Spring in this neck of the woods can mean robins and peepers and humming birds — they’re coming, don’t you know:   It can mean heavy garbage (the tender has been issued) or the re-opening of the Tasty Treat (Frosty’s now, I guess). But it’s also the time for theRead More

The late Father Gerry Curry (1934-2019) was ordained in 1960 as a member of the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society and served 15 years in Japan, returning home to Canada in 1975 to become editor of Scarboro Missions Magazine, which he did from 1975-79 and again from 1989-2003. As his obituaryRead More

What to do this week There may not be any garden insect pests in view just yet but they are still there. They’re slumbering in the soil or the half-rotten dropped fruit you didn’t get a chance to rake up last fall — all waiting for that first warm dayRead More

Budget This week, I’m going to focus on the federal budget tabled Tuesday by Liberal Finance Minister Bill Morneau and discuss a couple of points of particular interest to Cape Bretoners. The first is the government’s decision to double (for one year only) the gas-tax revenue available for infrastructure spendingRead 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

Billy the Kid was born Henry McCarty in New York in 1859. He made his debut as an outlaw in 1875, stealing clothing from a Chinese laundry. He was arrested but escaped punishment by climbing up a chimney in the jailhouse. Afterward, writes Evan Andrews in “9 Things You MayRead More

This week, I decided to focus my attention on two (luckily related) stories I’m interested in. Stories I’ve been following for years (eight years for one, one year for the other) but following in a kind of hit-and-miss way. Like I was watching Game of Thrones, but only when IRead More

I have been thinking a lot about John Rawls’ theory of justice, in part because I am working with a fourth-year student on her honor’s thesis, but also because I’ve been watching the college admissions scandal unfolding in the United States (a scandal I find at once fascinating and appalling).Read More

As of Saturday, the Great Ice Wall of Irish Vale (and the Lesser Ice Wall of Irish Cove) were still attracting visitors (although no one has yet had the sense to start selling hot chocolate and popcorn, a great entrepreneurial opportunity lost in my opinion). I had thought the mediaRead More

What to do this week The snow is melting slowly but surely during these sunny days. Many of my small fruit bushes and beds are almost completely uncovered. Small fruit is a term for any fruit not growing on a tree – strawberries, raspberries and the like. Now is theRead More