It's hard to explain, but to me, the NSian cuts to arts and culture carry echoes of Premier McNeil's comments about covid-era childcare being dealt with "organically" Like caregiving, the "soft" work of community building, place making, and storytelling is not viewed as worthy of investment

I’ve gotta say, I am a big fan of NSian pharmacists being able to write prescriptions for minor ailments Booked the first appointment of the morning and was home with a prescription within an hour. So much better than playing walk-in roulette, and frees doctors up for more serious issues

“what HRM is planning to spend on bike lanes this coming year is less than the Mayor’s total office budget”. Councillor Sam Austin

To put it mildly - I’m not impressed. I had hoped the mayor was finished grandstanding, posturing, and pitting himself against council, but apparently he’s still building his case for ’strong mayor’ powers by setting up losing fights so he can prove that council won’t work ‘with’ him.

Half of business owners on this Toronto street estimated that more than 25% of their customers arrived by car. In fact, it was 4%. And the % of customers who who walked or cycled? 72%. Retailers routinely overestimate the # of “car customers.” Via @carltonreid.com www.forbes.com/sites/carlto...

This People in the suburbs are sooo sure that they are subsidizing our fancy city life, but it’s really the other way around It’s much more expensive to deliver services to lower density areas The cap ensures that renters and new home buyers pay more than their share

How about instead of eliminating Sunday and Holiday busses, council eliminates Sunday and Holiday plowing? Oh, people have places to go on Sundays, too? You don’t say… Yes I’m writing my councillor, but this is such a backwards suggestion that I’m annoyed I need to waste my time on it

Riding the bus Sunday morning to get to work, and I just want to have words with the people in HRM who think Sunday/Holiday busses are somehow an extravagant luxury Or are they planning to scale it back, but think this will make the fare increase more palatable?

Very specific Nova Scotian issue Since OPOR, I am issued a plastic-y hospital bracelet at each of my OB appointments They show your full legal name and birth date, so I would normally shred it But it’s not paper, so if you care about sorting your recycling, it’s an extra layer of annoying

It’s cold enough that my walk to the bus stop this morning was accompanied by a mental recitation of “the Cremation of Sam McGee” Learned it in elementary school, didn’t even know it was still in my brain twenty years later Stay warm, Halifax

Pro of hitting my third trimester: baby will let me tolerate a small cup of coffee occasionally. It’s been a LONG six months without Con: little one won’t let me sleep for more than three hours, so I really need that caffeine They’re doing some truly impressive parkour off my internal organs

Quinpool superstore has such deep contempt for its customer Like, each visit they seem to have gone out of their way to make something about the shopping experience worse

so much of the bike infrastructure debate is shaped by the presupposition that people who drive cars need their cars, whereas people who ride bikes don’t really need them

Can we stop pretending that the US is a safe third country for migrants? I would also love to see media pushback on the word “illegal.” The IRB uses the term “irregular crossings,” which is much less dehumanizing Speaking about “illegal crossings” feels like a lazy adoption of American terms

Halisky, I need help with a mystery I’m trying to identify and locate a type of candy my family always called “soap candy” (I’m positive that’s not it’s real name) They looks like large pastel wavy chocolate chips, and sort of melt away. They aren’t mint or chocolate

If the construction of a new building blocks my sidewalk access for months at a time… I will harbour an irrational grumpiness towards that building even years after it is completed. Doubly so if it closed the sidewalks without adding crosswalks in a convenient location on BOTH sides

Halisky There is a small pile of cute little Christmas trees leftover from the evergreen festival in the lot between the warehosue market and the maritime museum Also some garland and boughs if you want to get fancy

PSA (because the reminder popped up on my phone) If you have traditional Christmas/holiday recipes that require specific ingredients, buy them this week This one comes with a flashback to the year I went to 7 different grocery stores on Dec 23rd to find heavy cream

TIL about a memorial ceremony in Iceland in 2019 to mark the end of a glacier, changing the place name from Okjökull to Ok (jökull = glacier). Uncompromising wording on the bronze plaque: "This is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it".

Tiniest rant: a book of sheet music I use frequently in church is organized alphabetically by hymn tune It abbreviates Saint to St, but still alphabetizes as if it is not abbreviated There are SO MANY of hymn tunes named after saints

Not a morning person at all, but Halifax is quiet and snowy as I wait for my bus and it’s absolutely magical I suddenly see the appeal

Hey Halifax, Do you like singing Christmas Carols? December 18th at Fort Massey. Come request your favourite carol and we'll sing a verse or two of as many as we can fit into an hour, then head downstairs for cookies and hot chocolate.

When does Whamageddon start? Last Christmas was playing at the Salvation Army kettle on Spring Garden road Nov 29 as I was passing by Am I already out?

It is November 9th and I have not yet seen a poppy for sale while out and about this month. Do I frequent the wrong grocery stores or something? Halisky, where can I grab a poppy?

Kind pharmacist agreed to give me my Covid and flu shots *in the same arm* so I’ll be able to sleep on my side *not super recommended, since in the case of a reaction you can’t tell which one you’re reacting to, but I’ve had both before, so that was of less concern than being able to sleep

Meanwhile, Sobeys and Aquaterra are pulling hundreds of millions of litres of water from wells in Colchester County which they sell as bottled water. For that water, the companies pay the province a total of $769 annually. That's not a typo. It's $769. (Exactly, $768.85.)

Spent the afternoon at a the Gift of Life memorial honouring organ donors If you want to be an organ donor at the end of your life, make sure your family knows your wishes. Even if you’re young and healthy, have the conversation now If you have a chance to save a life, why wouldn’t you?

Listened to a group of children chant 6-7 for like 20 minutes straight while were working in the hall outside my classroom It’s probably the least annoying of the trends I’ve taught through (definitely don’t miss bottle flipping) but I don’t understand how this one is holding their interest…

I want to crochet my first something that isn’t a Woobles Kit Not finding any suggested starting patterns especially inspiring Kind of want to skip that stage and just dive in over my head with a project I’m excited for…

I want to go to the Farmers Market but I have two sleeping cats on me On a scale of terrible cat mom to unforgivable monster, where would I rank if I disturbed them?

Not if Tim Houston has his way 😒

PSA for Halisky *In case you aren’t living in the rhythm of university student life If you need anything at Costco, IKEA, Canadian Tire, or Walmart… just don’t Not this weekend. Get your groceries on a week day if you can There’s an influx of new students coming in and they will be shopping

I was thinking about how Fillmore referred to civics-minded citizens as hobbyists, and it seems to me that he views municipal government as a leisure activity and being mayor is just a retirement project.

Tenant turnover means they can raise the rent more than the cap allows Because they only made 34 million squeezing extracting wealth from working class people The article really spells it all out without offering even a whisper of critique of the financialized housing market

Don’t trust AI with your health Never trust the AI results in general, but especially when it directly tied to your well being (or that of a person you are caring for)

Researchers at Penn are looking at developing an mRNA vaccine for celiac disease The MAHA movement might not be the greatest of the evils of the US admin, but… legitimizing these antivax anti-science folks will cause unnecessary deaths and suffering (already has with the raw milk nonsense)

"For the price of Palestinian lives, the city of Halifax is willing to perform public relations for Israel." Appropriately scathing piece by El Jones in @breachmedia.ca. Canada must cancel its Davis Cup match with Israel. breachmedia.ca/israel-sport...

Reminder to any Halisky folks with drones Airspace over wildfire is restricted to those actively fighting the fire. This includes drones Cool photos are absolutely not worth impeding firefighting efforts Potential consequences are up to $100 000 and/or up to a year in jail

HALIFAX: if you live near Bayers Lake and/or Susies Lake area, pack a go bag NOW. If you have pets, this includes all of their medical records, food, medicines (if applicable), water, and bedding. You need your own medication, passports, important irreplaceable paperwork, clothes for at least 7 days

Woman: exists in public Wealthy old dude: I’m uncomfortable being turned on by a woman with opinions, and SURELY the world will agree with me

Wandered around downtown Sydney this morning for my day off, and everybody I have interacted with has assumed I’m off one of the cruise ships/American… Trying not to take it personally

'Stay out of the woods because you're going to die in a fire" is better framing than 'stay out of the woods because you will start a fire.'

NS does not have the firefighting capacity to deal with widespread wildfires. Especially in rural areas where our firefighters are volunteers (bad news, that’s where most of the woods are) We would need to call in resources from elsewhere… except they’re busy dealing with the other fires

Saturday morning thoughts: The province is interfering in Halifax's work on bike lanes, yet the same government killed the Coastal Protection Act in 2024, downloading that work onto municipalities.

Rain dance needed in #NovaScotia ☔️💧💧 Mull river shuffle link youtu.be/ptDBWCII_4g?... Credit to Dylan for the video

So keep it two-way and remove the street parking to make space for the bike lane Tell the cranky residents they have the premier to thank

The fact that CBC was too cowardly to film this is indicative of a much bigger problem in media. When layoffs come, they tend to target journalists who are "problems" for management, who question authority. This is what you lose when you only keep the journalists who are deferential to authority:

I’m coming to the end of a two week summer class in music pedagogy, and I’m mostly taking away that group singing and folk dances make my brain happy like nothing else.

What can I make with red currants? I have about half a large mixing bowl of them, which is a lot for baking but not much for jam or jelly

Morris has been reduced to one lane for water work. I assume the port has shut down and ambulances are refusing to even try answering calls in the area.