Archive for August, 2008

We were given a jeep and a driver and left to do something called war art…. We received our supplies of paint, brushes and things in London before we went over; I took oil and a paintbox and a lot of watercolours.” This was T.R. MacDonald describing his first days as an official war artist in northern Italy during the Second World War. And although the subject of war art was relatively new to him in 1944, by the time he enlisted—in March 1941—MacDonald was a seasoned artist. Born in Montreal in 1908, the artist studied figurative painting and thrived in [...]

The Royal Canadian Air Force’s aerial photography and mapping, a staple of operations from 1921 to 1939, was suspended during the Second World War, except where it would have direct mili­tary bearing, i.e. airfield construction. However, by 1944 the RCAF was performing limited photo survey work for federal and provincial governments, charging them $3.25 per square mile covered. No. 7 Photo Wing was organized on May 29, 1944, at Rockcliffe (in Ottawa), to conduct photographic operations in Canada and to experiment—within the context of domestic aerial photography—with the combat techniques learned overseas. The unit began with an array of aircraft and [...]

When Jerry Hull of LaSalle, Que., and Bernie Miller of Orangeville, Ont., faced each other in the first round of the singles event in the 2008 Dominion Command Darts Championships in Winnipeg, it was hard to tell these would be the players to notice. Miller won that match two games to one but soon after that it was obvious these two were the players to watch as they went on to play their eight other opponents in the round robin play. “I was aware of him and he was watching me all through the games,” said Miller, a member of Col. Fitzgerald [...]

On May 21, 1765, approximately 100 farmers from the District of Windsor in central Nova Scotia, just west of Halifax, trudged along rough and rutted dirt roads to the settlement that had sprung up around the British garrison known as Fort Edward. They left behind fields and farms to participate in the first country fair to be held in North America and they brought with them their best livestock—horses, cattle, oxen, hogs and sheep—not to mention samples of their grain and homemade foodstuffs. The farmers exhibited their animals and goods, and those judged best in their class took home some dandy [...]

Myths About Eggs Showing Cracks Recent research is casting new light on the old adage you are what you eat, at least as far as cholesterol is concerned. For about a generation consumers have been warned to stay away from cholesterol-laden foods, in the belief that what goes in the mouth ends up in the blood stream, where it was thought dietary cholesterol contributed to plaque build-up in blood vessels and development of heart disease. Eggs, with their high-cholesterol content, became taboo for the cholesterol-conscious. But new studies show it is fat—or rather, certain types of fat—that increase the risk of heart disease, [...]

The 2008 Dominion Command Cribbage Championships was one of those events where all the elements—the weather, the people, the ambience—combine to make a perfect experience. Card players gathered at Grand Bend, Ont., Branch for the three-day championships April 25-27 often wished out loud that the event had been longer, just to stretch out the fun. But there was some serious card-playing and fierce competition before teams from the East Coast, the West Coast and the Prairies took home first-place honours. The careful planning of the Local Arrangements Committee, headed by Grand Bend Branch President Ron Crown, left organizers relaxed and confident to [...]