Friday, May 29, 2026
“I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man. I will not. And the government will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man. Not now, not ever. The leader… Read More
Wednesday, May 27, 2026
“For better or worse, it is the commentator who has the last word.”— Vladimir Nabokov This observation from Vladimir Nabokov is spoken by one of the Russian-American novelist’s characters, and not a nice one, either…. Read More
Monday, May 25, 2026
“One should never trespass on kindness. Human kindness is like a defective tap: the first gush may be impressive, but the stream soon dries up.” — P.D. James I had come across a truncated version… Read More
Sunday, May 24, 2026
“I hate it when actors use the word ‘journey.’ That’s not a f–king journey, winning a Spirit Award. Escaping from Ukraine is.” — John Waters I’ve been a fan of John Waters and his trashy-chic… Read More
Friday, May 22, 2026
“The other creatures with which we share this world have their rights too, but not speaking our language, they have no voice, no vote; it is our moral duty to take care of them.”— Roger… Read More
Thursday, May 21, 2026
“Never apologize, never explain — didn’t we always say that? Well, I haven’t and I don’t.”— Marianne Faithfull Those words appear in the first of Marianne Faithfull’s memoirs, Faithfull: An Autobiography, which was published in… Read More
Tuesday, May 19, 2026
Language can get in the way when you travel to another country, and that apparently can involve some Americans who would prefer to speak English their own way, thank you very much. We were at… Read More
Sunday, May 17, 2026
“As we all understand, you can take a man’s show, you can’t take a man’s voice.” — David Letterman I expect to see a lot of Stephen Colbert in the headlines this week, as the… Read More
Saturday, May 9, 2026
We had planned to spend the day in one of the masterpieces created by the Barcelona architect Antoni Gaudí, and wound up in another. It was a real lemonade-out-of-lemons experience, and it included one of… Read More
Friday, May 8, 2026
Montserrat is many things: a mountain, a monastery, a municipality, a park. It’s one of the most stunning places I’ve ever seen. Martha and I caught a bus from Barcelona on Wednesday morning, making a… Read More
Wednesday, May 6, 2026
We set out for Spain on a Monday and got there on a Tuesday; an overnight flight from Montreal will do that. It was early in the breakfast hour in Barcelona when we arrived, and… Read More
Monday, May 4, 2026
My niece Beth gave this mug to me, and it makes me laugh: it comes with a base with design elements from the Empire in Star Wars, and lights up the glass mug appropriately. May… Read More
Monday, May 4, 2026
“The press can be surprisingly easy to co-opt. But remember the Woodward-Darman law, which dictates that a friendship between reporter and source lasts only until it is profitable for one to betray the other.”— Maureen… Read More
Sunday, May 3, 2026
“I’m not somebody who ever has regrets — I’m a great believer in doing things with the best of intentions, and then you learn rather than regret. There are lots of things I’ve learned by… Read More
Saturday, May 2, 2026
“Some say that no one ever leaves Montreal, for that city, like Canada itself, is designed to preserve the past, a past that happened somewhere else.”— Leonard Cohen It’s been almost a decade since Leonard… Read More