Series: Summer 1997

“I’m not really a magazine editor,” Stevie Cameron announces firmly over the lectern. “I don’t know what I’m doing. I have to pattern myself after you guys.” The audience laughs. It’s September 1996, and a hundred-odd members of the Canadian Society of Magazine Editors are sitting over the remains of a buffet lunch. Many know… Continue reading Out on a Limb

On the outskirts of Winnipeg, stalks of golden prarie wheat rustle in the summer breeze, and dust blows between the stubble in the fields where fresh-cut sheaves stand like miniature teepees. Dozens of grain elevators along the horizon cast long, skinny shadows as the sun lowers in the western sky. In the city, a disturbance… Continue reading The Dying Art of Talking Crop

t seems peculiar to be in McDonald’s. How ironic to be sitting with Irshad Manji, an East African immigrant-feminist-lesbian, in a burger empire that doesn’t celebrate diversity but instead sets out to make the whole world appreciate a Big Mac. In this homogenous environment, it’s refreshing to think of the diverse views she presents in… Continue reading Back of the Rack

Jay Ingram and I are staring at a photo of a viewer’s fanatical cat. “This cat only pays attention when I’m on the show,” he says with a laugh. “Other cats watch the show too, Jay,” I say. My best friend’s cat, I explain, likes staring at the screen of The Discovery Channel, although Mojo… Continue reading Daily Science Fare