Glenn Kubish

Happy end of the week, friends. I don’t recommend ignoring the horrific news of the past week. I just think it is still somehow worth the effort of noticing what we notice that makes us happy or grateful, remembering it, recording it. Here’s my list from a tough week.                                            1. The oilers   The spit and sizzle of a couple of breakfast eggs frying in olive oil in a small pan in the kitchen last week was a good sound. I haven’t given enough thought to olive oil. We are oil-rich at our house. There’s stir-fry oil, canola oil and peanut oil. We have olive oil for cooking and olive oil for finishing. I know the difference because Auntie Shelagh has attached a piece of green tape to each bottle, and, in black Sharpie, printed the words “cooking” or “finishing” so I don’t mix them up and use the $30 bottle of Lorenzo to fry my greasy spoon eggs....

For days lately, I have resembled nothing out in the world more closely than Los Angeles Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick lying face down after McDavid tore through his defence and tested positive for greatness in Game 7. Covid has brought me down.   Here is Three Things podcast, episode 70, a triptych tribute to that goal.                                              1. The pass   When Shell built a filling station in the field behind our house in the northeast end in the 1970s they also put up a big wooden fence to keep us alley kids from cutting through a grassy patch on our way north to Londonderry Mall and the wilds of Dickensfield. That fence was our introduction to the attempted corporate control of our free movements. We resisted. For years we knocked one plank out of the fence every time it was nailed back into formation.          ...

  Happy end of the week, amigos!   Here, after internal review, are three things that made for some happiness or gratitude this week. Three Things, episode 69:                                             1. Away  🇪🇸 My friend Richie posted a vacation video of himself doing what he does a lot of in his spare time when he’s not on vacation, which is the point of vacations, I think. True, the video of him cycling is from the hills of Spain, not the hills of Gatineau, but pedalling a bicycle for joy is pedalling a bicycle for joy. Richie’s video is joyful and beautiful and, with the twisting highway, dramatic rock face and blue sky, elemental. For a bit of hometown Toronto, he added audio of a Skydiggers song, the lyric from Slow  Burning Fire where Andy Maize sings   But lately I’ve caught you   Staring at me   With a new kind of look on your fa...

  Here are three things this week that delivered some happiness and gratitude this week:                                      1. Airshow   The dying tree looked fuller than usual. It had stuff in it this time. I glance at the old spruce whenever I pedal home across the bridge on 142 Street. That day it looked like its top branches were lined with cones. As I crossed the street for a closer look, the top of the tree exploded into pieces that twisted up and blew away like a dirt devil—a giant, wavy ribbon that flashed with light when the sun caught the underside of the birds’ wings. What I thought were seed cones were scores of birds flocking off together. I said wow out loud, and waited to see if the birds returned. They did. One by one, they re-attached themselves to the branches. Behind me, cars streamed by.   With little puffs of energy, the birds changed positions, like an or...