Author: Michael Murray

As many of you know, I was expelled from the Driver’s Education class I was taking. Fortunately, I was able to persuade Clark, our insecure complete dong of an instructor, to let me back in the class providing that I followed a few of his “simple rules.” 1) No Angry Birds during class. 2) Only…

Not many men beg on the part of Queen East where we live. There just isn’t enough pedestrian traffic to make it worthwhile. There are no office buildings or primary employment hubs about so if you’re wandering around during the day it usually means that you have nothing better to do, and if you happen…

I came late to the game Angry Birds. As most of you know it’s an insanely popular video game application that’s presently sold over 12 million copies. Originally made just for iPhones, it’s now designed for other touchscreen phones, too, so if you’ve ever wondered what everybody was obsessing over on their phones before the…

I’m presently taking a driver’s education course on the weekends in a small, windowless room with about two dozen teenagers. It’s presided over by a guy named Clark who always wears khaki pants and a pair of black shoes that express nothing other than a willingness, and perhaps even a need to conform. Repeatedly, he’s…

In the park two Russian men who look like they lived through the Soviet era, sit on a bench. Everyday at the same hour they meet there and talk about a wide range of intellectually flavoured topics. I imagine them exiled professors who settled into unexpected lives over the last 20 years, after departing positions…

On Monday I challenged Ralph to a game of Ping Pong. Something like this had been coming for a long time. The man had been asking for it. Ralph is 77 years old and is a handyman who has lived his entire life in the Queen East area. He’s thin as a rail, has a…

Serena Williams is a goddamn tank. When you see her standing out there on the court you see a woman with such an extraordinary physical advantage over everybody else, that you immediately take pity on her poor opponent– usually some pretty blonde girl dressed in pink. As Wilt Chamberlain famously groused, “Everybody pulls for David,…

Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. What follows is a letter I wrote to a friend on the day of the attacks one decade ago. ***************************************************** Oh my, The skies are empty and all the streets are quiet. sweet Jesus. Early in the morning my sister’s husband called her and told her…

Last Friday I went to the Drift Bar on Bloor West to meet a friend. I was a little bit early so I sat there at my table with a drink and my notebook, looking around the place in the most unobtrusive way I could fashion. To my left a young and beautiful couple sat…