Poet and Son: Wat Raleigh by John Harris Sir Walter Raleigh actually had three sons, but the first, Dameri, born 29 March 1592, played a role in Walter’s life only as proof to Queen Elizabeth that Walter, one of her half-dozen top advisors and the captain of her palace guard, had impregnated Bess Throckmorton, one... [Read more...]
Travel Journal: Freiburg im Breisgau by Norbert Ruebsaat 1. In Freiburg im Breisgau, in southwest Germany, two tall silent men clear the dishes from the guest tables in the Hotel am Rathaus breakfast room. The men bend forward from the waist before each table and their strong fingers are gentle with the delicate porcelain cups and... [Read more...]
Chicken Bingo — Belize by Vivien Lougheed I was researching information for a guidebook on Belize with my husband John and my friend Joy. John is the nervous type who gets sick for protection while Joy will do anything on the travel trail and doesn’t have a nervous cell in her body. During our explorations, we went... [Read more...]
Newest Articles
Poet and Son: Wat RaleighJohn Harris’s “Poet and Son” series tells the tale of Walter and Wat Raleigh.
Poet and Son: William GascoigneThe second of John Harris’s series “Poet and Son” is about George and William Gascoigne.
The Swimming HoleGeorge Bowering goes down to the ol’ swimming hole.
Poet and Son: Lewis ChaucerThe first of John Harris’s series-in-progress, “Poet and Son,” is about Geoffrey and Lewis Chaucer.
Thinking Television: Tales of Media and CommunicationNorbert Ruebsaat’s media students from around the world tell him how they watch television.
Read all articlesNewest Reviews
Travel Journal: Freiburg im BreisgauNorbert Ruebsaat looks at, listens to, and tastes Freiburg, Germany, where the language borders subtly shift..
Chicken Bingo — BelizeThe rooster has pooped. It’s chicken bingo time in Belize with feisty explorers and an under-the-weather hubby. Vivien Lougheed explains all.
Language and Silence, or, Just Shut the Fook UpTim Parks travels to the end of his mind in search of a little peace and quiet.
The Mother-in-Law JokeStephen Marche thinks it’s the Golden Age of reading and writing. Howard Jacobson thinks readers are disappearing and fiction is “fooked” (as they say in England). Stan Persky investigates.
When Atoms CollideStephen Greenblatt tells the story of a Renaissance book-hunter’s trip to the library. Stan Persky looks at Greenblatt’s “The Swerve” and the pushback from its critics.
Read all reviewsNewest Dictionary Entry
Ford, Rob
Definitely in the YCMTSU (You Can’t Make This Stuff Up) category, Rob Ford, the strapping 150-kilo-plus lad who brought the Etobicoke Hillbillies lifestyle to a major Canadian city is the 64th and current mayor of Toronto the Good. In ha-ha real life, Ford, a bullying, allegedly hard-drinking, allegedly crack-cocaine using, allegedly bum-pinching, allegedly fund-manipulating right-wing municipal politician is the favourite son of an upstanding Etobicoke suburban bourgeois family that made its fortune running the town’s Deco Labels and Tags printing firm. Father Doug Sr. was a member of the Ontario legislature during the Tory regime of Premier Mike Harris; brother Doug Jr. is a Toronto city councillor. In a recent episode of the long-running sitcom known as Toronto City Hall, or Pigs Can Fly, two alleged drug dealers allegedly offered to sell the Toronto Star newspaper and gawker.com website an alleged smartphone video that allegedly shows the mayor puffing away on alleged drug paraphernalia while allegedly making racist and homophobic remarks.
Ford’s only current competition for size, behaving badly, and headlines is a former media reporter, Mike Duffy, who was appointed to the Canadian Senate by the Stephen Harper government, and then got into trouble over losing his lunch money or daily allowance or somesuch fiscal pittance. The Prime Minister’s chief-of-staff cut a $90,000 cheque to allow the miscreant senator to pay off his debts, and then promptly became the PM’s ex-chief-of-staff once the news got out.
Hey, wait a minute. Is this really Toronto the Smug, Canada the Well-Governed? And why are 
those charming high school cheerleaders at the edge of the football field waving their pom-poms, shaking their booties, and crying out, “Etobi-COKE! Etobi-COKE!!”?
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