There’s a little white board in the corner of Emma Gillis’ office, with a wish list scrawled down it in black marker. Most of the items have been steadily crossed off over the five years since Gillis took the helm of the Pemberton & District Public Library and tried to conjure a future-proof facility. The…
Category: slow the fuck down
Success, in spite of myself
My local newspaper has folded. And its sister publication, The Pique, which already absorbed the Question’s editorial staff, found space for me, and my column, too, starting February 8. In the editorial yesterday, Clare Ogilvie announced the changes. “Lisa Richardson and her Velocity Project will find a home in the Pique. Pemberton’s favourite writer for…
Think like an ancestor – a parting column for the Whistler Question
“Late Capitalism is as good an excuse of any for not getting out of bed, but huddling under the covers worrying about Donald Trump is a very inefficient way of sticking it to the man.”~ Laurie Penny I found a note from my brother while rummaging around in my office the other day – a…
30 days of power posing
“You have 61 days left in the year,” said the email. “What will you keep space for?” Cue panic-breathing. And: delete. This week, I interviewed someone I’ve often wanted to talk more deeply with. I used an assignment as an excuse to sit down for four hours with a woman I admire, an extremely low-profile,…
The Dirt on Food
“Fuck calories,” says Krista Scott-Dixon (@stumptuous). “Fuck vitamins. Fuck ‘willpower’. Put real cream in your coffee. And have an avocado too. Your relationship with food and eating is your relationship with life.” Her book, Fuck Calories and Other Dietary Heresies rethinks nutritionism manifesto-style – it’s a 41 page debunking of dieting BS, distilled down to…
You don’t have time to volunteer, so maybe you should
What science, and Katrina Onstad, author of The Weekend Effect, claim to be the best way to hack time Katrina Onstad hates brunch. The Toronto-based journalist finds it to be a colossal time-waster, although she phrases it more delicately. “I’m a little ambivalent about it. I have had some really nice brunches. But the culture…
Zero Waste meets bee-love in Squamish-based khala cloths
When Asa McKee goes to work in his home studio in Squamish making khala cloths, the plastic-free food wraps he invented with wife Tamar, he cranks the tunes (Grateful Dead, live concerts only) and starts cooking down beeswax, sourced from bee-first apiaries. “The whole house gets super warm and floral-smelling,” says Tamar. It’s planet-friendly, kid-friendly,…
Garlic Independence Day
I have not bought garlic at the store for at least 5 years. Not so much as a single bulb. I have achieved Garlic Independence. I don’t say this to brag. I’m proud of it, sure. But I also deeply suspect that the minute you announce publicly “I am an amazing garlic grower”, your just-now-reaching-for-the-sun…
Lisa Richardson Bylines 