My Stuff: Terry MacLeod

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/09/2012 (4965 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

 

If your house were on fire, heaven forbid, what’s the one item contained within that you would try to take with you? (People, pets and computers not included.)

I’d take my Louis Bako with me. I was lucky enough to have my number drawn at the art auction at The Border Crossings magazine fundraiser two years ago. Legendary Winnipeg artist Louis Bako had donated a gorgeous painting in an ornate golden frame. It’s a dreamy, sexy, watery image of a young woman sun bathing on a dock — at least that’s what I see.

 

What’s the one clothing/fashion item you can’t live without?

I love my Blunnies — my Aussie Blundstone boots. I’m on my second pair, since the first had to be cut off my foot with a scalpel at Health Sciences when I shattered my right leg. The folks at The Shoe Doctor felt so sorry for me when I asked for the carved-up boot to be repaired that they GAVE me a new pair.

 

What’s your favourite knick-knack and why?

I have a Bowhead whale-bone vertebra that is carved in the shape of an owl. Bowheads, I discovered when I was in Pangnirtung, Baffin Island, are 80-foot-long whales and Pang (as the locals call it) is home to a centuries-old whaling station. Whale skulls the size of sofas, 10-foot-long ribs and vertebrae were everywhere. I bought mine at the Co-op store.

 

What’s the oldest thing you own?

I have an ancient handmade wooden chair from P.E.I., the place of my birth. It has been repaired many times by many people and the left arm is so worn from a couple of hundred years of use that you can feel the ripples in the exposed grain of the wood. I like to sit and imagine the person who sat in it that chair the same way for decades and rubbed that arm.

 

Describe your most beloved piece of furniture.

I finally have a dedicated leather reading chair. When I marked 25 years with CBC, they gave me a modest cash gift to mark it and I applied it to the purchase of a coffee-with-single-cream coloured Italsofa butter-soft easy chair. I found it on the “secret remainder floor” of The Bay Downtown — a floor I didn’t even know existed until that nice salesman opened the secret door.

 

Is there an edible item we’ll always find in your pantry or fridge?

I’m a hot sauce fanatic. I must have 20 bottles. My favourite is one I can’t eat. I was at Dino’s on Notre Dame and asked Dino for the hottest one in the store. He asked: “Are you sure you want this? It’s pretty dangerous.” It’s so hot that I have opened the lid only once. It makes my eyes water just to sniff it. Dino was right. I’ve met my match.