Apple Time: Caillou, Jeanne and Me
One of the great times of the year is when local apples start arriving at the markets. My favourite is the Cortland, which doesn’t arrive usually until mid-October. They were…
Mary Soderstrom
Reading Groups Next Week: Gotta Get Busy
Next week I have four library reading groups, and, while I’ve read all the books in question, I like to go through each again to prepare for the discussions. So…
Harvest Time: Buying Local,
When Lee was a boy, buying local meant buying produce from the Central Valley. That’s where his family lived, and he has many stories of going to farm stands for…
Trying to Make Sense of the World: Why Did the Straw Break the Camel’s Back?
The New York Times has a very interesting story about catatraophe theory, and the way things can jog along forever and then suddenly change. Has to do with where lines…
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving Etc.
We are recovering from one of the best holiday of the year. For some time now, we’ve been having a Canadian Thanksgiving buffet for family and friends. This year the…
Saturday Photo: Sitting Pretty
This weekend–Thanksgiving in Canada, Columbus Day in the US–always marks the end of summer in my books. The weather, even in these days of climate change, is cooling, and the…
Bravo 811: Free, 24/7 Health Advice, Courtesy of Québec
What do you do in the middle of the night when your toddler starts vomiting and won’t stop? Probably it’s just a messy nothing, but you never know. A lot…
Montreal Is Planting Trees: A Good Way to Fight Heat As Well as Being Lovely
I woke up this morning to a delightful story about the city of Montreal planting trees. It’s not particularly new news: the city announced last summer that it was planning…
It’s Enough to Make You Sick: a Must-Read on Canada’s Move to Deregulation
More new cases of E.coli infections in Alberta and Sasketchwan and Stephen Harper insists that Canadians are better protected than ever ! Talk about double talk! If you let an…
Justin Trudeau, Prat Falls and Private Sorrow: The Man We Do Not Want as Prime Minister
Justinn Trudeau is supposed to announce his candidacy for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada today. This is bad news for the Libs, and good news for the…
Omar Khadr Back in Canada, At Long Last, and the Harperites Play the Media Masterfully
I was glad to see that most of the news outlets and newspapers are making a big thing out of the return to Canada of Omar Khadr, the child soldier.…
Saturday Photo: Resistance Is Important
For reasons that aren’t clear to me, the owners of an apartment building near us recently chopped down all the plantings around it. Not that it was elaborately landscaped, but…
Worried about Canada’s Natural Heritage? You Better Be, Or Another Reason to Back Tom Mulcair
Coming up: selling off Crown lands and Canada’s National Parks? Could be if the Harperites follow what Mitt Romney and friends plan on doing in the States, should they get…
Who Voted in Quebec? A Joint Le Devoir/NFB Gives Portraits of 30 of Them
A fascinating look at Quebec voters done during the recent election campaign. There are 30 of them, one for each day that Le Devoir published during the campaign. It’s an…
Not Enough Services, Problems of Isolation Mean Increase in Call for Helps for Kids
The airwaves have been buzzing in Quebec about a report detailing how calls for help to Youth Protection Services have gone up dramatically in the ring of suburbs around Montreal.…
Why Worry about Weighty Things When You Can Debate "Are Cats Smarter Than Dogs?"
For most of my life I’ve lived with either a cat or a dog, and been on good terms with both species. Over all, I must admit I like the…
The Rich Get Rich and the Poor Get Poorer: Life Expectancy in the US for Less Educated Whites Drops
While Mitt Romney ruminates about the 47 per cent who don’t pay taxes, The New York Times has a startling story about how life expectancy among less educated whites have…
Saturday Photo: End of Summer Brilliance
Today is the day of the automnal equinox, the end of summer, the beginning of fall. Here are two pictures taken a couple of days ago which show the billiance…
Rick Mercer on the Next Omnibus Bill: Stephen Harper Knows Right from Wrong, But He Just Doesn’t Care
Thought I might do a little something thought provoking today but didn’t get very far when I fond this which says far more effectively what I was intending to say:…
The Passing of a Fine Man: Mel Charney Dies at 77
CHARNEY, Melvin. On Monday, September 17, 2012. Mourned by his wife Ann, daughter Dara, son-in-law Cameron McKenzie, grandchildren Rachel and Samuel McKenzie, brothers Morris and Israel, and their partners Carrie…