The Sunday Edition for January 20, 2019
In praise of British novelist Muriel Spark - Michael's essay: "She was the kind of writer other writers would like to be. Her sentences were short, the grammar was perfect and she never slipped from affection for her characters to mushy sentimentality."
"Let the Eastern bastards freeze in the dark". Wash, rinse, repeat. It used to be called "Western alienation." Now a stalled pipeline, low oil prices, and an economy that's bleeding jobs are contributing once again to a cauldron of fury that's bubbling over in Alberta. There's even a new groundswell of talk about separation from Canada. Michael's Alberta guests are: Duane Bratt, professor of political science at Mount Royal University, pollster Janet Brown & Calgary Herald columnist Catherine Ford.
Would you pay $15.5 million for a watch once owned by Paul Newman? Someone did! A hundred years ago, the luxury men's watch industry shifted its sights from the pocket to the wrist. And despite mighty challenges from technology and globalization, the enduring appeal of status, elegance, and testosterone, means billions for the high-end watch business. Ira Basen looks at the business of luxury time in his documentary, "Wrist Wars."
Phoebe Smith writes bedtime stories for grown-ups designed to help you go to sleep: Ms. Smith is a storyteller for an online audio app called "Calm Sleep Stories," aimed at lulling busy brains into slumber.
Hana's Suitcase is a story known to children around the world. It tells the story of Hana Brady, who was killed at Auschwitz at the age of thirteen, of Fumiko Ishioka, the Japanese educator who came across her suitcase, and of Hana's brother George, a Holocaust survivor who lived in Canada. George Brady died earlier this week at the age of 90. We re-broadcast Karen Levine's award-winning documentary from 2001, "Hana's Suitcase", which formed the basis for the best-selling book of the same name.
Music this week by: Maurice Ravel, Corb Lund, Duke Ellington, the Mamas and the Papas, Noel Coward, Angèle Dubeau and La Pietà, and Robert Schumann.