These photos were taken at the sublime Retreat Animal Rescue Farm Sanctuary, home to well over a thousand survivors of factory farms and slaughterhouses, nearly victims of the seemingly bottomless human capacity for cruelty, exploitation, and violence - but saved in the end by its opposite and antidote: human kindness, compassion, and love.... (read more)
So. Tonight, exactly 25 years ago - on Wed, 12 Feb 1997, at 22:26:44 EST - I sent out my very first dispatch.... (read more)
I managed to remember the anniversary of the 7/7 attacks - the 15th, in fact - and donned my usual running shirt for the day, now sadly denuded - and headed out to run in Hyde Park... slowing and taking my headphones out when I got to the 7/7 Memorial. I try to stop by there every year.... (read more)
Happy New Year! Happy New Year!... (read more)
U.S. Army Captain William Swenson has been awarded the nation's highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in the Battle of Ganjgal in Afghanistan. Amazingly, a bit of Swenson's heroism was captured by the helmet cams of a medevac pilot and crew chief, as he helped his terribly wounded top sergeant into the helicopter - and said goodbye.... (read more)
Thank you, Grandpa, for taking four years out to save civilization in the 20th century.... (read more)
Love is an abstract noun, something nebulous. And yet love turns out to be the only part of us that is solid, as the whole world turns upside down and the screen goes black. We can't tell if it will survive us. But we can be sure that it's the last thing to go.... (read more)
I'm a Martin Amis fan. There, I said it. Ordinarily, when people ask me who my favourite contemporary novelists are, I usually slip Amis in - but almost always add that "he's a guilty pleasure" or some such similar wiggly qualification.... (read more)
On Memorial Day/Remembrance Day 2007 (okay, slightly after), I'd like to take the liberty of introducing you to a couple of guys I think you should probably know at least a little about.... (read more)
My purpose is to suggest a cure for the ordinary day-to-day unhappiness from which most people in civilised countries suffer, and which is all the more unbearable because, having no obvious external cause, it appears inescapable.... (read more)
Special Dispatch Commemoration: On this day five years ago I set foot off my homeland - landing in Toronto, Ontario, Canada - for the first time ever. Was November 1, 1997 the best night of my life?... (read more)