Tales
When Roxanne’s 2007 Volkswagen aged, progressive friends implored, “never buy another internal combustion engine [ICE].” In early 2022, we began our transition from ICE to electric vehicle [EV] by placing a deposit on a Mini Cooper SE. War and pestilence have changed everything. No longer could we visit a car dealer, drop off a…
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The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, But the queerest they ever did see Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. The wind across Lake Laberge whispered the story of Sam McGee, a deck-hand and part-time prospector who was cremated in the boiler of the Alice…
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Weathered wood cabins with solar panels and cedar-shake roofs frame the man-made Nam Tien Lake that shimmers like dancing diamonds in the tropical sun of Laos. I follow the scent of frangipani blooming along the walkway and bordering the lush green jungle beyond, to the dining hall where a donation box invites me to…
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In the middle of October 2013, Viv and I received in the mail a file, sent by Bob Atkinson’s widow Karen Mackenzie. The file, Karen said, held drawings that Bob had told her, “were from some German prisoners of war in a camp near Medicine Hat.” In the Autumn of 1971, Bob Atkinson, Paul…
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Silver King Basin! Just the name was a draw for me to explore Babine Provincial Park located north of Smithers, BC. I enticed four of my friends to join me in late July when valley snow would be gone and the alpine flowers would be prime. I showed them a park map with a four-day…
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John is an English professor, raised in Vancouver by loving and attentive parents who believed good manners were important and emotional displays were embarrassing. Onions, garlic and pastas were considered seditious and alcoholic drinks toxic. Entertainment included Gunsmoke, Ed Sullivan, and standing around a pump organ droning hymns. During his years at university John acquired…
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For a Muslim, going to Mecca fulfills the second of the five pillars of Islam and going during Ramadan, Islam’s holy month, doubles a Muslim’s chances for a front-row seat in the afterworld. My plan was to go by boat from the Suez Canal to the port of Suakin, Sudan on the Red Sea on…
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