Alex Carrick’s Blog

We’re experiencing a winter without snow in Toronto. Actually, it’s been a late 2011 and early 2012 without much of a winter. In technical terms, the days between December 21 and March 21 are marching by. But they’re scurrying along much quicker without my having to shovel snow and worry about skidding all over the road while […]

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Beginnings oft times are brutal. Unfortunately, so are endings. In between is mostly a race. A mad dash to grow up, acquire knowledge and earn a living, whether honestly or not. Events spin out of control. The passing show’s a blur. On the final leg, if we’re lucky and fate hasn’t already intervened, we race […]

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There once lived a king who loved the theater. His taste crossed all genres – romances, sophisticated comedies, broad farces and stomach-churning tragedies. He particularly liked historical pieces that featured his ancestors. Watching his predecessors parade around in crowns and tiaras while engaging in outrageous behavior was a self-centered delight. The royals’ peccadilloes were well […]

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An actor, a writer, a politician and a rich dude were sitting on the back portico of the latter’s mansion. They quaffed a non-alcoholic concoction while looking out over an enormous aqua-blue swimming pool and a garden vista that stretched a quarter of a mile before being bracketed by a security-enhanced fence and towering evergreens. […]

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There were several reasons why Giles’ mood was tanking. First, there was the change in seasons. Summer was only a degree or two away from turning into fall. Giles loved the summer. He lived in a northern clime and the winters were long and harsh. The cold weather, when he’d been a child, had encompassed […]

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This story is based on a popular joke which I believe has the wrong punch line, that a talking dog turns out to be a big liar. If one starts with the conclusion, then what might the background be? Also, please be sure to read the supplementary section in italics at the end of this tale. […]

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It was late of an evening and I’d run out of milk and snacks. Besides, I wanted some fresh air. That’s how it came about I was on my way to the local Daisy Mart before it closed at ten p.m. You don’t get fog in the city much anymore. Too much traffic. There’s an […]

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The following is essentially a monologue as two men face each other, standing on the sidewalk of a small town’s Main Street in Midwest America. The date is the present, on a beautiful spring morning, a time of year when some things need nipping in the bud. The burly one, dressed in a dun-colored uniform […]

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Mille Feuille hated and loved the Mix Master. Both were stars in their tiny firmament. They were on the faculty of the English Department at a smallish but well-respected university in Peterborough, Ontario. The academic life in such a small community was a tiny whirlwind of activity that mimicked the larger vortex in nearby Toronto […]

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Apparently I have more of these kinds of stories in me. I view them as narrative, but my wife says they’re poetry. Please feel free to decide for yourself. ** All was peace and future blindness, not to know, a blessed kindness. A family strolls a hidden laneway, gently descending to sandy beach. Poplar ushers […]

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