Annual #tellastory day and Pop’s birthday, and so another pop tale. I don’t recall exactly when it arrived in our home, but at some point when I was young, Pop acquired a banjo. He would spend hours in the evenings and weekends plinking and plunking away, often playing along with something on the stereo or... Continue Reading →
The Madness of Grief, by Richard Coles. Book report #31 (2021)
The Madness of Grief, by The Reverend Richard Coles. Pub 2021 Published in 2021, one would expect this book to be about COVID-19 - it is not. In fact, other than some mentions of lockdowns, there is barely a mention of the omnipresent and ongoing pandemic and so the story seems like it could be... Continue Reading →
Pop and Food
27 April – Pop’s birthday and #tellastory day. Time to tell another (just like the other one…). Food, glorious food. Like many people, I have lots of memories and associations with family members and food. When I started to think about Pop and food, I came up with many little stories and memories. One of... Continue Reading →
Good riddance, 2020
Like most people I'm sure, I'll be glad to flip the calendar from 2020. I started this blog in 2010, at the end of (for me) a tumultuous year. 2020 has been less personally challenging but still no picnic. I tried for a few years doing a year-end sum-up of things that made me laugh/cry/get... Continue Reading →
Remembering Pop
It is a week of remembrances, in a month of loss, in a year of change and fear. Pop left us 10 years ago today, and like most of the recent past, it seems like both a lifetime ago and just yesterday. In a book I read recently, the main character and his friends have... Continue Reading →
Construction of a Father
27 April is both #tellastory day and my Pop's birthday. Pop would have been 73 today, pretty close to the same age as James Taylor (a current favourite of mine). I don't know that Pop was a fan, but his other favourites - Gordon Lightfoot and Harry Chapin - share the same sad, confessional, troubadour... Continue Reading →
Dunbar, by Edward St. Aubyn. Book report #20 (2019)
Dunbar, by Edward St. Aubyn. Pub 2017 My third foray into the Hogarth Shakespeare. While not as good either of the previous reads, this was a good (if not great) read, perhaps helped by the fact that I was not familiar with the play that it is based on. St. Aubyn updates King Lear into... Continue Reading →
Pops, by Michael Chabon. Book report #18 (2019)
Pops: Fatherhood in Pieces, by Michael Chabon. Pub. 2018 It was the title of this one that got me – not many people I know refer to their father as “pop” as I do – and also Michael Chabon as the author. I have read only a few of his books, and enjoyed each of... Continue Reading →
Crashing coffee cups
April 27th is Tell-a-Story Day. It is also what would have been my Pop’s 72nd birthday. So it seems highly appropriate to tell a story about him. A short one this year, inspired by a comment by a friend. She was describing how she frequently, in her haste to get going in the morning, will leave her coffee cup... Continue Reading →
Item #25: Église De Stains, by Maurice Utrillo
This weary nicotine-stained lithograph-on-board has pride-of-place in my living room not because it is valuable (certainly not) or noteworthy. This print occupied a similar position in my grandparents' home for as long as I can remember and likely before that, so it is a piece of my own history. This was my pop's parents’ home,... Continue Reading →
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