As any young person will tell you, Christmas takes a long time to arrive. Parents, on the other hand, will tell you that even with all the planning and work, Christmas arrives too quickly. Those preparations take a long time. For the past two weeks, I’ve been putting up our […]
Columnists
Since I started writing this column way back in 2007, I’ve always put together a Christmas gift-buying guide for the outdoors person but I’ve usually waited until a week or two before Christmas to do it. For the last-minute buyer, this probably helped but most people likely already were finished […]
I guess my hopes of having a surprise “Indian summer” has past. And for some reason, this transition period to winter is difficult. It seems like you just cannot put on enough clothes (I’m certain I won’t feel this cold in the middle of January or February). The sun was […]
I’m sitting in the Pearson International Airport in Toronto. My flight was to depart at 10 a.m. bound for Halifax. Warnings popped up on the radio this morning advising travellers to get to the airport early as they had “system” crashes during the evening and there would be backlogs. They […]
Last week’s Times had 59 job vacancies being advertised. The newspaper averages more than 40 openings every week. At one time, there was a surplus of people and any job opening had 50 or 60 applicants. Not so now. Life has changed here in Rainy River District. Almost every restaurant […]
Narrativity is a word I wasn’t familiar with, or rather I hadn’t heard it used the way I heard it used last week on CBC Radio. In fact, my spellcheck doesn’t care for the word and wants me to use some other one while providing me with no alternatives. In […]
Over the past few months, there have been some sweeping changes in the professional bass fishing landscape. For the past couple of decades, the FLW Tour and the Bassmaster Elite Series have been the premier high-end bass tournament circuits. But that all changed in September when Major League Fishing announced […]
November 11, 11 a.m., 1918 marked the silencing of guns in France as an armistice was reached. The war to end all wars was over. This Sunday, our community will meet at the cenotaph to mark the 100th anniversary of that moment. From Canada, a nation of seven million people, […]
As you may remember, I am a fan of lists–lists for almost everything. One of my favourite comedians, Demetri Martin, says the only thing on a magician’s list is “ta-da.” I find that hilarious but perhaps you have to love lists to get the humour. I’ve added a slightly different […]
As the small lakes across Northwestern Ontario freeze over this week, most of the regular bass and walleye anglers have packed their gear away for another season. Musky anglers are a different breed, however, many of which are known to break ice with their boats to get in those last […]
I don’t think I’ve ever attended a writers’ event, either as a spectator or as a participant, that the question isn’t posed, “Who are you reading these days?” I never seem to have an answer at the ready. After all, no one asks me who I am wearing–and that’s a […]
All the leaves have almost fallen. Nothing but the black skeleton of the branches remain in a lifeless pose. It is a bleak season where all the colours and shades of flowers and shrubbery have disappeared, leaving only blackness and the grey shadows of the coming winter season. The last […]
