One winter, I was on a short-term reporting contract in Victoria. After 18 winters in Nova Scotia and a couple more in Toronto, the season on southern Vancouver Island was a revelation that spoiled me, never a fan of the cold, for good. During those snowless months, I rented a room in a house near Oak […]
Moving Commas
“I have spent most of the day putting in a comma and the rest of the day taking it out.” — Oscar Wilde I liked reporting well enough, I liked meeting people and chasing news. But when I became an editor, I connected to journalism and to the crafting of words in a deeper way. […]
Life and Economy
A long stretch of road, nearly empty, takes me up another wide hill. Cars with bigger engines set cruise control at 140 and whip past me. I am in their way and we all have nowhere to go. Brenda Fassie plays on my stereo. I’m reframing my relationship with travel, with my perspective on place. […]
The Slow Boat
In Scribbling the Cat, Alexandra Fuller wrote: It should not be physically possible to get from the banks of the Pepani River to Wyoming in less than two days, because mentally and emotionally it is impossible. The Pepani in Zambia, where her parents live and where Fuller met the man who would be the focus […]
What the Cat Saw
The choice was between a white kitten and an orange kitten. I was going through a Garfield phase so the agreement was that I got to pick the orange kitten and my sister could pick her name. It was the late summer of 1996. I was starting a new high school, which led me down […]