Author Archives: Peter Carter

GIVE PETE A CHANCE: Embedded journalist. How old are you by the time you start remembering stuff? Five? Four?  One of my earliest memories actually has me in my parents’ bed, lying between my mom and dad, so I must have been awfully young.  Then again we’re talking about a youngster who — if you’reContinue reading “A peek at pre-recorded history”

RODNEY IN ORILLIA TODAY: That’s the name of the newspaper site I borrowed this photo from. Today is my good friend Rodney Frost’s birthday. He’s 85 or 86. (That detail doesn’t matter between friends.) What’s important is all the stuff I want to tell you about him, and I don’t want to wait until afterContinue reading “Rodney Frost's Scenic Route”

OLD CARTER JOKE: “Is my left signal light working?” “Yes. No. Yes. No,” (Clever photo mashup by the author) This might sound weird, but one of my favourite sounds in the whole world — I find it soothing and peaceful — is when I’m in a car, and the only thing I hear is the clickingContinue reading “Reading the signals”

THE SANGHA SONG: Harpreet thinks I could teach a coursein funny. Here’s something I never thought I’d write: My meditation guru, Harpreet Sangha, asked me how I find humour everywhere. Harpreet says he thinks I have a talent for brightening up otherwise serious situations and that I might be able to actually teach other peopleContinue reading “No place like Om”

STOLEN FROM MY GENEROUS COUSIN SHARON’S WEBSITE: Insert your own “sharin’” pun here..  “Do you think,” I asked my wife Helena, “that wishing works?”   Helena: “Huh?”  Me: “If you want something really really badly, do you think wishing — with all your might — helps?” Her, with not even a nanosecond’s hesitation: “No.”  She thenContinue reading “Where we learn to do wishing well”

FUNERAL DIRECTION BY MEL BROOKS: Alex, Mary,Charlene, Norma, Bertholde, Me. I should have phoned them eachto ask if I could use this photo but to heck with that life’s too short. (Besides, itwas Alex himself who told me once “if a family’s got a writer in it, it’s screwed.”) A guy on my street WednesdayContinue reading “Bring out your Ed!”

This is my favourite picture of my big brother Ed, who died in February.  It was taken approximately 40 years ago in the southbound lane of highway 6 a few miles north of Manitoulin Island in Northern Ontario. I shot and processed the photo; a fact I know for sure because I was a reporterContinue reading “Quote while you're a Ed”

PHOTO BY Roman’s sister in law Brenda  My friend Roman Stankiewicz said cars have souls, just like people.  Roman was like, “If you say nice things about your car when it’s within earshot, it will hear you. Your car will perform better and require less maintenance.” He’s right. People who gripe about their cars haveContinue reading “Roman's chariots: The most trustworthy car-care advice you'll ever get”

My big brother Ed died Feb. 1 and I miss texting him because the following is the kind of thing that happened a lot. A few years back I was in my seat on a plane heading for Vancouver from Toronto and we were still on the Toronto tarmac. I looked around at the otherContinue reading “Edisms”

About a week and a half ago my 31-year-old daughter Ewa, who lives for the moment in Whitehorse, Yukon, fell off a bicycle, hit her head on the icy ground and had a concussion. (She’s much better now thanks. As soon I was able, I flew to Whitehorse to do whatever I could, which wasn’t muchContinue reading “Land of the midnight daughter”