Insiders Guide

spiritus mundi

Top 10 Horseshoe Tips

Scott Penny | Aug.12.2011 | comments 0

In 2000, after a spectacular horseshoe showing at a back-forty family reunion, I devoted 10 summers to the sport, vowing to become Alberta champ one day. But when Buddy Dyrda crushed the competition in 2010, I, like many other old boys, lost the will to compete. Here are a few kernels of wisdom for those made of stronger stuff. (And just so you know, I was the Alberta Men’s C Division champ in 2007. It remains my highest horseshoe honour.)

1) Prepare To Be Unpopular
Maybe it’s because you chopped down a couple of nice shade trees to build a regulation-size horseshoe pit. Maybe it’s the incessant clanging of metal that rings louder than cellphones or car alarms. Read More more

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Stampede Secrets Revealed

Jul.08.2011 | comments 0

A little inside knowledge can make Stampede a whole lot more fun.

Park It: Finding free parking anywhere near the grounds is virtually impossible. Bite the bullet and pay. Park at the Improv Depot (2405 Macleod Tr.) or Ramsay School (2223 Spiller Rd. S.E.) and your $20 will be going to a good cause. (If you just want to catch the fireworks, the school charges $5 to park after 7 p.m.; the walk up the hill is free.) Read More more

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5 Reasons Why Toddlers and Public Transit are a Perfect Match

Jeremy Klaszus | Photo: Postmedia Archive | Jun.17.2011 | comments 0

If you’re an at-home parent with access to a car, it’s easy to haul the kids to the nearest mall as a way to escape the house. But for Laila and me, some of our best adventures involved public transit. Here’s why bringing a tyke onto the 20-seater loser cruiser is a worthy idea. Read More more

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Are you there, God? It’s me, Mommy.

Shelley Youngblut | Jun.17.2011 | comments 0

It’s not just stay-at-home dads who eventually lose it. Spending all day, every day, with a toddler can send anyone over the edge.

Between January 2000 and September 2001, I went from being the special projects editor at ESPN the Magazine, living the single life in Manhattan, to being the married full-time mother of twins in a New York suburb called West Nyack. Read More more

Q & A

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Zsuzsi Gartner’s Darkly Humorous Responses to a Whacked-Out World

Shelley Youngblut | Photo: Zoltan Varadi | Apr.08.2011 | comment 1

If Zsuzsi Gartner isn’t Canada’s most prolific short story writer, she may be our most original. The Calgary native, who now calls Vancouver home, published her first collection, All the Anxious Girls on Earth, to rave reviews in 1999 (the one in Quill & Quire began: “CAUTION: Superlatives ahead. And they won’t be sleazy ones like luminous or powerful or impressive debut. Watch for bonkers, big, spandex, and appalling”). Exactly 12 years later, she is back with the incendiary Better Living Through Plastic Explosives, 10 stories that Barbara Gowdy describes as “hilarious, exuberant, apocalyptic, heart-stopping. Gartner sees all, dissects all, loves all.” We asked the award-winning writer about her painstaking creative process. Read More more

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A Strange Outcropping

Bruce Weir | Photo: Leah Hennel | Feb.18.2011 | comments 3

One man’s bunion is another man’s “solid, living bone.” In this case, that second man is Dr. Edwin Medina, a podiatrist who has been taking care of tootsies for 25 years.

Medina equates a bunion, which is caused when the big toe slumps inward, forcing the joint at the base of the toe outward, to a scar on the hand. In the absence of surgery, it’s not going anywhere. Read More more

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A Better Mouse Trap?

Bruce Weir | Feb.03.2011 | comments 3

Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door. That old saying tells us something about how the free market rewards innovation and entrepreneurship, but it also hints at how widespread and annoying mice can be. Read More more

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City Mouse, Country Mouse

Bruce Weir | Illo: Byron Eggenschwiler | Feb.03.2011 | comments 3

Here’s everything you need to know about Calgary’s native mice.

City Mouse
In Calgary, the pitter-patter of little feet in a wall or the presence of droppings or a gnawed bag of rice in the kitchen cupboard are signs that you are sharing your home with a house mouse. Read More more

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How to Ski Sunshine

Kevin Brooker | Dec.23.2010 | comments 0

I’ve had the good fortune to rip it up at most of the top ski areas in Canada and the United States, and even some of Europe’s best. But far from making me long for resort attributes we don’t have, all that experience has only convinced me that day in, day out, Alberta enjoys as fine a ski life as any corner of the white planet. For everything you’d wish for in a ski resort—like snow quality, thrilling scenery, movie-grade terrain, international vibe and ridiculously long season—I’ll stack my home mountain, Sunshine Village, against any other. Here’s why it rules, and how to get the most out of it. Read More more

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Brulee Patisserie's Guide to

“Good” Fruitcake

Meghan Jessiman | Dec.13.2010 | comments 0

For many people, fruitcake conjures up memories of a shellacked brick that mothers and grandmothers tried to pass off as a Christmas delicacy. While its taste is certainly not for everyone, the stereotypical incarnation of this so-called cake can be improved upon. Enter Jennifer Norfolk of Brûlée Patisserie, Read More more

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John Gilchrist’s Top 10 Restaurant Desserts

John Gilchrist | Photo: Jenn Chic | Dec.10.2010 | comments 2

We’re always on the lookout for the next sensational sweet finale, the ultimate sugary buzz that will cap the evening. There are the classics such as chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream, or chocolate anything. There are the trendy, one-off, “composed” desserts that pile miniature tastes onto the plate in a gastronomic orgy. And there are the desserts that come and go like seasonal fashions. Once upon a time, it was all about crème brûlée. Then it was bread pudding. Now the darling of the day seems to be sticky toffee pudding. Read More more