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Dan Needles

Author and playwright Dan Needles is a recipient of the Leacock Medal for Humour and the Order of Canada. He lives on a small farm in Nottawa.

The Money Pit

Mar 16, 2024

Maintaning a home – especially a country home – is no easy feat for owners or their wallets.

We Need to Stay in Touch – But Can Community Newspapers Survive?

Nov 27, 2023

Veteran writer Dan Needles laments the loss of printed news while pondering the future of journalism.

‘True Pastry Gloves’ – Stumbling Through the National Anthem

Sep 8, 2023

Dan Needles reflects on how Canadians seem to be the only people who stumble over the words of their national anthem.

Finding Our Way Around This New Neighbourhood

Jun 16, 2023

Author Dan Needles reflects on the sudden growth of small towns as urbanites adjust to village life

The Reformation of the Township Dump

Mar 20, 2023

No longer reminiscent of a Mad Max movie set, the township dump has become something of a pleasant, well-managed place, finds Dan Needles.

Taking the Learning Curve Too Fast

Nov 20, 2022

Safely navigating the narrow, snow covered hills of Headwaters is no walk in the park, as many long-time residents attest and new arrivals quickly learn.

Suddenly There Came a Tapping

Sep 20, 2022

I live in a haunted house. It’s been haunted for at least a century by all accounts, that is, by the neighbours’ accounts.

Animal Rights in the Laundry Room

Jun 24, 2022

Two hundred years ago, my ancestors were tossed off the land during the clearances in Scotland and replaced by sheep, who ate less and could be sheared more often.

Learning to Visit Again

Mar 29, 2022

I seemed to have forgotten how a visit is supposed to go.

Like Manna from Heaven

Nov 29, 2021

There is a lot of waiting around with mushrooms, just like there is in the military or the theatre or government roadwork.

Road Rage Comes to Town

Sep 24, 2021

For generations the only people in Canada who had a good word to say about Toronto were the ones living there. Now thousands of them have left to live here.

It’s the End of the World … Again

Jun 22, 2021

As a scribbler I have always walked down the sunny side of the concession roads.

Who You Gonna Call?

Mar 31, 2021

A country house has a lot of moving parts that can stop moving at any moment.

No Cause for Alarm

Nov 24, 2020

Given the choice between a Rolex watch and a 1948 Champion root pulper that weighs 500 pounds and needs sharpening, the burglar is more likely to take the watch.

When The Spirit Moves

Sep 18, 2020

I often tell my writing students that they are unlikely to get better at writing, but it is possible to get better at not writing.

Trying to be More Like Dexter

Jun 25, 2020

Dexter wants us to believe he keeps us safe from coyotes, but this is a harmless fiction. The truth is he craves news and gossip as much as any of us.

A Halfway Henhouse

Mar 24, 2020

Chicken police from the provincial marketing board patrol the neighbourhood in big black Escalades.

A One-Horse Open Sleigh

Nov 22, 2019

In the haymow I found a red sleigh built by the McLaughlin Carriage Company about 1910, and I took it home to my own haymow 30 miles north where it sat forgotten for another 27 years.