Apparently a bunch of folks don’t believe it’s possible that anyone might read over 100 books a year. I’ve read many such dismissive, eye-rolling comments lately. They annoy me. Let’s
Category: Rants
It’s Not About Greta.
I mean, Greta is great. She’s fearlessly speaking truth to power, and I agree with everything she says, including the ruder bits and the yelling. Ditto for Autumn Peltier, the
Some disjointed thoughts on needles and pitchforks
A month or so ago, I was part of a discussion on … some social justice issue, I don’t remember exactly what, and I felt calm. Some policy thing hadn’t
Presto is a pain in the [insert body part here]
Presto has been in the news quite a bit lately. I had a cranky-making experience with being unexpectedly out of tokens on a cold night and having the fancy Spadina
On the folly of not clearing the leaves in the street
This past autumn, my city decided they weren’t going to pick up the leaves that fall into the street in my neighbourhood. Normally they come by once each year after
Dear publishers: No.
At dinner the other night a number of people were surprised to hear of the absurd phenomenon of digital (and DRM’d to boot) books being more expensive than print versions
It’s not the headphones
Here we have an article exploring pedestrian-vehicle crashes “in which the pedestrian was using headphones“. Results There were 116 reports of death or injury of pedestrians wearing headphones. The majority
The annual holiday health curmudgeon warning
Again it’s time for the holiday health curmudgeons to bleat at us, disregarding mental and emotional health and a warm feeling of togetherness and community in favour of carrot sticks
The Two Kinds of Nonprofit Conferences
Today I was watching Twitter hashtags from two separate events. Both were notionally on a similar topic, but the difference in tone was striking and it clarified something for me.
Express.
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. As I was sitting on an Air Canada “Express” plane last night,
“Tax Freedom” Day is bullshit.
Not relatively minor chickenshit — full-on full-size bullshit. If I could pitch the entire Fraser Institute off a cliff for even thinking up the term I would do it. So,
‘Tis the season for Expert Curmudgeons again
In previous years we’ve had warnings about Santa’s fatness setting a bad example and how we should all abjure cookies and eggnog and subsist on carrot sticks and water at
Uggg, morning
This is a good start, but I think I need another couple points on the far left. I’m not sure I could work up enough energy to punch morning in
Stereotypes
How I hate it when people live up to stereotypes. I look at the G20 coverage and that’s all I see. We had people marching peacefully for good causes, whose
Women don’t breastfeed? Here’s a thought —
— maybe hospitals should be nicer to midwives. I gave birth at Women’s College Hospital, and of all places I fully expected them to support my midwives. But they were
December 6, 20 years on
Pamela Cross has already said everything I would say (and more) about this sad anniversary, so I’ll just point you to her post. Her post ends with a poem. I’ll
And yet M’s school insists I pick her up
Ah, how I love Lenore Skenazy. And STATS, who interviewed her. Perhaps the problem needed to be approached from a different angle, she thought. What if you actually wanted your
In which I fume about absurd school forms
I am facing the annual pile of forms from M’s school. I am immediately annoyed by the size of the pile. Welcome back! Let’s spend an hour filling out forms!
Desperately sad. Easily avoided.
I have to say something about this desperately sad story, in which two children, non-swimmers both, drowned and died along with their mother, also a non-swimmer, who had been supervising
I am now determined to live to at least 83
…purely so I can use “Kiss my 83-year-old ass” as the title of a blog post. Although anything over seventy or so works with reasonable credibility, really. (h/t to Jan)