My dear friend Linda, whom I have known for twenty or so years, is one of life’s truly free spirits. She’s the sort of person who will spontaneously show up at your place at ten o’clock on a Friday night with a bottle of wine tucked under her arm and a large pepperoni pizza. A… Read more »
As we all know, the months of February and March – “Farch” – can be a particularly dreary time of year. Sunk in the trough between the excitement of the winter holiday season and the first rejuvenating signs of Spring, it is not uncommon to find oneself experiencing heavy duty doldrums whilst travelling through this… Read more »
It’s a classic drizzly Sunday afternoon in Vancouver and my six-year-old daughter and I are at Second Beach in Stanley Park. I’m down on the beach picking my way across slippery rocks, thinking about home insurance and tax returns and whether I’ve put enough money into the parking meter. Jessie is walking on the precipice… Read more »
As I get older, there are certain illusions that are being gradually stripped away from me. I have lately come to realize, for instance, that I will likely never be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on the strength of a heavy write-in vote from my friends. Furthermore, I am now willing to admit to myself… Read more »
gone i remember when we were parked out by the reservoir you told me of a ghost you’d seen walking through the woods don’t look it’s gone already the best times are when you’re happy and don’t know why you just smile and think of nothing for awhile don’t look now exile the old wolf… Read more »
Published in the September 24th, 2003 [v11 i39] issue of The Voice, Unlearning is a wry look at educational goals, and a plan to do it all again, in reverse! If all goes according to my plan (but really, why should it?) by June of the year of our Lord, 2007, I will have completed… Read more »
Christmas must be in the air, because we’re sitting in the food court of the hermetically sealed biosphere/shopping mall and drinking four-dollar eggnog lattes from the evil Starbuckian Empire. The overhead sound system is playing a gloopy-sounding, new-agey version of the Wexford Carol arranged for synthesized strings and harp. The joke shop next door is… Read more »
“Well now Bronwyn”, says Grandma Teasel, pulling apart a vanilla Oreo and dunking it in her Earl Grey, “that didn’t seem like such a bad report card to me.” Grandma Teasel and Jeannie and Sasha are playing three-handed euchre at the big wooden table in Grandma Teasel’s kitchen. The three children like spending time here… Read more »
My friend Michael arrived for dinner last week carrying a case of imported beer and a digital video camera. “Hey, Bro’ what’s for dinner – lamb burgers? Artichoke hearts in basil vinaigrette?” he asks, setting the camera on a tripod and looking distractedly around the living room. “Uh, no. I made a pizza.” “Perfect, ‘Bro…. Read more »
It’s Saturday afternoon and we’re sitting in our living room eating left-over noodles from leaky paper cartons and watching a videocassette of Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush. It’s one of those November days when the rain comes horizontally at the windows and fills the house with the type of blue-green light that always puts me… Read more »