But is it really television that nurses our ignorance, or society more broadly?
June 2011
Richard Zurawski is a very angry man. He is also deeply concerned. How concerned? Here is his statement a few pages into this blistering book:
Science has been systematically attacked, both from within and from without. And the attack has overwhelmed our society in a matter of decades and undermined centuries of progress and enlightenment … It is not an overstatement to say we are on the threshold of losing five centuries of progress and regressing backwards to a time when…
A Vancouver soccer addict bares his soul
June 2008
It was a relief to read in Alan Twigg’s knowing and witty book that I am not alone. At one point in Full-Time: A Soccer Story, Twigg relates how he deals with sleepless nights. He explains that at 4 a.m. he tiptoes downstairs and turns on the TV. He is not looking for news reports or old…
Snobbery about television ignores its emotional power
July–August 2006
One damp and dour Toronto morning this past winter, I was doing what authors of new books are obliged to do—talking about my book and drumming up sales. I was speaking at one of those wonderful books-and-breakfast events that match interested readers with enthusiastic authors. There were three of us authors at the event. Everybody had a fine…
A tale of the last Irish bard evokes the final days of Gaelic culture
October 2005
I was born and raised in Ireland. When I was nine years old, the Doyles moved from the prosperous town of Nenagh, in County Tipperary, to a tiny place called Carrick-on-Shannon, in County Leitrim. Before we moved, we knew nothing about Carrick, except that it was small, with fewer than a thousand inhabitants, and situated on a great bend of the river…
