Blog Archives

The Forgotten Comedian: Remembering Mort Sahl

Posted on October 28, 2021 by ronbase — Leave a comment

When I encountered him, Mort Sahl was opening at The Top Hat, a Windsor, Ontario nightclub better known for take-my-wife-please comedians than it was for Sahl’s cutting-edge brand of satire. At that point, in the early 1970s, the Montreal-born Sahl…

Tagged with: comedians, Dave Shappelle, Joe Rogan, Mort Sahl, Ontario, Time magazine, Top Hat, Windsor
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Misfits and Inglorious Bastards

Posted on June 4, 2014 by ronbase — Leave a comment

I went back to my past a few weeks ago–and discovered they were tearing It down. The past had been safely housed for over forty years inside the old gray stone monolith that was the Windsor Star on the corner of…

Tagged with: Detroit, Ella Fitzgerald, George Wallace, Hubert Humphrey, Jimmy Hoffa, Lauren Bacall, Neil Armstrong, Ontario, Ray Charles, Teddy Kennedy, The Front Page, Windsor, Windsor Star
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Standing In Airports, Holding A Book, Listening To Stories

Posted on December 21, 2012 by ronbase — Leave a comment

This week a reader of The Sanibel Sunset Detective novels e-mailed me several questions, ending with this one: “Why does a man with ten published books to his credit spend his time hawking a handful of them in an airport?”…

Tagged with: Another Sanibel Sunset Detective, Captiva Island, Chicago, Ford, Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach, France, Galapagos Islands, Germany, Hitler, James Patterson, Nazis, Ontario, Pete's Time Out, Sanibel Island, Shanghai, The Sanibel Sunset Detective, Windsor, World War II
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Je Suis Québécois (Except I Am Being Held Prisoner In Milton, Ontario)

Posted on September 6, 2012 by ronbase — 7 Comments

When my wife and I moved to Montreal, the Separatist government of Bernard Landry was in power. I never felt so Canadian. Living in Quebec, you are not exposed nearly so much to the incessant barrage of American culture most English…

Tagged with: Bernard Landry, Brian Mulroney, Charlevoix, Fleuve St-Laurent, Gaspé, Jean Charest, Leila Basen, Milton, Montreal, Mordecai Richler, Mount Royal, Nick Auf der Maur, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Old Town, Ontario, Parti Québécois, Pauline Marois, Place Jacques Cartier, Quebec City, Separtists, snow, sovereignty, St. Lawrence River, St. Urbain Street, Terence McKenna, the Plateau, Toronto, Winston Churchill Pub
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