Author: Michael Murray

On the weekend Rachelle and I went up to a friend’s cottage. At this time of year all of the mice are looking to find someplace warm to live and have thus been making plans to infiltrate the cottage. In response to this our friend set up a couple of mouse traps baited with chocolate…

Last Week Rachelle and I went up to the french restaurant Baltifole for dinner. It’s an unexpected place, sitting like a little colonial outpost on a crumbling and dodgy stretch of of Chinatown East. The food is sometimes very good, it’s always reasonably priced and the waiter reminds me of Eddie Izzard, so I’m always…

The building that Rachelle and I live in is over one hundred years old and used to be a hotel. There are five apartments in it and sadly, it’s the sort of downtown situation where you really don’t know your neighbours. Over the last couple of weeks, a woman who I presume just moved in,…

What follows is the series of text messages I received from my wife from last Tuesday when the Virginia Earthquake struck and sent a tremor through Toronto, where we live: ********************************************************************** did u feel that??? the earthquake! a tremor just passed through toronto! it was wild, my desk drawer suddenly swung open like magic! and…

National Zoo Animals React to the Earthquake The vibrations from Tuesday’s 5.8 earthquake in Virginia were keenly felt at the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park and animal care staff recognized changes in animal behviour. GREAT APES The earthquake hit the Great Ape House and Think Tank Exhibit during afternoon feeding time. About five to ten seconds…

I actually like Christie Blatchford. I think she’s one of the best newspaper columnists working in Canada and have always admired the courage she’s shown in displaying sentiment in her work. When she writes about the military, police officers or her pets– subjects she seems most passionate about– she’s never been afraid to get a…

Dictionary of Dream Interpretation in which Celebrities are Featured Snooki: To dream of Snooki betokens much distress, and evil-minded persons will seek to injure you in your best work. Ill health is foreboded and despondent hopes will grow gloomier. You will make a failure of life through egotism and selfishness, and anticipated pleasures will be…

For a long time, I believed that my nephews Carter and Oliver, now aged 9 and 7, adored me. But that seems to have morphed into a mocking contempt now that they’ve figured out that I’m subordinate to them and not the other way around. I believe this inevitable downfall was set in motion when…

The streets were slow and humid and the lost men of Queen East were in full bloom. Wandering slowly with heavy, droopy moustaches and sloped-shoulders they wore novelty t-shirts that said things like Dog Father or All This Could Be Yours. A bronzed, middle-aged woman who had the look of a heavy drinker still able…