Calgary, nicknamed “Cowtown,” is home to the largest rodeo in the world, the Calgary Stampede, which annually draws millions of visitors. The first Calgary rodeo in 1912 was organized by a New Yorker with Irish roots, as Ray Cavanaugh explains. Cowboys seem like a self-assured lot. But Guy Weadick was more than self-assured; he was a bold visionary, and … [Read more...] about Window on the Past: Stampede of a New York Cowboy
Archive
McSorley’s Old Ale House
Sawdust on the floor, two kinds of beer – light or dark – what’s not to love about this timeless New York landmark pub? ℘℘℘ It might not be New York’s oldest bar – the Ear Inn and Queen’s Neir’s claim to be older – but no bar in New York can match the historic ambiance of McSorley’s Old Ale House on Seventh Street in the East Village. A wall sign in the bar states … [Read more...] about McSorley’s Old Ale House
What Are You Like? Tom O’Neill
It took 20 years of intensive research, hundreds of interviews, missed deadlines, and publishers demanding their money back, but Tom O’Neill’s CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA and the Secret History of the Sixties is worth the wait. It’s a chilling page-turner documenting the writer’s quest to find the truth behind the Manson Family murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others … [Read more...] about What Are You Like? Tom O’Neill
Dark Ireland: Images of a Lost World
The following is an extract from the foreword to Richard Fitzgerald’s stunning book of photographs taken in Ireland over the past 45 years. For more than forty years I have travelled the length and breadth of the land recording the beauty of Ireland and its people. I love the ever-changing light and the shadows creeping across the fern-covered hills; the shafts of … [Read more...] about Dark Ireland: Images of a Lost World
Book Reviews
Skin by E.M. Reapy Elizabeth Reapy’s Natalie is one of those characters who stays with you long after you’ve finished the book she occupies. If “occupies” is even the right word, given Natalie’s preoccupation with not taking up too much space in the world. Fixated on her body and her tendency to binge at times of stress, she takes the reader on a journey – both literal … [Read more...] about Book Reviews