We saw a humpback whale breach in the distance and considered that spectacular display a fine reward for our journey across the Bay of Fundy. We all applauded with glee and readied ourselves for the journey home, thinking that was the show we'd all come to see. It turned out to be just the opening [...]
According to one legend, Peggy's Cove, a pretty little fishing village on the south shore of Nova Scotia, owes its name to the lone survivor of a shipwreck, a little girl rescued and raised by the fishermen who found her. Maybe. But I think that cove belongs to another feisty Peggy, an octogenarian grandma who [...]
Evidence of Ernest Hemingway's demons remains scratched into his bathroom walls and, for a moment, I had to look away. A journalist, then novelist, whose honest exploration of the human psyche (most often his own) earned him both a Pulitzer and a Nobel Prize, Hemingway courted specific details for his characters. I like details too, [...]
A good Cuban cigar (is that redundant?) takes time. It begins in an oxen-plowed field, grows carefully in the Caribbean sun, and reaches harvest stage nine months after careful soil preparation. A good Cuban cigar requires curing, sorting, stripping, and fermentation. Hand-rolled, hand-cut and hand-packaged, a good Cuban cigar waits, fat and sassy, for a [...]
The first time Major League Baseball came calling, Rolando Macias said no. Then 17-years old, illiterate, and devoted to the mother and grandma who raised him, the gifted Cuban pitcher declined a contract with the Cincinnati Reds in 1958. The next year, Fidel Castro orchestrated the Revolution that would keep him in power for the [...]