She Brought Me Her Worst Born

| July 11, 2010

Once upon a time my business included operation of the dispatch centre that handled calls for the Lunenburg-Mahone Bay Police Service and five Lunenburg County fire departments. A regular event was somebody losing track of their dog, or someone calling in to report that they had a stray in their possession. The logistics of these […]

“The End of the World” As We Know It

| June 27, 2010

Lately I’ve found it impossible to swing a dead politician without hitting something that refers to the 2012 apocalyptic deadline. Apparently there’s no point in hand wringing over rogue asteroids any more because it’s all pre-determined. If you’re diagnosed tomorrow with a condition that will make your life unbearable in three or four years, forget […]

The Road to Dog Hell is Paved with Human Misconceptions

| June 24, 2010

J. Allen Boone said, “There’s facts about dogs, and then there’s opinions about them. The dogs have the facts, and the humans have the opinions. If you want the facts about the dog, always get them straight from the dog. If you want opinions, get them from humans.” It’s an unfortunate fact that what a […]

Trot of the Navigator

| June 5, 2010

I once had a Border Collie named Pepper that every Sunday I took to participate in flyball at a school soccer field located about a 35 minute drive from where we lived at the time. The drive involved travelling most of the way on a major highway, then a turn off at a particular exit […]

A Few Cartoons From Before the Turn of the Century

| May 5, 2010

I was recently rifling through the my archives and happened upon some cartoons I doodled back in the early 1980’s; around the time Mrs. LFM would have been … oh I don’t know … probably two. Now, all these years later, they made the mature Mrs. LFM laugh, so she scanned them for me and […]

More Kitchen Knife Technique

| March 29, 2010

In a previous LFM article titled Kitchen Knife Technique I exposed you all to the teachings of Chad Ward, author of An Edge in the Kitchen. Today’s post introduces some exquisite knife work using what many of us would regard as an unlikely tool – the Nepalese khukuri.

You Ain’t From Around Here Are Ya?

| February 21, 2010

At left – Actress Kim McGuire in the role of “Hatchet Face” in the 1990 John Waters movie Cry-Baby. The movie postdates the events described here. My utterance had nothing whatsoever to do with Ms. McGuire’s characterization. I know it will be hard for most of my readers to believe, but I sometimes succumb to […]

Some Seasonal Agony

| December 11, 2009

Jim Keating brought a timely website to my attention yesterday, the topic of which is the perennial December blossom called, by its correct scientific name, the “Sketchy Santa“. If you grew up in North America you’ve met at least one, and observed still others from a safe distance. The site needs no further introduction from […]

A Tendency to Overthink

| November 1, 2009

My senior high school English Teacher, the esteemed Paul Brison, used to say, “Works of art are never finished; they’re abandoned.” While this wise utterance obviously has applications in every field of human expression, I’ve always embraced it as defining the fundamental difference between proof reading and rewriting to death. In overthinking lies doom. Overthinking […]

Stay Where You’re To, We’ll Come Where You’re At !

| September 14, 2009

I once had a lengthy relationship with a woman who gave directions so badly that even people intimately familiar with the place she was talking about could find no discernible similarity with real world conditions. She had the gift of completely sidestepping  the basic essentials required by people who are seriously trying to get from […]