It’s a safe bet most of those who dressed as Frankenstein’s monster on Hallowe’en didn’t do so to honor the birth of a new form of literature and a new way of looking at the world–but Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus, was both. At first glance, Frankenstein seems like just another Gothic novel, full of dank castles, wandering …
Category: Blog
Virtual reality
My first novel is coming out next month. Entitled Soulworm, it’s a young adult fantasy set mostly in Weyburn–sort of. For plot purposes, I moved the hospital of my fictional Weyburn up onto South Hill. With just a few words, I created an artificial reality, distinguishable from the real thing only by those who have …
More about memory
A friend recently told me about visiting a family friend’s house as a small child. When they arrived, a huge St. Bernard bounded up to her, put its paws on her shoulders, and pushed her to the ground. She remembers it as though it were yesterday. Her mother and the family friend remember it too–except …
More about memory
A friend recently told me about visiting a family friend’s house as a small child. When they arrived, a huge St. Bernard bounded up to her, put its paws on her shoulders, and pushed her to the ground. She remembers it as though it were yesterday. Her mother and the family friend remember it too–except …
Food coloring
Today is the day when all across our land, people gather to celebrate food coloring. In kitchens, in restaurants, in bars, they partake of special holiday foods, each given “a touch of the green”–green beer, green milkshakes, green pasta. It’s a touching and important reminder of the importance of color additives to our diet. What’s …
Weight control
Here’s a topic I have far too much experience with: trying to control one’s personal mass. Let me lay out my own history… December, 1979. After two years of university, eating far too many pizzas and far too much vending-machine food, I return to Canada weighing 265 pounds. Nobody calls me “Slim.” July, 1981. After …
Y2K: the Year 2000 problem
The 21st century doesn’t actually begin until January 1, 2001, but for most people, January 1, 2000, seems more significant, just because of the change from writing 19 in front of the year to writing 20. That little change is even more significant for businesses that rely heavily on computers, because computers, too, are used …
Kitchen germs
In my small, elderly house, the bathroom opens onto the kitchen, which has always worried me: I keep picturing armies of bacteria marching out of the bathroom to contaminate my food. It turns out my concern is misguided: a recent study indicates it’s more likely bacteria from the kitchen will contaminate my bathroom.. Scientists from …
The Hubble Space Telescope
If you’re an astronomer, “Twinkle, twinkle little star” isn’t a cute bed-time song for children, it’s a nightly nightmare. Stars twinkle (and daytime skies are blue) because we live at the bottom of a thick soup of atmosphere that distorts our view of the heavens. Ever since Galileo, this has played havoc with observations of …
Garlic
There are few foods that can’t be improved with a little garlic. (Ice cream and pecan pie, maybe, but that’s about it.) Its distinctive taste has made it a favorite flavoring for thousands of years…although no doubt the ancient Egyptians and Romans, both of whom used it, also made the first jokes about “garlic breath.” …
Breath analyzers
I’ve never really been sure why New Year’s Eve is considered a good time to have a wild party. Are we celebrating the fact that 1996 is finally over (was it really that bad a year?) or trying not to think about what 1997 will hold? Whatever, December 31 is a day known for parties, and hence …
Christmas Questions II
It’s almost Christmas, and time once again to turn our thoughts from the humdrum concerns of our everyday lives to those eternal questions that have echoed through the ages, such as… What the heck is a “sugarplum”? In Victorian days, neither canning nor freezing were available as a means of preserving seasonal summer fruits in …
My latest live walk and vlog
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