April/May 2004

Field Notes

Being Yasir Arafat

by Danny Rubinstein

Speculating on Arafat’s bloated condition

Language

Idiom-proof

by Charles Foran

Why can’t the Canadian dialect match others for sparkle?

Sightings

For Want of a Comma

by Paul Wilson

Exploring the two sides of a punctuation debate

Society

Rough Trade

by Andrea Mandel-Campbell

How Canada’s diamond bonanza is turning a secretive industry inside out

Field Notes

Vietnam’s Killer Elephants

by Jim Christy

It’s not often that they conspire to strike

Books

The New World, Anew

by Noah Richler

Colin McAdams’s tale bring Can Lit out of the dark

Field Notes

Bay Watch

by Bill Cameron

The Cuban government cannot control or enter its own space

Letters

April/May 2004

Life with the 7th Cavalry The cover story of your February/March issue, “

Film

Falling to Pieces

by Michael Betcherman

Why are so many people suddenly watching live chess?

Sporting Life

A Concise Guide to Birdwatching

by Barabara Nichol

What to know before you go

Field Notes

Shop Till You Transcend

by Carrey Toane

At the annual Dubai festival, consumption is the main event

Fiction

What We Are Capable Of

by Frances Itani

WHEN Sarah phones, Em has just torn every letter into fourths, then eighths, sixteenths, and, finally, fragments

Field Notes

The End of the Line

by Jeannie Marshall

After waves from the Middle East, most refugees are now coming from far more troubled African countries

Politics

Continental Divide

by Michael Adams

Can we sympathize with America’s post-9/11 position without getting tangled in the country’s paranoid militarism?

Science

Mapping the Blues

by Mark Witten

Looking for the dark, hidden pathways of depression.

Poetry

The Night Watch

by Jane Urquhart for Mieke Bevelander

1 In the low light of winter The hard light of spring Lovers lit by scarcity and terror Ignite the hunter’s afternoon Remember stunning