i blame it all on noah. him and his frigging ark. everything set up for all the pairs. guaran-frigging-teed that as they sailed away someone pointed to a lonely figure standing on a rock, glowering beneath her umbrella. "dad! dad! we forgot auntie tilley!" to which noah replied "no, child. we didn't forget auntie tilley. but she's a single and we've only got place settings for twelve. you know how your mother gets when she's got to squeeze an extra in down at the end." my last … [Read more...]

it becomes a bit of a slog, sometimes, being the single person during the holidays. during this time of year i feel, as must every other single, as if i am the only one in all the world. the only single, ever. most events, especially those for new year's eve, are marketed for pairings of two. this year i debated buying myself two tickets to the dinner i really want to attend. i could eat twice as much. drink twice as much. take turns sitting opposite myself. toast myself. bring two … [Read more...]

in the controversial 1981 movie "a whale for the killing" (based on the farley mowat book of the same name) a stranded whale becomes a polarizing symbol. it becomes both a target and a mission in a small newfoundland community. many may not remember the movie now, especially in our new tourism industry where whales are balletic stars of sea and screen. it's not too shabby a time to be a humble comedy hack, i was thinking just yesterday. my job is to hunker down in a room with a bunch of other … [Read more...]

  He’s an old man now, the oldest of all the old men. He sits with the others on the wharf every morning that’s fit. There they debate and pontificate, and in that manner they solve the problems of the world. The world pays them no mind but they agree that without their wharf-parliament the planet would topple off its axis and careen willy-nilly through outer space. They are a sparse lot, slowly becoming a memory of themselves. These are the last souls to remember fighting in the … [Read more...]

The opening line to Rhonda Payne's "Stars in the Sky Morning" is simply beautiful and powerful. I have to stop and think on the question. Yes, I think. It does. The sound of a brook makes me lonely.  The play is filled with stunners like that. Bare statements of fact and longing as relevant today as are the stars referred to in the title. Rhonda didn't just write about these tender sharp-edged Newfoundland women. In the mid-70's she packed herself up and moved to the Northern Peninsula to live … [Read more...]