Celebrating Birthdays Today!!!
Lukas’s birthday was Wednesday, Jeanne’s will be Sunday, so we’re having the gang (11 of them, counting Jeanne) over for barbecued leg of lamb and other good things this evening.…
Mary Soderstrom
Let’s Hear It for Montreal: Two Article Laud My Favourite City
Montrealers have been beating up the city for the last little while: crumbling infrastructure, too much road repairs/reconstruction, doubtful influences in contract awards etc. So it is refeshing to come…
ERDC Committee to Plan Payout to Gazette Freelancers
The Electronic Rights Defence Committee is beginning discussions about how to distribute the money and stock it received on behalf of freelancers who wrote for The Gazette of Montreal from…
Sad Day for Truth: Ideology Doesn’t Cut It if You Don’t Check the Facts
It used to be said that the first casualty of war was the truth. Now, unfortunately, truth seems to be completely forgotten in any sort of skirmish. The latest example…
Eid al Fitr in Quebec and Saudi Arabia: Reports from Iles de Boucherville and the NY Times
Had a lovely picnic yesterday on the Iles de Boucherville with the extended Soderstrom and Lizée families: 10 adults and four kids with one on the way. Nice to get…
Saturday Photo: The Unyielding Clamour of the Morning
One of my favourite novels by a Canadian writer is Neil Bissonndath’s The Unyielding Clamour of the Night, an imagined story of terrorism and dedication in a country not unlike…
Serendipity: A Video That Fits My Frame of Mind
These days I’m toggling back and forth between working on the short story collection Desire Lines and the first stages of a new non-fiction book called Road through Time. The…
The Following Is Completely Unsolicited. Centre du Rasoir is Terrific
Let’s hear it for the Centre du rasoir and Sunbeam/Osterizer. In these days of instant obsalesence how heartening it is to be able to replace a part for an appliance…
Julila Child at 100: Let’s Not Forget Elizabeth David and MFK Fischer Either
Even Google got in the act this morning with a cartoon of our Julia, cooking away. It would be Julia Child’s 100 birthday today, and the cooking and eating world…
Fifty Years Later the Girl from Ipanema Still Rocks
One of the greatest songs of the 20th century turns 50 right about now. Given that Rio will host the 2014 World Cup of Soccer and the 2016 Olympics, it’s…
From the Book Front: Big Auction of Larry McMurtry’s Books and the Future of Used Books
“Wanted Dead or Alive: Used Books” was the headline in The New York Times story about a huge auction of some 300,000 books. Larry McMurtry, the best selling novelist of…
Love Story: American Style: Medical Bills Leave No Money for Wedding
In the picture in the New York Times today, the couple are taking a turn around the ballroom as their wedding. They look a little worn, but obviously happy. Good…
Winners in the Great Goodreads After Surfing Ocean Beach Giveaway
Congratulations to Juan of San Diego, Sarah of Colorado Springs CO and Vicki of El Dorado, KS who were picked by Goodreads from the 558 entries to receive copies of…
Saturday Photo: Rain, Reflections and Random Beauty
After weeks of hot, clear weather, we’ve had a few days of rain. This weekend, in fact, is the first this summer to be wet. Heaven knows we need it!…
The Internet Produces More Reliable Poll Results Than Telephoning
Great story today in Le Devoir about voting intention surveys by internet. I’ve spent more time than I would like to admit calling voters during elections, and I know that…
Sisters of Charity and Other Things: Nuns on the Firing LIne
One of my prouder moments came during my trip to Africa in 2001 when I was out walking on morning in the West Usambara mountains. I’d left the lodge where…
More Friends from Out of Town: A Flash from the Fresno Past
Summer is the time when people travel and we’ve just enjoyed a visit from old friends of Lee’s from his youth in Fresno. There was much talked about the class…
That Strange Thing Crying? It’s a Racoon, Or Why Messing with the Food Chain Presents Problems
We’ve been bothered by a family of racoons–count ’em, one adult and six young ones–for the last several weeks. They cry at night, they get caught in garbage cans, they…
Will Twits Make a Difference in the Quebec Election?
Much talk these days about what impact Twitter and Facebook will have on elections. Since last Wednesday Quebec has been in provincial campaign mode, with everything being analyzed right and…
Saturday Photo: Drought, But Great Produce
Lot of talk about drought this summer, and certainly the photos of drying fields are enough to make one weep. But for food-lovers there is an up side: flavour. The…