This is one of the sadder stories I know from the world of letters. It is made sadder because reading has been my whole life and so many good things have been associated with reading and literature. To begin, because of circumstance within my family and being an only

It is hard to believe but I’m almost 80 years of age. Where did the years ago? You may ask the question, but I tell you honestly that I haven’t got a sweet clue. So much for the wisdom of the ages. A friend of mine recently said that

This is a story I have referenced before. However, I am now able to tell the story fully. To begin, I am very fond of telling young people with children that parenting is the hardest thing they will ever do in life. Work is easy. Wherever it is, it

You know it is strange but some of my best memories of Christmas are related to poor health. About 10 years ago I was on crutches right through the whole Christmas season. There is no suitable time to go under the surgeon’s knife, but surely mid-December must be the

It is a favourite theme of mine to talk about the role of television in the society of our province. I talked about it at Memorial University this summer. By way of example, television is a serious social force that has impacted us here in Newfoundland and Labrador. Let

I drove down from LeMarchant Road to Water Street last week and in doing so I had to pass St. Patrick’s, the church of my old west end parish. The now empty grey stone building glowered down on me. Somewhere in that ancient building was the pew by the

You find Christmas and its spirit and meaning in the strangest of places. I was in a shopping mall one day last week. At first blush it is about as far away from the manger in Bethlehem as you can get but even in a mall, that ultimate shrine

Over the decades the unfolding drama of world events has never upset me. Actually, that is something of which I am quite proud because of my profession. Even in childhood – during the Cuban missile crisis and the Kennedy administration when people thought the world might be on the

I first wrote about this subject more than 30 years ago. It is as true now and raises the same questions as it did then and every word of it speaks loudly down through the years. It is about how my young son, now grown to adulthood, viewed the

I used to take sports very seriously. I was a Major League Baseball fan, a big hockey fan and a British soccer fan. That was until I learned a valuable lesson that took years to learn. The lesson is this. In the end, only one team wins the championship.