When I was young, there was a saying that was often used to describe someone who wanted to do two incompatible things simultaneously: “She wants to have her cake and eat it too!” The moral of the saying was that we often have to make difficult choices: we can’t preserveRead More

The May 12 virtual CBRM council meeting lasted a fraction of a minute over 3 hours. Although all current councilors and a number of CBRM staffers were in attendance, the video (which you can watch on YouTube) consists almost entirely of footage of Mayor Cecil Clarke, sitting in his office,Read...

Editor’s Note: The Spectator is reaching into Michelle Smith’s gardening column archive for some weekly advice that is as relevant now as when it was first written.   What to do this week Our original idea for this column was to write about what I am actually doing in theRead More

Editor’s Note: The Spectator is reaching into Michelle Smith’s gardening column archive for some tips about weeds which apply as much today as when they were written in April 2017.   What to do this week Let’s talk a bit about garden weeds. The particular weeds you struggle with inRead More

Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil is on yet another pilgrimage to China as I write, “engaging” with the Chinese rather than isolating them because, according to what he told reporters just prior to his departure, that’s how you show non-democracies “what democracies have to offer.” At first I thought heRead More

Bad bidness Remember the business owner who accused me of breaking into their office and stealing their credit card? The one I chose not to name? Well, the story has taken an even stranger twist: I have now been accused of fabricating the whole thing to make business owners inRead More

What to do this week Michelle Smith is away this week. She’ll be back at her regularly scheduled time next issue, but in the meantime, feel free to peruse her now quite substantial archive of past columns for some season-appropriate gardening advice. This time last year, for instance, she wasRead More

In my most recent Fast & Curious column, I mused about my preference for non-meat burgers that don’t masquerade as meat and a spectator pointed out that what I was actually saying was that I preferred whole foods to processed foods and that we happen to have an expert onRead More

Picnic for the Planet News that 250+ media organizations have pledged to do a week of climate change coverage in the lead-in to the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York on September 23 has made me vow to pull up my socks and make a point of includingRead More

What to do this week The Spectator‘s gardening columnist will be back to her regular schedule next week. (Full disclosure: the Spectator forgot to tell her we were resuming the weekly publication schedule as of September 11. Sorry Michelle!) Luckily, she has written oodles of advice for September gardeners, andRead More