Monthly Archives: September 2019
Public Art in Back Spaces
I’m seeing things in Ottawa I have never seen before. Like this statue. A good chunk of my time these days is being spent in the Byward Market area of the city, not far from Parliament Hill. Despite working (and living) downtown for close to 20 years, I really don’t know the neighbourhood. What […]
Does It Matter?
I saw this sign at the grocery story. It left me with questions. Does Canadian salmon taste better than other salmon? If so, what makes a salmon Canadian? Is it spawning location or should citizenship be determined by where the salmon has migrated to? Or do salmon have dual citizenship? Do salmon even know that […]
Oops!
I was walking along Bank Street, the main north-south arterial in Ottawa when I noticed the storefront sign. For all I know it has been there for years, but usually I drive this stretch of road so I’m watching traffic not store signs. The spelling error, which I presume has been there for years, just […]
An Act of Bravery or Political Suicide?
In 2015, as I remember it, a young woman running as a Liberal candidate in Calgary had her candidacy revoke by the party. Some old Facebook posts had surfaced, anti-Semitic statements she had made at 16. She said she no longer held those views, but that wasn’t good enough for the party. They replaced her […]
Not Just Nostalgia
Led Zeppelin is dead. Robert Plant rocks on. Sunday night at Cityfolk the former Zepp vocalist performed a delicate balancing act, giving the fans the old songs from the seventies that they craved while showcasing his newer material. Songs like “The May Queen” and the title track to his latest work, “Carry Fire,” were blended […]
Friday Night Rocked
I missed most of the music on the nineties. When you lived in Pembroke, Ontario, there wasn’t much choice. The local radio played (as I remember it) country music. Which means, in those pre-internet days, all I knew about the band Live was what I read. I could perhaps have named you a tune or […]
A Scary Day?
If you are superstitious you might want to stay home today. It’s Friday the 13th, a day many people fear. I have no superstitions. I’m not going to tell you this history of this day. I’m not afraid of the number 13. Some people are though. When I realized yesterday that today was the 13th […]
A Whole Lotta Love
Cityfolk starts today, Ottawa’s annual folk music extravaganza. For me it’s a trip down memory lane, as Robert Plant will close the festival Sunday night. You may not think of the former Led Zeppelin frontman as a folk artist, but the “folk” in Cityfolk has some elasticity. After all, the last time I saw Plant […]
And They’re Off…
I know some people don’t like it when I compare politics to sports, because they think I am trivializing the political process. But there are similarities. You have winners and losers – and a lot of heartbreak. The stakes are higher though. When it comes right down to it, it doesn’t matter who wins the […]
random thoughts from lorne 
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