Jicklings Jabberings column is written by Peter Jickling.
Peter is the Editorial Ninja for What’s Up Yukon
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My favourite line from Forrest Gump comes near the end. Gump’s beloved Jenny has died and he stands over her grave: “Mama always said that dying is a part of life, but I sure wish it wasn’t,” he says. It’s not often quoted, but I like its honesty. He is faced with a sad truth, …
I joined the What’s Up Yukon editorial team in late September 2012 and the first edition with my name on the masthead was issue #300, dated October 4, 2012. What followed were 33 months of continual employment, bringing me up to this issue, #436. This unbroken string of paycheques from the same outfit breaks my …
Last Friday I met with David Skelton, the artistic director of Nakai Theatre, and DD Kugler, a renowned Canadian dramaturge. A dramaturge, which is an unpleasant word, functions as an advisor to a playwright. Such a person raises concerns, make suggestions, and sometimes draws thick red lines through vast swaths of dialogue. Both the above-mentioned …
It’s funny how a change in geography can alter your perspective on something you’re well acquainted with. My places of residence within Whitehorse had always been above the Alaska Highway — first Hillcrest, then Granger. But that changed in the fall of 2009 when I rented out a room in a small bungalow on Cook …
In early-1993 my mom took my sister and I to see Alive, a film about an Argentinian rugby team that must survive a plane crash in the Andes. But the film was rated R and I was 11, so my mom had to do some research. She phoned our family friend, Hector MacKenzie, who worked …
The discs one uses in disc golf have certain innate properties that allow them to act in a reasonably predictable manner. For example, all else being equal, if a right-handed player tosses a backhand shot, the disc will start by going in the direction it was thrown but as it loses momentum it will dive …
When I was learning to drive, one required skill haunted my dreams. Leading up to my driver’s test in the summer of 1998 I would go down to the Qwanlin “Mall” parking lot, after hours, and set up pylons. Then I’d practice parallel parking in my family’s 1987 Tercel 4wd wagon. It was boring and …
On February 16 I picked up my roommate, Taylor Tiefenbach, from the Erik Nielsen International Airport. His flight was due to arrive at 3:05 p.m. and I was running late. Given this, I decided to park right in front of the terminal, in the area designated, “IMMEDIATE PICK UP AND DROP OFF ONLY”. Taylor’s plane, …
I got my MacBook Pro computer in the spring of 2010 and it has served me well for five years. It has been with me through various drafts and productions of my play, Syphilis: A Love Story, and through my 30-month tenure with What’s Up Yukon. But in the last half-year or so, various behavioral …
Like those who attended the first Sex Pistols concert, I too like to take credit for discovering something revolutionary: the iceberg. In 1996, I attended Grade 9 at the now-defunct Christ the King Junior Secondary on Nisutlin Drive in Riverdale. As the days of spring took hold, it was not uncommon for me to walk …
On September 20, 1993 The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air aired episode one of season four. The show documented the comedic hijinks of Will Smith (played by Will Smith), a street-savvy kid from Philadelphia who went to live in a Los Angeles mansion with his aunt and uncle (Vivian and Phillip Banks), and their children (Hilary, Carlton, and Ashley). Season three ended with …
The following story was my submission for the 1994 Yukon Young Authors’ Conference. There, I got to work with acclaimed Canadian playwright Guillermo Verdeccia, who first sparked my interest in dramatic writing. Happily, 21 years later, this important conference is still going strong. The 35th annual version is being held from April 23-24 at F.H. …
In autumn 2009 I slipped on a frosty stair and broke my left humerus. Before the accident my left arm had an angle of 20°, meaning that when it was fully extended it reached 160° instead of the normal 180. When the dust finally settled after my injury — including one botched healing attempt — …
In the wake of Boyhood’s lackluster haul at the recently held Academy Awards — it won only one Oscar, despite six nominations — I’ve been thinking about the film’s writer/director Richard Linklater. Boyhood was a momentous task in which Linklater gathered the same group of actors together for a few days each year, for a …
Enzo Ferrari emerged from World War II with a bold plan to design and build automobiles under his own name. At first, he favoured the construction of racecars and had little interest building street-legal sports cars, but economic realities necessitated he pitch his products to a somewhat wider demographic. So he compromised; he built cars …
When I was a kid I rarely got mail. And when I did, it was usually a card from a relative or a note from a pen-pal. These letters came in packages of different shapes and sizes and would usually have an off-kilter, hand-written address adorning the centre of the envelope. Such addresses provided clues …
Here’s my dilemma: it’s 9:30 on Thursday night and I need to “put the paper to bed” by the end of the night. Everything else in complete, except my Jabbering. It’s been a long week for me (as I’m sure it has been for many) and I’m not feeling very inspired. On top of that, Ben …
When I arrived in New York City on December 19 and found my room in the apartment I was subletting, I dropped my bags and investigated the habitat. I had been warned about the kitchen from the girl I was renting the room from (who is also named Kitchen), and sure enough there was a …
Street Level Cuisine in the City that Never Sleeps Read More »
I’m grateful for my Canadian citizenship. I’m grateful for the constant support of my family. I’m grateful for the serving staff at the Gold Rush. I’m grateful for my job and my co-workers. I’m grateful for the dogs in my life. I’m grateful for quiet moments of truth in literature. I’m grateful for frozen pizzas. …
My office and my bed are 10 feet apart, which means that my morning commute takes between 15 seconds and one minute, depending on whether I put on pants. I have amused myself with thoughts of what Cary Grant’s dapperly dressed editor in His Girl Friday would have thought about a weekly newspaper put together …
When I was 16 years old I went to Hawaii with my family. We stayed in a modest but clean hotel with easy access to the beach. Because I hadn’t spent much time by the ocean I was hesitant to try surfing, but bodyboarding seemed learn-able so I made haste for the beachside rental shop …
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard. Because that challenge is one we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone. And one we intend to win.” — …
I am, by nature, a sentimental son of a gun. I wear old shirts until they are threadbare because they remind me of certain times, places, and people; I listen to old songs just to feel wistful; I cloak the past in a golden sheen. I sometimes even catch myself feeling tender towards the most …
Last night I watched episode 1 of the Sopranos, the mafia-family television series that became hugely popular at the turn of the century . It was fun, funny, violent, and vulgar; and I liked it a lot. I haven’t watched The Sopranos before, but it’s often cited as instgating “the television revolution”, wherein television began …
The Sopranos, the Camino de Santiago, and How the World Hangs Together Read More »
As she reached for his arm she saw it become tense; it was an involuntary reaction on his part, caused by the palsy affecting his left side since birth. She paused for a second, and he hoped she wouldn’t stop. Finally she continued, placing her hand just below his elbow. She felt the tension in …
Imagine Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico Philosophicus was a person. He was a young man — driven, entrepreneurial, and shaved clean. He woke early, without setting an alarm clock. He ate quickly, dressed quickly, and always arrived at work on time. His colleagues appreciated his punctuality and said positive things about him; some tried to imitate his …
I’ve consumed coffee nearly every day of my life since I was 20 years old and I still don’t have a favourite mug.I’ve drank from mugs that bragged “#1 Lover” and “Life is richer in New Westminster”; I’ve drank from mugs that had little porcelain moose turds at the bottom; and I’ve even drank from …
If you ask visitors for adjectives describing the northern lights, they might say beautiful, mysterious, auspicious, captivating, haunting, inspiring, and magical. But I’m no visitor. I’ve been craning my neck skyward towards the aurora borealis since I was knee-high to a grasshopper and gradually I began to lose interest in their ghostly sky-dance. Last winter, …
In April 2002 I was lying on my bed in Lethbridge, Alberta listening to the same clock radio that is still perched on my dresser today. The local DJ took to the airwaves and announced that Layne Staley — lead singer the seminal Seattle grunge band, Alice in Chains — had died of an apparent …
Preemptive clarification: The targets in disc golf look like baskets. However, due to the culturally dominant influence of regular golf, disc golfers will often refer to these targets as holes. I have done that throughout this piece. When playing the Mt McIntyre disc golf course in Whitehorse, the nastiest piece of business is reserved for …
The opening image of The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) provides a valuable portal into the mind of director Wes Anderson. Accompanied by dream-like music, we see a book placed on a wooden desk. The book is rotated, opened, and the library card within is stamped. The book is then closed — revealing its title, The Royal …
In the winter of 1995 my family headed south to spend Christmas with our relatives in Denver, Colorado. Our accumulated crew amounted to eight cousins and four parents, and in accordance with an ancient family tradition one evening was set aside for a talent show; I was tapped to be the MC. Amidst the singing …
Forget the Generation Gap, let’s Talk About the Tooth Gap Read More »
RZA had an embarrassment of riches on his hands. It was the early 1990s and the New York City rapper had just consolidated some of the finest, young East Coast hip-hop talent into one group. Beyond himself, the lineup included Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, U-God, Method Man, Inspectah Deck, Masta Killa, GZA, and Ol’ Dirty Bastard …
In Praise of 7th Avenue It’s not on the way to anywhere. It’s a world removed from the fast food congestion of 2nd and the self-conscious business of 4th. And it has nothing in common with the arrogance of 6th. You just want to wipe the smirk of the face of 6th Avenue when it …
Anthropologists need not travel to New Guinea to research the subtleties of human societies; plenty of culture can be witnessed at the local saloon. Among the chivalrous traditions, the bar-set prides itself on is its refusal to let a compatriot drink alone. “Want another one, Hank?” the bartender says. Hank, casts a glance at Stu …
A few days ago I met Cam Webber for an after-work drink at the Roadhouse. Cam is a gravedigger for the City of Whitehorse, and had already set up camp with a couple of colleagues under a patio umbrella when I traipsed in. The sun shone down uninhibited by clouds, warming both our bodies and …
When I was a kid I would visit my grandparents at their home in Burnaby, B.C. Their property was three-quarters of an acre and featured exotic treats like apple trees, blackberry bushes, rope swings, and a large garden. The rear of the property bordered a lush, west coast gulley. These surroundings afforded me the opportunity …
At the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick’s science-fiction classic, the audience is introduced to a group of apes at the exact moment when they transcend their ape-ness, and give birth to humanity. One morning, one of these creatures awakens from its dusty slumber to find a strange monolith obstructing its view of …
The robin obviously had a problem with us. I was hanging out on the back porch with my friend Jenny Duncombe — minding our own business — but this little bird was having none of it. At first she squawked from the safety of a pine tree 20 feet away, but things soon grew more …
Seeing a house party through to its conclusion requires stamina, willpower, and a lack of pressing activities the following day. And the only way ensure that the last drop of life has been squeezed from the function-in-question is to further impose upon the gracious hosts and find an empty piece of furniture to sleep on …
They ate my soul at the summer parade They drenched it first in marinade They cut it into little bits They served it with a couple of Ritz The mayor raised his glass of Spanish wine Said, “My, my, my, this soul is fine” The crowd roared with its approval At my soul’s untimely removal …
Collecting material possessions fills me with ambivalence. If anything, the accumulation of objects causes stress, and the old adage “the things you own end up owning you” rings true for me. However, I’m inconsistent in applying this principle. The most noticeable exception is my attitude towards books. I love them. I love owning them; I …
The first time I hitchhiked was with my father, when I was 12 years old. We exchanged what-would-mom-think smirks as we boarded an empty cattle car towed by a semi-truck and then clanked our way through the Kalahari Desert to Lobatse, Botswana. Even from that young age I understood the appeal of throwing up your …
Tamara Neely, the stalwart editor of What’s Up Yukon since October 2012, is having a kid. As assistant editor, I’ve watched her grow rounder month-by-month as the fetus inside her womb laid waste to the second trimester and dove into the third. And through it all she’s been there — packing her birthing bulk around …
Dear balloon, We crossed paths one night as I walked up Two Mile Hill. I was heading home to Takhini; I’m not sure what you were doing. Perhaps you had escaped your party duties and were making a break for it. There was a joy and freedom in the way you fluttered, and sank, and …
An Open Letter to the Green Balloon that Followed Me Up Two Mile Hill Read More »
I believe hot sauce is the best condiment. I believe a good hat can set the mood. I promise to buy Sarah MacDougall’s next album. I believe YouTube got way less cool when it started putting commercials in front of clips. I believe perfect teeth are overrated. I believe Charles Manson ended the ’60s. I …
25 Beliefs, 15 Promises, and One Rhetorical Question Read More »
On March 8, 2004, in a game between the Colorado Avalanche and the Vancouver Canucks, Todd Bertuzzi punched Steve Moore from behind and then drove his head into the ice. I was watching TSN on the 10th anniversary of this incident, and they kept playing the clip over and over again. It was, frankly, sickening. …
My Obviously Simple Minded Idea to Reduce Cheap Shots in Hockey Read More »
As my big red beard attests, I’ve got Scottish heritage in my DNA. On my mother’s side of the family, I’m derived from Clan Donnachaidh, also known as Clan Robertson. My mom’s maiden name is Robertson, which also happens to be my middle name. Peter Robertson Jickling. The clan’s first leader was a fellow by the name of Stout Duncan, a fireeyed warrior who displayed fierce allegiance to Robert the Bruce during …
Marlon Brando, Forrest Gump, Mary Ellen Read, David Foster Wallace (obviously), Catherine O’Donovan, Roger Federer, Roberto Bolano, Robert Pirsig, Bob Dylan, Kurt Vonnegut, Wes Anderson, Joel Coen, Theoren Fleury, Winston Churchill, Tommy Douglas, Terry Fox, Gavin Gardiner, Leonardo da Vinci, Leonardo DiCaprio, Leonardo the ninja turtle, Charles Darwin, W.V.O. Quine, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Tammy Beese, Cormac …
ROYAL NAVY TRADITIONAL TOASTS Monday: Our ships at sea. Tuesday: Our men. Wednesday: Ourselves (as no one is likely to concern themselves with our welfare). Thursday: A bloody war and quick promotion. Friday: A willing soul and sea room. Saturday: Sweethearts and wives, may they never meet. Sunday: Absent friends and those at sea. The …
The truth is I don’t put much stock in matching socks. I wear matchies for important events like funerals, but for grocery shopping on a Tuesday and other everyday adventures, I find mismatched socks just as practical. In a pinch, they can even be used as conversation starters. Here’s how it works: If I open …
It can’t be easy to find your identity as a chubby performer in Hollywood. In an industry notorious for its worship of physical perfection, overweight actors must sometimes feel adrift. Case in point: Phillip Seymour Hoffman. He didn’t settle on an identity for five years. Of his first 15 television and film appearances he is …
Pecha Kucha is a presentation-style invented by architects in 2003, designed to promote clarity and concision amongst public speakers. The Pecha Kucha format requires presenters to build a slide show containing exactly 20 slides. As the images roll, the speaker provides commentary on each one. The catch? Each of these 20 projections is only shown …
I’m interested in enthymemes. An enthymeme is an argument in which at least one constituent part is not stated, but implied. When I use the word “argument” I am not denoting a spirited exchange of opinions; rather, I’m using it in a technical sense, meaning “a series of premises leading to a conclusion.” A simple …
You’d be forgiven for thinking The Wire and Breaking Bad are American television shows — that’s certainly what they appear to be. But actually, they’re 19th century novels — or at least, these days, they’re the closest thing we have to the epic, moral, and popular storytelling of Dostoevsky, Dickens, and Hugo. Those two shows …
I was just wondering whatever happened to Donovan Bailey, and then there he was — all over my Internet. As a guy who tries to keep his toe wet in the world of literature I have come to enjoy Canada Reads, CBC’s odd combination of high-brow book culture and low-brow reality show banter. The multimedia …
In December 2010 I moved into my current residence on Normandy Road in Takhini. Joining me as roommates were Gavin Gardiner from Saskatoon and Jayden Soroka from Regina. In January 2011, Weyburn’s own Shawn O’Dell also moved in. With three-quarters of our household originating from Saskatchewan it was natural to begin calling our large, white …
Perhaps citizens of every tourism-oriented economy reserve the right to gently mock the very visitors that employ them. In the Yukon, for example, tourism contributes more than $100-million to our Gross Domestic Product and helps to generate a quarter of our jobs. Nonetheless, these figures don’t prevent us from gathering amongst ourselves to coyly chuckle …
In my room I have a desk where I work. And on the wall above that desk I have tacked a What’s Up Yukon article dated December 11, 2008. Titled “Worked Hard, Still Working,” it is about Roger Thorlakson, who settled here in 1964. I wrote it — it’s the first in my Yukon Icon …
Before I turned my attention to carousing in the early 2000s, I watched a lot of movies, and as a young film buff I couldn’t believe my good fortune when I stumbled upon the Internet Movie Database (IMDB). Here was a website with a seemingly endless stream of information, reviews and statistics on nearly every …
The Amazingly Consistent Downward Trajectory of M. Night Shyamalan’s Films, 1999 – 2010 Read More »
About a month ago my friend Dylan Letang finally got his wish. Last year he moved back to Whitehorse after spending a decade in Vancouver. As a single man with intelligence, steady employment, and racially ambiguous good looks he had designs on making a dent in the local scene. Unfortunately, he lived in country residential …
In the early ‘90s I semi-regularly attended the United Church with my family. This involved weekly Sunday school lessons, plus the occasional extracurricular congregational picnic or evening potluck. The evening potlucks were my favourite events because after dinner, while the parents drank coffee and chatted (or whatever parents did in the early ‘90s), the children …
When 2010 began I had three living grandparents; by the year’s end I had none. My mom’s parents were Walter (Waddy) and Beth Robertson, both born in 1917, both raised in the lower mainland of British Columbia, both quintessential children of the depression. Shortly after Waddy’s return from the European Theatre in 1945, they bought …
I’ve never been to New Orleans but my friend Casey Mclaughlin has, and when she returned she brought me a book called 1 Dead in Attic, by New Orleans Times-Picayune columnist Chris Rose. The book is a collection of Rose’s columns dating from September 1, 2005, three days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana, …
I broke my arm almost four years ago to-the-day and I was impressed with the diligence of my friends’ response — the visits, the casseroles and the almost aggressive earnestness with which they offered to help in any way they could. Their intensity struck me as distinctly Northern — born of a social contract that …
The film Adaptation (2002) was directed by Spike Jonze, but it’s really screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s movie. Kaufman, who is also responsible for such mind-bending classics as Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, writes himself into his own script and sets the stage for one of the most literary flicks of our …
It’s happening. Right now. I’m sitting on a high stool in my kitchen, propping my torso up with my elbows. The oven is humming away at 425°F, emitting the quenching aroma of melting cheese. In mere minutes it will be sitting on a cutting board in front of me, cut into quarters — begging to …
It’s official. I think I could take John Mayer in a fistfight. Not that I am interested in fighting him, or vice versa, but if by some fantastic coincidence we found ourselves squaring-off with an axe to grind I think bookies would be wise to put the long odds on him. For those of you …
I held out as long as I could. Until last week I had one of the Yukon’s craft-project driver’s licenses. You know the type — scorned by south-of-60 bouncers, passed around and mocked as an example of territorial hickishness, easily forged on a retrograde computer and slickly laminated for protection. These were the IDs of …
If you can satiate yourself with simple pleasures, your chance at a happy life increases. If, for example, a well-timed cupcake can make your day, a contented existence awaits you. For me, the inevitable sticky hands that result from cupcake consumption ruin this effect; but I have my own simple satisfactions. During the course of …
No Need to Feel the World is Dour, If You Have a Tasty Beer in a Well-earned Shower Read More »
One of my crosses to bear is hay fever, an allergic reaction to pollen that emerges in the early-summer and crescendos to the point where I am a runny-nosed, puffy-eyed mess — unable to conduct the most basic of enterprises without dragging a snotted handkerchief across my chafed-red schnoz. During a hay fever episode, sneezes, …
Perhaps Whitehorse’s most stately landmark is the S.S. Klondike, perched on the shore of the Yukon River. But for sheer bizarreness you can’t beat my favourite capital city attraction — on the corner of 4th and Strickland, in front of the blue and yellow Workers Compensation Board (WCB) building. I am speaking of the large …
About four months ago I stood in stunned silence and listened to Ross Mercer’s Tragically Hip theory. To paraphrase it: the Tragically Hip revels in their Canadiana because they are not good enough to make a splash on the international scene. Furthermore, we gladly swallow such pandering because we are often happier to applaud self-aggrandizing …
My friend Mike Bertrand was in town for the 21st Annual Peter Gzowski Invitational Golf Tournament on June 15. Mike, son of Annette and legendary Yukon Mountie Chuck, grew up playing the links at the Mountain View Golf Course in Porter Creek, but when he left Whitehorse at 19, he didn’t look back — not …
Bruce Springsteen’s music is often the soundtrack of my weekend mornings. There is something about waking up and fumbling through the first cup of coffee while listening to Springsteen’s unpretentious — and mostly irony-free — heartland rock that makes me believe the day ahead has worthwhile things in store. It’s not that the themes are …
A couple of weeks ago my sister Hannah flew up from Vancouver, where she teaches at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, and spent a few days in the Yukon. She was busy most of the time — meeting with members of the Yukon Orienteering Association (YOA) — so our sibling hang out …
Navigating Through Forests, Art Pieces, and Sibling Rivalries Read More »
A few days after I arrived back in Whitehorse in November 2008, I ran into Janine Aberson while grocery shopping with my mom. She invited me to Aubyn Russell’s birthday party and I went. Aubyn and I weren’t particularly close at the time, despite being Grade 3 classmates in Takhini Elementary. When I arrived, Georgia …
The top of Grey Mountain is one of my favourite places in the world. In a territory that features nine of the 10 highest peaks in Canada, it doesn’t amount to anything more than a nub, and yet for me it is a magical place. Every summer that I have spent in the Yukon has …
In September 2008 I visited Scotland with Casey Lee McLaughlin. I was almost killed on the slopes of Ben Nevis and I nearly went to heaven in the Oban distillery, but before we made tracks for the highlands, we had a couple of days to kick around London. Sure, Trafalgar Square was neat and Buckingham …
Sometimes a dinner invitation can turn into a wine adventure. This past Saturday night was one such occasion. My partner and I had been invited to the home of some close friends, Mark and Jally, for beef Wellington. This puff pastry-wrapped beef tenderloin, flavoured with mustard, mushrooms and shallots is one of my culinary favourites, …
When I was a kid I used to sit on my hands after school and wait for the Whitehorse Star. I’d check the previous night’s hockey scores and then I’d read the latest edition of Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson. My best friend, Adam Scheck, and I were obsessive about our favourite comic strip. …
A friend of mine turned 30 on the weekend and to celebrate, about a dozen of us hiked into Rainbow Lake, 20 kilometres south of Haines Junction. Those with snowshoes fared better on the hike then those without, but I was somewhat disappointed to find that there was not a traditional pair of snowshoes to …
Until I was 14 years old, every trip I made from Whitehorse to Vancouver included at least one doctor’s appointment. True, those trips also included an Orange Julius at the mall, and even the occasional Canucks or Lions game, but nearly two decades later the details of the sporting contests are lost on me, but …
Between 1964 and 1971 director Stanley Kubrick released three movies, each significantly altering the course of film history. The first of these films was Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Produced in the shadow of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, Dr. Strangelove openly mocks the possibility of mutually …
Sometimes I’m asked how I deal with writer’s block. Usually I say that I can’t afford to get infected; that writer’s block is a luxury for hobbyists, not fledgling wordsmiths racing neck-and-neck with the poverty line. But here’s my confession: I say that mostly because it sounds cool, not because it’s 100 percent honest. It’s …
During my days at Vanier Catholic Secondary School I played football during lunch. After scarfing down some sustenance we would head to the soccer field, divide the available players, and fling ourselves around the gridiron for half-an-hour before returning inside for afternoon classes. In the spring the floodgates opened and an assortment of jocks, stoners, …
I was lucky enough to see the two winning entries from the recently held Yukon 48 competition, in which filmmakers had exactly two days to shoot and edit a movie. Gordy by Traoloch O Murchu is about a man living in the aftermath of childhood sexual abuse. Told with stark, snow-swept vistas and unflinching voiceovers, …
Preceding the last decade of his life — when brilliance gave way to madness — German thinker Friedrich Nietzsche wrote some of the most challenging and controversial philosophy of the 19th century. In the years following his death, Nietzsche’s work influenced a range of admirers, from the Doors front man Jim Morrison to Adolf Hitler. …
On the first Sunday after southern Yukon’s cold snap waned, my roommates and I piled into Jayden Soroka’s Subaru and headed down the Fish Lake road in search of a household Christmas tree. We pulled up beside a large drift, tightened our boots and barreled into the untouched, highway-side snow — smiles on faces. A …
Families and Christmas Trees: All Shapes and Size Read More »
Growing up on the mean streets of Whitehorse’s Hillcrest subdivision, one of my favourite post-dinner, pre-bedtime activities was “taking shots”. Stephen Doyle and I would place a ratty, old hockey net in the middle of Park Lane (the same street where Ron McLean lived) and take turns firing a flattened pop can at each other. …
I come from a family of cross-country skiers. My father was a coach and my sister was on the Yukon Ski Team. Throughout my youth, our boot-room was cluttered with an assortment of multi-coloured waxes, skis, and poles jutting off at dangerous angles. I, however, could never figure out the rhythm of the sport. Instead …
My first job as a professional writer began in January of 2011 when I was appointed to a one-year term as the Yukon-based associate editor of Up Here magazine. I showed up with lots of enthusiasm, but also sporting a few notions about grammatical correction that needed to be massaged out of my writing process. …
I grew up with a pretty cool cat named Bing. He was a grey, striped little scrapper who menaced the neighborhood biodiversity for most of his 15 years. Until one night in August 2006 when karma enlisted the services of coyotes, and Bing was never heard from again. I am now pet-less, but have relished …
The Yukon municipal elections are upon us; but how many of us really care? It sounds like a rhetorical question, but it’s not. Thirty-seven percent — that’s the answer. 37 percent of us care, or at least that’s the proportion of eligible Whitehorse voters who dragged a pencil across a ballot in 2009, the last …
A few days ago I bought a new car, a nice little Honda Civic hatchback with a few fancy bells and whistles: low mileage, intact body work, and no strange “popping” sound when you crank the wheel to the left. All-in-all it’s a good car, and a boon to my personal equity. Furthermore, as an …
Saying Goodbye to an Old Car and an Old Lifestyle Read More »
