Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements You have to wonder if Paul Ehrlich ever thought he’d live to 93. The biologist and writer – his initial specialty was butterflies, though his ambitions proved much broader – had his death announced this March to what can only be described as a mix of tributes and mockery. We should, according [...]
Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements At the core of Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson’s new book Breaking Point: The New Big Shifts Putting Canada at Risk is a simple truth that doesn’t get repeated enough. “Canada is not a love story,” they write. “It is a marriage of convenience, a survival strategy conceived a century and a half [...]
Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements Some of us might have woken up with a shock recently to discover that we are already a quarter of the way through the 21st century. By this point in the last century the old monarchies of Europe had made themselves extinct after a world war of unprecedented carnage, one of them had embarked on [...]
Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements If you go by what you read or the cultural mood today, we’re doomed. In spite of improvements in life expectation, overall wages, quality of life, consumer goods and nutrition – among a dozen other benchmarks – the sense that we are on the downward slope of a decline persists, a subjective intimation [...]
Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements Last month, critic Ted Gioia published an article on his Substack site, The Honest Broker, titled “Is Mid-20th Century American Culture Getting Erased?” He begins by responding to an Atlantic magazine story about the writer John Cheever, once a major figure in American literature until his death in 1982, though as the writer [...]
Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements On May 20, 2020, just two months into the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, New York governor Andrew Cuomo gave one of his daily press conferences – a “state of the plague” address of sorts, reliably covered in the legacy media. (He would win an Emmy for “masterful use of television to inform and calm [...]
Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements With the recent announcement that government employees must return to their work in office, the physical remnants of the COVID-19 lockdowns are mostly gone. Do you remember where your vaccination documents are? The arrows on the floors of stores telling us which direction to walk are gone, as are the stickers on subway [...]
Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements Lately I’ve been getting served a rush of media asking the question “Is the world getting worse?” in the form of online articles, Twitter/X threads, blog posts and YouTube videos. Most of the blame goes to social media and the spread of “misinformation,” which has made us angrier, less hopeful and increasingly distrustful [...]
Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements Canada has just undergone an election – endured is a better word; suffered through even better – but before we collectively consign the experience to the memory dump (it’s unlikely we’d have another one if we remember what they’re like) I think we should make this what they call a “teachable moment” and [...]
Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements First Nations issues are evergreen in Canadian politics, rising to prominence regularly, like during the battle over the Meech Lake Accord in the late ‘80s, when Manitoba MLA Elijah Harper and his eagle feather helped scuttle any attempted constitutional amendment (and got Harper elected as an MP shortly after). It was a major [...]
Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements Reviewing journalist Barbara Amiel’s memoir here a few years ago, what struck me most was an observation she made about her time in transatlantic high society, when her husband Conrad Black’s success and fame was at its peak. She was adopted by a circle of rich women, the wives of rich men – [...]
Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements American voters who cast their ballot for Donald Trump in November have certainly seen results since his inauguration last month. A table was set up in the Capitol One Arena after his swearing in ceremony where he began signing executive orders, which he continued to do later that day in the Oval Office [...]
Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements Rick McGinnis: With the re-election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, Canada has become an interesting place, though like almost any other time when this has happened, the circumstances aren’t necessarily welcomed by Canadians. It all began with what was probably a joke, though when it comes to existential questions and particularly [...]
RickMcGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements By the time this column comes out America will be on the eve of a presidential election that has been alternately incredible and improbable, and might transform that country’s politics irrevocably no matter who wins. In hindsight this vertiginous moment is the result of events that began over a quarter century ago, though I [...]
Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements First of all, in the interest of full disclosure, I have eaten crickets – and many other bugs besides. There was a couple of culinary events for “foodies” showcasing not just insect ingredients but the skills of chefs tasked with making them palatable. And then there were trips to places where bugs are [...]