It was as fabulous as I knew it would be, just even bigger than I imagined. Downtown Toronto was given a jolt of extra colour on Sunday as more than 1 million people, some toting rainbow flags, marched the city’s streets for the 33rd annual Pride Parade. Crowds of revellers lined the parade route behind […]
Living
Bugs are good for you: U.N.
By Rachelle Stein-Wotten Locust, anyone? The UN highly recommends the chewy insect, and edible bugs in general. “Farming insects for human and animal consumption is particularly relevant at a time when population growth, urbanization, and the rising middle class have increased the demand for food while simultaneously harming the environment that enables its production,” says […]
The birds of Spring
By Montreal Simon The birds have been flocking back to the island as they do every spring. Flying in from south of the lake, on their way north. But this year I’m not as glad to see them, as I usually am. Because this year they can’t help reminding me of what’s going on in China. The outbreak […]
Is yoga even yoga anymore?
By Rachelle Stein-Wotten What’s more prolific than cats on the Internet? Yoga. It’s out of the ashram and into every fitness club, living room, park, and beach. But yoga isn’t just yoga anymore; it now comes augmented with prefixes and suffixes denoting new cross-breeds – acroyoga (acrobatic yoga), spynga (yoga + cycling), laughter yoga, paddleboard […]
Is Google making us less lituritt?
By Rachelle Stein-Wotten Today is Family Literacy Day in Canada, an initiative organized by ABC Life Literacy Canada, which encourages families to incorporate reading and other literacy-related activities into their daily routines. There’s no question that developing literacy in children is necessary and important. Adult literacy in Canada, however, doesn’t appear to be getting the […]
Boxing Day: Our gift to The States
By Rachelle Stein-Wotten Boxing Day was traditionally the day servants took off to spend time with their families, and received gift boxes from their employers (or so one of the explanations goes). Nowadays, Boxing Day is better known as the Day to Buy Honking Big Electronics and Other Self-Indulgent Purchases, including, but not limited to, […]
Next time, the children could be Canadian
By Montreal Simon I was glad to see Obama visit the latest community in America to be shattered by gun violence. And I was happy to hear him say this. “We can’t tolerate this any more. These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change.” So maybe all the poor little children, and […]
The man who predicted Sandy
By John Klein (aka Saskboy) I find the current political and media climate in Canada to be insufferably stupid. Despite there being excellent, professional journalists everywhere, there are many more time/space fillers who skew the public’s perception of what is going on and what really matters. One thing the media has been terrible at is […]
Out of the woods
By Montreal Simon I went for a walk the other day through the leafy lanes of The Shire, with a friend of mine who has suffered from severe depression from about this time last year. It was such a beautiful fall day. He was so happy, at having made so much progress on the road […]
Our sexist religion is better than your sexist religion
By David@Sixthestate.net The Gideons have a strange knack for inciting controversy, and they’ve done it again. Ontario pundits are in a tizzy over a new human rights case filed by an atheist couple whose main purpose seems to be to get religious handouts, like Gideon Bibles, banned from schools. Actually, the case is asking whether […]
