Ah, the Split Crow ... My band was the first musical act they had - they didn't even have a stage then. In those days, I had the get-up-and-go to walk into a pub and tell them that they needed live music; it was funny how receptive they usually were. It was something they just hadn't thought of.

But my history there doesn't even get me a free pint in the Split Crow now. "Sure, old man", they say. "Why don't you tell us again about the time you took on the whole crew of a Cuban freighter down at the Lighthouse? Oh - and that'll be six dollars ... "


"I much admired the Medieval architecture of the Canadian Halifax, by the way."

There is a desperate, never-ending battle between the "developers" and those who want to preserve something of the character of the city. The determination of the developers to destroy everything that makes Halifax appealing is truly admirable. It almost broke my heart two years ago when I spent a couple of days in Charleston, South Carolina, and saw what can be accomplished when the local patricians decide to protect and preserve the beauty of a beautiful old city, and then compared that with the situation in Halifax ...

In the late 'sixties, there was a project that would have wiped out the entire waterfront and replaced it with a big multi-lane highway, if the faculty and students of the Art College had not rallied enough public support to halt the project at the Cogswell overpass. Now, finally, some enlightened souls in the municipal offices are talking about tearing down that bit of urban wasteland and replacing it with the sort of ordinary streets that were there in the first place ...

"you mean the 'broken man on a Halifax shore' Halifax"

He just didn't know how to have a good time.

Okay, enough out of me. Wait - did I ever tell you about the time I took on the Cuban sailors down at the Lighthouse?