Saturday Photo Reprise: Flowers of Winter, Reflected Snow
Took this picture a couple of years ago after a heavy snow fall. The flowers were blooming in a restaurant window on the Plateau. The snow-bound cars reflected in glass…
Mary Soderstrom
Second Day of Spring and Bach’s Birthday: Music to Lift the Spirit
This playful improvisation on Bach is a suggestion of the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal.
The Strange World of Energy Production: Chinese Solar Panel Manufacturer Declares Bankruptcy
There is a difference between the long run and the short run: we all know that and as John Maynard Keynes said, in the long run we are all dead.…
Ten Years Ago: Iraq War Begins
One of the good things about being Canadian was the country’s principled approach to foreign policy. No better example is there than the way Canada stayed out of Iraq. Here’s…
More Cuts, This Time in Day Care Centre Budgets
What is really depressing about the $37.9 million the PQ government just cut from the 2013 budget of provincially-financed day care centres, is that it’s the PQ government doing the…
Phillpe Couillard New Quebec Liberal Leader
Seems the former health minister and buddy of Arthur Porter won on the first ballot. Quebec Liberals now can take on the PQ, or so they think. Wonder if anything…
Saturday Photo; St. Patrick’s Day Parade
Don’t see any green, but this isn’t bad for a snow parade on a day when much snow is melted, but the temperatures are cold!
Montreal’s Non-Urban Renewal: Why?
The webzine, The Atlantic Cities, has an interesting series of aerial shots of downtown Montreal between 1947 and the present. The striking thing is that the city’s center hasn’t changed…
Bolaño and Francis: Food for Thought in a Complicated Situationd
The Pope from Argentine? Time to re-read Robert Bolaño’s amazing By Night in Chile. The country is different but the complicated relationship between the Church and a dictatorship certainly bears…
The Waters of March: Good Sounds in Both Brazil and Quebec
For a long time I thought this Brazilian classic referred to the wonderful abundance of water that appears with the melting snow. But of course, March is the end of…
Saturday Photo: Signs of Spring
Okay, the snow is melting rapidly during the days–Saturday morning was really wonderful–but the nights are still cold. This makes perfect weather for potholes. The freeze-and-thaw cycle is a fact…
Happy International Women’s Day: Dance with Nana!
This showed up on Facebook this morning and I think it’s perfect to celebrate International Women’s Day. The woman can dance! I just wish that my sister Laurie and my…
Buddies: Couillard and Porter
Can’t repeat it often enough: when the health minister is a buddy of the head of a big super hospital project, no one should be surprised. What should be questioned…
Camels and Climate Change: Will We Be As Lucky?
Lots of space given in the last couple of days to the discovery of fossil bones of ancient camels that once roamed the Arctic about 3.4 million years ago. Camel-like…
"The Coyote’s Nothing Sceery, Just Singing to His Dearie"–A New Lullaby for Montreal?
We haven’t heard them, but it was nice to hear they’re not far away: coyotes in Montreal. Seems that at least two females and a male have set up housekeeping…
Elin’s in New York, "Babysitting" the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal
The Studio make a different sort of music, but this is a lot of fun! The concert at Carnegie Hall is tomorrow, and they all left this morning by minibus.…
Saturday Photo: It’s Lent, Time to Take Down the Decorations
Well actually I took most of them down at the end of Janiuary, but the branches and stocking (which belonged to our late cat Calie) have stayed up. Each time…
Quebecers Highly Taxed? Don’t Bet on it
Another interesting study from IRIS, the Quebec think tank. The perception is that residents of the Belle Province pay more taxes than anybody else in North America. This supposed tax…
What’s Wrong with Canada Post? "Post-Modern" Modifications
For several months our postal service has been deteriorating, with our mailman delivering letters well after dark by the light of a sort of headlight. I’ve complained to Canada Post…
Appointment in Samara Department: The Path of the Russian Meteorie Charted
You remember the old story about the appointment in Samara: a man tries to outwit Death who makes a threatening gesture to him in a market in Baghdad. He flees…