Planting Flowers to Save Bees: A Nice Idea, Particularly in the Middle of the Winter

The French government has just announced that it will be sowing 250 kilometers of roadways in the country with bee-friendly plants this year, in an attempt to support the bee population. Bees, those absolutely essential pollinators of flowering plants, have been attacked in the last few years by mysterious agents that have decimated bee populations all over the world. The idea here is that a greater variety and larger quantity of flowers that bees like will help increase populations.

Sounds like a good idea. Here in Quebec (as well as in other jurisidictions) roadways are no longer systematically bowed, but allowed to grow up with "wild" plants. The program has been in place since the mid-1990s, and not only are highways nicer to look at, there seems to have been a net ecological advantage. It would not take much more effort to plant bee-friendly plants here too. Some of them would undoubtedly also help butterflies.

Photo: Purple cornflower,Echinacea purpurea (Asteraceae), Texas A&M University

The Universe Unfolding As It Should for the Shock Doctriners? US Controls Port-au-Prince Airport While Faith-Based NGOs Get Access

Hillary Clinton is unhappy with the complaints about US control of the airport in Port-au-Prince--the French filed a formal complaint a few days ago, saying that two of their planes were turned away--and of hindering access to Haiti for aid workers from other countries. At the same time, it seems evident that a wave of faith-based aid groups have succeeded to getting onto the island and are providing their own brand of aid. This morning Le Devoir has a story from the French left-wing paper Liberation about Bible Belt missionaries who seem to have been able to get there with relatively little trouble.

NGOs of all stripes have been present in Haiti for a long time: before the earthquake they were estimated to number around 10,000. While it's hard to fault good intentions, it's also quite clear that many are operating with their own agendas first and foremost in mind: fundamentalist members of our own extended family have gone to Haiti to build wells--and save souls.

What is particularly disquieting in this is the way that it is perfectly in accord with a posting on the conservative blog Foundry, published the day after the quake, and picked up immediately by Naomi Klein as an example of the Shock Doctrine in action.

"The U.S. government response should be bold and decisive. It must mobilize U.S. civilian and military capabilities for short-term rescue and relief and long-term recovery and reform. President Obama should tap high-level, bipartisan leadership...(including former presidents Clinton and Bush)...

"While on the ground in Haiti, the U.S. military can also interrupt the nightly flights of cocaine to Haiti and the Dominican Republic from the Venezuelan coast and counter the ongoing efforts of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to destabilize the island of Hispaniola. This U.S. military presence, which should also include a large contingent of U.S. Coast Guard assets, can also prevent any large-scale movement by Haitians to take to the sea in dangerous and rickety watercraft to try to enter the U.S. illegally....

"The U.S. should implement a strong and vigorous public diplomacy effort to counter the negative propaganda certain to emanate from the Castro-Chavez camp."

Sounds very much like what has happened since. How maddening that the Obama government seems to be following an agenda so different from the one that got him elected.

First the embrace of the Afghan war, then the crumbling of the health care initiatives, and, tonight I imagine, the abandonment of stimulus measures in the name of "fiscal responsiblity" while unemployment nears 10 percent. It is enought to make one weep, if the pictures on the news haven't done that already.

Because It's a Gray Day: Popular Music and Politics

There are days when it's very hard to concentrate on serious matters, not because the weather is inviting outside, but because it's not. So I've spent the morning watching an excellent two part documentary by the BBC about Brazilian popular music from samba to the Tropicalia movement.

While you'll find it hard not to keep from dancing, perhaps you'll also find two other things engaging. The first is the continued and continuing effort of Brazilians to make their weight felt in the world. The second is the way that popular music can express political sentiments that might not otherwise find a voice.

It's no accident that Robert Charlebois, whose career started in the same years that Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil were making musical statements, exploded on the Quebec cultural map in the first heady time of national affirmation.

The Portuguese Files: Brazil, Haiti, and International Involvement

Head honchos from Haiti, France, the US (Hilary Clinton,) Canada and several other countries including Brazil are meeting in Montreal under UN auspices today to talk about what should happen in that ravaged country. I hadn't realized how big a role Brazil has been playing there until just now, but it seems that it has headed the UN force for some time. Indeed, the strains of that task have been blamed for the death (possibly by suicide) of General Urano Bacellar, the head of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Haiti, shortly before the earthquake of January 12, 2010.

Brazil's involvement in Haiti dates from 2004, and is part of a larger strategy to make Brazil a bigger player on the international scene. As the biggest, most populous country in the Americas after the United States (192 million compared to 308 million, 2010 estimates), the question really should be: why has it not been recognized as the powerhouse it is?

Part of that has to do with its language. Portuguese ranks sixth in the world by most measures but it flies beneath the radar of many political observers, perhaps because, even though it has many points in common with Spanish, it is not easy to learn.

And on that note, I'll close and go study for my Portuguese mid-term this evening. Até logo.

Saturday Photo: Painting from Haiti

This picture is one of three I bought from a roadside art dealer when I was in Haiti in 1973 or '74 (can't remember which). My sister and brother-in-law had invited me along while he scouted for some development deals. He didn't come up with any--the place was much poorer than he expected, I think--and my sister was shocked through and through by the poverty.

It was my first trip outside the US or Canada, and my assumptions about the world were deeply rocked. By chance, however, I had read V.S. Naipaul's brilliant novel of Trinidad, A House for Biswas, just before, so I think I had some appreciation before hand of what life might be like on a Caribbean island.

One of the things that impressed me mightly was the vibrant art created by local artisans. The execution of the three pieces I bought is not refined, but I've always liked the energy of this market scene. Certainly Haitians will need as much energy as they can summon in the months ahead.

First Step to Privatizing Higher Education in Quebec? McGill's New $29,000 MBA

McGill continues to say it will charge $29,000 and renounce provincial funding for its MBA program, Le Devoir reports today. The institution has no choice, spokespersons say, because there's a $10,000 difference between what the program costs and what the province gives to fund it. Better to drop all provincial funds and go it alone, they argue.

Now, the importance and utility (to use a fine word from the lexicon of economics) of MBAs are questionable. But this is a scary precedent. The province shouldn't let McGill get away with it.

Is Washington Getting the Wrong Message from the Massachusetts Disaster: Jim Dean Says Yes.

Because I made some phone calls for Obama in 2008 during the election campaign, I'm on everal mailing lists. In the sad aftermath of the Democrats' disaster in Massachusette, I got this yesterday. It is a very interesting interpretation, and one I hope can be translated into positive action.

From Jim Dean of Democracy for America:

Last night, Democrats lost Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in a bitter special election. This is already a sad day for all of us who loved Ted Kennedy. But to make it even worse, conservative Democrats and Washington talking heads are claiming that the loss happened because Congress was "too far to the left."

They're wrong again -- and we can prove it.

We had Research 2000 poll voters immediately after the Election ended: Even Scott Brown voters want Democrats to be bolder and they want healthcare reform that includes a public option.

You read that right. By a margin of three-to-two, former Obama voters who voted for Republican Scott Brown yesterday said the Senate healthcare bill "doesn't go far enough." Six-to-one Obama voters who stayed home agreed. And to top it off, 80% of all voters still want the choice of a public option in the bill.

The message is clear, there is only one way out of this mess if Democrats want to win in 2010. It's time to pass healthcare with 51 votes in the Senate using the budget reconciliation process. And it must include the most popular piece of bold reform: the choice of a public option... Budget reconciliation is a procedure that only requires 51 votes to pass a bill instead of 60 -- and with the loss of Kennedy's seat, it's the only option Democrats have to improve the bill and pass a public option.

Sure, Joe Lieberman and the rest of the conservative Democrats and blowhard talking heads who got us into this mess will keep claiming Democrats need to be more like Republicans. That's what conservative Democrats always say while working to destroy bold reforms.

Don't let Democratic politicians learn exactly the wrong lesson, tell them take control and lead. We need Ted Kennedy's leadership; we need a new FDR -- not an entire party of Joe Liebermans.

ADD YOUR NAME RIGHT NOW

This joint campaign with the members of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and CREDO Action shows the path to victory in 2010.

It's up to us to make sure Democrats get the message. After you sign, ask your friends to sign. The more signatures we collect and deliver -- and the faster we do it -- the greater our chances of saving Democrats from themselves.

Thank you for never giving up and fighting for what's right. Thank you for everything you do.

-Jim

Jim Dean, Chair
Democracy for America

More Inspiration from Life: Rivers, Kate McGarrigle, and Telling a Story

Here's one of my favourite songs from the McGarrigle Sisters. Kate died earlier this week, and she will be missed. The song's rhythm is supposed to be inspired from the sound of the Matapedia River, and certainly the song's story line comes from memories of old loves, and a decision on how to live.

"I was not afraid" could have been her slogan.

Master Story Tellers Find Inspiration Everywhere: T.C. Boyle, Natasha Richardson and Life on Kitchwank Lake

Inspiration comes from many sources, I realized yesterday when I spent a most enjoyable half hour reading a new short story by T.C. Boyle, "A Death at Kitchawank" in the January 18, 2010 New Yorker. Boyle is amazingly prolific and, also almost always, blindingly good. I've been impressed by the way he is able to take small stories gleaned from modern life and transform them into something much bigger.

The story starts out like a view of life from the POV of a middle class woman, who lives with her family in a small all-year lake colony in New England. The way he gets in her skin is unusual for a male writer, and the contradictions of her life are engagingly presented from the sand that is trucked in to make the beach to her prejudices about her neighbors.

What got me as a writer, though, was the way the end of the story was perfectly believable yet seemingly inspired by a completely unrelated event, the accidental death last year of actress Natasha Richardson after a seemingly minor head injury.

How many storytellers read about Richardson, wondered what might be done with it, and then went on to other things because they didn't know how treat the celebrity circus which surrounded her death? Boyle, apparently, worked backwards from the accident, changed the circumstances and the sort of people involved, and came up with a very fine story about ordinary life.

PS. And then I read farther in the magazine to find Woody Allen's "Udder Maddness" which is also inspired by a news story, this one about killings by cows. From the sublime to the ridiculous or almost.

What's News? Old Problems, New Conditions beyond the 24-Hour News Cycle

Affirmative action for guys in medical school? The suggestion comes in one of the many stories that were pushed to the inside pages of Le Devoir this morning.

It seems that some 200 Quebec medical students attended a conference on the future of medicine, and one of the subjects was the increasing "feminization" of the profession. According to Jean-François Lajoie, president of the Association des médecins du Québec, up to 70 per cent of medical students in some medical schools are young women currently. What will this mean for the profession, and should there be some kind of quota system? No answers were given--at least not in the story--but the fact that this incendiary suggestion received so little attention is a measure of the way the media's attention is focussed on Haiti.

This attention is probably necessary. We should remember, though, that Haiti's problems are not "new" news, and aid from the outside now is not going to be enough to change things. Good background: Tracy Kidder's article from 2000 in The New Yorker about Dr. Paul Farmer and his project which now provides health care to about a million people in the central plateau, using mostly Haitian staff.

And this report from Avi Lewis (Stephen's son and Naomi Klein's husband) of Al Jazeera English:

Saturday Photo: Dog-Walking Women Mean Safety in São Paulo--and Elsewhere

As I may have mentioned here, when I visited São Paulo a few years ago to work on Green City: People, Nature and Urban Places people gave me lists of places I shouldn't go and things I shouldn't do. It was unsafe to take the Mêtro, to walk alone, to enter parks, to take any taxi but ones from a certain number of companies... Their well-intentioned warnings were enough to give me shivers.

But I couldn't let them stop me. It's true that the city had one of the highest crime rates in the world (the murder rate, at least, has fallen dramatically since, it seems) but there was no way I could learn what I wanted by following the warnings.

What to do? First, I realized that the Mêtro is filled every day with hundreds of thousands of middle-class people going about their business peacefully. All I had to do was look like I belonged, and I could blend in safely. That wasn't hard, actually, because the ethnic mix of the Mêtro riders is not unlike what you find in Montreal: in other words, there were many people who looked like me.

Second, I went out early in the morning and walked around as honest folk were going to work. The scariest people were more likely to be off the street then, and once again I blended in as I got a glimpse of what ordinary life was like.

And, third (an outgrowth of those early morning walks,) is the observation that any place frequented by women of a certain age walking their dogs is going to be safe. The ladies know local conditions and are going to look out for each other. This photo was taken about 9 a.m.in Parque Trianon, which one internet trip advisor says "can be dangerous especially for tourists and at night. Pickpockets are known to frequent that park." While it might be a place to avoid after dark, these ladies didn't seem concerned. Nor was I.

As Jane Jacobs said, you need eyes on the street to make a city work, and that is particularly true in cities like São Paulo.

Taxes are What We Pay for Civilized Society Department: Tuition Fees, UC Berkeley Budget Woes and Support for Public Education

The bill for my fees as an "étudiante libre" and my Portuguese classes at the Université de Montréal came yesterday with an error that made me gasp; I had been charged as a non-resident student. Not to worry, the registrar's office said when I enquired, there will be an adjustment since I've only lived in Quebec for four decades. But, on reflection, I realized that even if I'd had to pay the non-resident fees, I'd be better off than students in most other North American jurisidictions.

Quebec has kept tuition low since the higher education system here was expanded and reformed in the 1960s. The model was the California Master Plan for Higher Education, from which I, like hundreds of thousands if not millions, profited. Then, just as I was musing about all this meant in terms of economic growth and personal fulfillment, I picked up the January 4, 2010 New Yorker and its heart-breaking article about the plight of the University of California and, in particular, of my alma mater UC Berkeley.

To make a long story short, California's incredibly stupid refusal to tax itself has led to horrific budget problems. Many parts of the public sector are suffering, and $684 million have been slashed from the University's allocation. This has led to drastic staff cutbacks and the "privatizing" of research laboratories and--get this!--even some library services. At the same time tuition has climbed and climbed. Someone from a family of modest means like mine would have a much harder time paying tuition, fees and living expenses the way I did with summer jobs.

The great flowering of California's industry and innovation is rooted in the excellent university system, and in support for primary and secondary schools which, while not uniformly good, were rated near the top of the heap in the US. That is far from the case today--in 2005-2007 California ranked 29 out 50 states when it came to expenses per student, and the academic results are not much better. The state and the country are the losers for this.

Taxes are what we pay for civilized society: education on all levels must be supported and within the reach of all.

Who Knows Best in Haiti? The Problem That Will Remain after the Dead Are Buried

More sobering news about the earthquake in Haiti this morning, with reflections on what should be done in its aftermath.

Naomi Klein, whose The Shock Doctrine documented the way that aid was highjacked after the tsunami five years ago to privatize water and electricity supplies and to use them for hotel development rather than power and safe water for villagers, has already pointed out the danger of using this disaster as a way to manage the region for ends that may not really help Haiti at all.

In The New York Times, Tracy Kidder, deeply involved in an NGO in the mountains, offers some interesting thoughts too. "The ultimate goal of all aid to Haiti ought to be the strengthening of Haitian institutions, infrastructure and expertise," he writes.

Yes, indeed. One of the tragedies of Haiti is that for at least 45 years the country has suffered an enormous loss of its best and most energetic minds and hearts, as governments supported by the US and powerful internationial interests, made life impossible for them.

Among the Canadian/Haitians killed is Georges Anglade, who came to Quebec in 1969 during the Duvalier era and subsequently became a force here for education reform. A geographer, he helped found the flagship of the Université du Québec, UQAM, where he taught until he retired recently.

How Anglade could have helped change Haiti's education system had he stayed, we'll never know. But it should be noted that he returned during the Aristide years of the 1990s with high hopes of helping out, but after the US forced Aristide to resign, he returned to Canada. His family says that he and his wife, who was also killed, had been in Haiti for a family celebration.

Print Is Where It's At Department: Don't Look to Twitter or Blogs for "New" News, Study Finds

Print is where the news happens: that's the conclusion of a new report published by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Taking one week in the life of Baltimore's media--July 16-29, 2009--the research team analyzed six news threads, coming up with figures on where the news was reported first and who repeated it. The result is startling: more than 90 per cent of all "new" news came from print media, while 85 per cent of what was reported in the electronic and other media were essentially repetitions of what had been reported by newspapers.

To some extent this is nothing new. I remember back in my newspaper days in the Bay Area, the TV reporters would hang around to listen to what questions we print journalists asked and then do their stand ups asking the same questions. It was a kind of laziness that made me furious, and it's quite clear that hasn't changed at all.

What has changed is the decreasing resources of newspapers and magazines who consequently have less and less freedom to go looking for the news. This is dangerous for democracy.

This morning all the media here are full of images and words from Port-au-Prince, where an earthquake has brought even more trouble to Haiti. Le Devoir--which has bucked the trend and publishes much seriously researched information--had a picture transmitted by Twitter of the destruction. But don't look to Twitter or many blogs for significant analysis of the aftermath.

Of course, this blog post is part of the same trend, since I read about the Pew Center study in Le Devoir yesterday, and went looking for it on the web. That I could find it easily says a lot about the positive effects of the age we're living in. The negative ones require a lot more thought.

New Sports Bar in Bujumbura: a Sign of Peace and Progress?

The other morning I was delighted to see an article with a date line Bujumbura in Le Devoir. Not much news comes out of the African Great Lakes except the occasional horror story, so it was a pleasure to read this account of a modest success.

A Québécois of a certain age Jean-Claude Gosselin, has opened a sports bar in Buju with some associates. Not only does La Cervoise de gaulois feature tablecloths and pennants with hockey logos, the team has started growing vegetables to serve in the restaurant and plans on raising rabbits and chickens for the same end.

The story doesn't say exactly where it's located, and I've been struck by how much the interior looked like a place I visited when I was there in 2001, the Cercle nautique. According to notes on Wikipedia this venerable restaurant/bar/inn on the shores of the lake was closed last summer, so it's possible it's undergone a transformation.

That is, of course, one of the things that make travel interesting, not only initially but later as one follows what has happened in the places visited. According to the US State Department the neighborhood where the Cercle nautique was located is dangerous after dark, but overall it seems that the city and surrounding territory is considerably safer than it was when I was there. It was just as the long peace process between Hutus and Tutsis was beginning, and I was there to do research for my novel The Violets of Usambara which takes place in large part in Buju in 1997.

The photos are ones I took then: of the Club Tanganyika (which may have become part of the Hotel Lac du Tanganyika but I can't be sure) and the cattle of some friends which had been brought down from the hillls for safety.

Le Devoir: Media Exception or Model for the Future?

The Montreal daily Le Devoir celebrated its hundredth anniversary as an independent newspaper yesterday with an all-day open house and a gala evening party. Far more influential than its circulation--around 30,000--would suggest, the paper provides news and analysis in depth that is not found elsewhere. What is more, it is profitable.

As such, it is certainly bucking the trend in print media. At a time when CanWest newspapers including the Montreal Gazette are under protection from creditors and the two other French-language dailies in Montreal (with circulations orders of magnitude larger) are suffering, Le Devoir's success suggests that maybe principle is not only a good thing for our society, but also a better bet for media survival,

Saturday Photo: Sun and the Importance of Urban Parks

The sun is out and the temperatures have plummeted after more than a week of gray skies and continual snow showers. When I was up in the cemetery early this morning, I met several runners dressed in spiffy new winter running clothes--Christmas presents? or Boxing Day bargains?--chugging their way up the hill. The footing is better than it has been for several days since the surface is frozen. The sun makes you feel like you want to be outside, too.


One of the nice things about Montreal is the way that parks are used intensely by the people who live here all year around. The two nearest us have skating rinks for casual skating, set up in what in summer time are ponds. Another park a little farther away has two rinks for hockey playing and practice, as well as a slope that that's good for sledding. The parks are not just pretty places to look at, they're also places to live, play and exercise. And, as the photo on the left suggests, places to sunbathe too.

The sign on the top photo, BTW, means "Look out for our children."

A Different Kind of Reading Aloud: Taylor Mali Tells a Story

A little something to follow up on Transport Canada coming to its senses about the importance of books:

Mark One for the (Electronic) Pen over Stupidity: Now on to Scanners and Hysteria in General

Okay, this is a hopeful message, after a flurry on rather sad ones. It appears that protest against Transport Canada's "oversight" in not including books, newspapers and magazines among the things permitted to be carried into airplane cabins on flights from Canada to the US has been successful. It only took about 24 hours of blog and newspaper comment (the National Post had the story first in a blog, and The Globe and Mail picked it up yesterday in print) about a Facebook group protesting the ban that things were changed. (See Stop Dumbing Down: Allow Books on Airplanes begun by YHS.)

Who knows how long people--including one woman who said her kids' colouring books were taken--would be deprived of intelligent entertainment on flights otherwise? Many thanks are due to those to expressed their outrage. Let's hope it also bumped up awareness of the importance of reading to ordinary people among those who make rules.

Now let's see what we can do about other stupid things. Has anyone read or heard just what kind of imaging will be used in those full body scanners? If it's x-ray technology, we may be letting ourselves open for unnecessary exposure to dangerous radiation. And doesn't that announcement of an early arrival of 44 scanners for eight airports in Canada indicate that the Harper government have them on order all ready? What else does Steve and his buddies have waiting in the wings?

Most importantly, let us consider WHY there is terrorism, and act accordingly.

What? No Ban? Maybe You Just Have to Schlep You Books One by One

I've had an interesting conversation with a researcher for CBC's As It Happens, who initially wanted to do a story on the whole book/plane thing. But, she now says, Transport Canada says there is no ban on books, so the CBC will not do a story. It's unclear whether Transport Canada will make a public statement to that effect, though.

In reading the original release, I see there's an important difference between it and what was initially reported. The release says "Effective immediately, US bound passengers are not allowed to bring carry on bags into the cabin of the aircraft, with some exceptions," and then goes on to list the kinds of bags. That important first sentence has been left out in every story so far, giving the impression that what followed was all that is allowed.

But from reading the entire releasle, the upshot should be: if you can carry a book in one of the allowed bags OR IN YOUR HAND you can bring it on board. Please let me know if you or anyone you know is hassled for this.

Addenda: And apparently Transport Canada is doing some damage control because I received a copy of a letter from Mathieu Larocque, one of their chief spokespeople, to the head of the Canadian Publishers' Association, confirming "that books and magazines and other personal items such as cell phones and laptop are permitted on US-bound flights." He adds: "Transport Canada is currently working on a revised list that will be a little more specific and that will include items such as books and magazines. "

Book Ban Observation: Couldn't Get "When Everything Changed" into Computer Bag or a Pocket

It seems like the bizarre decision not to include books, magazines and newspapers as things you can take into the cabin with you on US-bound flights leaving Canadian airports, is getting some attention which is a good thing.

I'm on the lookout for information about just how readers are faring these days, and I've heard that books have been successfully brought aboard in coat pockets are computer bags. But when I travel I like to take good-sized books for some uninterrupted reading. As I finished up the previous post about a hefty book on the progress of women since 1960, I took a closer look at it, and realized that there was no way it would make the cut...unless I actually cut it into sections to squirrel around my person in pockets with a a hefty slice in a computer bag.

We need a protest on this: Stop Dumbing Down: Allow Books on Airplanes

More on the Rise of Women: Don't Forget the Pill and the Unemployment Rate As Factors

There is an interesting overview of the history of women in the last 50 years reviewed in The New York Review this month. Gail Collins' When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present is a social history that covers a lot of ground, and tells some interesting stories.

But I was surprised when reading the review by Caroline Schine that so little space was given to the impact of cheap, easy and extremely reliable contraception that women could control. As someone who came of age just as The Pill arrived, I know just how liberating it was. The anxious monthly waiting to see if you had one in the oven was gone, and you could plan your future the way men have always been able to plan theirs.

But maybe the reviewer just neglected to mention this, I thought, so when I saw the book at the library, I picked it up. So far I haven't read all 471 pages, but in following up threads in the index, I find very little discussion of this. Nor is there much attention paid to the role of tight labour markets in making it easier for women to enter the labour market and to soar once they were there.

This last is one of the messages Lee always tried to convey in his economics classes. When there was a demand for labour, women responded. An interesting case is that of the aircraft industry in Canada before and during World II. In 1939 women made up 3 per cent of the fledgling industry's labour force, but by 1944 they made up 30 per cent. After the War, though, they were turfed out of their jobs. It wasn't until later in the century that a tighter labour market opened the way for women to demand better jobs. You could have all the equal rights marches you wanted, but if the jobs weren't there, no one, male or female, was going to be hired.

An argument for full employment as a major economic goal if there ever was one.

Sisters, Another Cautionary Tale: Llasa de Sela Dies at 37 of Breast Cancer

I have no idea of the progress of Llasa de Sela's cancer--the public story is that she had health problems but felt well enough a year ago to finish a new album, do some concerts in Iceland and elsewhere and plan a major tour for last fall. The press release announcing the cancellation of the tour spoke of a "precautionary" measure in order to safeguard her "energy levels."

And then she died on the evening of New Year's Day, becoming a cautionary tale for women, and for the men who care about them.

Two weeks ago I wrote about another young woman in her 30s who had just been diagnosed with stage 2/3 breast cancer. At that time, I urged anyone pre-menopausal who finds a lump to get it checked out immediately, and for women over 50 or with a family history of breast cancer to get regular mammograms. Unfortunatelly, Llasa's story provides an opportunity to make the same pitch.

Chances are things will turn out all right, as my own experience attests. But if you put it off and something is wrong, it'll only get worse.

Because Books Are Important: Lemony Snicket's Unfortunate Adventure with the Kindle

Something to amuse you while we wait to see if books really are banned from flights to the US. Another pleasure from Green Apple Books in San Francisco, a brick-mortar-and-real-book store.



As for the new airport regulations barring (it seems) books from flights to the US, checkout the FaceBook Group "Stop Dumbing Down: Allow Books on Airplanes,"

Saturday Photo: Decade-Old Pix from Singapore, Marking a Change in My Life

Last night I realized that a decade ago, nearly to the day, I changed my life drastically. In January 2000 I decided to forge ahead with the idea of writing a book about botanical gardens even though I didn't have a contract in hand. This would mean, I knew, trying to finance the necessary international travel out of travel writing and other bits and pieces, and traveling by myself to some far off countries. (Lee hates airplanes and it took much persuading to get him to join me in France eventually. His reluctance was part of the reason why until 2000 I had never ventured off the North American continent, besides a week trip to Haiti with my sister and her husband in 1973.)

So I began making plans to visit Singapore, Kew and the Jardin des plantes in Paris during the spring of 2000. Luckily, my adventures began at a time when e-mail was common, so I was able to arrange appointments and make reservations before I left. I also decided that a woman traveling alone mustn't be afraid: I'd try to go out by myself every morning when the place was waking up in order to talk to all women who looked friendly, as well as to take up all the invitations that were offered by my contacts.

The result has been a wealth of wonderful experiences all over the world--in the last ten years, I've been to Europe five times, Singapore three times and Brazil, China, India, Tanzania, Burundi and Kenya one time each, not to mention shorter visits to less exotic places in North America.


These are pictures are took on that first trip in March 2000. I didn't know what I was getting into--a young Australian had just been whipped for marijuana possession--but I ended up being very favourably impressed by Singapore. People bitched to me about the goverment the way they do most places, and I was there three days before I saw a police officer in uniform doing anything other than direct traffic. And when I saw the way that the City of London was locked down for May Day celebrations (Red Ken has just been elected mayor) and the gendarmes with machine guns in the Paris Métro, I realized that there are all kinds of ways to control people, and let he without sin cast the first stone.


At this point I have no idea what the next decade will hold for me, but I can't help thinking that I was extraordinarily lucky with the last one.

BTW, if you're interested, here's a link to the books that have grown out of that travel.

A Bonbon for the New Year: Chico Buarque Sings A Valsinha

A lovely Brazilian waltz to celebrate the New Year. The pictures are of young folk, but I think it applies to older ones too. You'll find my English translation below which doesn't rhyme, but maybe gives an idea...



A Valsinha

One day he took a different path from his usual one
He saw her and looked at her in way that wasn't his usual one, a glance full of fire,
And he didn't curse life as he usually did
And didn't simply pass her on the corner, but to her surprise, he invited her to dance

And then she made herself lovely in a way she hadn't done in a long time
Putting on her low-necked dress that smelled as if it had been waiting in a closet for a long time too,
Then they took each other's arm in a way neither had tried in a long time, full of kindness and grace,
And then they went to the park and embraced.

And there they danced with such beauty and passion that the whole neighbourhood was awakened,
And there was so much happiness that the whole town lit up;
And there were so many crazy kisses
So many intense cries that hadn't been heard for ages...
That the world understood
And the day arrived
In peace

You've Come a Long Way, Baby Dept: The Economist Looks at Women and Work, and Forgets Some Important Points

As the year ends, and it seems that half the world is looking back, a story on women in the work force from The Economist is food for thought. In most of the "rich" countries, more than half of women are in the labour force--in Canada the figure was 62.8 per cent in 2008--while young women overall make up more than half the students enrolled in post-secondary programs. This is a major worldwide change that has happened without much "friction," even though it affects the most "intimate aspects of people’s identities."

The reasons are many, the article says. The Feminist movement of the 1960s and 70s was a factor, but so was the change in the nature of work: "When brute strength mattered more than brains, men had an inherent advantage. Now that brainpower has triumphed the two sexes are more evenly matched."

That's an interesting point, but I have a few quibbles with other points made. The website doesn't say who wrote the story, but I'd guess young men had a large hand in it because of the way it treats the effect of the contraceptive pill. Being able to control fertility easily, safely and independently has "allowed women to get married later," the story says, and has "increased their incentives to invest time and effort in acquiring skills, particularly slow-burning skills ... The knowledge that they would not have to drop out of, say, law school to have a baby made law school more attractive."

Pardon me? The contraceptive revolution is much wider than that, for one thing. And the idea that babies and law school--or other fields of endeavor--can't be managed in a lifetime is absurd. Women can, and do, particularly where they have support from their society. What is needed is a societal committment to children: to good schools, daycare and parental (not just maternal) leave. The reasons to do so are not just ones of fairness and equity, but of concern for the future economy. Any discussion of an impending post-Baby Boom "age crisis" should remember that in the 1950s, the ratio of dependent to active workers was low because so many women were not part of the labour force. We will need women's brains and skills in the future as an ageing population means proportionately fewer active labour force members.

There's another point that must not be forgotten, particularly as governments start grumbling about cutting back, now that the worse of the Crisis of 2008 is over: wages in the 1950s were high enough for a middle or working class family to live on one income. That clearly is not the case now. Because we have allowed the erosion of earning power we must take up the slack in providing services for families so that women can work, children can thrive and the men who love them are not exhausted by responsiblity.

No Books on Planes? New Regulations Should Be Protested

Note: Transport Canada said on January 6 that this was all a misunderstanding, books were never supposed to be banned. Rather stupid of them not to include them on the "permitted" list though. Maybe our little protest did something. Mary. And as of January 17 to FaceBook page is no more.

What's wrong with this picture?

1. New travel restrictions for flights leaving Canada for the US, according to The Globe and Mail: "Allowed on board will be the following: medication or medical devices, small purses, cameras, coats, items for care of infants, laptop computers, crutches, canes, walkers, containers carrying life sustaining items, a special needs item, musical instruments, or diplomatic or consular bags."

2. Amazon.com sells more Kindle books than physical books on Christmas Day, and the electronic book reader smashes holiday sales records for the on-line commerce.

3. The feisty independent bookseller McNally-Robinson files for bankruptcy protection and closes stores in Toronto and Winnipeg.

The second and third items are not particularly unexpected, given the way publishing has been switching from paper to pixels in the last few years. But the first is astonishing: no books, either electronic or hardcopy, on airplane flights? No magazines? No writing paper, unless you can fit it into a "small purse?" To my mind, the only redeeming thing about a long airplane flight is the time it can give for uninterrupted reading, but now they want to deprive us even of that.

Is this an oversight, or just another example of the way the powers-that-be find it congenial to make it easier to stop thinking? If you want to react, check out the Facebook Group, Stop Dumbing Down: Allow Books on Airplanes.

Plus Ça Change Department: LA c. 1970 or Montréal 2009?

The pix is supposedly of high school students in Los Angeles in the early 1970s (Wikipedia says 1973) but as I've been nosing around this morning, trying to get a fix on what kind of clothes a mother and daughter would fight about then, I was struck by how much the pair resemble the students in my Portuguese class at the Université de Montréal last term.

After more than a week of diversion, I'm back working on River Music, and the topic at hand is what Frances will wear to her Graduation Ball in 1973 and what she will pack to go to MIT in that fall. My idea is that this very banal conflict will tell a lot about the relation between the two women, and the career paths they will follow. Frances will become an electrical engineer while her mother, Gloria, was a concert pianist.

I haven't decided what the resolution of the argument will be, but I do know that one young women in my class this December wore a jumper, tights and long sleeved shirt almost exactly like this one, while more than one young man in the class favoured the long hair, jeans and white shirt look of the guy in the photo.

What does this mean? That everything that goes around, comes around? That pretty, slim young women can make anything look terrific? That jeans and white shirts are modern-day classic clothes?

Probably all of the above. And also that being young is a country through which we all pass, and which we forget at our peril.

Mistletoe and Gigues: Christmas Chez Georges-Etienne Cartier

Saturday we spent the afternoon at the Maison Georges-Etienne Cartier, enjoying a Victorian Christmas. Elin and Emmanuel invited us: the curator is one of Emmanuel's friends and he knew the presentation was extraordinary. Not only we were treated to some behind-the-scenes information about how some of the objects made their way to the house, we also very much enjoyed the talks by the three guides, dressed in costume of the mid-19th century. Did you know, for example, that mistletoe is supposed to protect the house, and to greet friends and family with a hug and a kiss offers wishes for a prosperous year to come?

The weekend after Christmas was a particularly good time to visit. Calleur (yes, that's the right spelling) Pierre Chartrand was there with friends to play traditional Quebec music and to lead visitors in dances that have the same origins as square dances that I remember from my own childhood. We even got Lee to dance a waltz at the end, although he sat out the contredanse and set carré.

The exposition closed yesterday, but put it on your calendar as something to do next holiday season.

Saturday Photo: Winter Wonderland

Great holiday--lovely snow. We're off to play to day.

The Very Best of Seasons' Greetings

Seasons' Greetings from Lee and Mary, and the others who are hanging around just now!

For more holiday cheer, check out the end-of-year blog.

Sil--Pickled Herring--for the Soderstroms' Reveillon

The kids will be over tonight for our version of Reveillon. Christmas Eve was not a big thing when I was a child. We might have gone to church (9 p.m. service, none of that Midnight Mass stuff) but aside from my father feverishly trying to wrap presents, the evening of December 24 was rather quiet, with the big show coming on Christmas Day.

Lee's family, being Lutheran rather than Presbyterian, put more store in a late church service. The Swedish tradition of lutfisk for supper was also followed. I cooked it several years after we were married but there can't be anything more disgusting than the dried and lyed and soaked cod dish. When we fetched up here where lutfisk is unknown, but where a big Christmas Eve celebration is the norm, it was clear we had to create our own traditions. Chief among them was a switch to potato sausage as the main course for Christmas Eve dinner.

But one tradition we keep is pickled herring as a first course. Here is the recipe from Lee's mother, slightly modified. It's best aged for a week, which means that if you make it today, it'll be perfect for New Year's Eve.

SIL

For each large salt herring or for each two small herring:

1/2 cup vinegar

2 tablespoons water

1/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons chopped onions

5 peppercorsn, crushed

10 whole allspice, crushed

2 sprigs fresh dill

Soak herring overnight, clean and remove bones, cutting filets.

Make dressing by mixing ingredients listed above, then bringing to boil. Let cool, pour over fillets, add more sliced onions and dill springs. Let maribate in refrigerator for at least three days. A week is better.

Serve with rye crisp and beer.

Snow and Poinsettias

Only a photo today, because there's just too much to do.

Conservatives Are Already in Holiday Mode, While the US Senate to Work Until Santa Flies, This Year

What a difference political will makes: Senators in the US are scheduled to vote on the new health insurance reform package on Christmas Eve, but Conservative members of the Special Committee on Canada's Mission in Afghanistan will stay away from hearings today because "The Christmas and Holiday Season is a time to spend with family, friends, and loved ones," according to a memo from Laurie Hawn, a Conservative honcho. She continues: "One would hope that only the most serious of emergencies should interfere with these moments."

Oh come on, this is just another delaying tactic on the part of a government which doesn't want to face up to what it's done. If you really want to do something, you work like hell to get it done. While the US health reform is far from perfect, at least the Obama government wants to get it paased. If only there were more folks in Ottawa today who wanted to do the right thing!

Memo to CBC/Radio Can Brass: Remember This is Another Country and We Like Serious Music

Changing measuring systems can mean big differences in results, and that's what appears to be happening with widespread use of "portable people meters" of PPMs, little devices that pick up what a sample of the population (all volunteers) is listening to. PPMs have been use in Montreal and 12 major areas in the US for a year now, with some disconcerting results, particularly in the US. (Previously, the ratings were based on listener diaries. The switch is being made in other markets, including Toronto, this fall and winter.)

Last week the first year-long ratings comparisons were available in the US, showing that less classical music was being listened to than had been thought. Classical radio’s market share fell 10.7 percent in the 12 markets which include New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, according to The New York Times.

There are inherent dangers in comparing listenership measured in two different ways, of course, but it's interesting that not much difference shows up for the BBM figures for Radio Two stations before or after the switch. (See my blogs of a year ago last spring and last week.) What is clear that the dumbing down in Radio Two programing--which coincided with the change in measurement--has not done anything to increase listenership.

On the other hand, a story in the weekend's Le Devoir gives some comfort to those who think the Mother Corp has taken a very wrong turn in decreasing serious music in its programming. The highest rated programs on Radio Canada's Espace Musique (the equivalent of the CBC's Radio Two) were classical ones, it seems: a Sunday morning show animated by a pianist, a Saturday morning one hosted by classical music buff Edgar Fruitier and the opera on Saturday afternoon.

The Brass at CBC and Radio Canada should take a close look at these figures, and do some serious reflection on what they should program. Unfortunately, they may do what they'd done in the past, which is fall all over themselves to try to reproduce what is happening south of the border.

Saturday Photo: Christmas Bird Count

The temperature was hovering a little below minus 20 C (a degree or so below 0) as the sun was rising this morning. At the entrance to Mount Royal Cemetery I passed a group of hardy souls, shivering as they prepared to take part in the annual Christmas Bird Count.

The counts began at the beginning of the 20th century when American ornithologist, Frank Chapman, looking for a way to counter what was then an American tradition, a Christmas bird "shoot.) The first Montreal count was held 1931, and has continued every year (except for four wartime years.) Thousands of birdlovers in North America will take part in the counts this year, enjoying being outdoors and collecting data which has become a treasure trove for biologists.


Back when we first came to Montreal we took part a couple of years, but after the kids were born we stopped going: it's hard to interest a small child in being quiet while the adults search the forest or the fields with binocs.

But it was a pleasure to see the counters out this morning. They invited me to join them, but I opted for heading home and getting warm again. I told them, however, that they'd given me the idea of today's Saturday photos. The pix were taken in Kamloops in early November: some Bird Counters in Quebec will likely find Canada geese today since they've begun staying around longer and longer, but they're almost sure not to find black-billed find magpies (bottom photo) since their range is in the western part of the continent.

Canada Wins Fossil of the Year Award--for the Second Time!

This just in: it seems that our country's sterling performance has merited it the Fossil of the Year award. I'm not surprised, given the Harper government's actions during the Copenhagen conference on climate change. What is suprising to me is that this is the second year Canada has won it.

Shame! Shame! as they say in Hansard.

What's True, What's False, What's Simply Blind: The Pleasure and Dangers of Stories

The stories we tell ourselves are what keep us going--and sometimes that stories can be either amusing, or outraging.

In the first category put "The Ten Most Important Events of the Last 4.5 Billion Years," courtesy of The Onion. The too-good-to-be true publication gives the Number One spot to: "Evolution Going Great, Reports Trilobite"

The story begins: "Slowly inching his segmented exoskeleton across the sea floor, a local marine arthropod, class Trilobita, reported that Earth's natural evolution was "progressing quite nicely."

"Things are looking mighty fine," announced the prehistoric invertebrate, taking measure of his surroundings through a series of small, hexagonal eyelets located at the tip of his thorax. "Sulfurous gas seems to be bubbling up to the surface pretty good, and several single-cell organisms appear to be mutating at a rather steady pace. Also, just today, I developed the ability to roll into a small protective shell in order to avoid predators...."

We all know that The Onion is just joking, but story-telling has other sides. In this video (pointed out to me by Bimol Thambyah) Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talks about the dangers of getting stories from only one view point.

Don't Be Afraid, Sisters: Get That Lump Checked Out Before It Gets Worse

Bad news from a friend: her 35 year old daughter-in-law, mother of two, full of life, has just been diagnosed with multiple breast cancer tumors. Apparently, she'd been aware of lumps for some time, but had dragged her feet getting them checked out. What's ahead is chemotherapy, followed by surgery, it seems.

So it is time for another rant about how women must not be afraid to have lumps investigated, and, if they're over 50, to have regular mammograms. My own ductal carcinoma in situ turned up in a mammogram about four years ago, and treatment--lumpectomy and radiation--went very well, thank you very much. (Please note, though, that routine mammograms for women under 50 aren't very effective.)

Since then I've thought a lot about the scare approach to cancer education. In many cases, I think women are afraid what will happen if they do the prudent thing. It's magical thinking--what I don't know won't hurt me--so they put the doctor's visit or the mammogram off, sometimes until it's so late that things are much worse than they might otherwise have been.

Today's message, in short, is not to be afraid, Sisters.

When Bad Things Happen to Good Media: Le Devoir Finds Itself Caught in Quebecor's Web, and I Don't LIke It

No Le Devoir this morning. It seems that locked out workers from the Journal de Montréal have blocked distribution trucks: while Le Devoir remains independent (one of the few voices in Canada) it is printed at the Journal de Montréal plant.

Of course, if you're a home subscriber, this delay is no a surprise. For the last three weeks, Le Devoir has been coming later and later, and the man who delivers our copy says that the carriers have been getting the papers hours late. The conflict of the JDM is part of a greater one at Quebecor, having to do with definion of tasks, and "media convergence."

If I were one of Le Devoir's head honchos, I'd be furious. You can't run a hard copy newspaper if you can't get it distributed. As I noted a few weeks ago, the respected paper has actually seen its circulation grow over the last years, in large part by providing news and analysis that you can't find anywhere else. This would seem to be a way for print media to buck the tide, but it won't work if readers who want a real publication in a format that you can hold while you're sitting in a rocking chair or at the breakfast table can't rely on getting it at home.

It would be a crime if Le Devoir were to allow itself to go down in Quebecor's ill-considered, cut-throat war with its employees. Do something, I say: I want my paper.

Radio Two Wallows in Montreal, and Comes up Short in Toronto, According to Latest Ratings

The ratings are out for the fall listening period and once again Radio Two seems to be wallowing in Montreal. Last year during the same period the station garnered 2.3 per cent of Anglo listeners according to PPM measures, while this year the percentage was down to 2 per cent. Its sister-station Espace Musique got 2.2 per cent of Franco listeners a year ago, but this year recorded 2 per cent. In contrast this year the all-classic station CJPX got 4.6 per cent among Francos and 2.6 among Anglos, compared to 3 percent among Anglos and 4.3 percent among Francos.

So where’s the big increase in interest that the dumbing down of programming was supposed to bring?

It would be nice to make a similar comparison for Toronto, but the Bureau of Broadcasts Measurement, which tracks listenership, just switched over there to a new method. Previously the audience shares were determined by listener diaries, but now a selected sample of listeners wear small sensors that pick up what they are listening to. The switch was made here a year ago, making the Montreal comparisons particularly interesting. But trying to compared results in Toronto is really comparing apples and oranges.

For the record though, during the fall 2009 period, all classical CFZM had a 2.5 per cent share while the Radio Two station had 1.7 per cent. It will be interesting to see if there is any movement in the next ratings.

Saturday Photo: Running in the Snow

This photo is a repeat from nearly a year ago, but it fits perfectly with the sun and new fallen snow of today. Couldn't resist using it again.

This has been an exceptionally busy time: lots of work with my own projects, plus doing some proofreading for others, as well as the Portuguese class. (I have no idea how I did on the final, BTW, but I do know that I learned a lot taking it, which is what good exams should do.)

Last night was the annual supper of Les Durochères, my neighborhood book group, one of the most pleasant events of the year. We all bring food, other goodies, and our thoughts on the books we've read for our monthly meetings. Then we vote on the best one: Ce que le jour doit à la nuit by the Algerian write Yasmina Khadra won. It hasn't been translated into English yet, although several of his earlier novels have, including The Swallows of Kabul and The Attack. He's worth reading, although my favourite of the 10 books (we don't meet in July and August) was By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolaño: I didn't even rank the Khadra among my top three. My two other favourites were The Stranger by Albert Camus (much, much better than the Khadra I think, but very interesting to read in tandem) and A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. Of course, one of the great things about groups like this is diversity of opinion: a book everyone likes frequently turns out not to elicit a lively conversation.

Tonight the pleasure continues with a Japanese meal at Elin and Emmanuel's with Sophie and Lukas. It's a belated Christmas present, scheduled for late last winter, but life got complicated. Now we'll all be able to spend an evening unwinding!

Three Hour Final Exams Are A Challenge!

Lee was waiting for me with some wine last night when I came back from my Portuguese final exam. It was the first time in decades that I'd written a three hour exam, and it showed.

So today I'm doing other things...more about Portuguese and books tomorrow.

Corruption, Lying and Fossils: This Is Not the Canada I Love

According to a survey released earlier this fall, Canada ranks eighth as the least corrupt country: the top (and best) spot went to New Zealand and the bottom, to Somalia. When the results were announced, I remember thinking that, yeah, we are pretty honest. But lately it seems a curtain has been lifted and we are seeing two sorts of corruption which have been present for some time: secret deals made between governments and private enterprise, and systematic lying and misrepresentation about the federal governments aims.

The latest news from Quebec reports that 559 contracts were awarded between April and October, 2009, without calling for bids. This follows on a wave of news since early fall about contractors giving handsomely to election war chests, and, most recently, Liberal party supporters getting permits to expand day care centers.

On the federal level, absolutely shocking behavior of Stephen Harper's government in denying that it had ever been warned of bad treatment of prisoners in Afghanistan is the most recent and blatant example. Yesterday Gen. Walter J. Natynczyk had to recant his earlier testimony when he was informed that, yes indeed, a field report from 2006 said a man detained by Canadian troops had been beaten by Afghan jailors.

To top it off, Canada got its second "Fossil of the Day" award at the Copenhagen conference on global warning, sharing the "honours" with Croatia. It previously been part of a group of industrialized countries who'd won the day before.

This is not the behavior which led me to embrace this country. Something's got to change....

Need to Have the Sidewalks Plowed If You Want a Walkable City

There were two people on bikes this morning when I went out, but I'm sure they're not going to ride home this afternoon. The much-heralded snow has come (my cousin in Arizona was wondering earlier this week at all the snow in Flagstaff, presumably from the same weather system) and the only bike I saw out just now was one being pushed.

The guy on cross country skis was doing much better, gliding down Laurier: "Got to take advantage of it," he said as he passed. Then he turned onto what in milder weather is the bicycle path, while I slogged along. Things were worse on our street--the middle had been plowed but the sidewalks hadn't. Bah! Humbug!

But I must admit it looks rather pretty...

The Real Opposition in Ottawa Isn't the Liberals: Thank Goodness for Greenpeace

Canada has got the "Fossil of the Day" award in Copenhagen already this week because of our feet-dragging on climate change, and the Harper government's protection of the Alberta oil sands projects. Unfortunately, that is just the latest in a sorry list of foreign policy and other moves that are undermining this country's basic principles and international standing.

But Harper and the Conservatives don't represent everyone, as the terrific guerilla tactics of Greenpeace in Ottawa yesterday attest. About 20 supporters got arrested for breaching security, making it to the top of the Center Bloc of the Parliament buildings and unfurling this banner. Good on them!

And note too that they include Michael Ignatieff in their protest. The Liberals under his leadership are not providing the kind of opposition we need to salvage the good things about Canada. Time for the NDP and the Bloc Québécois to do more.

Busy Day: Another Photo from Kamloops

A hundred things to do this week--some proof reading to do, an approaching book deadline, and--shudder!--a final exam on Thursday, the first I've taken in decades.

So it's back to Kamloops today for a photo. Like the juxtaposition of the hills, the buildings and the signs. The one on the red building reads "Communities in Bloom." It's up to you to provide the irony.

Saturday Photo: A Green Light, Not the Red Light

This young woman was probably only waiting for a ride on that Saturday afternoon in early November, there's probably nothing sordid about what was going on at all. Kamloops' old court house was across the street, and people were coming and going from a conference on walking.

Nevertheless, I can't resist reading something into her loneliness. Cars were speeding past, there were few people aside from the conference-goers on foot. Being a street-walker in an automobile-based city would be something quite different from what it was when the term was invented.

Classical Music as an Extreme Sport: Chojnacka Plays Gorecki on the Harpsichord

Anyone who thinks that classical music is for wimps should take a look at this riveting performance of Polish composer H.M. Górecki's Concerto for Harpsichord and String Orchestra, Op. 40 (1981) I came across it this week when I was rooting around, doing research for my next novel, River Music, which has a harpsichordist as a major charaacter--but more about that another time.

You'll remember that when Górecki's Third Symphony was played on the radio in Los Angeles in the 1990s, people pulled off the freeway to listen properly. The Concerto is a lot more energetic, and here it is played with absolutely amazing energy by Polish harpsichordist Elisabeth Chojnacka. Like most harpsichordists of recent years, she started off playing Baroque and Renaissance works on the instrument, but she now specializes in contemporary music. Born in 1939, she's even older than Mick Jagger, but she struts her stuff with just as much energy.

Proofreading, Embarassment, and a Good Laugh

One of the seductive things about having a blog is checking out who checks in with you. This one has a feature that allows me to see which of my posts people want to see, and the pattern is fascinating. Lately one of the favourites is one I did last September on the iconic photo by Robert Capa taken during the Spanish Civil War, and whether fiction and/or faking can inform us about the truth.

This morning I took a look to see just what people were wanting to see, and discovered to my horror that the post had several typos. For someone who prides herself on her spelling, this was terrible. Rest assured I've corrected the mistakes (and I hope I haven't missed any.) So now I want to share a video that points up the problems the poor proofreading can present. Very gummy, as Lukas commented.

Sidewalk Grit and Crotchedy Cats: More Notes from a Walkable City

Walkable cities are interesting, liveable cities, as I’ve been saying for some time now. Here are two more examples:

The new team on the borough council of Mile and their colleagues in Cartierville (the two districts where Projet Montréal holds the mayor’s job) announced last week that they would hold off on snow removal—not snow plowing—until a storm drops 15 cm, not the 2.5 cm which has been the point when snow removal contracts kick in) in order to save money. But—and this is very important--sidewalks would get more attention.

That certainly seemed to be the case yesterday when grit had been spread in Mile End (just one street over from the border with Outremont borough where I live) and Park Avenue--often slip-and-slide city for days after a snowfall—was a breeze to walk down. Bravo! A step in the right direction, literally.

Then there’s the “lost cat” notice that’s been posted on corners around here the last few days. Besides the usual info in French and English—black with a white belly, collar with his name Basil, last seen November 3—the English ends with the great description :“crotchety motherfucker.” The bereft owner apparently couldn’t come up with a French equivalent, and anyone in a car would have missed it, but I’ve seen several folks read it carefully and then walk away smiling. Hope the cat comes back.

First Snow, Last Bixis: Time to Gather Things in

Radio Noon's farm panel has been talking about bringing cows and sheep inside for the winter: it will be too cold here for them to spend much of their time outside for the next three or four months. This morning, as the first appreciable snow lingered on the lawns, I noticed that the last of Bixis had also been gathered in.

More than a million rides were taken on the new bike share/rental system since it began in earnest last spring. Despite some problems at the beginning it seems to have been a huge success.

Now I must go out and scrape some icy snow from the front steps. When it snowed yesterday, I thought it would all melt, and didn't clean it off. The result is that where we walked it compressed into ice, which is treacherous today. Next time (maybe tomorrow) I'll have to be more on the ball.