Recent Columns

Sitting on our home’s front window ledge these days is a simple sign that says, “Noel.” A nativity scene is carved inside the letter O. I found it in a country store. The modest window in a window isn’t much. Except it is. This is how it goes with things hidden in plain view.

It’s the phone and it’s your friend, Hamiltonian Rick Bradford, from the other side of the world. You talk about it all, what’s happening in Nigeria. The kidnappings. The fear. The corruption. Rick, a former Stelco worker of 30 years and lay leader at Philpott Memorial

Thinking today about kings and politics, let’s turn to John F. Kennedy along with Mr. Ashley, who taught me high school history. It’s JFK today because November 22 is the day he was assassinated. That was 1963, but the American was one of those people who spoke deeper into time

If you ever find yourself on the other side of the American border without knowing exactly what to do about this, my advice is to get to Cooperstown, in Upstate New York, the birthplace of baseball and where you can hang around with baseball ghosts. Hockey, of course, has its ghosts skating around, like in Nova

I recently sat in a coffee shop across from a man I’ll call Adam. Adam, as in the beginning when that voice, that song, said let there be something beautiful and grand like light and earth and then Adam, that name meaning “Of the earth.” Then let there be Smith and al-Masri and

Thanksgiving is a good time to be reminded that some of our coolest connections can be with random people. I had one recently during an unplanned walk at Princess Point. That’s where I met Michael. I’d stopped to sit in one of those red Muskoka chairs placed by

Not to bum you out, but before in a minute we flip the calendar back to John F. Kennedy, let’s recognize September as a month of particular sadness. The deaths of public figures like Ken Dryden and Robert Redford and certainly Charlie Kirk remind us of our mortality, how in a

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

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.”

“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.

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?

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

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.

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

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