What do you think?
Rate this book
Vinyl Cafe #essays
The Vinyl Cafe Notebooks
Selected from 15 years of radio-show archives and re-edited by the author, this onderfully eclectic essay collection gives a glimpse into the thoughtful mind at work behind The Vinyl Cafe. From meditations on peacekeeping to praise for the toothpick, The Vinyl Cafe Notebooks runs the gamut from considered argument to light-hearted opinion. Whether McLean is visiting a forgotten corner of the Canadian Shield, a big-city doughnut factory, or Sir John A. Macdonald's gravesite, his observations are absorbing, unexpected, and original. With thought-provoking proposals about the world we live in and introductions to the people he meets in his extensive travels across our country, The Vinyl Cafe Notebooks is informed by McLean's intimate relationship with Canada and Canadians. Yet the collection is also an intriguing look at the writer himself—his past, his present, and his vision of the future. Sometimes funny, often wise, and always entertaining, The Vinyl Cafe Notebooks is sure to provide a wealth of reading pleasure that fans will return to again and again.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2010
18 people are currently reading
375 people want to read
About the author
Stuart McLean
106 books268 followersLibrarian Note: There was more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
From the Vinyl Cafe web site: Stuart McLean was a best-selling author, award-winning journalist and humorist, and host of CBC Radio program The Vinyl Cafe.
Stuart began his broadcasting career making radio documentaries for CBC Radio's Sunday Morning. In 1979 he won an ACTRA award for Best Radio Documentary for his contribution to the program's coverage of the Jonestown massacre.
Following Sunday Morning, Stuart spent seven years as a regular columnist and guest host on CBC's Morningside. His book, The Morningside World of Stuart McLean, was a Canadian bestseller and a finalist in the 1990 City of Toronto Book Awards.
Stuart has also written Welcome Home: Travels in Small Town Canada, and edited the collection When We Were Young. Welcome Home was chosen by the Canadian Authors' Association as the best non-fiction book of 1993.
Stuart's books Stories from the Vinyl Cafe, Home from the Vinyl Cafe, Vinyl Cafe Unplugged, Vinyl Cafe Diaries, Dave Cooks the Turkey, Secrets from the Vinyl Cafe and Extreme Vinyl Cafe have all been Canadian bestsellers. Vinyl Cafe Diaries was awarded the Canadian Authors' Association Jubilee Award in 2004. Stuart was also a three-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour for Home from the Vinyl Cafe, Vinyl Cafe Unplugged and, most recently, Secrets from the Vinyl Cafe.
Vinyl Cafe books have also been published in the U.S., the U.K., Australia and New Zealand.
Stuart was a professor emeritus at Ryerson University in Toronto and former director of the broadcast division of the School of Journalism. In 1993 Trent University named him the first Rooke Fellow for Teaching, Writing and Research. He has also been honored by: Nipissing University (EdD(H)); University of Windsor (Lld) and Trent University (DLH). Stuart served as Honorary Colonel of the 8th Air Maintenance Squadron at 8 Wing, Trenton from 2005 to 2008.
Since 1998 Stuart has taken The Vinyl Cafe to theatres across Canada, playing in both large and small towns from St. John's, Newfoundland to Whitehorse in the Yukon.
Close to one million people listen to The Vinyl Cafe every weekend on CBC Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio and on a growing number of Public Radio stations in the United States. The program is also broadcast on an occasional basis on the BBC.
From the Vinyl Cafe web site: Stuart McLean was a best-selling author, award-winning journalist and humorist, and host of CBC Radio program The Vinyl Cafe.
Stuart began his broadcasting career making radio documentaries for CBC Radio's Sunday Morning. In 1979 he won an ACTRA award for Best Radio Documentary for his contribution to the program's coverage of the Jonestown massacre.
Following Sunday Morning, Stuart spent seven years as a regular columnist and guest host on CBC's Morningside. His book, The Morningside World of Stuart McLean, was a Canadian bestseller and a finalist in the 1990 City of Toronto Book Awards.
Stuart has also written Welcome Home: Travels in Small Town Canada, and edited the collection When We Were Young. Welcome Home was chosen by the Canadian Authors' Association as the best non-fiction book of 1993.
Stuart's books Stories from the Vinyl Cafe, Home from the Vinyl Cafe, Vinyl Cafe Unplugged, Vinyl Cafe Diaries, Dave Cooks the Turkey, Secrets from the Vinyl Cafe and Extreme Vinyl Cafe have all been Canadian bestsellers. Vinyl Cafe Diaries was awarded the Canadian Authors' Association Jubilee Award in 2004. Stuart was also a three-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour for Home from the Vinyl Cafe, Vinyl Cafe Unplugged and, most recently, Secrets from the Vinyl Cafe.
Vinyl Cafe books have also been published in the U.S., the U.K., Australia and New Zealand.
Stuart was a professor emeritus at Ryerson University in Toronto and former director of the broadcast division of the School of Journalism. In 1993 Trent University named him the first Rooke Fellow for Teaching, Writing and Research. He has also been honored by: Nipissing University (EdD(H)); University of Windsor (Lld) and Trent University (DLH). Stuart served as Honorary Colonel of the 8th Air Maintenance Squadron at 8 Wing, Trenton from 2005 to 2008.
Since 1998 Stuart has taken The Vinyl Cafe to theatres across Canada, playing in both large and small towns from St. John's, Newfoundland to Whitehorse in the Yukon.
Close to one million people listen to The Vinyl Cafe every weekend on CBC Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio and on a growing number of Public Radio stations in the United States. The program is also broadcast on an occasional basis on the BBC.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews
November 13, 2010
I loved this book! Something to curl up with on a cold day with a hot mug of tea. Not the stories of Morley and Dave, this book covers the other side of McLean - the traveling-, working-, Canadian-, true-side. Sometimes funny, sometimes reflective, often insightful, each story is only about two or three pages long. Covering everything from the pleasures of curling to the quirkiness of a rug in McLean's office, you never know what you're going to get as you read through the sections, which makes it all the more enjoyable. Definitely recommend, especially if you're a fan of the Vinyl Cafe.
April 23, 2017
Rating - 8.5
Taken by surprise that it was not another instalment of the Dave's Antics Show, and likely influenced my initial interest; Once I hit the Passing Regrets passage, life's priorities were once again crystallized
With each passing chapter, interest in the book grew (The People You Love was another powerful thought) & you develop a great appreciation for the man that McLean is - a person who appreciates life
Taken by surprise that it was not another instalment of the Dave's Antics Show, and likely influenced my initial interest; Once I hit the Passing Regrets passage, life's priorities were once again crystallized
With each passing chapter, interest in the book grew (The People You Love was another powerful thought) & you develop a great appreciation for the man that McLean is - a person who appreciates life
November 17, 2017
I miss Stuart McLean. I miss Dave and Morley, and the affection with which he shared their lives every week. I miss his appreciation for small pleasures, his love of minutia, his good heart, his over-all Canadian-ness.
So I was thrilled to find that there was still a book of his I hadn't read.
The Vinyl Cafe: Notebooks isn't a collection of stories. Rather, it's a series of essays that McLean wrote during his years with The Vinyl Cafe. Some of them aren't even that. Some are musings, or memories. Nothing more. But it's enough.
I'll admit that McLean can be saccharine. He's always been one to look on the bright site, find the good, etc. etc. And, for the most part, I hate those people. And there were certainly moments, reading this book, when I rolled my eyes.
And yet, I loved it.
The best pieces are the ones in which McLean takes a moment from his past and riffs on it in his inimitable, intimate, insightful, self-deprecating way. There's the time, for instance, when he lost his car at the airport. And the time he stole Bob Dylan's personal phone number from Bob Seeger. Classic McLean, both.
My favourite bits, though, are the ones in which McLean gets hold of some piece of Canadiana - a place or a person or an object that, in his capable hands, becomes the country's beating heart (the story of a co-op bakery out in rural Manitoba comes to mind).
I love these because, first and foremost, McLean was a journalist. He knew a story when he saw one. I also love them because McLean - clearly, completely - loved them, too. He made us see things through his eyes, and they were so much prettier that way.
McLean's work can be sugary and cloying, yes. But it's also honest and heartfelt and full of Canadian pride in the best possible sense, and I don't have to share his faith in humanity to appreciate it.
A friend of mine once asked me why I like The Vinyl Cafe so much. When I couldn't answer, he grinned and said 'I know.' I raised an eyebrow. He continued: 'Because it's one of the very, very few things out there that isn't ironic.'
And he was right. I like that McLean was smart, but never self-consciously clever; sharp, but never cutting. It was restful, and rejuvinating, and made me feel Canadian right down to my bones.
I miss Stuart McLean, and I'm glad we still have his books.
So I was thrilled to find that there was still a book of his I hadn't read.
The Vinyl Cafe: Notebooks isn't a collection of stories. Rather, it's a series of essays that McLean wrote during his years with The Vinyl Cafe. Some of them aren't even that. Some are musings, or memories. Nothing more. But it's enough.
I'll admit that McLean can be saccharine. He's always been one to look on the bright site, find the good, etc. etc. And, for the most part, I hate those people. And there were certainly moments, reading this book, when I rolled my eyes.
And yet, I loved it.
The best pieces are the ones in which McLean takes a moment from his past and riffs on it in his inimitable, intimate, insightful, self-deprecating way. There's the time, for instance, when he lost his car at the airport. And the time he stole Bob Dylan's personal phone number from Bob Seeger. Classic McLean, both.
My favourite bits, though, are the ones in which McLean gets hold of some piece of Canadiana - a place or a person or an object that, in his capable hands, becomes the country's beating heart (the story of a co-op bakery out in rural Manitoba comes to mind).
I love these because, first and foremost, McLean was a journalist. He knew a story when he saw one. I also love them because McLean - clearly, completely - loved them, too. He made us see things through his eyes, and they were so much prettier that way.
McLean's work can be sugary and cloying, yes. But it's also honest and heartfelt and full of Canadian pride in the best possible sense, and I don't have to share his faith in humanity to appreciate it.
A friend of mine once asked me why I like The Vinyl Cafe so much. When I couldn't answer, he grinned and said 'I know.' I raised an eyebrow. He continued: 'Because it's one of the very, very few things out there that isn't ironic.'
And he was right. I like that McLean was smart, but never self-consciously clever; sharp, but never cutting. It was restful, and rejuvinating, and made me feel Canadian right down to my bones.
I miss Stuart McLean, and I'm glad we still have his books.
February 24, 2017
I've been an avid listener to The Vinyl Cafe for years now. And upon hearing of Stuart McLean's death earlier this month, I've taken to revisiting some of his books. This one is one of my favourites. As it's non-fiction, and written in the style of a journal/diary, it gives the reader a tiny window into Stuart's thought process and into who he is at heart. Though in truth, if you're a fan of the show, you probably already have a pretty good idea about the latter. This book, for me anyway, is sort of a backstage pass to your favourite performer.
May 1, 2018
The Vinyl Cafe Notebooks
Stuart McLean
2010
All that I hope to say in books all that I ever hope to say is that I love the world ~ E.B. White
When you read a series of Stuart McLean stories you are likely to frown & laugh; learn & smile; think & ponder; remember & reminisce; and perhaps most of all grow wiser.
Patience, tolerance, humour and good grace will flow through – if you let it.
Doubt that Stuart was a saint – but then who is?
However we can learn from the sinners as well as the saints.
So pull over the bus; take the long way there and buckle up for the ride. Read the book and grow wiser!
“We may not be big but we're small!” ~ #StuartMcLean
DRIVING THE 401
• Is there a list of all the bands that preformed on Vinyl Café?
4: I was born in Montreal but these days I live in Toronto.
THE PIANO
MY PALM TREE
13: I can’t say for sure that my palm was the reason my house sold. But I can’t say it wasn’t either. It did look spectacular by the window where the desk used to be.
14: I don’t want to give you the idea that I am the perfect owner. I am not the perfect owner. My palm doesn’t look as good today as it did when I got it. But let’s be honest, neither do I.
LOSINIG PAUL
16: Parting is all we know of heaven, and all we need of hell ~ Emily Dickinson
WATCHFULNESS
19: Every morning before breakfast, I stand on my deck with my mug of tea and watch it, checking out how things are doing in the kingdom of dirt. Gardening
MY ‘TO DO’ LIST
ANTS
KEEPSAKES
THE SENTIMENTALITY OF SUITS
32: Is this a wedding or a funeral? (Vendor)
The shirt long ago vanished, and the lining on the tie is gone, and, sadly, I am no longer married, but the suit is still in my closet, hanging there loyalty, with the conviction I lost. And though, perhaps appropriately, it doesn’t fit me anymore, it is a silent reminder of a grea good thing and it is not going out.
April 3 2009
THE MORNING PAPER
35: Instead of reading the adventures of the Hardy Boys, like everyone else I knew, I traveled in the world of Ken Holt – the son of a globe-trotting foreign correspondent and a newspaper boy himself. Ken and his buddy Sandy Allen, he of the newspaper-owning Allen family were my heroes.
• Ken Holt is the central character in a series of 18 mystery stories for adolescent boys written by Sam and Beryl Epstein under the pseudonym Bruce Campbell.
38: I like newspapers because they exist in space, but not in time. They happen out of time. In fact, they literally stop time. …This is what it is like right now.
…a newspaper is a shared experience.
40: My father is now ninety-two. It was, I think, Bette Davis who said, “Old age is no place for sissies.”
The Montreal Gazette began publishing in 1785. It was started by a printer named Fleury Mesplet, who came to Montreal with Benjamin Franklin when the army of the American Revolution invaded and occupied the city of my birth
RADIO
42: Lying in bed listening to Dave Boxer on FCF or Joey Reynolds on WKBW was like lying beside a campfire that could talk.
PETER GZOWSKI
46: Over a period of about a decade, I had a regular spot on his show, Morningside.
That’s what he did best. He sat in his studio, and he let us join him.
January 27 2002
THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE
53: There are people waiting to love you. You might not believe that, but they may be the truest thing I have ever written. If they aren’t around you now, believe me, they exist. You have a job too. Go and find them.
September 27, 2009
SIGNS OF SPRING
MAPLE SYRUP TIME
…it is good to remember that there is a mud time close to home where the pool of decay underfoot is the wonderful smell of the earth waking up and the trees coming to life
EARLY APRIL 2009
WORMS
65: Yeah, when we were younger we lived outdoors more than kids do today. And we were allowed to make more choices. Kids spend too much time indoors these days ~ Roger
66: With parents watching too closely ~ Stuart
SUMMER JOBS
T.S. Elliot opens his most renowned poem, “The Waste Land,” with a line that has the enduring ring of truth. Elliot famously claims, April is the cruellest month’
SEPTEMBER
A LETTER TO A YOUNG FRIEND HEADINGBACK TO SCHOOL
74: This year you get the pink eraser from the deep thick forest. I give it to you with my love, and these instructions: take it with you everywhere. You never know when you are going to make a mess, or where, just that you are bound to mess things up.
Don’t mind mistakes
Mistakes are how you learn
You have an eraser
Go ahead and make messes
Then…clean them up
Try gain.
September 6, 2009
AUTUMN
PIANO TUNERS
APPROACHING WINTER
HIBERNATION
SALT OF THE EARTH
86: Today Canada is the fourth largest producer of salt in the world. From salt mines in Windsor and Goderich, Ontario, from Pugwash, Nova Scotia, and from the Magdalen Islands, Canada produces more salt that it needs – enough surplus to export tons to the United States.
87:…for there is salt between us.
FEBRUARY
89: It’s a Leap Year which any sensible person might conclude means we leap ahead, skip out of February a day early in our headlong rush to spring, but this being February – a month upon reflection, I am beginning to think of as more perverse than odd – it means our leap is a leap to nowhere, a leap where we started, stuck in this month, sometimes a day short, sometimes with more days on our hands than we want.
SNOWMAN
BOY, BIKE, CHAIR
TORONTO
THE PARKING SPOT
GARBAGE
HAIRCUTS BY CHILDREN
THE WORLD CUP
THE FRONT LAWN
KISSING CONTEST
SMALL DECISIONS
128: Our hearts know the way, and the trick it seems, is to follow our hearts. Because if we do, everything will work out all right in the end. And if doesn’t? Well you know the answer to that. That just means it’s not the end
February 15 2009
SILENCE
GEORGE LEARNS TO SWIM
137: Sometimes love calls us to do the most amazing things. Sometimes love calls us to be strong, and sometimes it calls us to put our strength away. And always where there is love it will eventually call us to courage. It is a call that never comes without pain. A call that never comes easily. It comes in hospital rooms, and in living rooms, and it comes in classrooms, and sometimes even in swimming pools.
March 24, 2002
THE KEY
144: I am sorry that I doubted you.
January 27, 2008
SAFE PLACES
We’ve been told, over and over again, both directly and indirectly, that the world is not a safe place. A proposition I disagree with.
146: We’ve bought this danger story book, line and sinker, and in doing so, we’ve robbed our children of childhood. I fell for it too, which is probably why I feel so strongly about this.
Here in Canada various politicians and police forces, serving their own self interest, have warned us about rising crimes rates when quite the reverse is true.
147: Hope and optimism are synonymous with naivety. We should be looking to the future with flinty and steely eyes, for sure, but they should be wide open with hope, not squinting in fear.
Ask, and it shall be given you;
Seek, and ye shall find;
Knock, and it shall be opened unto you
If it is evildoers you seek, you will find them aplenty; if it is enemies you want, they are there too. But if you want the truth, the truth is this: blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.
September 9, 2008
THE GIRL WITH THE GLOBE
150: I think it is the universe talking to me. It is telling me to go ahead and expose myself to change, and if I do that something good will happen
July 12 2019
NEW YEAR’S EGGS
155: All it takes is a little courage, a little forgiveness and perhaps some buttery toast. Change often seems overwhelming. But it can happen
THE TALL GRASS PRAIRIE BREAD COMPANY
156: The church members were wondering how they could be more of a community…
157: Anyone could work in the co-op and get work credits.
158: The bank said that wasn’t the way the world worked. They didn’t get any money from the bank. They got money from friends instead – some low interest loans, some no-interest loans. They promised to pay the loans back if, and when, they could.
159: And they learned that you can’t get rich when you pay fair wages to both farmers and staff, but you can make a decent living.
160. …if you’re mindful of what you’re doing, you can make a difference to the local economy.
Mostly I (Stuart) get to tell my stories, but often I get to hear others. This is one of my favourites.
June 11, 2006
https://www.tallgrassbakery.ca/
APPLE PEELING
162: …apple peeling machine…
…before you eat the apple, you can take the peel, throw it over your shoulder and it will fly through the air and land on the kitchen floor, forming the initial of your one true love. I always do that when I am finished peeling my apple. Over and over again for thirty years now.
WATERMELLON
They used six variables:
1. Vitamin c
2. Fibre
3. Potassium
4. Folacin
5. Carotenoids
…in second place was the watermelon, 311 points
www.matermelon.org
167: Watermelon. It’s a good fruit. You eat, you drink, you wash your face ~ Enrico Caruso.
ODE TO THE POTATO
THE BAY LEAF
173: The only thing I know about bay leaves is that if you keep them in a dark place, they last for year, maybe even lifetimes with no evidence of change.
174: Before long, I was thinking how WO Mitchell was known for his snuff, and Mordecai Richler for those nasty little cigars, and wondering if maybe I should be known for something too. And why not for chewing bay leaves?
CHERRY SEASON 2006
BOOK BUYING
I’m not going to buy another book, not one, until I have read all the ones I have in the poles and gone through the ones in the basement. Unless, of course…..
…and I don’t want to exactly read it but want it around so I can do any of the following things:
• Consult it
• Look at it
• Have it on my shelf because it makes me feel better to have it there than to worry about it in the basement
• Sell it to a second–hand bookstore
• Lend it to a friend
…I think that covers it.
THE THOMAS FISHER RARE BOOK LIBRARY
185: Umberto Eco spent time at the University of Toronto when he was working on his medieval mystery The Name of the Rose. Many believe the tower in his fictional 14th Century monastery owes much to the time Eco spent at the Fisher.
186: Published in 1623. The first printed collection of William Shakespeare’s plays. It was put together by two of his fellow actors six years after his death. There are about one hundred copies left in the world. It was sold for a pound when it was printed and is worth about $6 million today
187: ‘printer’s devils’ sneak into Barker’s print shop to mess with the type…removed the word not from one of the commandments. When the bible was printed it read ‘thou shall commit adultery.”
188: Most people don’t like it when you write in books. I encourage it. ~ P.J. (P.J. Carefoote)
189: When you write in a book, it is like leaving your testimony for other readers. People who will never know you but will know your thoughts.
Monks and nuns were once, quite literally, the keepers of knowledge, copying manuscripts and protecting them from harm. Now it is up to the librarians and those of us who support them in their sacred work.
October 5 2008
W.O. MITCHELL
…much loved prairie writer W.O. Mitchell. Cross Country Checkup always has a few callers like Mitchell up their sleeve, standing by during the show to prime the pump. It was my job that week to call Bill Mitchell and book him.
194:…Roses Are Difficult Here…
195…screaming ‘Whoa, you cocksuckers.”
196:…and the permission he gave me, by his own example, to enjoy reading in public.
THE ISLAND OF NO ADULTS
FREEE BOOKS
THE CREATION OF SAM McGEE
203: Hugh MacLennan’s quintessential Canadian novel Two Solitudes and his poetic description of Montreal’s Sherbrooke Street on a snowy winter night.
The Cremation of Sam McGee
To
The Creation of Sam McGee
QUENTIN REYNOLDS
A bookshelf is a highly personal thing, and often the books on it bristle with emotional connections that no one would ever guess.
208: I have such a book. It was written by American war journalist Quentin Reynolds. It was called By Quentin Reynolds
LEACOCK COUNTRY
Leacock, as you no doubt know is Canada’s answer to Mark Twain. He was the most famous humorist in the world in the early days of the twentieth century.
211: Sunshine Sketches is Leacock’s enduring Canadian masterpiece.
213: Leacock, who could sound disparaging, believed deeply that humour should be, more than anything, kind, that one should laugh with, and not at, others
THE WAY WHICH IS NOT THE WAY
IN PRAISE OF CURLING
225: Curling, a game invented in Scotland’s hinterland, seems to have been made for the granite grip of a Canadian winter.
229: Today, professional athletes are only seldom connected to the communities where they play. They are literally free agents. They pop up wherever it suits them.
ROBERT STANFIELD’S GRAVE
THE IMPERIAL THEATRE, SAINT JOHN, NEW BRUNSWICK
BIKING ACROSS CANADA
BRIDGE WALKING
247: 23rd year in a row, officials are closing the bridge for an hour so that anyone who wants can walk across it. (Sault Ste. Marie)
June 28 2009
https://www.saultstemarie.com/events-...
International Bridge Walk is an annual event held on the last Saturday in June where participants can walk from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, via the International Bridge
GETTING TO SWIFT CURRENT
…the show in Yorkton
PRAIRIE WIND
252: …maybe I’m just a romantic, but a herd of bison seems to fit into the landscape in an organic way that a herd of cattle doesn’t. The bison seem to be of the land rather than just on it.
PARTLIAMENT HILL
254: I find the Parliament Buildings both in their stony reality, and for all they symbolize, an inspiring place.
Parliamentary library
255: I have always believed that the big truths are hidden in the small things.
256: Like one of Canada’s grand railway hotels, Parliament is all history and tradition.
..another corridor – one the public isn’t supposed to use…I stumbled on a sculpture, a small bust by the great French artist and father of modern sculpture Auguste Rodin
To Canada, whose sons shed their blood to safeguard world freedom
...from grateful France
258: New Zealand room…they sent wood all the way to Canada, of all places….received the gift with respect with which it was given.
MAYNARD HELMER
265: In memory of Maynard Helmer. This was his town. This was is corner. These were his people.
Winchester in Ontario dairy country
MOTELS
MEETING FAMOUS PEOPLE
273: I had a student once, at Ryerson University; is name was , still is, Peter Duck….Peter Duck’s grandfather lived the first twelve years of his life with the perfectly normal name Donald
MAXINE MONTGOMERY
GANDER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
There was a time when the Gander Airport was the largest airport in the world
283: Everyone things The Beatles’ first stop in North America was New York City. Everyone is wrong – their first stop was Gander.
284: Canadians like to see themselves as a nation that welcomes others. That is what they do in Gander. They have been doing it for years. In style.
March 20, 2010
MY FAVOURITE PHOTOGRAPH
ROGER WOODWARD AND NIAGARA FALLS
When Charles Dickens saw Niagara Falls, he wrote that he seemed “to have been lifted from this earth, to be looking into Heaven.”
288: Roger Woodward 7 year old boy who was on a small boat that capsized on the Niagara River, on July 9th 1960
294: There was no sensation of falling ~ he said
Remembers the Maid of the Mist tour boat
MY HELLO PROBLEM
…biking to work
300: I know for instance, that if I am feeling tired or cranky, that can often mean that I am actually hungry, and if I have something to eat, I will find that I was not tired and cranky at all, just hungry
302: I am not…a particularly busy guy and I certainly don’t have a lot on my mind….truth is …I am, it turns out, an idiot.
October 4, 2009
SUMMER JOBS REDUX
303: Murray’s Family Restaurant
304: …famous French joie de vivre
305: …that summer in Saint –Tite left me with enough fluency, and more importantly confidence, to muddle through whenever I have the opportunity.
306: ...a forest full of bears, except to say that I was young and probably shouldn’t have lived to be this old. Certainly not if Darwin was right about anything.
I saw a little Expo when I got home…
308: You wouldn’t expect that a summer camp, or a construction job, or a few weeks in a bar o a paint factory would amount to much, but these things add up…
…a summer job, like a summer love, can be much more than you ever imagined.
RUG VERUS CHAIR
SPELLING
I have never spelled won with both a w and an e, but I have never one a spelling bee either.
I AM DEEPLY SORRY
THE JOY OF SOCKS
…I have come to realize that I was, paradoxically, the wealthiest at that time in my life when I had the least amount of money
That is when I was truly wealthy, when my income exceeded my dreams
ON BEAUTY
THE WALL CLOCK
PARKING LOT BLUES
NATIONAL UMBERALLA COLLECTIVE
BOB DYLAN’S PHONE NUMBER
THE GIRL IN THE GREEN DRESS
342: I have learned that the only thing that ever really serves you is the truth, especially when it’s hard and difficult
THE DESK LAMP
Here by the grace of some unknown thing. And while we are here, we will shine when we are called to, and do our best to shine as brightly as we can, shining away until the dark mornings when someone will forget to turn us on.
February 6, 2005
#VinylCafe
#VinylCafeNotebooks
#StuartMcLean
Stuart McLean
2010
All that I hope to say in books all that I ever hope to say is that I love the world ~ E.B. White
When you read a series of Stuart McLean stories you are likely to frown & laugh; learn & smile; think & ponder; remember & reminisce; and perhaps most of all grow wiser.
Patience, tolerance, humour and good grace will flow through – if you let it.
Doubt that Stuart was a saint – but then who is?
However we can learn from the sinners as well as the saints.
So pull over the bus; take the long way there and buckle up for the ride. Read the book and grow wiser!
“We may not be big but we're small!” ~ #StuartMcLean
DRIVING THE 401
• Is there a list of all the bands that preformed on Vinyl Café?
4: I was born in Montreal but these days I live in Toronto.
THE PIANO
MY PALM TREE
13: I can’t say for sure that my palm was the reason my house sold. But I can’t say it wasn’t either. It did look spectacular by the window where the desk used to be.
14: I don’t want to give you the idea that I am the perfect owner. I am not the perfect owner. My palm doesn’t look as good today as it did when I got it. But let’s be honest, neither do I.
LOSINIG PAUL
16: Parting is all we know of heaven, and all we need of hell ~ Emily Dickinson
WATCHFULNESS
19: Every morning before breakfast, I stand on my deck with my mug of tea and watch it, checking out how things are doing in the kingdom of dirt. Gardening
MY ‘TO DO’ LIST
ANTS
KEEPSAKES
THE SENTIMENTALITY OF SUITS
32: Is this a wedding or a funeral? (Vendor)
The shirt long ago vanished, and the lining on the tie is gone, and, sadly, I am no longer married, but the suit is still in my closet, hanging there loyalty, with the conviction I lost. And though, perhaps appropriately, it doesn’t fit me anymore, it is a silent reminder of a grea good thing and it is not going out.
April 3 2009
THE MORNING PAPER
35: Instead of reading the adventures of the Hardy Boys, like everyone else I knew, I traveled in the world of Ken Holt – the son of a globe-trotting foreign correspondent and a newspaper boy himself. Ken and his buddy Sandy Allen, he of the newspaper-owning Allen family were my heroes.
• Ken Holt is the central character in a series of 18 mystery stories for adolescent boys written by Sam and Beryl Epstein under the pseudonym Bruce Campbell.
38: I like newspapers because they exist in space, but not in time. They happen out of time. In fact, they literally stop time. …This is what it is like right now.
…a newspaper is a shared experience.
40: My father is now ninety-two. It was, I think, Bette Davis who said, “Old age is no place for sissies.”
The Montreal Gazette began publishing in 1785. It was started by a printer named Fleury Mesplet, who came to Montreal with Benjamin Franklin when the army of the American Revolution invaded and occupied the city of my birth
RADIO
42: Lying in bed listening to Dave Boxer on FCF or Joey Reynolds on WKBW was like lying beside a campfire that could talk.
PETER GZOWSKI
46: Over a period of about a decade, I had a regular spot on his show, Morningside.
That’s what he did best. He sat in his studio, and he let us join him.
January 27 2002
THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE
53: There are people waiting to love you. You might not believe that, but they may be the truest thing I have ever written. If they aren’t around you now, believe me, they exist. You have a job too. Go and find them.
September 27, 2009
SIGNS OF SPRING
MAPLE SYRUP TIME
…it is good to remember that there is a mud time close to home where the pool of decay underfoot is the wonderful smell of the earth waking up and the trees coming to life
EARLY APRIL 2009
WORMS
65: Yeah, when we were younger we lived outdoors more than kids do today. And we were allowed to make more choices. Kids spend too much time indoors these days ~ Roger
66: With parents watching too closely ~ Stuart
SUMMER JOBS
T.S. Elliot opens his most renowned poem, “The Waste Land,” with a line that has the enduring ring of truth. Elliot famously claims, April is the cruellest month’
SEPTEMBER
A LETTER TO A YOUNG FRIEND HEADINGBACK TO SCHOOL
74: This year you get the pink eraser from the deep thick forest. I give it to you with my love, and these instructions: take it with you everywhere. You never know when you are going to make a mess, or where, just that you are bound to mess things up.
Don’t mind mistakes
Mistakes are how you learn
You have an eraser
Go ahead and make messes
Then…clean them up
Try gain.
September 6, 2009
AUTUMN
PIANO TUNERS
APPROACHING WINTER
HIBERNATION
SALT OF THE EARTH
86: Today Canada is the fourth largest producer of salt in the world. From salt mines in Windsor and Goderich, Ontario, from Pugwash, Nova Scotia, and from the Magdalen Islands, Canada produces more salt that it needs – enough surplus to export tons to the United States.
87:…for there is salt between us.
FEBRUARY
89: It’s a Leap Year which any sensible person might conclude means we leap ahead, skip out of February a day early in our headlong rush to spring, but this being February – a month upon reflection, I am beginning to think of as more perverse than odd – it means our leap is a leap to nowhere, a leap where we started, stuck in this month, sometimes a day short, sometimes with more days on our hands than we want.
SNOWMAN
BOY, BIKE, CHAIR
TORONTO
THE PARKING SPOT
GARBAGE
HAIRCUTS BY CHILDREN
THE WORLD CUP
THE FRONT LAWN
KISSING CONTEST
SMALL DECISIONS
128: Our hearts know the way, and the trick it seems, is to follow our hearts. Because if we do, everything will work out all right in the end. And if doesn’t? Well you know the answer to that. That just means it’s not the end
February 15 2009
SILENCE
GEORGE LEARNS TO SWIM
137: Sometimes love calls us to do the most amazing things. Sometimes love calls us to be strong, and sometimes it calls us to put our strength away. And always where there is love it will eventually call us to courage. It is a call that never comes without pain. A call that never comes easily. It comes in hospital rooms, and in living rooms, and it comes in classrooms, and sometimes even in swimming pools.
March 24, 2002
THE KEY
144: I am sorry that I doubted you.
January 27, 2008
SAFE PLACES
We’ve been told, over and over again, both directly and indirectly, that the world is not a safe place. A proposition I disagree with.
146: We’ve bought this danger story book, line and sinker, and in doing so, we’ve robbed our children of childhood. I fell for it too, which is probably why I feel so strongly about this.
Here in Canada various politicians and police forces, serving their own self interest, have warned us about rising crimes rates when quite the reverse is true.
147: Hope and optimism are synonymous with naivety. We should be looking to the future with flinty and steely eyes, for sure, but they should be wide open with hope, not squinting in fear.
Ask, and it shall be given you;
Seek, and ye shall find;
Knock, and it shall be opened unto you
If it is evildoers you seek, you will find them aplenty; if it is enemies you want, they are there too. But if you want the truth, the truth is this: blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.
September 9, 2008
THE GIRL WITH THE GLOBE
150: I think it is the universe talking to me. It is telling me to go ahead and expose myself to change, and if I do that something good will happen
July 12 2019
NEW YEAR’S EGGS
155: All it takes is a little courage, a little forgiveness and perhaps some buttery toast. Change often seems overwhelming. But it can happen
THE TALL GRASS PRAIRIE BREAD COMPANY
156: The church members were wondering how they could be more of a community…
157: Anyone could work in the co-op and get work credits.
158: The bank said that wasn’t the way the world worked. They didn’t get any money from the bank. They got money from friends instead – some low interest loans, some no-interest loans. They promised to pay the loans back if, and when, they could.
159: And they learned that you can’t get rich when you pay fair wages to both farmers and staff, but you can make a decent living.
160. …if you’re mindful of what you’re doing, you can make a difference to the local economy.
Mostly I (Stuart) get to tell my stories, but often I get to hear others. This is one of my favourites.
June 11, 2006
https://www.tallgrassbakery.ca/
APPLE PEELING
162: …apple peeling machine…
…before you eat the apple, you can take the peel, throw it over your shoulder and it will fly through the air and land on the kitchen floor, forming the initial of your one true love. I always do that when I am finished peeling my apple. Over and over again for thirty years now.
WATERMELLON
They used six variables:
1. Vitamin c
2. Fibre
3. Potassium
4. Folacin
5. Carotenoids
…in second place was the watermelon, 311 points
www.matermelon.org
167: Watermelon. It’s a good fruit. You eat, you drink, you wash your face ~ Enrico Caruso.
ODE TO THE POTATO
THE BAY LEAF
173: The only thing I know about bay leaves is that if you keep them in a dark place, they last for year, maybe even lifetimes with no evidence of change.
174: Before long, I was thinking how WO Mitchell was known for his snuff, and Mordecai Richler for those nasty little cigars, and wondering if maybe I should be known for something too. And why not for chewing bay leaves?
CHERRY SEASON 2006
BOOK BUYING
I’m not going to buy another book, not one, until I have read all the ones I have in the poles and gone through the ones in the basement. Unless, of course…..
…and I don’t want to exactly read it but want it around so I can do any of the following things:
• Consult it
• Look at it
• Have it on my shelf because it makes me feel better to have it there than to worry about it in the basement
• Sell it to a second–hand bookstore
• Lend it to a friend
…I think that covers it.
THE THOMAS FISHER RARE BOOK LIBRARY
185: Umberto Eco spent time at the University of Toronto when he was working on his medieval mystery The Name of the Rose. Many believe the tower in his fictional 14th Century monastery owes much to the time Eco spent at the Fisher.
186: Published in 1623. The first printed collection of William Shakespeare’s plays. It was put together by two of his fellow actors six years after his death. There are about one hundred copies left in the world. It was sold for a pound when it was printed and is worth about $6 million today
187: ‘printer’s devils’ sneak into Barker’s print shop to mess with the type…removed the word not from one of the commandments. When the bible was printed it read ‘thou shall commit adultery.”
188: Most people don’t like it when you write in books. I encourage it. ~ P.J. (P.J. Carefoote)
189: When you write in a book, it is like leaving your testimony for other readers. People who will never know you but will know your thoughts.
Monks and nuns were once, quite literally, the keepers of knowledge, copying manuscripts and protecting them from harm. Now it is up to the librarians and those of us who support them in their sacred work.
October 5 2008
W.O. MITCHELL
…much loved prairie writer W.O. Mitchell. Cross Country Checkup always has a few callers like Mitchell up their sleeve, standing by during the show to prime the pump. It was my job that week to call Bill Mitchell and book him.
194:…Roses Are Difficult Here…
195…screaming ‘Whoa, you cocksuckers.”
196:…and the permission he gave me, by his own example, to enjoy reading in public.
THE ISLAND OF NO ADULTS
FREEE BOOKS
THE CREATION OF SAM McGEE
203: Hugh MacLennan’s quintessential Canadian novel Two Solitudes and his poetic description of Montreal’s Sherbrooke Street on a snowy winter night.
The Cremation of Sam McGee
To
The Creation of Sam McGee
QUENTIN REYNOLDS
A bookshelf is a highly personal thing, and often the books on it bristle with emotional connections that no one would ever guess.
208: I have such a book. It was written by American war journalist Quentin Reynolds. It was called By Quentin Reynolds
LEACOCK COUNTRY
Leacock, as you no doubt know is Canada’s answer to Mark Twain. He was the most famous humorist in the world in the early days of the twentieth century.
211: Sunshine Sketches is Leacock’s enduring Canadian masterpiece.
213: Leacock, who could sound disparaging, believed deeply that humour should be, more than anything, kind, that one should laugh with, and not at, others
THE WAY WHICH IS NOT THE WAY
IN PRAISE OF CURLING
225: Curling, a game invented in Scotland’s hinterland, seems to have been made for the granite grip of a Canadian winter.
229: Today, professional athletes are only seldom connected to the communities where they play. They are literally free agents. They pop up wherever it suits them.
ROBERT STANFIELD’S GRAVE
THE IMPERIAL THEATRE, SAINT JOHN, NEW BRUNSWICK
BIKING ACROSS CANADA
BRIDGE WALKING
247: 23rd year in a row, officials are closing the bridge for an hour so that anyone who wants can walk across it. (Sault Ste. Marie)
June 28 2009
https://www.saultstemarie.com/events-...
International Bridge Walk is an annual event held on the last Saturday in June where participants can walk from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, via the International Bridge
GETTING TO SWIFT CURRENT
…the show in Yorkton
PRAIRIE WIND
252: …maybe I’m just a romantic, but a herd of bison seems to fit into the landscape in an organic way that a herd of cattle doesn’t. The bison seem to be of the land rather than just on it.
PARTLIAMENT HILL
254: I find the Parliament Buildings both in their stony reality, and for all they symbolize, an inspiring place.
Parliamentary library
255: I have always believed that the big truths are hidden in the small things.
256: Like one of Canada’s grand railway hotels, Parliament is all history and tradition.
..another corridor – one the public isn’t supposed to use…I stumbled on a sculpture, a small bust by the great French artist and father of modern sculpture Auguste Rodin
To Canada, whose sons shed their blood to safeguard world freedom
...from grateful France
258: New Zealand room…they sent wood all the way to Canada, of all places….received the gift with respect with which it was given.
MAYNARD HELMER
265: In memory of Maynard Helmer. This was his town. This was is corner. These were his people.
Winchester in Ontario dairy country
MOTELS
MEETING FAMOUS PEOPLE
273: I had a student once, at Ryerson University; is name was , still is, Peter Duck….Peter Duck’s grandfather lived the first twelve years of his life with the perfectly normal name Donald
MAXINE MONTGOMERY
GANDER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
There was a time when the Gander Airport was the largest airport in the world
283: Everyone things The Beatles’ first stop in North America was New York City. Everyone is wrong – their first stop was Gander.
284: Canadians like to see themselves as a nation that welcomes others. That is what they do in Gander. They have been doing it for years. In style.
March 20, 2010
MY FAVOURITE PHOTOGRAPH
ROGER WOODWARD AND NIAGARA FALLS
When Charles Dickens saw Niagara Falls, he wrote that he seemed “to have been lifted from this earth, to be looking into Heaven.”
288: Roger Woodward 7 year old boy who was on a small boat that capsized on the Niagara River, on July 9th 1960
294: There was no sensation of falling ~ he said
Remembers the Maid of the Mist tour boat
MY HELLO PROBLEM
…biking to work
300: I know for instance, that if I am feeling tired or cranky, that can often mean that I am actually hungry, and if I have something to eat, I will find that I was not tired and cranky at all, just hungry
302: I am not…a particularly busy guy and I certainly don’t have a lot on my mind….truth is …I am, it turns out, an idiot.
October 4, 2009
SUMMER JOBS REDUX
303: Murray’s Family Restaurant
304: …famous French joie de vivre
305: …that summer in Saint –Tite left me with enough fluency, and more importantly confidence, to muddle through whenever I have the opportunity.
306: ...a forest full of bears, except to say that I was young and probably shouldn’t have lived to be this old. Certainly not if Darwin was right about anything.
I saw a little Expo when I got home…
308: You wouldn’t expect that a summer camp, or a construction job, or a few weeks in a bar o a paint factory would amount to much, but these things add up…
…a summer job, like a summer love, can be much more than you ever imagined.
RUG VERUS CHAIR
SPELLING
I have never spelled won with both a w and an e, but I have never one a spelling bee either.
I AM DEEPLY SORRY
THE JOY OF SOCKS
…I have come to realize that I was, paradoxically, the wealthiest at that time in my life when I had the least amount of money
That is when I was truly wealthy, when my income exceeded my dreams
ON BEAUTY
THE WALL CLOCK
PARKING LOT BLUES
NATIONAL UMBERALLA COLLECTIVE
BOB DYLAN’S PHONE NUMBER
THE GIRL IN THE GREEN DRESS
342: I have learned that the only thing that ever really serves you is the truth, especially when it’s hard and difficult
THE DESK LAMP
Here by the grace of some unknown thing. And while we are here, we will shine when we are called to, and do our best to shine as brightly as we can, shining away until the dark mornings when someone will forget to turn us on.
February 6, 2005
#VinylCafe
#VinylCafeNotebooks
#StuartMcLean
January 27, 2023
SUCH a great book of essays/stories! Very warm, very funny, very interesting - perfectly lovely. One of my favorites features a small independent bakery that helps readers appreciate the importance of these businesses and the people who depend on them whether for products, services or a paycheck. The business started out as a neighborhood co-op and few organically. Lots of great issues -- good stewardship of the land, paying people fairly, patronizing businesses that treat their employees fairly, and living with a decent salary rather than getting rich. Great quote from this story, "If something is too cheap, that means someone is paying the cost somewhere. Maybe it is the environment, or maybe it is some else down the line."
One of my other favorite stories extols the virtue of the potato. Another about a neighbor who built a snowman.
It's one of those "don't sweat the small stuff" books and it's an "appreciate the small stuff" books.
One of my other favorite stories extols the virtue of the potato. Another about a neighbor who built a snowman.
It's one of those "don't sweat the small stuff" books and it's an "appreciate the small stuff" books.
February 18, 2017
This volume published in 2010, is a collection of essays McLean wrote over a period of fifteen years originally intended for radio. He has edited and neatly organized these pieces into several chapters, all based on the theme of “notes” or thoughts on different topics. McLean is well known in Canada for his Dave and Morley stories about a family living in Toronto, but this book is more about the writer himself. It has a very different feel, with thoughts about his connections to his past, his well-known trips across the far reaches of the Canadian landscape and his hopes for a way of living in the future which reflect the best in Canadian values. As a man who loved to wander, he was always in favour of taking the less travelled side roads and he enjoyed “dawdling”, strolling about but always taking in everything he saw. He often stopped in the smaller towns that dot the countryside, sitting and talking to the people he met whether it be in a coffee shop, a park or on a stroll down the street. His conversations often started with, “Tell me about….”. And in this way he collected stories, thoughts and perceptions about Canada and the Canadian people, eventually becoming one of its best story tellers.
These short but introspective pieces reflect a thoughtful man, proud to be a Canadian, interested in what makes Canadians uniquely the way they are and keen to understand what binds us not only as communities and a country, but also as members of a larger global world. He constantly mines the themes of kinship, examining how people are connected with the places they live and exploring the relationships of those who inhabit those spaces. These pieces are often hilarious, sometimes very serious, always thoughtful, but never brooding.
Mclean always enjoyed being in the outdoors no matter what the season or the weather. He loved the natural world in the country but also the city and was as happy walking the crowded city streets as he was sitting by a lake or wandering through a stand of maple trees at sugaring time. He was a man who was always curious about life, a man who was watchful and sensitive, open to his surroundings, determined to experience everything that life had to offer and then find a way to share it with others.
He admits freely to being a shy, awkward kid and a gawky adolescent who was never very good at academic work and took a while to find himself. But when eventually discovered his own particular groove, he owned it, plunging himself wholeheartedly into his work.
These eclectic pieces include a little bit of everything and readers will have their own special pieces. For me there were several. “The World Cup” describes his experience in the Toronto streets during and after the games in 2002. It is a thoughtful and fun piece about how he wishes we could all be in this world, celebrating not only our differences but also what bring us together. “Girl with a Globe” shares his admiration for a young girl who has had her ups and downs but takes life as it presents itself, always with a positive attitude. “Watermelon” is all about challenging your thinking and what happens when things you believed in so strongly are unexpectedly challenged. “My To Do List” reminds us how the everyday hassles of life cause us such distress and how easily little things can throw us into a complete “tizzy”. His piece “Boy, Bike, Chair” shares his usual way of meeting people, by stopping and talking to those he runs into on the street. But it also sends him back to his childhood when very simple things brought him complete happiness. “Toronto” is his salute to his adopted city, a busy place with concrete, traffic and expensive housing. But McLean shows the reader how this huge sprawling metropolis is also like a small town where he has neighbours and shops at his favourite butcher, grocer and hardware store.
This is a book which is best read in short bursts and is easy to pick up and put down. Sadly, I finished it a few days before McLean died at the young age of 68. He had been ill for some time and had retreated from his programs and radio shows to continue his treatment. We are lucky to have so much of his work at CBC archived as well as his books to continue to enjoy his legacy to Canada as a country and a way of life.
These short but introspective pieces reflect a thoughtful man, proud to be a Canadian, interested in what makes Canadians uniquely the way they are and keen to understand what binds us not only as communities and a country, but also as members of a larger global world. He constantly mines the themes of kinship, examining how people are connected with the places they live and exploring the relationships of those who inhabit those spaces. These pieces are often hilarious, sometimes very serious, always thoughtful, but never brooding.
Mclean always enjoyed being in the outdoors no matter what the season or the weather. He loved the natural world in the country but also the city and was as happy walking the crowded city streets as he was sitting by a lake or wandering through a stand of maple trees at sugaring time. He was a man who was always curious about life, a man who was watchful and sensitive, open to his surroundings, determined to experience everything that life had to offer and then find a way to share it with others.
He admits freely to being a shy, awkward kid and a gawky adolescent who was never very good at academic work and took a while to find himself. But when eventually discovered his own particular groove, he owned it, plunging himself wholeheartedly into his work.
These eclectic pieces include a little bit of everything and readers will have their own special pieces. For me there were several. “The World Cup” describes his experience in the Toronto streets during and after the games in 2002. It is a thoughtful and fun piece about how he wishes we could all be in this world, celebrating not only our differences but also what bring us together. “Girl with a Globe” shares his admiration for a young girl who has had her ups and downs but takes life as it presents itself, always with a positive attitude. “Watermelon” is all about challenging your thinking and what happens when things you believed in so strongly are unexpectedly challenged. “My To Do List” reminds us how the everyday hassles of life cause us such distress and how easily little things can throw us into a complete “tizzy”. His piece “Boy, Bike, Chair” shares his usual way of meeting people, by stopping and talking to those he runs into on the street. But it also sends him back to his childhood when very simple things brought him complete happiness. “Toronto” is his salute to his adopted city, a busy place with concrete, traffic and expensive housing. But McLean shows the reader how this huge sprawling metropolis is also like a small town where he has neighbours and shops at his favourite butcher, grocer and hardware store.
This is a book which is best read in short bursts and is easy to pick up and put down. Sadly, I finished it a few days before McLean died at the young age of 68. He had been ill for some time and had retreated from his programs and radio shows to continue his treatment. We are lucky to have so much of his work at CBC archived as well as his books to continue to enjoy his legacy to Canada as a country and a way of life.
August 4, 2020
Picked this up in an airport to have a book that I could just dip in and out of and didn’t need much concentration. And I knew I would enjoy the home-town short stories, although I hadn’t read any of his books yet. Being familiar with his wonderful voice from his radio readings, I could hear him while reading these stories as an added bonus!
It was as expected - some heartwarming, some about nothing much just simple things, stories about places he’s been and people he’s known, some wise advice, and humour.
Best advice 1 - The People You Love - How to handle a teenager going off the rails by making them feel they are so loved. I have two kids and will face the teenage years soon and will try to remember this short story. For the adolescent:
“It is time for you to believe, as Max Ehrmann said, that “you are a child of the stars; you have a right to be here. With all its sham, and drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.” There are people waiting to love you. You might not believe that, but that may be the truest thing I have ever written. If they aren’t around you now, believe me, they exist. You have a job too. Go and find them.”
Best Advice 2 - A Letter to a Young Friend Heading Back to School. He decides on a pink erasure, the perfect gift! “This year you get the pink eraser from the deep thick forest. I give it to you with my love, and these instructions; take it with you everywhere. You never know when you are going to make a mess, or where, just that you are bound to mess things up. Don’t mind mistakes. Mistakes are how you learn. You have an erasure. Go ahead, make messes. Then...clean then up. Try again.”
Learnt about Tall Grass Prairie Bread Company generous origins, which is where I buy the best cinnamon buns in my city, Winnipeg. And why Gander International Airport was the biggest airport in the world at one point. I remember making the refuelling stops there! And was awed by the story of a 7 year old Roger Woodward who survived going over the thunderous Niagara Falls, and was finally picked up by Maid of the Mist tourist boat.
It was as expected - some heartwarming, some about nothing much just simple things, stories about places he’s been and people he’s known, some wise advice, and humour.
Best advice 1 - The People You Love - How to handle a teenager going off the rails by making them feel they are so loved. I have two kids and will face the teenage years soon and will try to remember this short story. For the adolescent:
“It is time for you to believe, as Max Ehrmann said, that “you are a child of the stars; you have a right to be here. With all its sham, and drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.” There are people waiting to love you. You might not believe that, but that may be the truest thing I have ever written. If they aren’t around you now, believe me, they exist. You have a job too. Go and find them.”
Best Advice 2 - A Letter to a Young Friend Heading Back to School. He decides on a pink erasure, the perfect gift! “This year you get the pink eraser from the deep thick forest. I give it to you with my love, and these instructions; take it with you everywhere. You never know when you are going to make a mess, or where, just that you are bound to mess things up. Don’t mind mistakes. Mistakes are how you learn. You have an erasure. Go ahead, make messes. Then...clean then up. Try again.”
Learnt about Tall Grass Prairie Bread Company generous origins, which is where I buy the best cinnamon buns in my city, Winnipeg. And why Gander International Airport was the biggest airport in the world at one point. I remember making the refuelling stops there! And was awed by the story of a 7 year old Roger Woodward who survived going over the thunderous Niagara Falls, and was finally picked up by Maid of the Mist tourist boat.
December 16, 2022
The Vinyl Cafe Notebooks is a selection collection of 15 years of radio shows; as well as the people Stuart McLean met on his travels across Canada. The contents include "Notes from Home"; "Calendar Notes"; "Notes from the Neighbourhood" "Tasting Notes"; "Readers Notes"; "Notes from the Road" and lastly " "Notes to Self".
I particularly liked "Gander International Airport" which reviews the history of the airport and the many famous people who stopped by as their airplane had to refuel. I remember that our airplane stopped there to refuel when I was on a school trip many years ago.
The story of "Roger Woodward and Niagara Falls" is one that I will remember. Roger Woodward went over Niagara Falls with only a life jacket and lived to tell the tale.
The book is an easy read with many of the stories being 2-3 pages long. If you attended one of the Vinyl Café performances you can still hear Stuart McLean's voice as he writes. I attended at least two of his shows at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival Theatre. The time always went so fast.
I particularly liked "Gander International Airport" which reviews the history of the airport and the many famous people who stopped by as their airplane had to refuel. I remember that our airplane stopped there to refuel when I was on a school trip many years ago.
The story of "Roger Woodward and Niagara Falls" is one that I will remember. Roger Woodward went over Niagara Falls with only a life jacket and lived to tell the tale.
The book is an easy read with many of the stories being 2-3 pages long. If you attended one of the Vinyl Café performances you can still hear Stuart McLean's voice as he writes. I attended at least two of his shows at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival Theatre. The time always went so fast.
May 3, 2024
A collection of essays from Stuart McLean rather than the doings of Dave and Morley, the Notebooks bounce us around a myriad of topics from summer jobs to hibernation. We visit the once busiest airport, learn about a boy who survived going over Niagara Falls, to rare things in a rare book library, and more. Some essays were ok, even a bit meh, but many were breath-taking and gave me pause. I dipped in an out of the book, so it took me months to finish. But each little reading was a delightful bit of the day.
August 27, 2020
Stuart Mclean is a treasure who died too young. He was on CBC radio and toured and I just loved him. He wrote about everyday life with humour, poignancy, insight, a profound love and Canada and simplicity.
The very short chapters in this book are musings that he wrote - these are not the Dave-and-Morley stories from the radio show, but simply other reflections on incidents in his life and observations on life in general.
This is an easy read and a feel-good book for sure. I loved it.
The very short chapters in this book are musings that he wrote - these are not the Dave-and-Morley stories from the radio show, but simply other reflections on incidents in his life and observations on life in general.
This is an easy read and a feel-good book for sure. I loved it.
November 24, 2021
This Vinyl Cafe collection is a bit different from the other books. It's not stories about Dave and Morley, but rather a collection of short stories from Stuart McLean's own life and musings. Utterly delightful.
August 20, 2017
Delightfully charming! I smiled a lot and wiped away laugh-tears. I want more.
December 9, 2017
It doesn't take much to get me to weep over Stuart McLean stories. His immense love for our beautiful land (Canada) is evident in every single morsel.
November 2, 2017
Beautiful book, full of Stuart's funny moments and heart warming takes on life. He will be missed.
January 30, 2018
I miss Stuart McLean. At one of his live shows I was selected as one of his helpers. I was so nervous but he was really kind. He even signed this book for me. I miss him. RIP Stuart McLean
April 19, 2019
This book is a wonderful insight into the man himself. As a fan, I enjoyed getting to know the late Stuart McLean better, almost as much as I enjoy his short stories.
January 16, 2020
Fun to read although not the best book club discussion book. We focused more on the life and times of SM than anything.
April 26, 2020
Some wonderful tales in this collection. I love how sometimes reflective stories can make the best ones.
June 13, 2020
Some of the stories in this book were so beautiful they made me cry.
December 25, 2022
Parts of this book is pretty laugh out loud funny describing relatable life moments.
April 7, 2023
Entertaining and great for times when you have a quick break from everything.
February 17, 2024
A great book to read on a cool, cozy, sunny morning with a hot drink. Relatable short stories that allow space to reminisce and ponder.
March 16, 2017
generates lots of smiles
November 7, 2019
I still love the comfort of reading anything by Stuart Mclean. His writing reminds us of the simple things in life, how life can can serious and full of humour at the same time. How sad it is that he didn’t get the chance to share more with his readers.
September 2, 2012
I couldn't decide between two or three stars with this book, so I went with two and a half, which I rounded up to three out of respect for the author, of whom I am a fan.
To tell the truth, some of the notes near the beginning of the book made me grumble a bit. Like Salt of the Earth, where for some reason I was expecting McLean to write something along the lines of how salting the roads is bad. But he doesn't do this. He just mentions it, and the fact that to his neighbors, trying to keep the sidewalk snow-free, it is second nature. There is also another note in which McLean admits to having put several garbage bags of newspapers out on garbage day because he did not want them around the house for an extra week while waiting for the recycling to be picked up. Definitely not nice pictures of the author there, they made me a grumpy reader.
Stubborn as I am, I read on, of course, and thankfully came across many notes I liked, like the one about watermelon and the one about bay leaves. I also like MacLean's ventures into poetry in Ode to the Potato and The Creation of Sam McGee.
The notes in this book really do give us a nice portrait of Canada. I read about places where I would like to go, and about places where I have been. (McLean writes of his disappointment when visiting the Library of Parliament to see a cake in the shape of the Library, only to arrive and be told that the cake started to crumble and was removed years before. I had a similar experience when I saw a sugar replica of the Library of Parliament in the Library (of Parliament) on a class trip in grade six. Years later, I spoke of how cool it was and was anxious to see it again, only to find that it had crumbled and had been removed.)
Thanks to this book, I would now like to go to Winnipeg to see The Tall Grass Prairie Bread Company, to Saint John, New Brunswick to see The Imperial Theatre, and to Sault Ste. Marie (of all places, I know!) to walk across the International Bridge on the one day of the year it is closed to cars so pedestrians can enjoy the view.
So, admittedly, I did get a lot out of this book. On the other hand, there were no audible laughs, which was a disappointment.
To tell the truth, some of the notes near the beginning of the book made me grumble a bit. Like Salt of the Earth, where for some reason I was expecting McLean to write something along the lines of how salting the roads is bad. But he doesn't do this. He just mentions it, and the fact that to his neighbors, trying to keep the sidewalk snow-free, it is second nature. There is also another note in which McLean admits to having put several garbage bags of newspapers out on garbage day because he did not want them around the house for an extra week while waiting for the recycling to be picked up. Definitely not nice pictures of the author there, they made me a grumpy reader.
Stubborn as I am, I read on, of course, and thankfully came across many notes I liked, like the one about watermelon and the one about bay leaves. I also like MacLean's ventures into poetry in Ode to the Potato and The Creation of Sam McGee.
The notes in this book really do give us a nice portrait of Canada. I read about places where I would like to go, and about places where I have been. (McLean writes of his disappointment when visiting the Library of Parliament to see a cake in the shape of the Library, only to arrive and be told that the cake started to crumble and was removed years before. I had a similar experience when I saw a sugar replica of the Library of Parliament in the Library (of Parliament) on a class trip in grade six. Years later, I spoke of how cool it was and was anxious to see it again, only to find that it had crumbled and had been removed.)
Thanks to this book, I would now like to go to Winnipeg to see The Tall Grass Prairie Bread Company, to Saint John, New Brunswick to see The Imperial Theatre, and to Sault Ste. Marie (of all places, I know!) to walk across the International Bridge on the one day of the year it is closed to cars so pedestrians can enjoy the view.
So, admittedly, I did get a lot out of this book. On the other hand, there were no audible laughs, which was a disappointment.
Read
February 13, 2017I discovered McLean via vinyl cafe stories on radio: idyllic short tales about life in small Canadian town. He has an incredible gift, through the nostalgia glasses he sees everything that happens around him and sort of around me too. I'm really grateful that he wrote this book and that I had a chance to read it.
Это такой канадский Гришковец и немножко мистер Роджерс с документальными зарисовками. У него удивительный дар, писать в тональности светлой и щемящей ностальгии о том, что происходит сейчас, прям овокруг - читаешь историю как он встречает на улице пацана на велосипеде, а к велосипеду привязан стул с колесиками, чтоб потом на нем кататься с другом по очереди как на прицепе - и думаешь, ну, сейчас пойдет, интернет все испортил, и так далее, а потом смотришь на дату - 2008 год, и вот все там так. Местами слишком уж приторно, но в целом посоветовал бы всем несердитым людям.
Это такой канадский Гришковец и немножко мистер Роджерс с документальными зарисовками. У него удивительный дар, писать в тональности светлой и щемящей ностальгии о том, что происходит сейчас, прям овокруг - читаешь историю как он встречает на улице пацана на велосипеде, а к велосипеду привязан стул с колесиками, чтоб потом на нем кататься с другом по очереди как на прицепе - и думаешь, ну, сейчас пойдет, интернет все испортил, и так далее, а потом смотришь на дату - 2008 год, и вот все там так. Местами слишком уж приторно, но в целом посоветовал бы всем несердитым людям.
July 13, 2012
Vinyl Cafe Notebooks is a collection of essays of such variety of tone and subject that practically anybody could find something to their interests. From meditations on the symbolism of bridges to nutritional facts about watermelon, Stuart McLean explores the world with his signature spirit of childlike curiosity and eye for meaning. Stuart McLean is the only man alive who can make a reader laugh about poratoes, and tear up over the sight of two boys playing with an office chair. Whether you are looking for a hearty chuckle or deep musings about the nature of life, there is something here for you.
January 19, 2015
This is my second time reading this collection of short stories by canadian storytelling genius Stuart McLean . It is the best book I have read in well over a year. I am really looking forward to sharing some of these stories with my high school English students. Stuart has a beautiful writing style and I find myself laughing, crying, laughing again, and wanting to share these little tid bits of humor with those around me. This book will make you feel great about life and all of the stories are uplifting as well as thought provoking. I thoroughly enjoyed this book....especially the second time around.
December 22, 2014
No Dave & Morley stories in this book - just Stuart's own essays. Short thoughts on a wide range of things. A very simple, fast read as most essays are only two pages of biggish font long. Now that we've seen him live, I really could "see" him reading them outloud and that made it fun. Marked a few as favourites. Overall a nice read to finish on a Sunday evening (I'd read a bunch of the stories much earlier and then hadn't picked it back up again).
I think I'm reading a bit now because of holiday-mode and because I can't believe I've only read 15 books this year! Years ago, that would've been a few months' worth...
I think I'm reading a bit now because of holiday-mode and because I can't believe I've only read 15 books this year! Years ago, that would've been a few months' worth...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews