We live in an age of war and terror. The four horsemen of the apocalypse gallop through the world as if they had coffee hot-wired into their veins. The tea time of the soul seems lost for the moment. Perhaps the answer is to return to a quieter more peaceful time when the world stopped each day for an hour or so, when people put aside everything else to enjoy a brief respite with their favourite cuppa. Tea Leaves suggests that we contemplate those bygone times and think about mapping future tea leaves in a better world. This is a tea travel book that takes readers to the four corners of the...

The Kootenay region of British Columbia is full of hidden historical events that have long been forgotten. The showing of Salt of the Earth at the Castle Theatre on December 15 and 16, 1954, was one such event. The blacklisted Hollywood movie was seen by 900 viewers who paid 70 cents each (35 cents for children) to see what the CBC film critic Nathan Cohen called "an exciting experience, a deeply human drama in the documentary manner perfected by the Italians in such masterpieces as Open City, The Bicycle Thief, and Shoe Shine." This booklet argues that it is worth celebrating the courage...