Author: Michael Murray

Yesterday at the corner store beneath our apartment, there was a woman standing in front of me at the cash. She was buying a red onion that was about the size of my head and a liter of chocolate milk. “That’s quite the lunch you’ve got planned for yourself,” I offered. She looked back at…

Walking down Broadview the other day, I passed by the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffalo, a sturdy, little brick building that kind of resembles a church. I’ve long wondered what mysteries dwelled within. I pulled on the front door and entered. Up a few stairs and down a very short hallway was the sort of…

The other day I was playing fetch with my dog on the property of the abandoned school behind our apartment. Four boys, probably aged around 12, were walking up the side street. One of them said something to me. I wasn’t sure what, but I thought it had the word “gay” in it. I said,…

Although still too cold and unpredictable to be sitting out on patios, people, so happy for even the crack of an opportunity, are still doing it. At the Joy Bistro on Queen East, a middle-aged man, still feeling like a lion, sits alone in a thin slash of sunlight. He’s leaning back against the wall,…

My family had very generously arranged to host a wedding dinner for Rachelle and I at Morton’s Steak House in Toronto in April. After my father gave them a deposit and several weeks had passed, a woman named Joan called to tell Rachelle that they were closed that day and were sorry but could not…

Last week Rachelle and I were invited by some friends to attend a cooking class and tasting menu at the LCBO flagship store in Toronto. A Chef from Italy, who insisted on being called “Padrone,” was teaching us how to make Risotto. The crowd was primarily comprised of middle-aged women, and they seemed smitten by…

Although I come from a Christian background and feel I have a very strong sense of the divine, it’s probably true that I grew-up in what many would call a Post-Christian society. I have no connection to organized religion and I guess I see myself essentially as a secular, if agnostic, liberal humanist. When Rachelle…

As many of you know, Rachelle and I experienced almost immediate regret when we moved from our beautiful and perfect apartment in the Annex to our less beautiful and less perfect apartment on Queen East. As such, we wrote our old landlord and let him know that if it became available again, we would be…

On Saturday, Rachelle and I went up to some shopping complex at Eglinton and Laird to run some errands. Rachelle hit the Best Buy, while I visited Starbucks, where I had three ginger molasses cookies (I love these cookies—they are the size of my head and so soft and moist it’s as if they didn’t…