Profile of Kevin Toal

Biography

Kevin Toal chronicles the hilarities of raising two kids in Middle Sackville in his weekly column, It's Only Funny When Dad Does It. The father of two is a regular contributor to The Bedford-Sackville Weekly News, tackling everything from development issues to arts and culture.

All articles of Kevin Toal

• Hitting like a little girl
  I once had a dog that was the most gentle creature you could ever meet. My Scottish relatives would have called him a ‘big sook’ as he lay on his ...
• Warming up to spring
  Curse you good weather! As much as I love you, you come with baggage. You make it difficult to write a weekly column when all I can think about ...
• Just For Laughs: The Political Edition
  In the past, before reality TV took over the airwaves, sitcoms ruled the television landscape. The Fonz made us laugh up until the moment he took ...
• A simple act of generosity can make a difference
  Last week I was standing on Spring Garden Road in front of the Park Lane Mall. I was waiting for a ride and feeling miserable. Being early, I had ...
• Finding career opportunities
  Like most children, Sylvia has changed her mind several times regarding her future career. At one point she was going to be a veterinarian. To ...
• Remembering Uncle James
  I was all set to write a silly, humorous column about our March break vacation in Cuba. That was until we got home and checked voicemail. There I ...
• Watching for signs of STM (Stereotypical Teenage...
  Last week Lydia and I realized, without a doubt, that our son had been infected by some virus which transformed him into Stereotypical Teenage ...
• A stroll down memory lane
  With the impending closure of the Zellers in the Bedford Place Mall, I find myself indulgently strolling down Memory Lane. It's been just over 10 ...
• The curse of The Live Concert continues
  The curse of The Live Concert continues. This was confirmed when Lower Sackville's 9:00 Band performed Feb. 23 at the Birch Cove Baptist Church. ...
• 'I'll save it for later'
  I have to admit that I lucked out with my wife and kids. They are fun to be with and somehow manage to put up with me. That having been said, I ...
• Entitled to an opinion
  One of the most important roles of a parent is to teach children the difference between right and wrong. I'm not talking about what's legal or ...
• 'Metaphorically speaking'
  In one of my favourite Star Trek: Next Generation episodes, Captain Jean Luc Picard finds himself on a planet with the captain of a Tamarian ...
• Skating outside the box
  Earlier, I admitted to being a Weather Wimp. However, I may have been too quick to cast judgment. Give me some sun, snow I can clear away from ...
• The Tarzan approach to literacy
  There has been a lot of talk over the years about the failure of schools to teach our children to read. The latest initiative from the provincial ...
• 'I am a weather wimp'
  I have a confession to make - I am a weather wimp. When it snows, or the roads are covered in ice, I look for excuses not to venture outside. Do ...
• Rise of the nerds
  It’s never been a better time to be a nerd. Back in the mists of Time - when I was a kid - nerds were represented by the likes of Potsie Webber. ...
• The year I saved Christmas
  As a kid, I had been accused of ruining more than Christmas. But this year will go down as the one I saved. To be more precise, it’ll be the year ...
• Looking forward instead of back for the new year
  This year I’m forgoing the standard year-in-review type of column. Newspapers, talk-radio, all-day television news, magazines, and the internet ...
• An early Christmas present
  In past Christmases Mitchell and Sylvia would eagerly create elaborate plots to capture Santa Claus, commandeer his sleigh, and give his sack of ...
• The end of the world as we know it
  According to the Mayan calendar the world will come to a catastrophic end on Dec. 21, 2012. I have heard of various ways which will cause the ...
• Shaving face - Movember comes to an end
  Movember has ended and with its conclusion I am left with a minor quandary. The fuzzy growth which has taken root upon my face has outlived its ...
• Lydia's kitchen nightmares
  There are certain hazards when it comes to writing a weekly column. For me, one of the most glaring involves my admittedly poor memory. There ...
• Movember novice
  The first week of November came and went while I waited patiently for a response. Great changes were taking place, but no one seemed to notice. ...
• Frankencostumes
  This past Halloween was a strange one. Not just because of the impact of Frankenstorm, but the choice of costumes was odd. As I’ve noted in the ...
• Sylvia's inventive use for a backpack
  As much as Lydia and I try to present a united front with our decisions, there are times when I find it difficult to tow the parental line. ...
• Driven to distraction
  At some point in every parent’s life comes the realization that they have inexplicably assumed a new job. They didn’t fill out an application ...
• Honesty, not always the best policy
  Thanks to a trip to the grocery store I found myself contemplating the simple honesty of children. They call things as they see them. Ask a child ...
• YouTube ate my homework
  With the school year underway I was pleased to see Mitchell receiving homework on a daily basis. Not only that, but he was already being given ...
• One man's superstition is another's science
  We all have our own little superstitions. What may be completely serious to one is, to another, absurd, comical, or simply bizarre. Yet, those ...
• The Semi-Decent Santini faces childhood's end
  I was killing time the other day at the soon-to-be-gone Zellers in Bedford. Habit, hammered into me by years of listening to my son's entreaties, ...