daydreams and a great deal

This morning, before the sun came up, I took our dog for a walk. The sky was that pearly blue that deepens into an impossible, nearly neon shade before the sun emerges over the horizon and washes it out. It was beautiful – fat snowflakes drifted to the ground, settling over a new layer of […]

the city of molotov cocktails

These days, the city of lights is once again the city of street fires. And as the rioting continues in Paris, I listen to a politician from the right-wing French National Assembly saying things like “tribalism” and “racism against French culture” and “it’s easier to make a living through drugs” on a CBC radio interview. […]

ghost or no ghost?

Back in the 1800s, so the story goes, the city of Jackson, Michigan, 75 miles west of Detroit, was given the choice between state prison or state university. Living in an industrial age, they clearly saw the advantages of having plenty of prisoners around: cheap labour to keep the factories functioning. But these days, that […]

soulmates in michigan

What’s Southwestern Michigan without a beach party? Even in 60-degree weather (that’s about 15, for the rest of the world), we bunch of brave journalists enjoyed a fish fry this past Monday night followed by a bonfire beside big rollers roaring in on the beach. We roasted marshmallows, made smores and dismissed the increasing rain as simply surf blowing in, […]