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Smug Canadians?
January 7 2010 During the dark years of the Bush Administration in the United States, Canadians basked in a warm glow of self-righteousness. Maybe we weren't perfect, but we were certainly better than those crazy rednecks south of the border. Now that Barack Obama has become the......Read More

Posted on: 2010-01-07 15:35:30 | Rating:

| Views: 29 | Comments: 0 | Tags: Canada

Movie Dialogue
December 25 2009 If you watch enough movies, you'll find that the same bits of dialogue get used in film after film. Here are my suggestions about how to put a fresh spin on some tired old movie lines: "Major, I found out there are a thousand blood crazed......Read More

Posted on: 2009-12-25 11:00:01 | Rating:

| Views: 25 | Comments: 0 | Tags: movie

'Twas The Night Before Christmas
December 24 2009 'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even my spouse The children were tucked up, all snug in their beds While visions of Wii-games danced in their heads Our stockings were hung by the......Read More

Posted on: 2009-12-24 16:04:37 | Rating:

| Views: 21 | Comments: 2 | Tags: Christmas

Coping With Fame
December 6 2009 Many people think that becoming a writer is a sure path to celebrity. I was sceptical about that, but now I know it's true. Somehow, I've managed to write and publish four novels and about twenty-one short stories. The impact of all that on my personal fame......Read More

Posted on: 2009-12-06 17:25:51 | Rating:

| Views: 26 | Comments: 1 | Tags: fame

Film Noir Reborn?
December 2 2009 Back during the 1940s, something unusual happened in Hollywood. Almost all big budget films of that era were predictable "boy meets girl" stories that had glossy images and happy endings. Then, French movie critics began to notice a very......Read More

Posted on: 2009-12-02 15:43:24 | Rating:

| Views: 50 | Comments: 2 | Tags: film

The Ghost Of Travis Bickle
November 5 2009 American writer Stephen Crane was born after the Civil War ended, so he never saw combat in that conflict. Still, his 1895 novel about the American Civil War (titled The Red Badge Of Courage) was one of the first books to portray war......Read More

Posted on: 2009-11-04 16:29:31 | Rating:

| Views: 44 | Comments: 4 | Tags: veteran

Writers Are Troublemakers
October 25 2009 If you examine the history of any of the social or political upheavals that have taken place during the past few centuries, the chances are very good that you will find that a writer was involved. Martin Luther's The......Read More

Posted on: 2009-10-26 16:55:35 | Rating:

| Views: 95 | Comments: 9 | Tags: writers

Selling Torture
September 27 2009 Watch old movies or TV shows from fifty years ago and you will find it easy to tell the good guys from the bad guys. I'm defining “good guys” as the movie characters whom the audience was supposed to like and “bad guys” as......Read More

Posted on: 2009-09-27 13:00:20 | Rating:

| Views: 62 | Comments: 3 | Tags: torture

Socially Relevant Movies
August 23, 2009 Back during the1930s and 1940s, Hollywood movies often had stories that touched on social issues of the day, such as The Great Depression , racial discrimination or prison conditions. That kind of social commentary is completely absent from......Read More

Posted on: 2009-08-22 19:21:40 | Rating:

| Views: 100 | Comments: 2 | Tags: movies

Desperate Writers
August 8 2009 I posted this article for the first time more than a year ago. Readers seemed to like it then, so I'm posting it again. ***** Despite the fact that Toronto is a large cosmopolitan city, writers conferences are rare here. Consequently, when I saw an ad......Read More