Salut!

Covid-19 Diaries. Toronto: (32) pure poetry

 

We haven't heard (here) from Bill Taylor for a little while but his daily slices of Toronto life continue to please his Facebook friends long after he announced that the time had come to end them. His followers saw things differently. 'Pure poetry' is how another friend described a previous instalment of Bill's diaries. This is just as good and is accompanied, as usual, by a photograph from his own repertoire ...

 

Covid-19 Diaries. Toronto: (31 going on 50) in a changed world

 

We all find ways of getting through lockdown. Go to Salut! Live, my folk and folk-rock music site, and see what I've been up to.

Bill Taylor contributes there as he does here. A few weeks ago, he also started posting daily Facebook updates, each accompanied by a photograph from his vast repertoire, on life in Toronto during the coronavirus crisis. He probably expected to run out of ideas after a week or so.

His readers lapped up everything he posted and have refused to allow him to let go. Today's piece is his 50th. Salut! started late but has reproduced just over half of them. Bill felt, as I did, that as a series here, Covid-19 Diaries had run its course. But I still publish any items my friends care to offer and dip into Bill's Facebook pages from time to time. He doesn't agree but I am sure there's a slim volume in these jottings of his, though it would require him or a publisher to move fairly quickly ....

 

 

Covid-19 Diaries. Toronto (30) baby steps in a frightening end game

Sweden never locked down and not everyone is sure they were right. Trump is intent on removing any remaining doubt that Kim Jong-un is not the craziest head of state after all. Germany locked down, relaxed and is wavering. New Zealand played it tough and the signs are encouraging, France is looking promising enough ... Bill Taylor wonders whether we should be careful about what we are wishing for. See all the Salut! Covid-19 Diaries at this link 

 

Covid-19 Diaries. Toronto (29) elephantine Trump and his Flu Klux Klan infantry

 

Bill Taylor is often whimsical in his lockdown notes from Toronto. Today, glancing to the south at what passes in Washington, DC for statesmanship, he is angry and apprehensive ....

Covid-19 Diaries. Toronto: (28) 'end times' will tell

 

 

Bill Taylor is on a roll. When I said the Covid-19 Diaries series was winding down, I didn't mean nothing more would appear (occasionally, friends even offer new entries). And when Bill writes like this - I call it Toronto (28) but it's been many more, all posted by him at Facebook - it would be a crime to call a halt ...

Covid-19 Diaries. Toronto (27) when not in Rome ...

 

I looked up Brunello wine and one of the commonly asked questions was 'why is it so expensive?'. Such detail will not get in the way of Bill Taylor's plans to ensure Lesley's cooking is paid the compliment of a wine of appropriate quality.  This is not really Bill's 27th instalment of lockdown notes from Toronto; he posts one edition a day at Facebook and I reproduce his writing here, only no longer every single day. That said, they are always interesting to read and confirm a serious writing talent. Canadian publishers would doubtless have launched a bidding war already, but for the circumstances ...

Covid-19 Diaries. Toronto: (26) man's inhumanity blights Nova Scotia

The only part of Canada I have visited is Nova Scotia. It was an uplifting experience which enabled me to write at first hand about a great music festival, Celtic Colours, held at the very time of year when the colours are quite sensational. From Nova Scotia last night came news of a shocking, tragic event. A worthless and presumably deranged individual identified as Gabriel Wortman, 51, had dressed himself as a policeman and shot dead 'at least 16 people' in a grotesque act of mass murder following which he, too, was killed.

I re-open the Covid-19 Diaries series to allow Bill Taylor to reflect, briefly from Toronto, on the 'evil and insanity' that may have combined in a bleak drama that started in the village of Portapique but spread ...

 

Covid-19 Diaries. Toronto: (25) end of the trail

 

Bill Taylor chalks up his quarter-century of lockdown notes from Toronto. His offerings have been the prolific heart and soul of Salut!'s series of Covid-19 Diaries and he will continue to post his thoughts at Facebook for those of you who know him there. The series has been worthwhile - just look to the left for a glance at the menu - but will be added to only occasionally from now. Thanks once again to all contributors and most of all, of course, to Bill ... 

Covid-19 Diaries. Toronto: (24) too many post-lockdown maybes

Bill Taylor's photos come without captions in this series for the goodish reason that they are mostly drawn from the past and therefore have no direct relevance to Covid-19, leaving the reader to work out the indirect allusions, itself a rewarding exercise.

I did say the series had run its course  but would also remind contributors that anything they provide will be published. Bill's are easy because he posts them anyway at Facebook and I merely reproduce them ... meanwhile, join the fun at Salut! Live and nominate your best 10 male singers, any genre and your best 10 female ...

 

Covid-19 Diaries. Toronto: (22) rebellious Canadian youth in search of paradise

NAME YOUR TOP 10 FEMALE SINGERS - CLICK ANYWHERE ALONG THIS LINE TO REACH SALUT! LIVE AND ADD YOUR LIST

I never much liked Easter. This time, it is destined to be associated for ever with the drudgery of lockdown, which no permitted walk in the park ("only 20 minutes, madam, since you're not alone," the officer told Mme Salut as he passed us, not quite observing social distance from his colleague) or visit to the corner shop can ease. So I turn again to Bill Taylor and his Toronto notebook. It won't last ...