cats who darsn't get out of bed in the morning, lest something bad happen. Something bad might happen. Get...
In response to our post about pay phones, Contrarian reader AN points out that people concerned about the vanishing phone booth can adopt one of the gorgeous British Telecom kiosks at left. Well, you can if you are a British municipal authority. The cost? Free, without a phone; £300 per year with pay phone service. Not sure who would want to adopt the booth at right....