COVID as context I try not to write about COVID-19 in this space because it’s taking up so much other space but there are some stories that one cannot write in May 2020 without at least nodding in the direction of the virus. Or at least, I thought there were.Read...

I watched yesterday’s CBRM General Committee meeting in its entirety and would like to give you a few highlights:   New Central Library First thought when I saw this item on the agenda: John Phelan is no longer on the library file. The former economic development manager (who returned toRead More

Season’s Meatings Alexandra’s Pizza is challenging patrons to eat a 12-pound donair in 90 minutes, the Cape Breton Post is treating it as “news,” and somehow, neither of those things is the funniest part of Thursday’s article about the contest. The funniest part, hands down, is the accompanying list ofRead More

Two things inspired this week’s feature story: the first was an Agence France-Presse article about a Michigan township that is trying to fight a deal under which the Swiss-based food conglomerate Nestlé may be allowed to pump 400 gallons of water per minute from a local wellhead for an annualRead More

I was listening to Intercepted, a podcast from The Intercept news outlet, on Wednesday and heard an interview with Emily Guendelsberger, a Philadelphia-based journalist who has written a book called  On the Clock, What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane. The interviewer, Jeremy Scahill, explainedRead 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

During last night’s CBRM council meeting, Jim Mountain and Robert Pajot of the National Trust for Canada reported on the results of a two-year pilot program to regenerate Sydney’s downtown. Mountain described the Trust to council as a “small charity based in Ottawa” that has been involved with main streetRead More

Let me begin by saying I do not begrudge Richard Moore and Leslie Wilson, the owners of the Lobster Pound restaurant, their new waterside location in North Sydney. On the contrary, I congratulate them on the location. I think Archibald’s Wharf is a great spot for a restaurant. I thinkRead More