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, 2024Maintaning 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, 2023Veteran 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, 2023Dan 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, 2023Author Dan Needles reflects on the sudden growth of small towns as urbanites adjust to village life
The Reformation of the Township Dump
Mar 20, 2023No 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, 2022Safely 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, 2022I 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, 2022Two 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.
Like Manna from Heaven
Nov 29, 2021There 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, 2021For 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, 2021As a scribbler I have always walked down the sunny side of the concession roads.
Who You Gonna Call?
Mar 31, 2021A country house has a lot of moving parts that can stop moving at any moment.
No Cause for Alarm
Nov 24, 2020Given 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, 2020I 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, 2020Dexter 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, 2020Chicken police from the provincial marketing board patrol the neighbourhood in big black Escalades.
A One-Horse Open Sleigh
Nov 22, 2019In 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.