Exquisite Corpse

Early spring Monday morning, listening to the news, trying to expand my knowledge when I see an Asian lady beetle striding along my wind...

I walked by St. Casimir’s yesterday and was reminded of Palm Sunday. In my early 20s, I denounced my Catholic upbringing. My ultra-liberal m...

FANWOOD —June 1970—My mother sent me off on an afternoon hike in the Watchung Mountains with a bunch of other scouts from Pack 33. It was ...

In the continuing effort to unearth Lauretta’s gangster moll past, I revisited her wedding. She’d married Presbyterian on a Tuesday and to...

I knew I was in the wrong job when a month into my (very short) stint as an editor with Chatelaine, I heard a colleague talk about Spring ...

Songs of a bright and future home settle in Are these shores reachable beyond the beckoning of war drums and convulsions of paroxysmal god...

In her four walls, mortality whispers in her ear. Moments are ever fleeting. The child she was is gone. The young woman from oh so long ago,...

In 1908, Eva and James Doughty, purchased a brand-new house in Parkdale, just off Roncesvalles Avenue—$2850, $800 down. They moved in with ...

Les deux Marguerites, vieilles belles sœurs  Les deux Thérèses, plein de bonheurs  Léocadie sauvegarde à nos racines  Suzanne prend bien soi...

The month of March makes its entrance like a thirteen-year-old who doesn’t know how to brush or (dare I say) wash his hair or even how to m...

Ricky’s twenty one and Jackie’s nineteen but she’s done things he’s never dreamed She’s got a devil’s smile, angel’s lips, she’s drawin...

Dear Bra,      I remember when we first met. You were thrust upon me in shame. Society could not bear the nipples of a pre-teen. But our rel...

Remember that part in Flashdance where the blow-torch lady is talking to the guy she likes, and while she’s talking, she’s taking off her b...

Chris and I sit in an Ottawa bar and read her old diary from 1976. At first with theatrical angst, but then more thoughtfully. Here we are ...

Things are different when you travel. Firm standards become fluid. Take laundry. A seasoned traveller avoids it entirely. A shirt you’d neve...

We drive along Lakeshore, passing by the garbage-strewn encampments and cracked pillars under the Gardiner. We turn down the New Cherry St. ...

Paint a picture of the grasslands Take a photo of the soul Over ritual plains and rivers Heavy winds are this way blowing Running wit...

It was a still and grey afternoon. Perfect weather mood for a Saturday matinee. We left the theatre jacked to put our moves into place. That...

We seemed to be hitting it off, so I offered to get her home. All I really wanted was to extend the evening a little, a walk through the sn...

Back in my card-carrying PETA undergrad, I played a rainy-day game called “Splash the Bunny”. I’d drive my Dodge Dart dangerously close to ...