Saturday Photo: Thinking about Travels
Many years, the sap has already started to run in the maple trees by now. Not the case this year, but people around us are getting itchy feet, thinking about…
Mary Soderstrom
Rain in California, Cold in Montreal
My West Coast friends are posting happy news about much-needed rain. Good on them, since the drought there is bad for all concerned. As for me, I’m steeling to go…
More on Energy: When Too Much Hydro Is Too Much Hydro
Le Devoir leaked a report from a government commission this week on the future of energy in Quebec, a report that has been making waves. In short, it says that…
Energy Debate: Nuclear and Other Forms of Electricity
Last week the Globe and Mail contained the most recent issue of Corporate Knights, a magazine that calls itself “The Company for Clean Capitalism.” Rarely have I come across such…
Saturday Photo: Sun on Winter Leaves
This is the winter sun shining on one of my plants that do well inside. It’ll be a long time before anything is green outside, so I like to have…
Going in the Wrong Directon: PQ Budget and Krugman’s Take-Down of Austerity Memasures
As usual Paul Krugman is worth reading today. His analysis of why stimulus in the US hasn’t done what it should have is clear: there should have been more, not…
Paris, Because Mavis Gallant Loved the City
The recent death of Mavis Gallant reminds me of how deeply seductive Paris is. After Montreal, it is a place I’d like to live. What a pleasure that we have…
Big Money to Fight Elections against Climate Change Nay-sayers
I remember back in the 1970s when the environmental movement was beginning around here and I realized that it was going to be a long row to hoe to get…
Advice from Pete That Should Be As Unforgettable As He Was
Too often we don’t say what we think to people we expect won’t agree with us. But that’s a mistake, as Pete Seeger used to say. And just for good…
Saturday Photo: Snow Removal
The picture was taken a while ago, but that’s what we’re doing these days around here. A long winter, but made bearble by some lovely sunny days, and frequent sbowfalls…
Well, What It Was, Was Herpes Zoster…
This morning I started a regime of cortisone type and anti-viral, anti-stomach upset drugs. Seems those excruciating pain and the rash that I thought were back-related and due to a…
Cold Day: Warm Food: Chili
As I wait to go to the doc (may not have been an acetomiophen reaction I had last week, but shingles) I’m thinking of what might taste good for dinner.…
That Routinue Mammogram Could Be Not What the Doctor Needed to Order
Eight years ago, just about now, I got a call telling me that a routinue mammorgram had showed suspicious tissue, and it looked like I had ductal carcinoma in situ…
Important Interview with Elizabeth Kolbert
This is an interview worth reading and a book that might have a big impact. Elizabeth Kolbert on the Sixth Extinction, coming up whether you like it or not.
Saturday Photo: Mile End’s Secret Forest
I know, I know, this is not one of my photos, and it’s Monday, not Saturday. But this morning was the first in a week that I’ve been out walking,…
Careful with Acetominophen…
Okay everyone, back at work after several days away from the computer because of back/leg problems. Physio seems to have help a lot, as it has in the past. But…
Time Out, But Nto for Long, I hope
No excuses. but I’ve got an aching back, so I’m lying low.
Getting Rid of Hydrocarbons: Good News from Denmark
Today’s La Presse has an excellent and thought-provoking story about Denmark and its long term plans to quite using fossil fuels by 2050. And this in a country which has…
A Novel That Is As Counter-Cultural as Pete Seeger
Just this minute finished Michael Chabon’s Telegraph Avenue–2:30 p.m., right in the middle of time I should be using for writing my own stuff, but I had to finish it.…
Pete Seeger: A Model for Us All (Turn,turn,turn)
Sometime when the Ingerman kids were young and the Soderstrom kids were only a hope, Doris and I took the gang down the Hudson to Albany (I think) to see…