Pipelines, Nuclear Waste, Lac Mégantic: All Symptoms of Energitis
The front pages of the newspapers and the headlines on the news programs make me very sad this morning. The tragedy of the train explosion at Lac Mégantic continues (What…
Mary Soderstrom
Eat Better, Pay More, Have a Clearer Conscience
Haven’t seen any one day work stoppages here by fast food workers, but I’ve been very interested to see the press that this sort of protest has been getting in…
What I’m Doing Today: Reading Page Proofs!
The page proofs for my new short story collection, Desire Lines: Stories of Love and Geography have arrived from Oberon Press! Very interesting to go over the text after several…
Page Proofs Have Arrived….
Oberon Press just sent me the page proofs for my new short story collection: Desire Lines: Stories of Love and Geography. So correcting them is the task for today. Yay!
Sprawl As the Motor of Inequality, Or Did You Ever Try to Get There from Here?
Paul Krugman talks about commuting, public transportation, sprawl and equality today in Stranded by Sprawl. It reminded me of the time many, many years ago when I was a reporter…
Sataurday Photo: Chicory and Queen Anne’s Lace
This morning was a good one for a walk on the wild side–that is in the Champs des possibles, the old city yard which has now become a delightful going-back-to-basics…
No, It’s Not a Holiday…
Who says that Grandmas aren’t useful. Jeanne has a fever so she’s chez nous today. As a consequence lots of stories are being read, but not much writing done.
Don’t Miss the Lady in Black: The Burka Avenger!
Are you reading for a flying, pen-throwing, book pounding female defender of education in Pakistan? It seems the world must be because a new series to be broadcast in Pakistan…
Feeling Insignificant Department: Saturn’s Moons and the Earth
The little arrow is pointing to the Earth in this photograph taken from the space probe Cassini from Saturn’s neighborhood. Makes our problems seem pretty inconsequential, in the (very) big…
Open Borders: The View from the US When French Canadians Flooded South
Former US Foreign Service Officer Steven Kelly has an interesting comment on the results of open borders in The New York Times today. He notes that thousands and thousands of…
Further to the Local Food Movement
The New York Times has a nice story about sustainability at McGill and elsewhere.
More on Gardening in the City, This Time Commercially
Le Devoir this weekend had several stories about the movement toward urban gardening. Chief among them was one about Lufa Farms, which has built a commercial rooftop greenhouse. This is…
Detroit Is a Victimi of Sprawl Too: Krugman
The recent brouhaha about Detroit’s financial problems and its filing for bankruptcy protection have sparked many comments. Paul Krugman in The New York Times, as usual, has some trnechant things…
Saturday Photo: Gardening Where You Might Not Expect It
I’ve been delighted to follow the increasing number of people who seem to be finding corners of the city to garden in. These two photos were taken in les Champs…
Street Food: What’s the Big Deal?
Montreal has its first street food trucks this summer at various sites around the city There’s been a lot of comment, most of it favourable, about the 27 trucks that…
Brilliant Idea: Car Shares
The sun was shining the other morning on the little troop of four Communauto cars parked not far from our house. Our car is approaching 12 years and even with…
Lest We Forget Department: Today’s the Anniversary of the First A-Bom Test
It wasn’t that long ago, the Cold War is over, but, boy, have things not changed all that much. J. Robert Oppenheimer reflects on the whole project. “Now I have…
Tools in Understanding the Past: Another Instance of mtDNA Analysis and Dogs
As I’ve said, I’m working on a new non-fiction book, and the research is taking me in all directions. It’ll be called Road through Time. A lot of the book…
What to Do When You’re Tired of Cleaning House…
Watch videos of tiny houses? This one’s quite delightful.
Saruday Photo: The Bees Are Back!
For the last several years there has been a beehive in the wild space belonging to the city of Montreal that has come to be known as Les Champs des…