Oliver Moorcraft-Sykes is an acclaimed spiritualist, scrivener, and amateur orthodontist living and writing in Winnipeg, Manitoba. His accomplishments are too many and varied to list, but suffice it to say that he’s done everything that George Santos has done, and then some. Should you have any questions or concerns about his writing, please do not hesitate to try and contact him.
Standing outside it, you think the Museum the Human Heart looks nothing like you had been led to believe. In the artist’s representation, it had resembled an elegant villa, or perhaps a fairytale cottage. But the building before you—tall, narrow, and dark—looks like it should be condemned. The front steps are crumbling, splattered with dog… Read more »
Time. It’s the most valuable commodity we have. More precious than U.S. dollars, African diamonds, and Siberian caviar. More precious even than beauty, or sleep, or love, or dreams. For, without time, none of these desirable things—and a million other desirable things, besides—could possibly exist. Naturally, there’s never enough of it to go around, and… Read more »
Throughout the ages of mankind, there have been certain sagacious men and women who have made it their business to explore the fathomless depths of the most arcane and abstruse realms of knowledge. Necromancers, alchemists, the artists of the Renaissance, tantric healers, philosophers, astrophysicists, plumbers, and the guy who somehow keeps my car running, to… Read more »
I have always loved murder mystery novels, particularly those from the so-called golden age of detective fiction. Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham. Agatha Christie, of course. Pure escapism! Whisked away to some extravagant destination—an Edwardian-era architectural folly on a remote and atmospherically windswept stretch of Dorset coastline, perhaps, or a mysteriously seedy hotel… Read more »
The months we live through are not some abstract grid of days and weeks like those represented on a dentist’s or real estate agency’s complimentary calendar. We don’t just move through the seasons, we inhabit them. When I imagine the months of high summer, I think of them as a sort of enchanted, cozy cabin…. Read more »
Freeways, corporate efficiency experts, optical fibre internet, rapid transit, executive MBAs, electric bikes, fast food, instant fashion, and bullet trains. Everything, it seems, is moving at a velocity that’s difficult for the human soul to bear. A friend of mine listens to all audiobooks at 1.5x or 2x speed, so that it sounds like the… Read more »
I have never snared a rabbit in the woods, eyed a 12-point buck down the barrel of a rifle, or blown a passing waterfowl out of the sky with a 12-gauge shotgun. Which doesn’t mean I don’t sometimes have the desire to do so. It is only natural that humans have a primal inclination to… Read more »
As we know, for all of its beautiful and precious moments, the world can be a stressful and worrisome place. So much time spent fretting over things large and small. Do we invite creepy uncle Fred to the Christmas Eve get-together again this year? What will the job market look like when I finally graduate… Read more »
So many things depend upon the value of moments. It’s often commented, for example, that basketball games seem to come down to the last few seconds of play: a last-minute drive to the basket; a fadeaway three pointer leaving the point guard’s fingertips a millisecond before the final buzzer. Sadly, it’s not too hard to… Read more »
We live in a world of strange storms and unstable conditions. A guy I know, one of those intrepid, far-flung traveler types, tells me that over the past five years he has experienced far more frequent and more severe episodes of extraordinary turbulence. Years ago, this might have made me afraid to fly. But today… Read more »