Newspaper columns

You can’t be protected from life itself

Today’s offering is about jumping boy. He’s the skinny, red-blooded, fun-loving young man I saw while recently taking an otherwise aimless summer stroll along the pier in Port Dover. I happened to pass this boy, a stranger, at just the right moment to discreetly snap an unlikely

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Summer highlight? Witnessing a police takedown

As far as the police go, I want it known this Labour Day that I’m all for them. And not just because I’m afraid that they’ll put me in cuffs someday for taking the wrong photo at the wrong time. Me: “I’m just doing my job.” Officer: “Me too.”

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Forgive, remember, repeat

“Forgive and forget” is how the old expression goes, but the sorry truth is that it doesn’t work. It’s better to forgive and remember, then forgive again. We’re not made, or meant, to forget. Not that anyone said forgiveness is easy. That’s why the word “give” is embedded in “forgive.” Forgiving is hard, even as remembering can be hard.

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Writers and the razor-averse

Why can’t women grow beards? They’re so remarkable. Men, really, have no idea how fortunate they are. My wife tells me this all the time. “Babe,” she says, pretty well every time she sees me, “You know how passionately I love beards and that rugged mountain-man look. Would you, for me, grow a Rip Van Winkle beard that’s long enough to trip over?

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Embracing my future face with a new wrinkle

My boy took my photo the other day. Ever the fun-loving young man – he turns 20 in 10 days – he then ran it through an AI app to show me my future face. I appeared in a somewhat flattering light as an old man with a beard, gray and long and expected. Okay. But by some wild AI maneuver I also somehow stood beside a

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People have a way of trumping politics

I’m out for some fresh air, in Niagara, eating breakfast in a historic house with creaky floors and vintage cameras older than I am. Beside me are Raymond and Dorothy. I learn that they’ve travelled from Maine to explore Quebec and Ottawa before arriving in Niagara Region. Raymond’s hat has a maple leaf.

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Once upon a time a mystery was solved

Today, for Father’s Day, here’s something about a once-upon-a-time photo. Of course, it’ s easy to be leery of “once-upon-a-time” stories. We weren’t born yesterday, you know. Even so, once upon a time there was a photo with no dad, but a girl named Hannah, a darling Ugandan girl, two years old, sitting tall and happy

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What if time is on our side?

Before I tell you about the car crash, today’s fun fact is that 166 years ago, on May 31, 1859, Big Ben in London, the world’s largest four-faced chiming clock, started its first tick-tock. So let’s talk about time. An older friend recently told me how time speeds up as you age. You know the other expressions. Time waits

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