Delights
My Zulu love letter says: ‘Embrace the exuberance of South Africa’
My South Africa is the white man in his ML500 stopping to tow to a nearby petrol station the broken-down car of a young black mother and child stuck in traffic. It is the successful accountant who works for a global conglomerate and returns to Langa, the township he grew up in, to run Saturday […]
The Irish residence: A home and a harp
Cars slow down at the busy intersection in the heart of Rockcliffe and people stop and stare. The object of their attention is the newly-renovated Irish embassy. Once a modest but stately home, it’s been renovated into a stunning 12,000-square-foot stone and brick behemoth. The residence has had quite a journey to get where it […]
The art of pairing dairy and grapes
Wine and cheese: At first, the pairing seems natural. Both are beautiful examples of nature and humanity working together. Both can express a time and place from whence they came, and both, perhaps a little less poetically, are the result of controlled spoilage. Unfortunately making the pairing pleasurable is not a simple task. With two […]
The art of small bites
Over the past decade, food and wine have become a serious part of many people’s lifestyle. Just take note of the number of new restaurants popping up, the myriad TV cooking shows and the expansion of high-end kitchen accessory and gourmet stores. With all these resources and sources of inspiration, entertaining at home may […]
Win, lose or draw? Mythology of the War of 1812
Two hundred years after the War of 1812 began, the war, and the question of who won, remains lodged in the Canadian tendency toward cultural mythologizing. The war was fought between Great Britain and the United States and involved Upper and Lower Canada (today Ontario and the southern portion of Quebec, respectively) and many First […]
The walls of the world: keeping in, keeping out
Wendy Brown’s Walled States, Waning Sovereignty (Zone Books/MIT Press, US$25.95 cloth) is concerned with the role that walls — the Berlin Wall, for example, or the Israeli wall that winds through the West Bank — play in modern political discourse and economic thinking. She begins by quoting Paul Hirst, the late British political theorist. […]
A Victorian mansion fit for a prime minister
Settled comfortably into gracious gardens, Earnscliffe, the elegant grey limestone residence of British High Commissioner Andrew Pocock and his wife, Julie, looks much the same as when it housed Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald. The stone is mellow with age and the bright, white gingerbread trim reflects the Victorian Gothic style of […]
The wondrous world of white
The warm brilliant days of summer can inspire us to travel, explore and seek out new pleasures. Thanks to their freshness, vibrancy and plain deliciousness, white wines are a natural fit for the pleasures part. And, why not use wine to scratch the itch to travel or assuage the travel bug, too? Any given bottle […]
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