NQ to Halifax

This time next week I'll be in Halifax, where the Writers Federation of Nova Scotia has graciously invited us to set up a subscription booth at their Atlantic Ink Festival. We'll have some magazines to give away and a prize of original Newfoundland artwork to draw for, courtesy of Brian Ricks (to see how good his stuff is, check out the ad on our latest inside back cover). Looking forward to taking the NQ on the road - to a destination where I understand it is not still snowing.

(Image: intelligenttravel.com.)

Patron Saints

Economic meltdown, threatening pandemic, earthquakes in Bay Roberts - just what Stephen King novel are we living in, anyway? In case you feel the need to seek religious intervention, today is the feast day of Saint Catherine of Siena (full of visions, famous for her charm).

(Image: st.blogs.com.)

April 28th

Feeling a tad rebellious today? Could be because it is the anniversary of the Mutiny on the Bounty.

Here's some more stuff you maybe didn't know about April 28th.

(Image: amazon.com.)

Luben Boykov @ The Rooms

Luben Boykov has a remarkable new show at The Rooms - it's up all summer. (We'll have a review in the next issue.) The opening last Friday was quite the 'do. I got a lucky break and showed up a half hour early - curator Bruce Johnson took pity on me and opened the gallery so I had thirty minutes all to myself to absorb and admire. Wasn't enough though - will definitely go back again. (Image: www.canada-culture.)

This year's Holocaust Memorial Service in St. John's takes place Sunday, 7:30pm, at the INCO Centre. The theme is Holocaust Survivors, and as part of the program Randy Mauskopf will interview his father, Ernie Mauskopf, about his wartime experiences. The senior Mr. Mauskopf was interned in four different camps but lived to come to Canada, marry a woman from Newfoundland, and open an art gallery on Duckworth Street in downtown St. John's. This is a remarkable event: etched in sorrow; flickering hope.

(Image: simpletoremember.com.)

Physics & the Real World

My daughter was doing her physics homework last night when I came home, textbooks open on the kitchen counter while she made herself some spaghetti. It's a challenging course but I encourage her to keep at it, because, I often say, physics does have application in the real world.* Or so I was reiterating when I leaned over her textbook and asked, What's with all the ducks? For all the problems were illustrated with ducks busy measuring and examining this and that - in fact, I saw as I looked closer, many of the actual problems involved the relative speed and angle of ducks in such situations as being viewed looking up through a pool of water or accepted in pairs as a gift from one's grandmother. Was I wrong? Was physics not like the real world, but more...like ducks! I thought, pleased to have the opportunity to employ this valuable phrase. Perhaps - in any case, here is a site where you can pose your most pressing physics questions.

(Image: caving.uk.Ducks.)

*Like I'd know, incidentally. My daughter is too polite to point this out.

Nothing like the barest hint of possible spring to revive the spirit and unclog the head. My gosh you can walk along the bare sidewalks today and you don't need mittens and you don't need hats. And, hey, I was even looking at these spare, stalky things, and something came back to me...they used to have...leaves.
And will soon again.

(Image: Dancing Trees of Spring, chriscookartist.com)

Please excuse the lapse in postings - I do write every working day, but since Friday evening have been laid low by 'flu, the kind that makes your eyelids hurt when you blink, can only really lie on the couch and whimper quietly to self, but hope to be back on deck tomorrow.

(Image: cafepress.com.)

Laugh Against the Weather

Minus six when I left the house this morning, so I'm pulling out all the stops now; here's David Rees' take on Michael Ignatieff.

(Image: Smiley-face-779143.gif.)

In my continuing campaign to view this weather through the lens of comedy, here is some more fun stuff, this time from The New Yorker. Paul Rudd, Woody Allen, David Sedaris, oh my.

(Image: manwithoutqualities.files.wordpress.com.)

With the weather a little...irksome, I went looking for something fun today. Here's a bit of Excerpts From My 2008 Tax Return, Form 1040EZ, by Christopher Mah:

Line 4. Add lines 1, 2, and 3. Divide by π. Add 17. Multiply by Avogadro's number and subtract your resting heart rate. This is your adjusted gross income.

The whole piece and lots of crisp comic writing can be found at McSweeney's, well worth a bookmark.

(image: comicbookgalaxy.com.)

After such a gorgeous evening yesterday - did you catch the iceberg at the mouth of Quidi Vidi gut? how about that burnished rose sunset? - we awoke to a fresh dusting of, of, snow. Oh well, we'll keep moving on, but if you need some extra comfort, try these ginger cookies.

(Image: getsyourgoat.com.)

Exact text from child on school trip

venice yesterday was awesome I also haven't eaten any fruits or veggies since I got here, just pizza and gelato

- sent while driving through Tuscany

(Image: thetravelpeach.com.)

Easter Weekend

(Image: worldwidehealth.com.)

Mags to Shops

This part of the NQ's production cycle has us out and about, dropping issues off to such very fine retail outlets as International News (Atlantic Place), Johnny Ruth (Water Street) and the gift shop at The Rooms. Just in case you're looking.

(Image: hubpages.com.)

April is the cruelest month...

... though perhaps not around these parts. Still we do have such days as now when the sun looks so bright and warm, pooling and sparkling on the hoods of cars and the rim of the ocean horizon, but is still no match for those slanting winds angled by bergs and pack ice. T. S. Eliot originated the phrase.

(Image: dlackey.org.)

Bent

Would like to congratulate C2C Theatre on their latest success:

Bent, which played to several sold out audiences this past weekend. C2C has a reputation for picking strong, timely scripts and pairing them with versatile actors - in this case including Philip Goodridge (Max), Beni Malone (Gretta), and Mac Furlong (Uncle Freddy). This play was heartbreaking, intense and deeply unnerving - but next up comes something a little different, written by Robert Chafe and set in a location very close to my heart - a St. John's metrobus!

(Image: consumerwhatch.com)

Next week marks the beginning of Passover , an important Jewish holiday. I recently wrote about this for The Telegram: it was fascinating to learn about the prayers and the rituals, the Seder plates and the chametz, all to commemorate the founding of Israel after the escape from slavery and forty years of wandering in the desert. Only due to a typo this came out as forty years of wondering in the desert. ("I wonder why we're in the desert?" they must have often asked themselves.)

(Image: dianasdesserts.com)

Yesterday evening we, and everyone else in St. John's, and their brothers and their dogs, went to the top of Signal Hill to witness the awesome sight of the

ice packed right into the Narrows. The sunset was gorgeous, there was no wind, and the hill and cliffs cast blue shadows on white.

(Image: travelblog.org.)

It's a common observance that you don't see children playing outside much anymore. Overscheduled free time is often blamed, as the calendar fills with soccer/dance/violin lessons. But another factor may be the lack of critical mass of neighbourhood children. On the street where I grew up, four kids was considered a small family and there were about thirty-five youngsters within the clutch of houses to either side of us. As my mom reminded us on Sunday, we even organized our own version of the 1977 Canada Summer Games, complete with track and field programs, trophies; as the coup de grace we persuaded one dauntless mother to put a tie on her head and impersonate Mayor Dorothy Wyatt and hand out the prizes.

(Image: typepad.com.)