This Ain't No Healing Town

by Barry Callahan, the son of the late Canadian novelist Morley Callaghan.

"Of course in recent years ~ the forty years after the War ~ there has been a building boom, an explosion of shopkeeping. The grace waters of the lake have been almost completely bunkered off by a concrete elevated expressway and a cluster of downtown banking towers have been built, erections to dreams, but make no mistake, these are austere secular steeples, new cathedrals on the same old corners, casting their shadows at right angles to each other to make a point: the top of the line is always the bottom line.

"My father told me back when these banking towers were going up, when I was a young writer thinking that I wanted to tell a truth or two, that the writer always has to deal with appearances, with shadows and what goes on in the shadows...

"The shadows in this town have got dense, and with different colors, more dense than you can shake a nightstick at." ~ Barry Callaghan, This Ain't No Healing Town ~ Toronto Stories, Exile Editions Limited, 1995.

Barry (1937 - ) is the son of the late author Morley Callaghan.

Photos by Lorna. Toronto, Ontario. Click on photo for larger image.

King Arthur and Guinevere

Ever wondered what the medieval bride and groom served at their wedding? King Arthur and Guinevere feasted on roasted boar, roasted venison, roasted hare, little birds toasted, big birds stuffed, big pies, little pies and suckling pig. And, of course, great pitchers of ale and wine.

Story Hour in the Neat Little Bookshop offers kids adventure and excitement ~ a chance to explore some of the classics and any number of contemporary stories. They choose a book to read and we sneak in a book with some literary value. Yesterday we read excerpts from a Scholastic childrens' book, King Arthur His Knights & Their Ladies by Johanna Johnston. Before they knew it, the kids were right there in the medieval castle dining with 150 knights at the great Round Table.