Category Archives: Culture

Nepotism and the Publishing Industry

Posted on October 21, 2020 by Barry Pomeroy

The writing community industry is small enough in Canada that even someone like me, who is tangentially related to the literary world, can often see names I recognize in literary magazines. I also check which books are published by which … Continue reading →

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Teaching Farley Mowat

Posted on October 11, 2020 by Barry Pomeroy

Farley Mowat occupies a curious position in Canadian letters. He is a kind of Ernest Hemingway of the north, but in the academic world of English study, he is never dressed well enough to be invited to the party. Some … Continue reading →

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Travelling Without Geography

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Barry Pomeroy

Most people around the world marvel when American television shows feature street geography quizzes and Americans cannot point to a single country on a map. The subsequent discussion usually centres around the failing American education system, the geographical ignorance that … Continue reading →

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Six of One, Half a Dozen of the Covid

Posted on October 3, 2020 by Barry Pomeroy

News about the Covid 19 virus has become a ubiquitous backdrop in our lives, and the media’s frenzy in our lives has become more ubiquitous than the trappings of the disease itself. More than masks and people side-eying while they … Continue reading →

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Don’t Tell the Archaeologist

Posted on September 27, 2020 by Barry Pomeroy

My friend was flanked by two Inuit elders as she repeatedly picked up and asked about bones found on the ground. “A walrus rib,” the elder would reply, and then my friend would be off after another object. She knew … Continue reading →

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Writing as a Logical Series of Steps

Posted on September 11, 2020 by Barry Pomeroy

The inevitability of plot is one of the easiest aspects of writing. As a storyteller you shove a metal key into your characters, wind them up like a toy, and watch them perform series of proscribed motions. Many of the … Continue reading →

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Always a Working Light Bulb

Posted on September 2, 2020 by Barry Pomeroy

No one who has lived in the west and has observed the rampant consumerism and waste will be surprised by yet another example of still functioning goods thrown away, but when people learn about the light bulbs, many are still … Continue reading →

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Winnipeg Bus Conversations

Posted on January 12, 2020 by Barry Pomeroy

Conversations on public transit are less frequent with each passing year. Although print media in the form of books and newspapers have always protected the less socialized from interaction, that has been exacerbated by the use of smart phones. Normally … Continue reading →

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Dinosaurs and Asteroids

Posted on November 28, 2019 by Barry Pomeroy

There is much said about the dinosaurs’ lack of information about the asteroid which largely wiped them from the earth. Ostensibly, they had no idea what happened, although, to be fair, in every visual representation of the scene, the brightly … Continue reading →

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Racist Rob and Corrupt Politicians

Posted on November 27, 2019 by Barry Pomeroy

I’d only been teaching a few years when I had a student who was so racist that I was forced to confront several of his statements in class. As anyone knows who has dealt with such behaviour, this demands a … Continue reading →

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