Articles By: Jeff Halperin

Jeff Halperin is a city hall reporter at the Toronto Standard, but his writing has also appeared at Maclean's, the Grid and elsewhere. He also writes on literature, Leafs, music, chess and more. Jeff's website is [here] For other PP posts by Jeff click [here]

God Talk / Sky Wizard / Atheist Religions

Via KingDeluxe.ca There used to be almost no conversation I enjoyed more than ‘is there or is there not a god?’. I didn’t think there was and the conversation took place usually with other sceptics, but it was fun to go through the proofs and speculate. Today I find this an absolute... More

Comparing Masterpieces: Dumb and Dumber VS. War and Peace

article_post_width_dumb_and_dumber In the upper stratosphere of perfect art no two masterpieces are alike. Each bears the original imprint of its creator and demonstrates his hitherto unseen genius to the world. Tolstoy’s War and Peace was hailed by critics as “a rollicking historical novel written for that amorphic and limp creature, ‘the... More

On Privacy: Nothing is Banal if it’s Well Written

Pic via Adbusters That the internet has caused privacy to disappear is not new, nor is the fact that nobody is forced to divulge that extinct thing called “personal information.” People write their status or tweet or four square for the same reason a dog licks his own ass, and often with about... More

On Art and Beauty

Inverted Warhol Soup It is a sad age in culture where beauty requires its own defence, but there is a great quantity of appalling, incompetent art that justifies its existence on grounds of standing for an important social cause or for making a life affirming statement. I only have a problem the moment... More

The Future of Language

George Orwell We are seeing an increasing lack of precision in our language that narrows not just the words we use in speech and writing, but the thoughts we have. Bad grammar and imprecise diction both betokens and breeds stupid thoughts. There isn’t one cause. The semi-related forces of text message and... More

Confession: I Voted for Rob Ford

Ford Smash I know, I know, I did a bad thing. We don’t need to recap the disasters to qualify that Rob Ford was awful. Watching his mayoralty caused shudders, laughter, and overall astonishment that it actually happened. It felt just like watching The Room. Tommy Wizeau was in charge of Toronto,... More

Science and Religion – Less than BFF

buddy_christ Science and religion are wholly and utterly incompatible. Today the religious ingratiate themselves with science at every opportunity as, quite rightly, they know they’ll look like quacks if they are seen denying basic science the way they used to. Deprived of their historical freedom to be pontificating tyrants disseminating ignorance,... More

Honest profane comedy, James Joyce, and jerking off

Dick Mime As mainstream discussions in print, blogs and on TV panels increasingly feature a class of people unfit to talk and write, I felt not just pleasure but sincere relief after seeing live comedy for my first time. It was local amateurs performing in the basement of a seedy little bar... More

The Human Race Depends On You – LYP@H pt. 3

Borg If I were to ask you to name a machine that people connect to in order to live, is your first response an iPhone or an iron lung? Leave Your Phone at Home Day will determine whether these machines represent essentially the same thing, as if we do in fact... More

Why House Plants are Better than Dogs

chia_pet_dog_plant Some people believe that a home isn’t a home without a dog. To hear these people talk, you’d think that shedded hair, sharp fangs, and crap on carpets are trivial matters. They’re barking money pits, these dogs, and for too long we’ve been under the false impression that they’re better... More

We are the only pre and post internet generation: Be scared!

Zach Cell ’84 babies, plus or minus a couple years, were the first to grow up with internet but the last to remember life without it. It’s scary to think that this perspective will be unavailable to future generations. Every generation believes they’re nothing like the previous one, but now it’s true. Technology is... More