Trouble With Immigrants

| November 15, 2015

” … the anecdote goes, a Canadian immigration official was asked how many Jews displaced from what was left of Europe Canada would accept as immigrants, and was said to have replied, ‘None is too many.’ Whether or not the story is true in its placing the speaking of those words in the mouth of […]

Dark Sentiments 2015 – Day 22: But it Does Rhyme – Part 1 of 2

| October 22, 2015

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” ~ Mark Twain Tonight’s Dark Sentiment is a terribly rendered documentary that apparently, though not surprisingly, only aired once in 1971. I ask you though, Goode Reader, to suffer through it, if only for its startling resemblance at times to out-takes from an episode of Monty Python’s […]

Dark Sentiments 2015 – Day 20: The Year in Zealotry – Part 2 of 2

| October 20, 2015

Darkness, as it inspires me, isn’t limited to expressions of evil, mayhem, and bad outcomes. Something can also be considered “dark” if it is unknown, misunderstood, or incorrectly interpreted. ~ Dark Sentiments 2012 – Day 1: Another Harvest 2015 has so far been a year characterized by action, reaction, inadequate and inappropriate action, attacks on […]

Dark Sentiments 2015 – Day 19: The Year in Zealotry – Part 1 of 2

| October 19, 2015

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions Meaning: One meaning of the phrase is that individuals may have the intention to undertake good actions but nevertheless fail to take action. This inaction may be due to procrastination, laziness or other subversive vice. As such, the saying is an admonishment that a good intention […]

Dark Sentiments 2015 – Day 17: Sharing

| October 17, 2015

My Boxing Day 2013 article, A Long Winter’s Night 2013 – Day 6: A Winter Lesson in Community, told the tale of a blizzard that buried my home town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia when I was about 3 years old, and how the citizenry had no choice but to suspend all matters of commerce and […]

Dark Sentiments 2015 – Day 16: The Stranger at the Door

| October 16, 2015

I’ve spoken before of the Hávamál (sayings of the high one), that being one of the poems in The Elder or Poetric Edda, also known as Sæmund’s Edda. For those of us with eyes to see, ears to hear, minds to think, and hearts to feel, the world of now is every bit as dangerous […]

Dark Sentiments 2015 – Day 13: Just Delicious

| October 13, 2015

Tonight’s Dark Sentiment is in the form of an animated short film by Brian Bear, published to YouTube by aniBoom. Just Delicious is the title of a dark tale based on a story in the third volume of the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark anthologies written by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated by Stephen Gammel. […]

Dark Sentiments 2015 – Day 12: Tooth and Claw

| October 12, 2015

When in this world’s unpleasing youth       Our godlike race began, The longest arm, the sharpest tooth,       Gave man control of man …. ~ Rudyard Kipling, The Benefactors While I will stop short of joining the Esteemed Mr. Kipling in granting the Human species the epithet “godlike”, I admit to absorbing no […]

Dark Sentiments 2015 – Day 10: What Died?

| October 10, 2015

We all know what rotting meat smells like, and hence the term, “What died?” has entered the popular lexicon. Just words though, Goode Reader, for there is a quantum leap in the experience that lies between pulling the lid off something found forgotten at the back of the fridge, and the full flower of meaning […]

Dark Sentiments 2015 – Day 9: The Urban Death Project

| October 9, 2015

I once convinced a small group of idiots that my birth certificate had an expiry date stamped on it. Don’t try this yourselves though, because my powers of persuasion exceed that of mere mortals, and I’d hate to be responsible for any of you hurting yourselves; at least if I’m not there to watch. Good […]