Archive for February, 2020

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

February 28, 2020 at 10:00 am

Reality TV The Real Councilors of Richmond County was always going to have a hard time topping the expense scandal arc of the 2016-2017 seasons, with its investigations and forensic audit and revelations of “opportunistic and self-serving” spending on “travel, alcohol, Valentine’s Day flowers even a taxi fare paid toRead More

Sydney Central Fire Station (Sydney City Station 1)

Alarums and Excursions

February 26, 2020 at 2:06 pm

“Alarums and excursions” is an Elizabethan-era stage direction, which Merriam-Webster defines as either “martial sounds and the movement of soldiers across the stage” or “clamor, excitement, and feverish or disordered activity.” I thought of it this week as I was reading about the CBRM’s decision to locate the new SydneyRead More

Source: The Big Breakfast Study

You Are When You Eat?

February 26, 2020 at 2:04 pm

I called Dr. Mike Milburn this Monday for our regular monthly conversation, and after trading observations about the length of the days (longer) and the activity of the birds (heightened), we had a wide-ranging discussion about the benefits of healthy eating. We touched on a few things we’d covered beforeRead More

Centre 200, Sydney, Nova Scotia

What’s Up with Centre 200?

February 26, 2020 at 2:02 pm

  “Nobody is going to put their name on it, whether it’s TD centre, whether it’s Rogers centre, right now with the condition this place is in. I wouldn’t ask them to do it unless there’s a commitment from our government.” — Irwin Simon, majority owner, Cape Breton Eagles  Read More

Two trams, Adelaide, Australia. Photo by Henk Graalman - From the photographer, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=79354067

Pros and Cons (and Future) of Trams

February 26, 2020 at 2:00 pm

Writing in the Guardian in 2015, Sean Marshall dated the rebirth of the tram (which he, being a Toronto native, calls a “streetcar”) to the 1980s, although initially this took the form of “vintage” lines “mimicking New Orleans’ famous St Charles Streetcar line.” These heritage streetcars use antique or replicaRead More

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

February 21, 2020 at 10:00 am

Equality I have three things I want to link together here and I have to do it quickly before I forget one (or more) of them: 1. During his “fireside” chat at the Cape Breton Regional Chamber of Commerce this week, Premier Stephen McNeil declared that he had no interestRead More

McNeil on Wet’suwet’en Support Actions: ‘It’s Not the Mi’kmaq’

McNeil on Wet’suwet’en Support Actions: ‘It’s Not the Mi’kmaq’

February 19, 2020 at 12:53 pm

Premier Stephen McNeil has been visiting Nova Scotia Chambers of Commerce — Halifax, Yarmouth, Sydney — to discuss the State of the Province with people who have paid to listen to him. The Sydney event — a Cape Breton Regional Chamber of Commerce “member-exclusive” gathering (billed as a ‘fireside’ discussionRead More

Whatever Happened to the Trams?

Whatever Happened to the Trams?

February 19, 2020 at 12:51 pm

As I said last week, I began this journey because I wanted to talk about trams and a couple of thousand words later, I’ve mostly been talking about electricity. (This is what happens when you travel with me. I hope you packed a lunch.) I’m going to bring the focusRead More

Pope Francis meets a resident of the "Palace of the Poor" (Source: Community of Sant'Egidio https://www.santegidio.org/pageID/1/langID/en/idLng/1064/HOME.html)

Pope Francis: Right and Wrong

February 19, 2020 at 12:49 pm

I will give Pope Francis a tip of the biretta for his latest act on behalf of some of the poorest of the poor in Rome, or as he refers to them “society’s rejects, victims of today’s throwaway culture.” He has turned the Palazzo Migliori, a 19th palace named forRead More

CBRPS Chief Peter McIsaac (Source: CBRPS website) and Acting Chief Robert Walsh (Photo by Tom Ayers, CBC)

Acting Police Chief

February 19, 2020 at 12:47 pm

CBRM Council approved the appointment of Deputy Chief Robert Walsh as acting police chief last night, during its regular monthly council meeting. The Spectator reported in September 2019 that McIsaac was on medical leave but that CBRPS spokesperson Desiree Magnus had declined to say how long he’d been off. McIsaacRead More