You Bet Watching a hockey game recently (I won’t identify my team, I’ll just tell you I won’t be doing any post-season viewing), I was struck by how many times the broadcaster cut away from the action to ads featuring famous athletes and Hollywood stars encouraging me to bet onRead More
Editor’s Note: Since publishing this story, I’ve heard from the HAT’s Wesley Colford who told me the information about the expansion should not have been included in this week’s council agenda and asked that readers wait to hear his full presentation during an upcoming council meeting. I was veryRead More
Courthouse Dreams We discovered during budget talks on Tuesday that CBRM is considering the possibility of turning the former Cape Breton County courthouse in Wentworth Park into the new central library. I am trying not to get my hopes up too high as I write this because there are aRead More
More than 100 years after shipyard workers in Lunenburg, N.S., shaped wood and metal to build the Bluenose schooner, the tradition of local, hand-built excellence lives on. But now, instead of fishing boats, it’s fighter jets — Brett Ruskin, CBC, 6 April 2022 It’s such an apt comparison. LikeRead More
Pennsylvania Pain I decided to write about the first thing that popped into my head this morning (that wasn’t war in Ukraine) and it was the TV series I just watched, Mare of Easttown, starring Kate Winslet. (Warning: there will be spoilers. If you haven’t watched it and plan to,Read More
Only Rats and Horses I started writing about CBU’s proposed housing development for the former Tartan Downs harness racing track in Ashby but realized I have too much to say for a Fast & Curious item, so I’ll write about it at greater length next week. For now, I’d justRead More
I assumed my first 2022 contribution to the Spectator would be pretty upbeat, especially since New Year’s Eve was spent in a hilarious re-watching of various episodes of Father Ted that included a few I hadn’t seen before. And thanks to YouTube documentary introducing the actors, I got to seeRead More
A few days after James is released from hospital following a terrible motor vehicle accident in JG Ballard’s novel Crash, he ventures out of his apartment for the first time. Beyond the forecourt of his building he reflects that, “the tree-lined avenue which led to the neighborhood shopping center wasRead More
The final episode (FINAL EPISODE) of Annette Verschuren’s Bet On Me podcast is called “Betting on Cape Breton Island with Annette Verschuren” and it features a conversation between Verschuren and what I will now forever think of as her “mini-mes” — a group of women, all of whom are partRead More
Three CBRM structures were registered as Municipal Heritage properties during last night’s council meeting: Menelik Hall Planner Karen Neville, in her submission to council, said the value of the hall, located at 88 Laurier Street in Whitney Pier and “constructed between 1935 and 1936 by people of African descentRead More
