The Wages of Sin Are Hard to Spend, Or Why the Bad Guys Have Casches of Cash
What you see to the left is part of the cash that Guy Suprenant, the Montreal engineer who accept wads of money for boosting payments to dishonest contractors, turned over…
Mary Soderstrom
Paying for Writing: Douglas & McIntyre and The Globe and Mail
The celebrated Canadian publisher Douglas & McIntyre has just announced that it is filing for protection from its creditors. In other words, it is trying to avoid bankruptcy and complete…
Conrad Black, Vito Rizzuto, but Not Omar Khadr?
Vito Rizzuto who recently finished a prison term in the US for involvement in a gangland killing, was whisked back to Canada as soon as he stepped out of jail.…
Planting Daffodils: Confidence in the Future?
Time to do something about the garden. I spent most of the morning cleaning out the compost bin, including watering various places with the compost tea that collects in the…
Saturday Photo: The Last of the Roses
Roses are related to apples. I always that was an interesting fact, one of those things to tuck away to bring out when playing a trivia game. But this picture…
Advertising Offensive, Or Offensive Advertising?
The newspapers I read have been full of advertising from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers with pictures of attractive “real” people extolling the virtues of the Alberta Oil Sands…
Person’s Day: When Women Got Recognition in Canada
One of the shocking things about life in the 21st century is how we quickly forget the fights of the past. Today is Person’s Day, the anniversary of the British…
Virtual Mothering from the UK: A Tradiition Continues
Spending time first with Jeanne and now with Thomas, I’m much more aware of the ways that the virtual world affects life. Among them is the ease with which you…
As Exciting as "Garbo Smiles"
Thomas Edouard Soderstrom has begun to smile, and his Grandma spent most of the day playing with him. Therefore no post today, but lots of happy smiles.
Thinking about Maybe Going to Brazil in January
I’ve got a new non-fiction book project running around in my head. Called Road through Time, it will be about the marks we humans leave on the world, and other…
Saturday Photo: The Season Advances
It’s not even the middle of October, but the Halloween decorations are out, and Reno Depot already is showing some Christmas decorations. But the colour are nice, so I suppose…
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…
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…