The Exchange Sessions: The Small Glories

‘We’re just all thankful to have some baseball’

Driving more than 2,000 kilometres in less than a day might seem like the equivalent of getting a root canal to many. But it's a journey Winnipeg Goldeyes manager Rick Forney was happy to make this week, one that started from his residence in Maryland and ended in his most unusual temporary baseball home of Fargo, N.D.

Unable to play games at Shaw Park this summer owing to COVID-19 restrictions banning large gatherings for sporting events until at least September, the Fish will instead fly in enemy territory. An abbreviated spring training gets underway Thursday followed by an abbreviated 60-game American Association baseball season starting July 3.

Forney's 24th season with the Goldeyes, including the past 15 as skipper, is going to be unlike any other.

"It's not ideal, but it's not a reason to not work. If the Goldeyes are going to operate in any fashion, then I want to be a part of it," Forney said by telephone as he passed the midway point of his solo trek just outside Chicago.

Wryly funny essays chronicle rocky road to motherhood, postpartum anxiety

‘Motherhood is often oppressively touted as one of the most important things a woman can do, and yet that same oppressive force demands she never speak on the inherent realities of mothering.”

So begins Toronto sportswriter Stacey May Fowles in her touching memoir on becoming a mother after four years of infertility.

Fowles is best-known for her baseball reporting, including 2017’s Baseball Life Advice, a collection of essays celebrating baseball while challenging sexist attitudes towards female sports reporters.

She’s also published two novels, a children’s book and contributed to several literary anthologies, demonstrating gifts for reporting, research and prose.

St. Boniface culinary matriarch’s presence, devotion are much missed

Irène Kirouac’s smile was as iconic as her restaurants.

MMF threatens legal action over city’s handling of homeless camp

The Manitoba Metis Federation is threatening the City of Winnipeg with legal action over a homeless encampment next to its Henry Avenue office, which the federation claims poses an immediate danger.

Meanwhile, those at the centre of the conflict say the Point Douglas area is home to them. As nearby shelters fill up, they would like to see the city partner with the community to help keep the space clean rather than kicking people out.

“Where's everybody going to go? If they're comfortable here… and this has been an ongoing situation for how many years now?” said Leslee Cook, who lives at the Disraeli Freeway encampment.

"Being homeless — wouldn't you rather be together where everyone feels safe? If they kick us out, then what? Everyone's going to go scattering everywhere."

The ‘Buy Canadian’ trade war challenge

“Buy Canadian,” they tell us, as trade tensions escalate between Canada and the United States. “Elbows up,” the pithy slogan advises again and again, in response to the latest daily affront from increasingly unbalanced U.S. President Donald Trump.

And there’s no question Canadians from coast to coast to coast have bought into the patriotic mindset that politicians, from Prime Minister Mark Carney right on down to elected officials at the municipal level, have implored us to adopt.

“We were attacked,” is how Carney described the Aug. 21 unraveling of trade talks, after U.S. negotiators reportedly inserted last-minute demands the Canadian side viewed as both unreasonable and unacceptable. “You’re at war when you get attacked. We got attacked.”

The breakdown led to the immediate imposition by Trump of steep new tariffs on $29 billion worth of Canadian goods headed to south-of-the-border markets. A targeted, dollar-for-dollar Canadian tariff response will take effect after the Labour Day weekend. In the meantime, Canadians are more motivated than ever to stand firm against Trump’s tyrannical tactics.

Mysterious payment made to missing mom leads to tense father-daughter reunion

The twisted and troubled relationship between the charming but irresponsible father John Dixon (Dix) and his adult daughter Lila lies at the heart of Justin Halpern’s comedic novel.

Halpern, author of the New York Times bestselling memoir Sh*t My Dad Says, is executive producer and co-showrunner of the Emmy award-winning TV series Abbott Elementary. His literary flair for snappy dialogue and sharp humour is evident in his debut novel, Get Lost.

Dix is one of those men who, despite having a messy personal life, including a jail stint, manages to remain charismatic and overwhelmingly positive. Once a promising semi-professional baseball player, Dix’s bad decisions have left him destitute and stuck back in his dusty hometown of Los Armarios, Calif. He’s been estranged from Lila for years, but the two reunite when Lila returns to town to look for her missing mother, Mattie.

After reaching Los Armarios, Lila’s first stop is the town’s jail, where her father is being held on suspicion of killing Mattie. Lila finds the suspect at the centre of a group of laughing police officers as Dix regales them with jokes and stories.