I still remember the look on the woman’s face when my mom and I showed up at our local Dairy Queen to commission a birthday cake emblazoned with the Reform Party logo. She smiled, I recall, then turned away, stifling a laugh. I was an odd child. With little difficulty, I could have hopped on…
Andy Warhol once (allegedly) said that “in the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.” This is often heralded as a prescient statement and indicative of our times, especially in an age of social media. However, I would argue that the statement needs a little finessing. It isn’t so much that everyone gets their…
Legendary Canadian rock band The Guess Who are finally in the pages of Rolling Stone again. While the band went through several lineup changes in the 1960s and 70s, The Guess Who is most well-known for the songs they recorded while Burton Cummings was lead singer. From “American Woman” and “These Eyes” to “No Time”…
Some might see the difference between a news-style satirist and a peddler in fake news as rather subtle. Superficially, both are presenting “false” narratives, which on the surface have the appearance of truth. However, writers of satirical news, as seen in The Onion, The Beaverton, and my own website The Unger Review, never intend to…
Struggling ghostwriter Timothy Heppner lives in a small Manitoba town where he writes family histories and genealogies for local people. Sounds innocent enough, but Edenfeld is not particularly kind to its writers and Timothy is concerned. After all, Elsie Dyck, the town’s most famous author, has gone missing, presumably booted out of town after her…
A number of months ago the City of Steinbach approved a new honourary street sign policy. As soon as I heard about it and read the criteria, I immediately thought this this was perfect opportunity for our community to honour our most notable literary export Miriam Toews. To me, she was the most obvious name…
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Cognitive biases are hot right now. Everyone’s talking about them. Even Elon Musk. I’ve seen people of all political stripes posting about them, advocating learning them, and so on. Presumably, folks think their political opponents could use a few lessons on critical thinking. As we become increasingly polarized, we seek out explanations for the peculiar…
I suppose by now you’ve all read the recent piece by Nancy MacDonald in the Globe and Mail on the topic of vaccine hesitancy in southern Manitoba. I’ve read a variety of reactions to the article, ranging from proclaiming it the best analysis of this problem they had ever read, to suggesting that by focusing…
In many aspects of life, especially politics, it’s seen as a sign of weakness to change one’s mind. While I certainly don’t discount the criticism laid upon politicians whose policy or opinions seem to shift with the wind, or those who pander to whatever group will get them elected, I do think we need to…