Television Comedy for Intelligent Viewers: Bob Newhart

BRIAN BRENNAN: BRIEF ENCOUNTERS April, 2015     “I last played here 18 years ago,” Bob Newhart told the reporters at a Toronto press conference in 1978 when he announced his return to stand-up comedy. “I think the act went over well because, as

Eritreans take perils of the Mediterranean over torment at home

JONATHAN MANTHORPE: International Affairs  April 24, 2015   “If the world had any sense,” began my friend and fellow Africa correspondent Remer Tyson as we hunkered down behind a thick wall in Mogadishu to avoid the stray bullets whistling overhead in the early

Our Pale Blue Dot

  “There is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves” — Carl Sagan. Happy Earth Day.

Facts, opinions, and more

An international group of jurists recently launched the Oslo Principles on Global Climate Change Obligations. The jurists, from Brazil, China, India, the United States and the Netherlands, propose a set of principles based on human rights laws to force governments to act on

On Canada’s Charter, and reading for the weekend

Today is the anniversary of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  When I was a young teen I was enthralled with flying, so enthralled that I worked late nights as a convenience store cashier to pay for ground school and flying lessons.

Giving a Canadian Accent to the Stratford Festival: John Hirsch

BRIAN BRENNAN: BRIEF ENCOUNTERS April, 2015    When I first met John Hirsch in 1977, he talked so passionately about Canadian theatre that I wondered why this Hungarian-born director wasn’t running a theatre company instead of working in television. He had co-founded Canada’s

Generals in mufti still control Burma

JONATHAN MANTHORPE: International Affairs April 17, 2015 When, in 2011, Burma’s generals “hung up their uniforms” after nearly half a century of military rule and introduced an ersatz civilian democracy, no one in their right mind imagined the soldiers wouldn’t occasionally reach

On graffiti: art, vandalism, and advertising

LIAM MILLER, University of QueenslandApril, 2015 Earlier this month, at the opening of an exhibition dedicated to his work at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art, David Lynch got stuck into street art, calling it “ugly, stupid, and threatening.” Apparently, shooting movies can

Giving Her Regards to Broadway: Nicola Cavendish

BRIAN BRENNAN: BRIEF ENCOUNTERS April, 2015    It was the question everyone working in theatre lives to hear: “How would you like to be in a Broadway show?” Nicola Cavendish was about to star in a Canadian production of Educating Rita when she

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