Food insecurity rises: Foodgrains Bank

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: I came home alone in my own car after a first date with a great new guy I met through my work. Unfortunately, I found my ex-boyfriend in the driveway of my new rental house. He’d fallen asleep in his car, waiting there.

I just lost it! I banged on his window, and yelled, “What are you doing here? Get out of here, and go home!”

He finally sat up, rubbed his eyes and two minutes later he backed out, yelling crude names at me out the window. Then he took off like a shot!

I found out today that somebody we both know told him I was out on a date. That’s why he was drunk and jealous! I want to get rid of him for good, but now he’s not taking my calls, so I can’t even tell him that and re-ditch him!

Winnipeg-born Kyle Edwards’ award-winning first novel Small Ceremonies is among the 100 finalists in the 2027 Forest of Reading awards.

The awards, dubbed “Canada’s largeset recreational reading program,” sees books divided into 10 age and genre categories for younger readers in both English and French. More than 250,000 readers pore through the books in one or multiple categories — each category features 10 finalists — before voting for their favourite(s) in April 2027.

Small Ceremonies, which won the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction in 2025, is a finalist in the White Pine category of fiction for readers in grades 9-12.

Other books among the 100 finalists with Manitoba connections include Chi miigwech, grand merci, written by astra márta and illustrated by Manitoba artist Jordan Stranger, which is a finalist in the French Prix Peuplier category, and The Cedar Mother (Mothers of Xsan), written by B.C.’s Brett Huson (Hetxw’ms Gyetxw) and illustrated by B.C.’s Natasha Donovan and published by Winnipeg’s Highwater Press, which is a finalist in the Yellow Cedar category of non-fiction books for readers in grades 5-8.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio State acted swiftly on Thursday to move past the abrupt resignation of the university’s president over the weekend, elevating its chief academic officer into the role.

Trustees voted to appoint Executive Vice President and Provost Ravi Ballamkonda as Carter’s successor, bypassing the traditional nationwide search to name its fourth president since 2020.

Ballamkonda’s appointment comes as a clearer picture began to emerge of former President Walter “Ted” Carter Jr.’s “inappropriate relationship” with the female host of a podcast for military veterans.

Ballamkonda, a bioengineer and neuroscientist, joined the university in 2021, after holding leadership, research or teaching positions at Emory University, Duke, Georgia Tech and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He earned his Ph.D. in medical science and biomaterials at Brown.

This is not a column about my minor medical woes, but it does begin with one.

In the summer of 2022, I noticed a small lump growing in the middle of my arm. It was the size of a large pea, and hard and uncomfortable to the touch. Thankfully, my general practitioner had good news: the growth was quite benign, just unsightly. He froze it off with liquid nitrogen; it left a small, flat scar.

But three years later, the growth had come back. Early this year, I arranged a referral to a dermatologist for that lump and another concern; I was booked in for six months later. I tacked the appointment letter on my fridge, and checked it almost every day.

Many Canadians are all too familiar with the fear of forgetting a specialist appointment still half-a-year or more away.