Columns
Convection. That's the enemy. Heat rises, clings and settles in the creases of society like so much poorly-stored cheese. It seeps into our lives, our pores, our orifices, turning casual afternoons into full-body sauna simulations.
Hopefully, by the time you read this at the end of the week, the heat and humidity that hit us early in the week (30°C+ temperature, though slightly cooler along Lake Huron) will have passed.
Let me take you back - all the way back to April of 2019. I was in our nation's capital with my friend Brett and we were just about to watch The Pigeon King, the darling of the previous Blyth Festival season that was being...
The tradition of the arts, Use it (properly) or lose it, Time to get serious
Nowadays, it is difficult to imagine what the landscape of rural Huron must have looked like to the first settlers. Oftentimes, the description of their surroundings was that of it being dark because of the prevalent forest.
After months of rigorous, unparalleled and undoubtedly exhaustive preparation, it is now appropriate, indeed imperative, to present The Chaff's Summer Solstice Winter Report.
Not long after I started work with The Citizen, nearly 20 years ago now, the topic of historic Ball's Bridge became central to a number of debates.
Far be it from me to play down the compliments in Shawn Loughlin's column last week from both him and our reporter Scott Stephenson, but I must admit that in all my 78 years on this earth...
The temperature rises, Missed connections, God only knows....
Last week, as we were going through our approval process for the editorials, Scott made an observation. (For those of you who are uninitiated, editorials are written by individual members of an editorial board to convey the opinions of that board.
Rejection. That was the word echoing across the soft hills and through the dairy-scented breezes of Teeswater when the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) made its long-awaited decision.
A front page story in last week's Citizen presented an explanation of how hard it is to get proper, convenient health service in small-town Ontario these days.
This can't go on, Life during wartime, A united Canada
One of the most distinguished-looking local rural schools still in existence is the one that was called Stone School or SS#7 Morris. It is situated along the bank of the Maitland River on Stone School Road...
Not so long ago, I had a little fun in this column space about living my life five minutes at a time; drawing parallels to The Fast and Furious movies and their motto of living life one quarter-mile at a time...
Consider this your story. Not a metaphor, not a trick of language, but a straightforward declaration. You, right now, in this precise moment, are the subject of what follows.
The photo on the front page of last week's Citizen of the removal of the older water tower from CP Railroad days stirred memories for an oldtimer like me.
'The Citizen' is for all, No one wants this, It's getting hot in here
Over the past few weeks, I have been speaking to a number of people involved in the upcoming Blyth Festival season. There have been wide-eyed young actors on the cusp of their professional careers, as well as some more veteran artists...
Evidently, it's Gary Month. We didn't plan it. We didn't vote on it. It wasn't declared by any official body or mentioned in any press release.
It was sad to hear that there were 173 new cases of measles reported last week in Ontario, bringing the total for this year to almost 800.
Let your mail flow, It is happening again, Turning the lights on
It was one of those "kill two birds with one stone" ideas: take each elementary-aged school student in Huron County, have each one contribute a brick, and the rest would be easy.
The King's Speech, Grinding them down, Who's the Boss?