History of Nagra

I love history like this. Anyone of a certain age who is into audio — from TV/doc filmmakers to musicians to journalists — has heard of Nagra tape machines. But I’d never read the story behind it until today. It was originally designed by Polish inventor Stefan Kudelski (Nagra means “[it] will record” in Polish). […]

Catch Me If You Can

Catch Me If You Can A Gentleman and a Thief: The Daring Jewel Heists of a Jazz Age Rogue By Dean Jobb He was an accomplished con artist, a prince of thieves, a folk hero of Jazz Age New York. Audacious, charming, a gentleman with gentle manners who stood apart from the criminal riffraff. Impeccably […]

Longform No More

For the past decade, I’ve been listening to Lonform, the podcast started by three journalists, Aaron Lammer, Max Linsky, and Evan Ratliff. From its beginning — a microphone on a table in a spare room at The Atavist, the magazine Ratliff co-founded — they invited creative nonfiction writers to talk about their work and themselves. […]

The Writing Life

I recently re-read Annie Dillard’s 1989 book, The Writing Life, and found it to be as companionable as I remembered from when I first read it three decades ago. In fact I can appreciate even more her musings on the pain, as well the pleasures, of writing. The most famous quote from The Writing Life […]

Same Name, Different Claims

Having just come back from Halifax, I once again found myself hearing from many locals that the donair originated in Halifax and it can’t be beat. For those who don’t know, it’s a sloppy pita filled with spiced-and-roasted-and-shaved beef, served with tomatoes and onions (nothing else) and, finally, slathered in a signature sauce.  When I […]

May the Facts be With You

Decades ago, when I was at journalism school, I discovered that daily newspapers weren’t fact-checked (no surprise; there was often no time), and magazines were (made sense; longer lead times meant publishers could take that extra care to ensure things were as right as possible). Therefore, I assumed, books must also be fact-checked. It was […]

Fail Better

“The writing life requires courage, patience, persistence, empathy, openness, and the ability to deal with rejection. It requires the willingness to be alone with oneself. To be gentle with oneself. To look at the world without blinders on. To observe and withstand what one sees. To be disciplined, and at the same time, take risks. […]

The Beautiful, but Doomed, Olivetti Graphika

  Much as I love Olivetti typewriters, I only recently learned about the company’s Graphika manual, first made in 1957 and produced for just under three years. While other Olivetti models made after World War II came in a variety of colours, the Graphika was only marketed with this glossy green finish. It was loosely […]

Writing That Gets Noticed

Although published last year, I only picked up journalist Estelle Erasmus’ book, “Writing That Gets Noticed,” after listening to a podcast interview with her. I wouldn’t say there’s a lot I found that was new, but I do have a few dozen books on writing so that’s not so surprising. Still, it’s a well-written primer […]

Thinking about Notebooks

  From the earliest days of news-gathering through to the digital present, the one constant has been a reporter’s notebook and a pen. Many use a steno pad or the newer Blackwing Reporters Pads (or even pricy Moleskins); I rely on the Mead Cambridge notebook, which is slightly smaller than a steno pad, slightly larger […]