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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
The New York Times has a nice story about sustainability at McGill and elsewhere.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Watch videos of tiny houses? This one’s quite delightful.
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…
Because you have to swear allegiance to the Queen in order to become Canadian, we dragged our feet for 17 years. In the end we decided that it was okay…
The weather today is just about perfect here: high 26 C with low humidity and a little breeze. Makes you want to just enjoy things. As it happens, I’ve been…
Lovely picture on the front page of Le Devoir today: a little girl walking along the railway track in Lac Mégantic with a rainbow in the background. The symbolism is…
Something happened this morning that I’m feeling a little ambivalent about. Went for my usual walk, wearing running shoes, old Bermudas, yesterday’s dirty tee shirts, and the baseball cap from…
