There certainly are examples of women leaders who are just as tough, misguided and unsavory as their male counterparts: Sarah Palin, Margaret Thatcher and Bev Oda are examples. But sometimes…
As usual Krugman comes through: “The question for the next few days is whether plunging markets and urgent appeals from big business will stiffen the non-extremists’ spines. For as far…
Spent most of Saturday and all of Sunday either preparing for and eating our annual Thanksgiving feast. For maybe 12 years we’ve had friends and family over for a buffet…
Great story in The New York Times today about serious use of invasive and otherwise normaly uncultivated plants for cooking. Linda Hezel supplies several trendy restaurants in Kansas City with…
Went this morning to the Brazilian Consulate in Montreal to apply for my visa to go to Brazil in November. I wont’ be flying down to Rio–won’t go anywhere near…
This is the photo that I’m using on the hardcopy invitation to my book launches for my new collection of short stories, Desire Lines: Stories of Love and Geography next…
Great opinion piece in the Vancouver Sun (the Vancouver Sun!!!) that compares the recent BC election and the New York City Democratic primary which saw the front runner crumble before…
The New Yorker’s Andy Borowitz has been posting daily about the ridiculousness of the tragedy unfolding South of the Border. What about this: “In a special Sunday radio address, House…
I used to think that the best flowers were those of early spring. Perhaps that’s because spring is when I’m really thinking gardens. But late summer and fall also have…
Paul Krugman in The New York Times writes about the Titans of Finance comparing uproar about their huge bonuses to lynching or Nazis invading Poland: “Sometimes the wealthy talk as…
Just spent an hour watching videos made by this irreverant young Muslim woman who specializes in make-up and popular culture. Here she is with her husband answering questions about their…
Montreal’s famous bike rental system is undergoing a liquidity crisis, it seems. The program is wildly popular here, and has had success in New York and London, but the financial…
We had cold weather and warm weather this week, followed by rainy weather right now. Many of the summer flowers are looking a little bedraggled, but the cosmos continue to…
Life is not easy for some people–just take a look at the unemployment rate and the growing disperity between the rich and poor–but others are doing just fine, thank you…
My cousin Mary Lynn Thompson and her husband Mark took us wine tasting in the Walla Walla are when we were there last month. It was a great experience. From…
By the time my kids were the age my grandkids are now they’d taken many courses of antibiotics. Both of them had ear infections at an early age, and Lukas…
One of the books I’ve re-read recently is Ru by Kim Thuy, a Vietnam-Québécoise, who tells in a most poetic way a story of “boat people” who ended up here.…
Today’s photo isn’t. Instead its the cover of my new collection of short stories that will come out in November, Desire Lines: Stories of Love and Geography. WhenOberon Press sent…
This summer one of my cousins and I sat down for the first time in years and talked family. She’s started doing geneology and told me she’d come up with…
