Storytelling

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

March 11, 2022 at 12:17 pm

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

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

October 15, 2021 at 9:16 am

Backroom deals During Tuesday’s CBRM council meeting, CAO Marie Walsh revealed — very matter-of-factly — that she and regional solicitor Demetri Kachafanas had met with developer Martin Chernin after the expiration of Chernin’s waterfront pre-development contract to discuss a new proposal. She even admitted that she and Kachafanas had presentedRead More

(Clockwise from top left): René Descartes, Ursual K. Le Guin, J.S. Mill, Margaret Atwood, J.R.R. Tolkien, Immanuel Kant.

Distorted Mirrors: Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Philosophy

March 10, 2021 at 11:47 am

As I write this month’s column, Ontario, where I live, is still in the grip of the COVID pandemic. The government issued a stay-at-home order on Boxing Day, which closed restaurants for in-person dining, university classes remain virtual, and we have been told that we should only leave the houseRead More

The Latest on the Library

The Latest on the Library

February 3, 2021 at 11:21 am

Have you read latest CBRM Central Library study? Anyone outside CBRM reading about the private developer who has been given control over the project would probably write it off as fiction, but we know better, don’t we? The study in question is the service, programs and operational plan commissioned fromRead More

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

November 27, 2020 at 10:30 am

Ahem… Back in May of 2019, I wrote a story with the headline, “This is what a REAL port announcement looks like,” in which I contrasted what was happening at the Port of Québec — which had announced a deal with CN and Hatchet Ports to build and operate theRead More

“Cape Breton’s Christmas” Survives COVID

“Cape Breton’s Christmas” Survives COVID

November 25, 2020 at 11:45 am

The Spectator heard from Breton Books this week and the news is good: the seventh edition of Cape Breton’s Christmas, publisher Ron Caplan’s annual book of seasonal stories and memories, has appeared this year despite the extenuating circumstances that have constituted pretty much everything related to 2020. Caplan says COVID-19Read More

Mary Ellen MacIntyre (center). Photo and drawings by Eliza Murray.

Mary Ellen MacIntyre’s Little Island

April 24, 2019 at 10:04 am

Before I tell you about Mary Ellen MacIntyre’s blog, Innis Bheag (Little Island), you should read a bit of it. Here’s a snippet from a story called “Cow Bay Road Mud and Fire“:   Some people shouldn’t retire. If they do, they must then do other things, or they willRead More

Artist's rendering of new CBRL Central Library. 2019.

On the Waterfront Part I

March 27, 2019 at 12:28 pm

I have been trying to determine how, exactly, we decided to locate the new CBRM central library on the Sydney waterfront and as best I can figure, it happened like this:   Architectural & Facility Planning In June 2011, the Cape Breton Regional Library (CBRL) Board initiated a study toRead More

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

November 23, 2018 at 9:48 am

News in the news Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s fall economic statement includes a section labeled, “Support for Canadian Journalism.” I’ve been reading it this morning, but I fear all I really need to know about it is this: Paul Godfrey, the CEO of Postmedia, which publishes the National PostRead More

Isle of Story Festival: Marta Singh Has a Tale to Tell

Isle of Story Festival: Marta Singh Has a Tale to Tell

May 2, 2018 at 11:21 am

Ask Marta Singh, the guest storyteller at this year’s Isle of Story Festival, how she became a storyteller and you get — what else? — a story. “The real story,” she says with a laugh, although it’s “not romantic, I’m telling you!” It had been three years that I hadRead More