So help me out here, please. Roman visitors today can tour the Colosseum for just under $50 CDN. Described by one reviewer the tour is “very informative. Fascinating history. Very thorough Worth the price, and the Colosseum is awesome to actually be inside and see it.” As they say, when in Rome, do as the... Continue Reading →
Reposted from Letters from an American, by Heather Cox Richardson on Substack. An audio version can be accessed here. [Heather Cox Richardson] On May 22, 1964, in a graduation speech at the University of Michigan, President Lyndon Johnson put a name to a new vision for the United States. He called it “the Great Society”... Continue Reading →
The Trump critic and satirist has also been one of the most thoughtful, funny, and genuinely decent people on television Reposted from Robert Reich May 19, 2026 Friends, Stephen Colbert’s last show is this Thursday evening. CBS refused to renew his contract, and you know exactly why: He mocked and criticized Trump. CBS says it’s... Continue Reading →
I have a long relationship with the Requiem by French composer Gabriel Faure. Unlike the bombastic operatic showpiece by Verdi, the intensely dramatic rendering by Mozart, or the massive work by Benjamin Britten, Faure’s Requiem is intimate, melodic, of small scale, and sublime. It whispers, though never shouts. Surely we all want to drift off... Continue Reading →
Credit: Neal Street Productions/BBC Posted by Michelle Collins on May 12, 2026 via NPR SOME SPOILERS “Sometimes, our new beginnings have been yearned for. We have chosen them. Others lie in wait...” Jennifer Worth’s words (as spoken by Vanessa Redgrave) kick off the season finale. This final episode offers a deeply moving look at what... Continue Reading →
Reposted from The Independent Sunday 19 April 2026 NPR (National Public Radio/US) received its largest-ever donation from a living donor this week when billionaire philanthropist Connie Ballmer gave $80 million to the media organization. Ballmer — a former member of the NPR Foundation's board — told the Wall Street Journal that she poured money into... Continue Reading →
How the first American pope is reclaiming Christian values from the Trump administration By Christopher Lamb at CNN Flying to Algeria at the start of his landmark tour of Africa on Monday, Pope Leo had a choice. He could ignore Donald Trump’s extraordinary overnight social media tirade against him, or he could tackle it head... Continue Reading →
NASA I don’t get it. We went round the moon first in 1968 and have the pictures to prove it. They were shot with a Hasselblad medium format (2¼ square) film camera — best in class. We all wanted one. Absolutely “cost the moon.” Lived with what we had at the time. Okay, we went... Continue Reading →
Wynton Marsalis just stepped down as the managing and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, which he founded nearly 40 years ago. He shares his thoughts on the state of democracy in the US presently using the craft he knows so well, Jazz, to illustrate his points. TRANSCRIPT (Generated; check against delivery) [Wynton Marsalis]... Continue Reading →
Published 8:00 am Saturday, February 21, 2026 by Sam Duerksen at Victoria News Gregor Craigie’s new book, Sticking to the Facts: 10 Ways to Fight Misinformation, illustrates the growing problem of misinformation and offers practical steps of how to fight it. As a Victoria-based journalist and a father of three teens, Gregor Craigie paid close... Continue Reading →
Take Note - Reflections on life, music, politics, retirement and more by Ken Gray 