Fun with Numbers I was writing today’s date moments ago and realized that my enthusiasm for the occult ran away with me on Wednesday, when I included a note at the top of the newsletter pondering the numerological significance of 22.02.2022, which I had recorded as the day’s date. TheRead More

Editor’s Note: I have discovered a Spotify playlist called “Songs About Trains” which I recommend you listen to while reading this article. Also, Part I of this series is here.   In the second part of this brief series on rail safety, we’re going to talk about rail tank cars,Read More

Editor’s Note: I could not find a “Green Hydrogen” playlist on Spotify but there is a “Songs About Wind” list that might pair well with this piece.   EverWind Fuels has secured the necessary permits from the province of Nova Scotia to begin converting the former oil storage and marineRead...

I spent so much time researching rail safety and green hydrogen this week that I have time to touch just briefly on two other issues that have piqued my interest of late. One is an observation about the newly refurbished section of Charlotte Street in Sydney, but first, I mustRead More

Editor’s Note: This column last appeared on 21 February 2018. I’ve removed an author’s note from that year, because it doesn’t really apply to this year’s weather.   What to do this week I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that it is very important for recently planted seeds toRead More

Art imitating life In my research for this week’s article on the East Palestine train derailment, I ran across a piece on rail safety post-Lac Mégantic (a good piece, worth reading) that begins like this: An unmanned, half-mile-long train carrying tank cars full of highly flammable petroleum products barrels outRead More

The CBRM council meeting on Tuesday began with an acknowledgement of the passing a former alderman in the City of Sydney. This will probably be an unpopular opinion, but I’m not sure about this tradition of noting the passing of anyone who ever served on a municipal council in CBRM.Read More

The train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio had me pulling on so many different threads this week, there’s no way I can weave them all back into a coherent whole, so I’m going to divide the resulting article into two parts to give me more time to track down someRead More

Author’s Note: Back in 2004, I was writing for The Cape Bretoner and one of my first interviews was with Shauna Doolan, who passed away a few days ago, leaving behind a tremendous contribution to the Cape Breton music scene. I am grateful to be able to have parts ofRead More

Editor’s Note: When I realized I would be publishing this year on the 41st anniversary of the sinking of the Ocean Ranger, I decided to reprint this piece from 2022—the preface to Susan Dodd’s 2012 book, The Ocean Ranger: remaking the promise of oil, with permission from Fernwood Books.  Read More