Author: Michael Murray

On Friday, a small asteroid imaginatively named “The Bammer” passed about 7,500 miles from planet earth. This is roughly the distance between Toronto and some point in the southernmost reaches of Africa. Now this might seem pretty far away, but when you consider things in the vast reaches of eternity– in Space Terms– well, it…

It wasn’t just Snowmaggedon, I also prepared for Y2K. I bought 400 cans of chickpeas, some Gatorade and a shotgun. (A generator proved too expensive for my budget.) And so, with the worst winter storm in history threatening Toronto the other day, I made preparations to protect my Rachelle and Heidi pack from the winter…

Postcard from the Train On the train sits a young woman with an optimistic voice. It rises excitedly when the porter asks her if she’d like anything from the food and beverage cart. No, no, she doesn’t but she thanks the man for asking. She brought a big bag of carrots and a Coke Zero…

While visiting Ottawa, Rachelle and I went skating on the Rideau Canal on Saturday. Due to a variety of unanticipated events, I fell 16 times in a row. Thankfully, I was very drunk so the pain was minimal, but one of the results of my falls was that I lost the left lens out of…

Chris O’Brien brought Hobo’s to my attention today. After doing a little bit of research on the Internet, I discovered this: “Hobos have been traveling the US and riding the rails since the Civil War. The romanticized image of the hobo peaked during the depression of the 1930’s, when many took to the rails in…

Anachronistic as they are, newspapers have their place. In public, people use them as shields, a protection against the vulnerability of solitary moments on buses, in bars or in waiting rooms. At the Toronto East General Hospital, people look nervous, scared even, each person buried deep within their own interior. But still, they shuffle and…

On Sunday, Mark Bourrie posted this as his Facebook Status update: “It is cold enough in Ottawa today to toss boiling water into the air and see it turn to ice fog and disappear before it hits the ground. Big hit here among the under 12 set.” I thought this very interesting. As I have…

Today I have given the Blog over to Heidi, our Miniature Dachshund ******************************* Heidi completely forgot. When Heidi 2 she wrote letter to herself that she was to read when 4 1/2. Big age for a girl dog, 4 1/2. Maybe not quite so pretty then. Should be in full swing of life by 4…

This is a list of some of the excuses people gave us for not attending our last party, which was entirely awesome. And our responses to those excuses. Jessica Angerson—“ I will just be sooooo jet lagged from my flight in from B.A. that I am sure I will be nothing but a frightful bore…