General Tao had a pet chicken of which he was very fond. As a pet, that is. The chicken went everywhere the General went, on campaigns, going shopping, and even sleeping perched on the foot of his bed, its head tucked under its wing as the General softly snored. Until one day. The General returned…
If you go Down East and ever want to sound as if you belong, learn to say “Some good!” Better still, learn to say, “Right some good!” The first means excellent, the latter means “the very best”. Now, to be sure, your “good” has to sound more like “gooooood”, and “right” falls somewhere between “rite”…
It’s getting to that time of year for students: the horror of final exams. So, for my grandchildren and others who will soon be filing into examination theatres, or staring at their computer screens, a few tips. That I graduated cum laude from law school doesn’t tell you I’m smart, it just tells you that…
It’s that time of the year again, isn’t it, when we all decide that this year, this year, is when we’re going to become gardeners. I know it’s been a fantasy of mine for longer than I care to remember. Flowers and veggies aren’t my thing, but I do love to grow trees. Since we’ve…
Within a few kilometres of our home, there must be a dozen eagles’ nests, great tangles of sticks, often on platforms provided by the conservation authorities, but not uncommonly on high tension electrical transmission towers. The bald eagle, once nearly extinct, has made a remarkable comeback. Eagles are lucky that two key dates in American…
I know not all my friends will like my saying this, but the evidence seems pretty clear that American munitions killed 168 schoolgirls and their 14 teachers in a strike in Minab, Iran, February 28, 2026. Donald Trump admits to hitting the neighbouring naval base, but maintains that destroying the school was Iran’s own work,…
Some years back we went to a sheep-herding demo, the classic border collie vs sheep contest. No contest. For the sheep, it’s just one indignity after another, for the dogs, it’s sport. And it’s beautiful, the orchestration, the shouts, the whistles, the turning of the flock first this way, then that, then funneling them into…
The great danger in lying to ourselves is that we know exactly what we want to hear. We are, all at the same time, our own con man, mark, and shill. We whisper in our own ears, and we fall for it, time after time. Or, at least I do. Perhaps no modern example demonstrates…
My natural paternal grandfather died long before I was born. In fact, he passed away when my own Dad was only five. Thus I only knew what I had heard, which wasn’t much. It also wasn’t nice. Apparently he was not known to have held a job, but sat at home smoking and brooding while…
It was August 1914 and the First World War had just begun. In those days, horses still played their part in the military, and veterinarians were nearly as important as doctors. So it was that in the first wave of Canadians to answer the call was a veterinarian called Harry Colebourn from Winnipeg. Harry was…