Author Archives: Lorne Anderson
Breath of Life
Delayed on the tarmac at Frankfurt Airport seemed like the perfect time to watch Breath of Life, a ten minute documentary about organ donation advocate Hélène Campbell. Hélène is well known for her campaign, to raise awareness of the need for organ donors both before and after she received new lungs. My connection to […]
Who Would You Choose?
I live in a government town. A lot of the time it seems like people expect the government to pay for everything, including public art. But it isn’t the same everywhere. There are a number of statues in central London that were erected not at government cost but by the donations of people like me […]
The Ambulances
I was curious, but not curious enough to ask. I figured it out later I was visiting Skeppsholmen, an island in Stockholm’s harbor downtown. It was gray and overcast and, because it was a Monday, the Asian museum and other buildings were closed to the public. So I couldn’t figure out why three ambulances were […]
Faithkeepers
I knew what was coming, and I still found the film unsettling. It is however not without hope. Faithkeepers is a new documentary that examines the plight of persecuted minorities, especially Christians, in the Middle East. It is not for the faint of heart, and is especially timely given the Palm Sunday attacks on Christians […]
Walking Vimy Ridge
Just a photo essay today, a supplement to yesterday’s post. The indoor pictures were taken in the tunnels around Vimy. There are, if my memory is correct, hundreds of kilometres of tunnels in the area as well as a similar number of trenches You really should visit as the pictures really don’t tell the story.
Vimy Ridge Centenary
It was one hundred years ago today that Canada became a nation, or so the social historians like to put it. Nationhood is an elusive idea. Canada became a country on July 1, 1867. We were not completely independent though. It wasn’t until 1931 that our Supreme Court actually became supreme. Before that you could […]
The National Gallery
I had been walking around central London for about three hours, just drinking in the atmosphere. Wandering through Trafalgar Square I noted that admission to the National Gallery was free. I don’t usually mind paying for museums and similar attractions, not even the inflated places some of them charge. I know it costs money to […]
Crown Jewels
The governor general is irrelevant to most Canadians, even though he is the head of state. Strangely enough though, he managed to inconvenience me when I was in Stockholm. I know, Sweden is far from Ottawa, but he managed it. It was Sunday and I was headed to a 3 p.m. church service, which left […]
The Phone Booth
I think they leave them up for the tourists to take selfies. It’s not like anyone uses them to make a phone call. These days everyone has a mobile phone. I didn’t even look to see how much a call costs. The red phone booths are prominent in downtown London. They are an iconic image […]
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