Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements Last month, critic Ted Gioia published an article on his Substack site, The Honest Broker, titled “Is Mid-20th Century American Culture Getting Erased?” He begins by responding to an Atlantic magazine story about the writer John Cheever, once a major figure in American literature until his death in 1982, though as the writer [...]
Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements On May 20, 2020, just two months into the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, New York governor Andrew Cuomo gave one of his daily press conferences – a “state of the plague” address of sorts, reliably covered in the legacy media. (He would win an Emmy for “masterful use of television to inform and calm [...]
Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements With the recent announcement that government employees must return to their work in office, the physical remnants of the COVID-19 lockdowns are mostly gone. Do you remember where your vaccination documents are? The arrows on the floors of stores telling us which direction to walk are gone, as are the stickers on subway [...]
Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements Lately I’ve been getting served a rush of media asking the question “Is the world getting worse?” in the form of online articles, Twitter/X threads, blog posts and YouTube videos. Most of the blame goes to social media and the spread of “misinformation,” which has made us angrier, less hopeful and increasingly distrustful [...]
Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements Canada has just undergone an election – endured is a better word; suffered through even better – but before we collectively consign the experience to the memory dump (it’s unlikely we’d have another one if we remember what they’re like) I think we should make this what they call a “teachable moment” and [...]
Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements First Nations issues are evergreen in Canadian politics, rising to prominence regularly, like during the battle over the Meech Lake Accord in the late ‘80s, when Manitoba MLA Elijah Harper and his eagle feather helped scuttle any attempted constitutional amendment (and got Harper elected as an MP shortly after). It was a major [...]
Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements Reviewing journalist Barbara Amiel’s memoir here a few years ago, what struck me most was an observation she made about her time in transatlantic high society, when her husband Conrad Black’s success and fame was at its peak. She was adopted by a circle of rich women, the wives of rich men – [...]
Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements American voters who cast their ballot for Donald Trump in November have certainly seen results since his inauguration last month. A table was set up in the Capitol One Arena after his swearing in ceremony where he began signing executive orders, which he continued to do later that day in the Oval Office [...]
Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements Rick McGinnis: With the re-election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, Canada has become an interesting place, though like almost any other time when this has happened, the circumstances aren’t necessarily welcomed by Canadians. It all began with what was probably a joke, though when it comes to existential questions and particularly [...]
RickMcGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements By the time this column comes out America will be on the eve of a presidential election that has been alternately incredible and improbable, and might transform that country’s politics irrevocably no matter who wins. In hindsight this vertiginous moment is the result of events that began over a quarter century ago, though I [...]
Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements First of all, in the interest of full disclosure, I have eaten crickets – and many other bugs besides. There was a couple of culinary events for “foodies” showcasing not just insect ingredients but the skills of chefs tasked with making them palatable. And then there were trips to places where bugs are [...]
Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements It’s been a rough four years. Everybody knows that. And though their struggles don’t register much with the public, journalists have arguably been having a rough 20 years, probably more. They’d ask for your sympathy but know they’re not likely to get it, though they can write books like Nellie Bowles’ Morning After [...]
Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements There was a point, nearly a quarter century ago, when the war to protect children online was probably lost. Writing about the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in his new book The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, Jonathan Haidt notes that the [...]
Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements Two years ago at a Munk Debate about public trust in mainstream media, journalist Matt Taibbi was repeatedly smeared by his opponent, essayist Malcolm Gladwell, with a charge that he harboured an “affection” for (as Taibbi recalled) “Jim Crow, the ‘50s, and the ‘golden moment’ when media was ‘dominated by white men’.” It [...]
Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements The idea of a “God-shaped hole” that came into existence roughly during the Enlightenment and grew with the retreat of religion is mistakenly attributed to the French philosopher Blaise Pascal. The truth is that nobody really knows where the phrase came from, but it has taken on a life of its own, becoming [...]