Exquisite Corpse

Fifty-two, 53, 54 . . . If I can make it to Dr. Deeley’s office in 72 steps I won’t have a cavity. Sixty-eight, 69, 70. Crap! I’ll go around...

Last month, one of my molars started bothering me just enough to break my longstanding dental moratorium. My old dentist had wanted my wisdo...

Early on I lost my sweet tooth. A gem of family lore, retold endlessly at holiday get-togethers, suggests how. As a tyke I found myself al...

Our dad gave Karen and me each a quarter to buy a candy bar. By ourselves. We were little enough that it was a big deal to go through t...

During the 1950s, Frank and Alice lived simply on their combined spoils of professional wrestling and moose hunting. But after Le Diable h...

For years, our friend Tim used to assign political affiliations to each of the colours in a box of Smarties: Tory Blues, Grit Reds, NDP Oran...

As if working in a box downtown weren’t punishment enough, someone has decided our team might function more efficiently if we all just moved...

Our choir mistress, Madame Catherine, was a Consecrated Virgin. I kid you not. She was a secular person who didn’t marry, but devoted her ...

The signs of a stroke include denial That you’re having a stroke. That’s a little wild Cuz all of the time you’re not having a stroke Yo...

A slim line of white beneath the door Around me the old women snore Voices up and down the corridor Try to sleep if only the machine that go...

News today of an innovation in the treatment of C. difficile. It’s called a “fecal transplant” and involves inserting a healthy person’s ...

Back then, we were all more worried about Nuclear Winter than Global Warming, but the biggest issue by far was Acid Rain. To their credit, t...

August 16, 2130 HALIFAX — The opening session of the 105th International Summit on Climate Change was interrupted today by Cyclone Mary, wh...

Another day in the vinyl mine, and we’re still following that vein of prog we discovered last month—nothing special really, just layer after...

Although it’s never been rigorously tested, I claim an encyclopaedic knowledge of pop and country music from my salad days, circa 1972-199...

If you turn when taking a shower at my mother’s house, you’ll knock a half-dozen plastic bottles off the shelves that line the lime green tu...

For her, the most memorable metaphor of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness was Marlow’s futile search for rivets, a frustrating task because...

I’ve been through Saratoga Springs maybe a half-dozen times, but I’ve heard it’s quite beautiful.      They say Cornelius Vanderbilt woul...

I was a young 19 and it was my first overnight bus trip from the Soo to university. My seatmate was in her forties, with a sunhammered face...

I stole the money from that bastard. Took the first bus west. She sat next to me. In Calgary we got off together to get breakfast — and sudd...