Recovering Today: Happy Labour Day
We had a triple threat birthday party last night for Lukas, Jeanne and Thomas. Most pleasant and the two cousins (three and one) played together for the first time. Now…
Mary Soderstrom
Saturday Photo: Street Furniture on a Late Summer Morning
The Montreal borough of the Plateau-Mile End has been rather agressive in trying to make its streets pedestrian and bicycle friendly. Among the initiatives has been the addition of rather…
Thank You, David Cameron, For Being a Klutz: The Syrian Files
It’s always interesting to watch while political maneuvering backfires. That was the case this week when Britain’s Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron tried to rush things and get Parliament to…
What Happens When Old Lefties Get Older
Yesterday I wore the button I got 50 years ago at the March on Wshington for Jobs and Freedom. It elicited only three comments, which surprised me. Either people on…
Sandy Beaches: An Increasingly Rare Commodity?
One of the delights of our trip was walking long distances on the beaches of Vancouver Island at low tide. They seemed to go on forever, with rocky outcroppings punctuating…
Catching up on the News: Not Hard at All
While we were on holiday we didn’t watch television, listen to the radio and looked at a newspaper only twice. We checked email a couple of times and used the…
Saturday Photo: Willowbrae Beach on Vancouver Island
There’s nothing in front of us but ocean for thousands of miles. Obviously the forces of the sea have dislodged a lot of trees near the shore, as well as…
Things Have Changed Somewhat, But Not Enough in Fifty Years
Shortly after I arrived back in in Bloomington, Indiana following the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom 50 years ago next Wednesday, I went to the nearest Western Union…
Back from the Coast!
Great weather, lovely people, good conversation: the last two weeks have been great. The TV wasn’t on once, nor was the radio, and I only went on line to make…
Vacation!!!
Closing down for a while, because we’re going on a holiday. It’s the first Lee and I have done in several years, what with fires and elderly cats and new…
Saturday Photo: A Community Garden in a Changing Part of Town
Urban farming is alive and well in Montreal. This community garden was once space the city didn’t need any more for its yards, and so was saved from sale and…
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…
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…