Real issue may be your dedication, not distance

Remembrance Day a victim of virus

Orville Marshall was wounded in the Italian campaign during the Second World War and has participated in many Remembrance Day ceremonies through his 98 years.

But Marshall admits the mostly virtual Remembrance Day ceremonies planned here and across the country this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic and virus restrictions just won’t be the same.

“When everything is so messed up, that’s what people are thinking of,” Marshall said during a telephone interview from Selkirk.

“It’s a scary situation. Why would they spend time dealing with the past now? It’s not the war they are worried about — it’s the virus.

Princess Auto to unveil vision with new Panet Road flagship

Princess Auto’s newest retail location in Winnipeg — a 105,000-square-foot “community-driven” flagship store — will open its doors June 2.

The 500 Panet Rd. store will include a workshop station where customers can try out tools, a space for people to come in and learn about machinery they may have not typically purchased, and educational opportunities for schools.

It’s a “pretty new retail experience” for the massive Winnipeg-based company, said Kim Leadbeater, Princess Auto’s vice-president of marketing.

“This location is a bit of a pilot for the future of our retail experience, this is more than just a standard shopping opportunity,” she said Wednesday.

Tucci’s year-long food chronicle a tasty treat that could use more depth of flavour

Stanley Tucci has been having a moment.

Not only is he currently onscreen in the papal drama Conclave, his Instagram account has 41/2 million followers who tune in to watch the bald, bespectacled, always dapper American actor make Negronis, grill a piece of meat or pick red currants.

The New York-born character actor first made a name for himself on stage and screen in the 1980s and ’90s, and starred in such films as Big Night, The Lovely Bones and The Devil Wears Prada.

In more recent years, the Italian-American has focused more on his love of the culinary world. He’s got a cookware line. He’s the face of San Pellegrino sparkling water. He hosted the Emmy-winning CNN food/travel show Searching for Italy; and NatGeo will soon air a continuation of the series called Tucci: The Heart of Italy. He has two cookbooks under his belt, and a previous non-fiction offering, Taste.

Longtime theatrical collaborators work together to craft solo performance

One Daniel is early and the other is late.

Seniors, consumers seek promises from council candidates to transfer water, sewer rate decisions to PUB

Groups representing seniors, consumers and people living in poverty say a provincial oversight agency should gain the power to set Winnipeg water and sewer rates, partly to ensure future fees are affordable.

On Wednesday, the Manitoba Seniors Equity Action Coalition and Harvest Manitoba, as well as provincial branches of the Canadian Association of Retired Persons and Consumers Association of Canada, called on all 2026 city council candidates to push for that change.

Specifically, the groups want all candidates to publicly promise they would support a motion that asks the province to shift that responsibility from the city to the Public Utilities Board, if they’re elected.

One supporter said some Winnipeggers are struggling to pay their utility bills.

Fact checker’s foray into fiction an insightful, enjoyable debut

They say to write what you know, so it’s not surprising that Austin Kelley, the author of The Fact Checker, used to work at the New Yorker as, yes, a fact checker.

What is surprising, perhaps, is how enjoyable his debut novel is, despite its dry-sounding title and somewhat loosey-goosey premise.

Those joys are, it must be said, sporadic, and the plot peters out prematurely, but Kelley’s voice is unique and the world of this quasi-mystery novel feels portentous and poignant.

The Fact Checker (he is never named) works at a prestigious magazine (also unnamed) where he spends his days clarifying, refining and correcting the work submitted by the mag’s writers on topics as diverse as CIA agents killed by IEDs and a profile of actor Tony Curtis (the action is set in 2004).