Coming Up Sometime: A New Short Story Collection
My big news is a nice grant from the Conseil des arts et lettres du Québec to support work on a new short story collection. It'll be called Desire Lines:…
Mary Soderstrom
Cool City = Low Rent: Better Times for Detroit?
When Montreal seemed to tank after the various crises about French nationalism, some interesting things started to happen, in part because rents were low enough to encourage edgy young people…
Happy Fourth of July: Is It the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence You Celebrate?
In my Southern California childhood, the Fourth of July was a big holiday, right up there with Thanksgiving, not far behind Christimas. We were taught that it celebrated the birth…
Saturday Photo: Protecting Produce
As we head over to the house early these mornings to see what's happening, we've been going past the community garden at the corner of Henri-Julien and Maguire even before…
Happy Canada/Moving Day: Maybe a Month from Now We’ll Have Moved Too!
In the Rest of Canada, this is the major national holiday, and while there will be some festivities in Quebec, the big thing in Montreal is moving. Most leases run…
Real Bagels Live on in Montreal
Time Magazine is bemoaning the demise of the bagel this week, as one of New York's big bagel bakeries, H&H, goes out of business.The story by Joshua Ozersky begins: "There…
Strawberry Time: Maybe Lee Will Get His Fill, as We Eat Locally
The Jean Talon Market is full of strawberries right now--and I even saw some in a supermarket. The strawberry season is not long here: about a month, except for a…
Health Care Is A Provincial Responsibility Dept: Quebec Drags Its Feet in Going After Medicare Extrabilling, Compared to Ontario
This morning Le Devoir reports that Ontario is going after illegal extra billing for medically necessary services. Last week the McGinty Liberal governments, in pre-electoral mode, announced inquiries into the…
The Up Side of Traffic Snarls: Getting People out of Their Cars
I know, I know, school's out, so there is less traffic on the roads, but the rather speedy amelioration in Montreal's center city traffic snarls these last two weeks is…
Painting Removal and Other Difficult Tasks
Scratching the last bits of paint from the staircase this morning. It is a project begun when we bought the house decades ago, but which stopped about 10 years later.…
Rooky MPs Take the Floor: Great Experience in Canada Post Filibuster
There has been a flurry of Facebook posts from the young NDP MPs about the epic struggle being waged in the House of Commons to try to amend the back…
Saturday Photo: More Walls Signs, the Good and the Uglly
Walking down lanes and alleys gives you a different perspective on a place, and I've come across some fascinating contrasts on the Plateau. Among them are the carefully painted works…
Québec’s Fête nationale: No Chasse Galérie This Time, Just Stephen Harper Being Mean
Practically everything is closed in Quebec today, except pharmacies and a few corner stores. St. Jean Baptiste Day, the Fête nationale, is one of the two or three holidays when…
Barbara Kingsolver’s La Lacuna and the Story that Follows
The last book discussed at the Atwater book club was Barbara Kingsolver's fascinating La Lacuna. It has haunted my days ever since, so I was delighted to find a New…
Bixi Troubles Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Make it Pedal Backwards
Montreal's popular bicycle rental program, the Bixi, has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons. A few weeks ago, the city of Montreal was asked to guarantee…
Summer Solstice on the Plateau
Six months ago, I never thought we'd still be on the Plateau, but now we're at that other solstice and I see a different world than what greeted us when…
They Gave Jack a Huge Vote of Conference: Wish I’d Been There
The NDP convention in Vancouver over the weekend has been making headlines. Seems there's was some controversy over whether to talk about a "socialist" or a "social democrat" party, as…
Saturday Photo: A City is a Palimpsest
Once upon a time, the Plateau district of Montreal was on the edge of town, in the country in fact. The house on the left bears witness to that nearly-countrified…
More on Tatoos from a Tatooed Lady, Five Years After
And as I was walking around yesterday, looking at the artfully tatooed arms and shoulders on the young folks here, I remembered that I have two tatoos. They're the marks…
More Signs of the Times: Tatoos
No pictures so far--it's a bit embarassing to stop people to ask--but I'm struck this year by how many young people now have tatoos. Not just roses or "I love"…