Author: Michael Murray

I was at the dentist yesterday and it did not go well. I’m anxious around dentists at the best of times, but since my abdominal surgery in August I still have some residual pain that can be greatly exacerbated when my body suddenly tenses up, like when a squirrel darts in front of me. And…

Whenever we go for walks the dog now pulls into Captain’s Treasures at the corner of Lewis and Queen East. The place bills itself as an Antique Store (“We’ve got the best booty around”) but it’s little more than a space full of a man’s mismanaged and disorganized belongings. In short, it’s the basement of…

As many of you know, I’ve been in negotiations to go into partnership with Ikea so that they might help market and distribute a new line of Sniper Towers that I have been developing. Unfortunately, Ikea has not been as responsive to the idea as I had anticipated and I was forced to take my…

Today I have given the Blog over to Heidi, our Miniature Dachshund ***************************************** Heidi been planning escape for long, long time. Sick of no fun prison! No liberty for Heidi. Eat only when two-leggers say eat, only go out when two-leggers say to go out, and then they make me pull them along by leash,…

On Saturday night, for the first time in my life, I went to watch live boxing. The cab driver who took us to the Bloor Boxing Club was a small and thin Jamaican man who liked to talk. In a natural and completely unforced manner, he managed to tell us his entire life story, including…

As many of you know, I had major surgery last month and was on a wide array of medications including Morphine, Oxycontin and Percocet. Coincidentally, at the same time that I was going through this, bats began to menace me. The dog proved useless against the creatures, as neither her eyesight nor hearing was keen…

On my way to lunch the other day, I stopped into a dilapidated corner store to pick-up a newspaper. I stood in line behind a woman who buying a pack of smokes. With the dark, ragged hands of somebody who has had to learn how to punch back, she slowly and without a trace of…

After taking the dog for a walk yesterday I stopped off at Bonjour Brioche, a little bakery and cafe that I often pick-up lunch from. I ordered a quiche from the waiter and as I sat outside with our Dachshund, I could have sworn I heard him yell back to the guy working the line,…

The other weekend Rachelle and I went to Little India, a six block stretch on Gerrard Street in the east end of Toronto. Improbably, at the end of the strip of restaurants, grocery and clothing stores sat a sports memorabilia shop. A middle-aged Indian guy with a heavy beard and mustache was running the place,…