From Shaman’s Rock By Jim Poling Sr. Some people are unhappy with the growing number of retailers getting rid of self-checkouts. I am not. Self-checkouts don’t pay income tax. They don’t contribute to social insurance…
Red tape and small business
From Shaman’s Rock By Jim Poling Sr. There’s much talk lately about the need to reduce red tape. We live in a country in which people are swimming in it, just trying to keep afloat.…
Those beautiful burgers
From Shaman’s RockBy Jim Poling Sr. Try as you might, it’s hard to ignore television commercials. Especially when you arewatching a lot of sports, as many of us were during the World Series and now…
Not the time to forget
By Emily Stonehouse I’ve been sitting with this document open all week. A Remembrance Day editorial. There should be lots to say. How we remember. How we honour the fallen soldiers who have bled out…
That unequal tax exemption
From Shaman’s Rock By Jim Poling Sr. “Politics will always break your heart,” Catherine McKenna once tweeted on the social media platform now called X. She should know. She suffered a barrage of verbal attacks…
Living in a world of despair
From Shaman’s Rock By Jim Poling Sr. There is much controversy over whether mental illness is a significant cause of mass shootings, which are becoming a common occurrence, notably in the gun-crazy United States of…
Litter boxes and lies
From Shaman’s Rock By Jim Poling Sr. I’ve never been a fan of cats. I find them self-obsessed and neurotic. If I was a cat fan, however, I certainly would not be dressing up as…
Head in the sand
By Emily Stonehouse I’m supposed to write about the things that happen in our community. But this week, as I kept my head down and dove into the happenings in our town, I felt the…
Replaced by a computer?
From Shaman’s Rock By Jim Poling Sr. I’ve tried to ignore all the hype about artificial intelligence (AI). How it will transform work and reinvent business. How it will replace me as a writer. Any…
We want baseball, not Moneyball
From Shaman’s Rock By Jim Poling Sr. Baseball broadcaster Buck Martinez said the Toronto Blue Jays’ 2023 season would be a disaster if they could not advance past the first wild-card playoff round. They didn’t.…
With bells on
By Emily Stonehouse I don’t usually struggle with words. Usually, they come fairly easy to me. I feel lucky in that sense. But this week, I hit a wall. It was a unique challenge I…
Time to get thinner
From Shaman’s Rock By Jim Poling Sr. The Farmers’ Almanac is forecasting heavier than usual snowfalls for the Great Lakes region this coming winter. That’s good news, in a perverse way. More snow means more…
Time to say goodbye
From Shaman’s Rock By Jim Poling Sr. The turning leaves tell us about change; the need for it and the importance of making change at the right time. Autumn leaves turn colour then drop to…
Harvest time and hungry kids
From Shaman’s Rock By Jim Poling Sr. And so we enter the time of plenty. Crops ripen in fields. Apple trees hang heavy with fruit. Autumn is the time of plenty of food. The time…
Why do sunflowers droop?
From Shaman’s Rock By Jim Poling Sr. I now know why sunflowers droop. It’s not because they lack water, or because their seed heads have become heavy. When you see sunflowers drooping, instead of standing…
A place on the map
By Emily Stonehouse This past weekend, Whitewater Ontario presented the 2023 Canadian National Whitewater Championships at the Whitewater Preserve on Horseshoe Lake Road. Now this isn’t just any race in the park. We’re talking literal…
Clowns that aren’t funny
From Shaman’s Rock By Jim Poling Sr. My laptop computer is driving me crazy. It’s like it has been invaded by those evil clowns you see in television commercials. You know, the ones with white…
Apocalypse Today
From Shaman’s RockBy Jim Poling Sr. Scenes of utter devastation from Maui, Hawaii, the Yellowknife, N.W.T. and B.C. wildfire evacuations, plus the Halifax flash flooding bring to mind a single word: Apocalypse. We are living…
Here comes the Brrr?
From Shaman’s RockBy Jim Poling Sr. This summer’s weather has in no way been traditional, and neither was the spring that led into it. Heat and drought brought record wildfires in parts of the country,…
Me too
By Emily Stonehouse Content warning: Please note that this editorial will discuss sexual assault, which may be triggering to some readers. If this is upsetting to you, please know that you are not alone. There…
Beauty born in the mud
From Shaman’s Rock By Jim Poling Sr. The best thing about mid-summer are the blooms. Orange day lilies stand wild and bold on the roadsides. Pink and white lilliums and purplish-blue hydrangeas bring an explosion…