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.
As mentioned in the two columns prior to this one, I find I love the idea of social gatherings far more than the actual events themselves. Not to generalize, but I am convinced absolutely everybody else on Earth feels exactly the same. So, as my modest way of promoting conviviality, global peace, and universal joy,… Read more »
As alluded to in last week’s column, planning and hosting a party in real life can be an onerous undertaking: exhausting, time-consuming, prohibitively expensive, and usually disappointing. In contrast, putting together a celebratory event solely on the plane of the imagination is a more or less stress-free affair – especially if you follow my carefully… Read more »
I used to really enjoy a good get together from time to time. But I find that I have yet to get back some of the desire to attend social gatherings that I lost during the peak COVID-19 years. Just as it takes many cups of coffee each morning to boost me up to the… Read more »
Recently, I was out for a walk in my Winnipeg neighborhood and came across a structure, a translucent plexiglass cube, known as the Little Red Library. This had been one of the many architecturally designed warming hut structures that had once graced the surface of the frozen Red and Assiniboine rivers during winters when the… Read more »
Ah, the dog days of summer. There are certain perennial, evocative smells inseparable from this time of year. Cut grass and sunscreen, for example. Barbecue coals, melting tarmac, bug spray, and sweat. To these, I would sadly now add wildfire smoke. Some days, leaving one’s air-conditioned climes and venturing outdoors, even if only so far… Read more »
Einstein once claimed that God doesn’t play dice with the universe. Which just goes to show how even the great ones can get it wrong. Because it seems to me that God does nothing but play dice with the universe. Don’t bother reaching for those dice, either. She’ll cast them on your behalf, thank you… Read more »
I have a friend in Vancouver—well, friend-of-a-friend, anyway—who prides herself on her straight-talk. “Penelope” (let’s call her) has no problem telling you if she doesn’t like the pattern on your tie or the colour of your top. She will let you know if your choice in music is uninspired, if the brisket you prepared for… Read more »
The image of Death playing a game of chess with a human being, as a symbol of mortality, is a very old one in art and literature, dating at least as far back as the Middle Ages. Perhaps most famously of all, this motif appears in the Swedish cinema director Ingmar Bergman’s masterful 1957 film… Read more »
Years ago, I was taking semi-regular waitering shifts at a flash-in-the-pan brasserie in Vancouver. There was this one memorable customer, Mr. E., who bore a striking resemblance to the old Hollywood actor Omar Sharif. He would dine there once or twice a week, always taking the same booth near the window, and invariably ordering an… Read more »
Well, I don’t know about you, but from where I stand the world looks a little dodgy these days. As in, the wheels might soon fall off. As Bob Dylan once pointed out, it’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there. Still, all the darkness in the world hasn’t yet managed to completely annihilate the… Read more »