MAY 8, 2026
Natural Wonder
It is suitable that David Attenborough’s birthday falls in spring, a time of hope and rebirth replete with the fragile beauty of the natural world. His passionate narration of nature and unceasing curiosity over his 76-year career has been a gift to generations, inspiring leaders, backyard botanists and budding zoologists alike. Attenborough’s distinctively soft but assertive voice still commands the viewer’s attention with its notes of excitement and unbridled wonder. It is impossible to encapsulate the life of this gentle, humble, driven man on his 100th birthday except, perhaps, in his own words: “I have witnessed the natural world in all its splendour. We face a series of unprecedented challenges to nature and life on earth and if we put our minds to it I believe we can live both well and responsibly on our planet.” Rather than making us feel overwhelming environmental angst and guilt, Attenborough imbues us with the power to hope. He leads by example and is quite simply as extraordinary as the natural world he extolls.
MAY 6, 2026
It’s Only Rock’n’Roll
It once seemed like wild horses couldn’t tear this band away from the stage – but the Rolling Stones just announced they’re releasing their 25th studio album, Foreign Tongues, this summer with no plans to hit the road. There was a European stadium tour in the works, and Mick Jagger is on the record saying he wanted it to go forward, the assumption being that Keith Richards nixed the idea back in December due to his arthritic hands and the rigours of yet another months-long engagement. Not about to fade away, Jagger, Richards and Ronnie Wood rolled into Brooklyn this week for a star-studded press conference hosted by Conan O’Brien (Leo DiCaprio was there, as was Christie Brinkley) to discuss the upcoming album – which features collabs with Paul McCartney and The Cure’s Robert Smith – and unveil their new single, In the Stars. Turns out, the lyrics are cheekily apropos: “I feel a heavy hand / tangling with my plans / It’s in the stars / it’s our destiny.”
MAY 5, 2026
Arbour Day
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced today he has chosen Louise Arbour to be Canada’s 31st governor general, saying that the 79-year-old Montreal native will be a “steward of our tradition of peace, order and good government” and a “guardian of our constitutional order.” A practising lawyer who is fluently bilingual, Arbour replaces Mary Simon, the first Indigenous person to ever serve as the King’s representative and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Arbour’s brilliant legal career focussed on human rights and international crime. In the late ’90s, she was Chief Prosecutor of International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. She then served as a Supreme Court justice from 1999 until 2004, before stepping down to accept the position as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. In 2021, she led a review into sexual misconduct in the Canadian military. Arbour said today that she accepts her new role “with a deep sense of duty.”
