Death of the Confidence Fairy Bis: NDP Hearing on the Budget
If it wasn’t enough that Europeans are registering their disatisfaction with the idea of cutting budgets as a way to economic recovery by voting out parties preach austerity, a headline…
Mary Soderstrom
Making Music Together: Young Musicans against the Free Hike
Last night was the second concert of the Orchestre de la solidarité sociale, bringing together music students from nearly all of Montreal’s music faculties. Some of them have been on…
Sexing the Kiwi (With Apologies to New Zealanders)
Several years ago I bought two kiwi plants, a male and a female. One grew, the other didn’t, but I didn’t know which one survived. So the following year I…
Saturday Photo: Bleeding Heart in Bloom
Most years there is an explosion of growth here the first week in May. Bleeding heart, which dies back to nothing at all in early September, grows so fast that…
Fallout from Protests and Smoke Bombs: Quietness?
This was book club week, and a strange thing happened. In all four groups, we had much less attendance than normal. The weather has been cold and damp, which might…
Smoke in the Metro Means Fire under Agents Provcateurs, Me Thinks
This morning after Montreal’s Metro was closed during rush hours because of smoke bombs planted in several stations, I spent far too much time looking for references to “agents provocateurs”…
Oil Sounds Mean "Game over" for Climate
Oil sands exploitation means the end of hope for controlling climate change, according to James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. In op-ed piece in today’s…
Cold Today: Gonna Take a Nap
After passing the winter without getting sick, I seem to have been wacked with something. So no post today.
Speak Red! A Dramatic Reading of a Quebec Classic Poem Transformed for the Current Crisis
“Speak White” by Quebec poet Michèle Lalonde was written and first performed in 1968 during the great rising wave of Quebec nationalism. It refers to an epithet many Francophones heard…
Pele’s Hair and Pele’s Tears: The Hawaiian Goddess and Lava
I’m back to working on the short story collection. The current story is one that has quite a bit about volcanos, and as I speak, a small bottle of ash…
Saturday Photo: Because Purple Flowers Are Lovely
This isn’t a new photo. It’s one I took when I was in Portugal about this time of year. The jacaranda trees were in bloom: absolutely spectacular! I’m waiting impatiently…
Magnoiias in Bloom: The April Showers Bring May Flowers
Despite the very early warm weather we had in late March and again in the middle of April, flowers and leaves are bursting out this first week in May, much…
Jane’s Walks Coming up This Weekend: Learning about Neighborhoods One Step at a Time
The series of walks given all over the world in honour of urbanist Jane Jacobs are coming up this weekend. In past years I’ve given a couple: last year it…
Taco Bell, Cal-Mex and Tortillas: My Love Affair with Food Inspired by Mexico
Great story in The New York Times today about Mexican-inspired food: “How the Taco Gained in Translation.” Makes me hungry just to read it. Makes me also reflect on how…
The Musical Swings Are Back!
If you’re in Montreal, be sure and check out this marvelous installation in the Quartier des spéctacles, right across the street from Place des Arts. The viceo was made last…
Okay, Get out There and Move: Walk Dance, the New Way to Exercise
Well, I’ve always walked a lot. Maybe I should try this.
Recreating Eden 2012-04-30 11:44:00
Nearly four times as many people have been arrested in the student protests against Quebec’s tuition hike than were arrested during the October Crisis: 1,201 between April 7 and 27,…
Education, Unemployment, and Minds: Views by Krugman and from Quebec
This morning Paul Krugman writes about what terrible things economic bad times are doing to young people around the world, and the high cost of education. His major concern in…
Saturday Photo: The Grass in Greener
I must get out and take more spring pictures. The weather was hot and dry, but the last week we’ve had rain and cool temperatures, which last night dropped below…