‘I will have no man in my boat’ said Starbuck, ‘who is not afraid of a whale.’ By this, he seemed to mean, not only that the most reliable and useful courage was that which arises from the fair estimation of the encountered peril, but that an utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward.”
Herman Melville, “Moby Dick”, 1851.
“There was one scene yet to come that was perfect in its wickedness. A ballet began with a man dressed up as a woman, and a country clown. The most disgusting attitudes were struck, the most immoral acts represented, without one dissenting voice. If there had been any feat of agility, any grimacing, or, in fact, anything with which the laughter of the uneducated classes is usually associated, the applause might have been accounted for: but here were two ruffians degrading themselves each time they stirred a limb, and forcing into the brains of the childish audience before them thoughts that must embitter a lifetime, and descend from father to child like some bodily infirmity.
The most obscene thoughts, the most disgusting scenes were cooly described, making a poor child near me wipe away the tears that rolled down her eyes with the enjoyment of the poison.”
Henry Mayhew (b1812d1887) “Of the Penny Gaff”.
“Each salesman tries his utmost to sell his wares, tempting the passers-by with his bargains. The boy with his stock of herbs offers ‘a double ‘andful of fine parsley for a penny;’ the man with a donkey cart filled with turnips has three lads to shout for him to their utmost with their ‘ Ho! Ho! Hi-i-hi. What do you think of this here? A penny a bunch-hurrah for free trade! Here’s your turnips!’. Until it is seen and heard, we have no sense of the scramble that is going on in London for a living”
Henry Mayhew (b1812d 1887) “The London Street Market on a Saturday Night”.
Sister Agnes (Judy Davis), Sister Luke (Miriam Margolyes) and Sister Marie Claire (Jacki Weaver) are in1974 New Zealand the sole remaining nuns at Sister Suzanne’s currently serving a lesser purpose caring for orphans and abandoned children once undertaken 5 decades earlier. There is no remaining clientele.
The new archbishop and Father Findlay (Jonny Brugh), the callous and crude priest at Sister Suzanne’s, are scheming to sell the site of Sister Suzanne’s to a developer but must have the sisters “abandon” the property to enable title to pass to the Roman Catholic church who would then be legally permitted to sell it to the developer. The three sisters get wind of the development plot which includes putting them “out to pasture” and quickly depart to South Island to seek the deed granting them ownership held by a former nun, Patricia now a lawyer. The writers of the film certainly failed to convince me, one who has practiced common law property, of the validity of this part of plot. But this is a movie not a law school class.
In a “Thelma and Louise” spirit off the nun’s journey on a road trip to South Island and back to the convent to defeat the evil archbishop, developer and the boozing, gambling and thoroughly nasty Father Findlay.
They take poor sad motherless young Māori boy Brian (Elijah Tamati) who in a grief, stricken fashion has turned into an enfant terrible. He cherishes a snow globe of Tapuna Maunga an ancestral Māori mountain which is the stepping stone into the afterlife and where he may find his deceased mother.
Too much detail here so let’s switch to the nuns being hip, wholesome and loving despite the fact they bribe police with cash and ferry operators with spirit laden fruitcake. They dance, drink, smoke (was that weed?) and lie in a humorous fashion. They quote scripture and hackneyed biblical phrases. Dentures fly. Booming farts. All have personal tragedies. They are essentially human and we all hope as Canadians the orphanage they were instrumental in operating has no residential school taints to it. Will Canadians including Indigenous victims of residential schools share any humour generated in the film? Are Canadians ready for this “nun fantasy”? Is this film insulting and shallow for Canada’s Indigenous population?
What I will say a rather unique perspective on nuns unlike what you may be accustomed to in “Raisin in the Sun”, “Black Narcissus” or “The Singing Nun” but not quite as daring as the nuns in “One Battle After Another”.
A professional Canadian-New Zealand production. Spot on acting by Davis, Margolyes, Weaver and Brugh although the writing around his character and much of the movie is weak.
RKS 2026 Film Rating 67/100.
Currently in theatrical release in Canada.
80% Merlot. 19% Cabernet Franc and 1% Cabernet Sauvignon.
680 cases were produced.
Aroma: Plummy. Red cherry. Raspberry. Strawberry. Rhubarb.
Palate: Merlotish (if such a word exists). Smoky and lush. Bring on Sammy Davis and Peter Lawford at The Sands in a smoky bar (such bars no longer exist). Loads of red cherry. Mid weight. Discrete acidity and tame tannins.
Personality: The Senchuk’s obviously have the skills and passion to “manage” Niagara Merlot and that says a lot about them!
Food Match: Lac Brome duck breast with a cherry Port reduction sauce.
Cellarbility: Showing some brickish orange on the rim. Best consume in 2026.
Price: $29 CDN.
RKS 2026 ONTARIO WINE Rating: 91/100. Tasted 28March2026.
(leaning post Cuvée Winona 2021, VQA Niagara Peninsula, Leaning Post Wines, Stoney Creek, Ontario, 750 mL 13%).
Will you kindly SHUT UP (COVID MEMORIES)
Living the COVID imprisoned life hardly pleasant
With too many thinking these bloody medicos turning statisticians are heaven sent
But incessant “public service messaging” is making one’s mind bent
Threatening if we do not obey we will all be deceased by Lent
This public service chattering verging on irrelevant and boring
Dear governments what advertising agency are you whoring?
“we are all in this together” the telescreen burbles
Patriotic mumbling
Get the Blue Angels flying overhead streaming the red, white and blue
Your creativity and compassion has long been dead
As you run the gruesome numbers
Causing lulling and the slumbers
Messages treating us like goat bleating fools
Better you lecture mules
With a stream of incessant rules
You think you are on the side of some sort of divine right
I am going to say FU and throw a big house party tonight
Not so sure if the next-door neighbours are COVID snitches
Causing the COVID police to come and cart me away
A big fine I’ll pay
And you cruel heartless number crunchers will smile at the yahoo you caught
Putting a terrifying upward movement on your graph
As me and the Proud Boys and the Freedom convoy truckers will laugh
Robert K. Stephen
“…..to grasp it in the eye-to take, as it were, an angel’s view of that huge town where, perhaps, there is more virtue and more inequity, more wealth and more want, brought together in one dense focus than in any other part of the earth-to hear the hubbub of the restless sea of life and emotion below, and hear it like the ocean in a shell, whispering of the incessant stragglings and chafings of the distant tide-to swing in the air high above the petty jealousies and heart-burnings, small ambitions and vain parade of “polite society”, and feel, for once, tranquil as a babe in a cot….”
Henry Mayhew (b1812 d1887) “A Balloon Flight”
“The pies in Tottenham-court-road are very highly seasoned. “I bought one there the other day, and it nearly took the skin off my mouth; it was full of pepper’ said a street pieman, with considerable bitterness, to me. The reason why so large a quantity of pepper is put in is, because persons can’t tell the flavour of the meat they buy, as they can season it up into anything.”
Henry Mayhew (b1812 d 1887) “Of Street Pieman”
“The pie dealers usually make the pies themselves. The meat is bought in ‘pieces’ of the same part as sausage-makers purchase- the ‘sticklings’- at about 3d the pound. ‘People when I go into houses’ said one man ‘often begin by crying “Mee-yow” or “Bow-wow-wow! At me; but there’s nothing of that kind now. Meat you see, is so cheap’.
Henry Mayhew (b1812 d 1887) “Of Street Pieman”
“The itinerant trade in pies is one of the most ancient of the street callings in London. The meat pies are made of beef or mutton; the fish pies of eels; the fruit of apples, currants, gooseberries, plums, damsons, cherries, raspberries or rhubarb, according to the season-and occasionally of mincemeat. A few years ago the street pie-trade was very profitable but has been almost destroyed by the “pie shops” and further, the few remaining street dealers say ‘the people now haven’t the pennies to spare.’
Henry Mayhew (b1812 d 1887) “Of Street Pieman”
A Bird's Eye View of Fashion, Food, Travel, Culture, Beverage and Curiosity