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]
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
Arriving at Koerner Hall I was excited as all hell even though I didn’t know much about who or what was I was about to see. I did know for certain that Koerner Hall is perhaps Toronto’s most incredible music venue. The building and the room isn’t just stunning, but... More
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
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
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
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
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 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
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
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
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
’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
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
Arriving at Koerner Hall I was excited as all hell even though I didn’t know much about who or what was I was about to see. I did know for certain that Koerner Hall is perhaps Toronto’s most incredible music venue. The building and the room isn’t just stunning, but... More
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
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
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
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
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 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
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
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
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
’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
