Horror Show


We’re on the cusp of Hallowe’en, the bizarre celebration of ghouls, monsters, skeletons and ghosts. Mostly the event is for kids who go door to door filling their bags with candies and sugar treats while their parents attend costume parties and dress up in weird and funny ways. 

‘Any chance Camp that you’re out to the Legion dance this Halloween? Maybe dressed as a book seller?’

‘Not a snowball’s chance in hell,’ Camp retorted. It’s enough that I have to stock books about grisly murders, Walpurgis night witches’ dances and Day of the Dead but I refuse to decorate my store with spider webs and skulls. ‘

While Hallowe’en celebrates fantasy horror and zombies, ‘the real horror show is playing out in today’s elections: from B.C. where the two parties are deadlocked to the nasty campaign of Trump and his cultish followers against common sense, decency and democracy.’ 

Camp shook his grey curls. ‘It is hard to fathom that Trump might be president again, despite his lousy record the first time. He oversaw the 3rd biggest debt increase of any president; he mismanaged the pandemic; he courted dictators like Putin and Kim Jong Un and when he lost the next election to Biden, he denied that he lost and then attempted to overthrow the government and prevent the certification of the vote. I know I’m ranting here but hell, he is the real ghoul that is haunting my dreams.’

Continue reading

Cuba Revisited


Havana is a ruinous city, like an old prostitute covered in too much makeup to hide the pain and suffering, but yet resilient and full of life. The crumbling facades of the  wedding cake villas and opulent palaces of the former sugar barons and casino moguls, of the corrupt regimes before the revolution, bear witness to the ravages of time, decay and lack of money. Sixty years of neglect, coupled with numerous hurricanes and the salty fecundity of the climate is not a recipe for a well functioning infrastructure.

Continue reading

Cuban Holiday


It’s been a mild winter so far here in Gibsons; no snow, no freeze ups, no icy roads. Mind you, winter isn’t over yet but so far so good, as the saying goes. The days are getting longer, about two minutes per day which translates into an hour per month.  Our small town is pretty well shuttered and most of the xmas decorations are coming down to be stashed for another year. I leave our gable lights up for the whole year and just unplug them.

Clare and I have been on an unusual holiday to Cuba

Continue reading