Donald (Donnie) Calabrese is working on a graphic novel about Moses Coady and the Antigonish movement. That’s a complete oversimplification of the theme — I’ll get back to that in a moment — but when I spoke to Calabrese the other night about the project (which has been excerpted inRead More

I don’t know if it’s really necessary to “disclose” that I attended journalism school with reporter and author Janice Landry but I am going to do so (and yes, I am well aware that there is a fine line between “disclosing” something  and “boasting about it;” I promise to walkRead More

Equalization Nation Estimates put turnout for an equalization protest in front of the Provincial Building in Sydney on Wednesday at upwards of 600. Protest organizers, members of the advocacy group Nova Scotians for Equalization Fairness, have to be happy with those numbers — their message is finally starting to resonateRead More

FOIPOP Follies For the record: I received the response to my freedom of information/protection of privacy (FOIPOP) request to the NS Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal (TIR) for an “unedited” copy of Neil MacNeil’s rail fees report. I got bupkis. There are a couple of additional emails not includedRead More

With the modest aim of compiling a comprehensive list of Cape Breton cultural events (!), the Spectator has been working hard on an Events Calendar feature, which launches today. I’m using a WordPress plugin employed by many sites but I decided to spring for the “filter” add-on which makes theRead More

  t. Augustine’s Confessions do not repeat DO NOT make for light summer reading but there are times when one must do what one must do, so the Confessions have been on my agenda for the past while. It all started with Stephen Greenblatt’s article in the June 19/2017 issueRead More

Glace Bay Revitalization You will not be able to tell from this article, but I am working busily behind the scenes trying to piece together the timeline on the Glace Bay Revitalization project — not the 20-year timeline attached to the actual project but the months-long timeline attached to theRead More

Reasonable Self-Esteem by Richard Keshen, an emeritus professor of philosophy at Cape Breton University (CBU), was published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in 1996 to critical acclaim, including laudatory reviews in major academic journals like Ethics and Mind. The book sold out, not a frequent occurrence with academic works, and thisRead More

Dear Editor, It seems less and less frequent that we receive knocks on the door with people on the other side who want to have face-to-face conversations. Rare is the opportunity to look someone in the eye rather than through a screen and talk about things that matter. It’s electionRead More

Ed’s Books and More on Charlotte Street in Sydney is a secondhand bookstore with wildly varied stock and many labelled bookshelves in lots of sections—rooms, corners, alcoves, a dead-end book alley. Last Wednesday, while I was there for this article, I almost collided with a customer hectically emerging from theRead More