The Duck Call
On humble objects, deep time, and the breath of the people we have loved.
Recollections
The Return of the Ducks
On homecoming — theirs and mine — and the land that holds us all without distinction.
The Snapper That Would Not Die
On the negotiable boundary between life and what comes after it.
Science Fiction Horror in a Suburban Garage
On parasitism, possession, and the collector who became the collected
A Portrait of Uncommon Beauty
Beauty need not announce itself to be profound
The Shady History of Our Family Tree: Our Norway Maple
Connecting George Washington, Jung, Micro-bursts, Fungal Tar Spots, Slavery, and Germanic Folklore
Memory of a Gordian Knot
When I was sixteen years old, I had an emergency appendectomy. But that’s not what I want to write about. This is about my father. After the surgery, decades ago, I ended up on my back for several days and wasn’t allowed to sit up. At the time
Art, Literature, and Rooming Houses
In 1976 and 1977, I attended University in Perugia, Italy. I received my degree (in an accelerated programme) after subjecting myself to two years there, studying what was termed Humanities and Interpreting. The Interpreting part of the curriculum is straightforward; the Humanities, perhaps less so. My studies on that side
We Were So Pretty
"There is no beauty without some strangeness of proportion." — Edgar Allan Poe A Visitor From the Past Several years ago a woman came into my bookshop. I recognized her immediately. Let’s call her Daisy (obviously not her real name). Everyone knows a Daisy. You, Dear Reader, know
Being A Human Book
Really, it’s true — literally (pardon the pun). I recently participated as a Human Book in an event of the Human Library Organization. What is the Human Library Organization? The Human Library Organization was founded in Denmark 25 years ago and operates in 85 countries. Their tagline is “unjudge someone”
The Pathos of Pots and Pans
How I Came to Sell Her Cookware As some of you may know, I am a bookseller dealing in antique and second hand books. As such, I am often contacted by set dressers wanting a certain type of book or ‘look’ for their sets. While conversing recently with a set
You Should Smile More, or Five Decades of the Patriarchy
Let's start in the remote past. From the dark reaches of the 1970s. Having completed my University studies – in Humanities (art, literature, and other high-minded topics), I quickly realized this would lead to no employment opportunities beyond that of being a lowly tour guide (which I briefly did,
A Third Death in the Family
And so, yet another death in 2024. This time it was our beloved cat, Cream. Cream came to us as a rescue about 17 or 18 years ago. My son found her as a wisp of a calico kitten, abandoned and trapped in a construction site. Since that moment, Cream
Whatever Happened to the Hunchback’s Mummified Penis?
What a nice day for a family picnic! Sometime during the late summer of 1976, a friend and I were rather aimlessly driving around the Friuli region of Italy. I wasn’t seeking anything in particular but was interested in seeing what had remained of the gorgeous medieval towns that
From Another Time: The Māori Voice of Albania
It was in the late summer of 1974. I had recently come to live in northern Italy, had not yet begun my final year of high school, and could not yet speak Italian. There were no English language television or radio programmes. I was sixteen years old, unhappy about my
Losing the Mysticism
I was raised a Roman Catholic, and then I grew up. For the most part I find Paul in Corinthians to be despicable, but there is one verse — 13.11 — that I can get behind. Here is the King James Version (which I prefer because I like the flavour of
Another Death in the Family
Just two months ago, on July 6, we lost our beloved German Shepherd, Luna. Now our equally beloved Sally is gone. She was in her 18th year, born in 2006. Supposedly a Miniature Pinscher, she was likely mixed with Manchester Terrier. Sally was a rescue and came to us unexpectedly.
Exorcism of a Colleague
Craig is not his real name. I chose this pseudonym for reasons that should become apparent as this sketch progresses. I worked with Craig for a brief time, decades ago. He did not report to me, nor I to him. We were “colleagues”, peers reporting to the same higher manager.
A Death in the Family
"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” – Anatole France Our beloved dog Luna died early in the morning of July 6th at the age of 17. She was not our first dog. And we have another dog still living. Nonetheless, Luna was
Sins of Omission: Suppressed Work History - Part Two
Customs Broker This is a continuation of my previous story about jobs that were omitted from my resume. This particular job is sometimes included in my C.V., but usually not. Here is a link to Part One: Sins of Omission: Suppressed Work History — Part OneMy “official” résumé, is, shall
Forbidden and Transgressive Space
They say you can never go back, but that’s not always completely true. Life has come full circle and after decades of moving to so many different places I have now returned to my childhood home. Some things have changed, some have remained the same, and some in between.
Sins of Omission: Suppressed Work History — Part One
My “official” résumé, is, shall we say, a pared down and highly streamlined version of my actual work experience. The last time I counted, I believe I’ve had at least 24 jobs or occupations. Spanning a period of about 50 years, there is a great deal of overlap as
A 400-Year-Old Paper Mill and Sealing Wax
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee Little Jackie Paper loved that rascal Puff And brought him strings, and sealing wax, and other fancy stuff — "Puff the Magic Dragon" by Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul
Losing Weight: Alice in Wonderland, The Matrix, and The Wicked Witch of the West
"I suppose I ought to eat or drink something or other; but the great question is, 'What?'" — Alice (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland) Grace Slick of the iconic rock band The Jefferson Airplane in the famous song “White Rabbit” likened the story of Alice in Wonderful
Dreamseller: Turtle Creek Books
My secondhand bookshop trades in ideas, knowledge, and wisdom, often providing access to wonderfully word-crafted works that may inspire hope and provide solace. Our trade can be as simple as entertainment and humour; a balm to the ravaged soul. We broker esoteric theories and the wondrously simple commonality of being
Employment Agency Memories: The Unemployed and the Unemployable
Back in the late 1980s I worked as an executive recruiter. The firm where I worked was a very small one, specializing in a particular sector of manufacturing, and we were just a tiny bit pretentious in that we only took on managerial or executive candidates. Our group operated in
Learning A New Language; Or Calling a Nun a Whore
In July of 1974 I found myself in Castelfranco Veneto, a large town northeast of Venice. The “old” medieval part of the town was encircled with a moat and crenellated walls while the circular road around those walls was surrounded with renaissance (or later) buildings, most with archways (called “portici”
Why Louche?
When describing a lexicographer, Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) opined that a writer of dictionaries was “a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original and detailing the signification of words”. Oh, Mr. Johnson, despite your erudition, you must not have savoured many of the exquisite joys of etymology. I love
Something Wicked This Way Came
In the mid-1990s my family and I were vacationing on the Island of Saint Kitts. The choice of Saint Kitts was largely mine. My 6th great-grandfather Robert Choppin (died 1688) arrived in Saint Kitts in 1629 as part of the fleet of Sir Thomas Warner (who was one of the
Islands of Genius in a Sea of Ordinary Life
In the 5th hour of the 5th day of the 5th month of the 5th year of this new millennium my mother died. Perhaps she was making it easy for me to remember. Nonetheless, she would have liked the numerical symmetry of it. Her interior or innate wiring was a
Lake Lacuna
Sometimes they call it “brain fog”, or that the word one forgets is “on the tip of the tongue”. Some envision their brain as a huge repository of files, storing all sorts of information and that, for the moment, they can’t find the file. I conjure something different. Like
Strangers on a Train; Or How I Met Your Father
Looking back, I now see that trains and train stations have been a constant backdrop in my life — hours of commuting to high school, travelling to and from university, going to visit my parents when we lived in different regions of Italy. It was on one of these trips from
750 Hours on a Train
Living in northern Italy in the late 1970s I would take a commuter train every morning, at 5 or 6 AM, and ride just under two hours from Treviso to Vicenza, where I was attending high school. I was 16 or 17 years old at the time. Each morning, painfully
Help Wanted
A few people worked in the bookshop with me. My first assistant was a university student who was studying psychology. Friendly, smart, upbeat, responsible, computer savvy… she was wonderful and of course didn’t last. Once she got her degree, off she went and good for her! A later employee
Close Encounters of the Third Kind of Facilities
Moving to Europe in my early teens was an enormous transition. In the 1970s we were not living in a “global village”, and things still varied tremendously from country to country. One significant adjustment that was required every day — indeed, multiple times daily — was using the toilet. Such a universal
Closing Time
The bookshop generally closed later on Friday evenings, at 7:00 rather than 6:00 PM. In the summer it was still full daylight, but in winter it was completely dark outside by then. I don’t know why I stayed open so late. Perhaps I did so because some
Michael Who Chose Not to Be
Recently my 8-year-old granddaughter asked why I don’t have any brothers or sisters. An easy or difficult question to answer, depending on how philosophical or “historically” accurate you choose to be. In truth, I might have had an older brother, or at least for a very brief moment in
Lions Made of Fish and Shit
On either side of the bottom of the steps leading up to the Duomo of Treviso in the Veneto Province of northeastern Italy, lie two salmon-pink lions. They are made of fish and shit. No one knows who sculpted these beasts. They date from the Romanesque period, likely created sometime
Come for Jesus, stay for the Victorian Smut....
I don’t remember her name, but I do remember her. Let’s call her ‘Susan’. A second-hand bookshop tends to attract unusual characters. Sometimes I felt like a bartender without alcohol involved. People seem to have the notion that a bookshop (particularly the small second-hand type) is a place
Desert
In the early 1980s I lived in a small town in southern New Mexico called Alamogordo. I had a job that required my going to Chino, California, at least once or twice a month, which entailed having to drive two hours through the desert to get a plane in El
The Oldest Thing in the Room
It was a cool October morning as I walked along the northern shore of Lake Ontario picking up a few rocks that caught my eye. They were not particularly beautiful or exceptional in any obvious way, yet I brought them home. I contacted some rock and mineral enthusiasts that I
Wasteland
During some tidying, I found a book that contained a poem I wrote in 1972 (more than 50 years ago!) when I was a teenager. Pensive, pretentious, questioning, yet perceived as superficial. I wonder what she was really like — that girl who used to be me. Little did she know
Confessions of a Failed Nerd
Patchwork Quilts and a Patchwork Career I should have been a career nerd. I should have been someone who worked in science, or research, or medicine, or something scholarly. Instead, I ended up with a crazy patchwork “career”, doing mostly pointless tasks for pointless companies. A quiet child with no
Crabapple Jelly
A few years ago our crabapple tree was languishing, as was a nearby tree that I had raided in the past. However, our newest neighbour on the street had two crabapples that were just groaning with the weight of all the fruit. I decided that it would be a good
Education through Scarcity
In June 1974, at the age of 16, my parents and I moved from Canada to Italy. I had just completed Grade 11, acquired my driver’s license, and begun to create a certain type of life in Canada largely focused on dating, movies, malls, clothing, television and other suburban
Skin
She was likely in her 60s when I knew her, but she seemed much older. Not necessarily older in a physical way, rather in terms of life experiences and traditions. A southern Italian with dark grey hair, shot through with strands of white — strong looking hair. Her calves were enormously
The Regular
Years ago there was a regular customer at the bookshop. He came semi-monthly, sometimes weekly. For some reason I can only recall him visiting in the winter. He wore a long leather coat, similar to those worn by exotic and eerie characters in vampire movies, or like a Gestapo officer
Second Class
The aesthetic of a second class train station waiting room in 1970s Italy.
Haiku
Charcoal / Drawing the Tree / It used to be