Dear Barb: I am a guy in my thirties, and I have recently been diagnosed with ADHD. I always knew there was something wrong. I have never been able to focus on anything for more than a few minutes. Even in school, my teachers called my parents because they couldn’t manage me. My parents were… Read more »
If I am a hedonist—and I definitely am—I partly blame Aladdin and his magic lamp and the secret cave of wonders that he discovered. Or, at least, an amateur theatrical pantomime adapted for children from the story, which is included in One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, that famous collection of Middle Eastern folktales. I… Read more »
Good fiction’s infused with all the senses; like Christmas morning, there’s sights and sounds, flavours and feelings, thoughts and memories. For me a wondrous childhood holiday moment was my Mother giving me a half teaspoon taste of gravy and asking my single digit self: “does it need more salt?” Perked up to my full youngster… Read more »
From my early beginnings as a young introvert, the public library has always been a bit of a refuge. Years later, not much has changed, albeit with an additional affinity for endless hours spent scouring second-hand bookstores to add to my ever-growing “to-read” pile. From one bookworm to another, this column will be underscoring and… Read more »
Ah, Lady Luck. So much of what happens to us in life is reliant upon random chance. In fact, the caprices of fate begin to play their part from the moment of our conception onward, in the form of the genes we have inherited and the unpredictable ways in which our brains and bodies develop. … Read more »
From my early beginnings as a young introvert, the public library has always been a bit of a refuge. Years later, not much has changed, albeit with an additional affinity for endless hours spent scouring second-hand bookstores to add to my ever-growing “to-read” pile. From one bookworm to another, this column will be underscoring and… Read more »
Well, the holiday season is finally here. Of course, it’s a nice idea to lean heavily into whatever vibes of comfort and joy we can generate over the coming weeks. Overall, it’s been a shitty year in more ways than you could count, and 2024 doesn’t exactly look like it’ll be all rainbows and parade… Read more »
What’s in behind any belief is what matters most; without addressing origins, any idea falls flat on its keister, philosophically speaking. Jacques Derrida, in a university lecture during the 1970’s (he’d have been epic in the TED talks era for challenging our preconceptions) succinctly addressed the slippery matter of how to truthfully talk about natural… Read more »
From my early beginnings as a young introvert, the public library has always been a bit of a refuge. Years later, not much has changed, albeit with an additional affinity for endless hours spent scouring second-hand bookstores to add to my ever-growing “to-read” pile. From one bookworm to another, this column will be underscoring and… Read more »
At AU, the whole world becomes our classroom, in that our lived experiences become fodder to illustrate our essay and exam answers. Our natural proclivity toward curiosity finds expression in a different way than at a brick-and-mortar university; what once seemed a natural learning environment can even feel a bit foreign when, for whatever reason…. Read more »