RKS Literature: The Scramble for a Living in London’s Street Markets (Henry Mayhew)

“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”.

RKS  2026 Film: “Holy Days”: Raunchy Roman Catholic Nuns’ Road Trip?

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.

RKS 2026 ONTARIO Wine: leaning post’s Cuvée Winona from Niagara, Ontario

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%).

RKS Poetry Anthology (All We Get Are The Coffee Grinds): Will you kindly SHUT UP (COVID MEMORIES)

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

RKS Literature: London as Seen from a Balloon (Henry Mayhew)

“…..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”

RKS Literature: The Spice Cover Up in Street Pies! (Henry Mayhew)

“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”

RKS Literature: Meow Meow and Woof Woof in Street Pies! DENIED! (Henry Mayhew)

“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”

RKS Literature: The Itinerant Trade of Pies in Old London (Henry Mayhew)

“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”

RKS 2026 ONTARIO WINE: Yes We Have Gamay in Canada! leaning post Gamay From Niagara, Ontario

There is more to Niagara Falls than water! There are many wineries in and around Niagara Falls. There are numerous historical sights. There are a plethora of dining options.

What a shame the Canadian government and local tourist promotional bodies are limping behind the surge in wine tourism.

One the first wineries I encounter on my way from Toronto to Niagara-on-the-Lake once I pull off the horrible QEW highway is Leaning Post. No fancy tasting room or dining facilities mind you.

We try a leaning post 2021 Gamay. Ontario does Gamay well.

Aroma: This light-coloured red wine is loaded with aromas of cherry and blackberry sharp and pure. Deep down in the well dark chocolate and Montreal smoked meat from Dunns lighter than Schwartz’s if you want precision. A faint suggestion of oak.

Palate: Smooth. Minimal tannins. Controlled acidity. Merging with the cherry is some strawberry. Light on its feet. Good sipper particularly in summer if lightly chilled.

Food Match: Feta and watermelon salad. Tomato salad. Only ripe field tomatoes please!

Cellarbility: A bit orange brickish around the rim indicative of a mature wine. Drink in 2026.

Price: $28 CDN.

RKS 2026 ONTARIO WINE Rating: 90/100.  (Tasted 28April2026)

(leaning post Gamay 2021, VQA Four Mile Creek, Leaning Post Wines, Stoney Creek, Ontario, 750 mL, 12.5%).

RKS Literature: The Regalness of Sperm Oil! (Herman Melville)

“But the only thing to be considered here, is this-what kind of oil is used at coronations? Certainly it cannot be olive oil, nor macassar oil, nor bear’s oil, nor train oil, nor cod liver oil. What then can it possibly be, but sperm oil in its unmanufactured, unpolluted state, the sweetest of all oils?

Think of that, ye loyal Britons! We whalemen supply your kings and queens with coronation stuff!”

Herman Melville, “Moby Dick”, 1851.