marysoderstrom

If there are two words that I use with scorn, they are "flake" and "princess." In my mind they sum up a panoply of selfish, unhelpful characteristics. The latter I tend to use for women who have an exagerated sense of entitlement just because they've always been someone's darling. The former I use transgenderly to describe someone without depth, who doesn't take things seriouslly and, all too frequently, shoots of his or her mouth. Justin Trudeau often is a flake, and, I realize, would... Read Full Story

The photo isn't new--I used it two years ago, but I still like it a lot. As for the holiday, well, it's problematic. Just another opportunity to sell something? For man, certainly. The Globe and Mail starts out its editorial decrying that: "What a grotesque farce is Valentine’s Day... it is a ridiculous confection fraught with peril for millions of Canadian men and women whose amorous relations are perfectly fine on Feb. 13 and Feb. 15, but somehow can’t survive the day in-between without... Read Full Story

It's book discussion week, which kicks off with F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby tonight in Pierrefonds. I had kept rereading the book to the last since the three others are weighty, lengthy tomes that I wanted to make sure I finished in time to think about. So what a pleasure to read this relatively short, elegantly written, sharply drawn novel! It's been a couple of years since I revisited it and I was amazed to find how relevant the implicit criticism of American society ages. The... Read Full Story

The days are getting longer, no question about it. Which means that I've begun thinking of what fun it would be to go travelling. Probably nothing will materialize this spring, but I can't help returning to the pictures taken the last time we were in Paris. Something to dream about.... Read Full Story

Jeanne's around today which makes life exciting. Here is her current video favourite--and at not quite 18 months she recognizes "4" in a number of contexts: And here's a music video of Feist singing the original song. Please note that the first video has received more than 19 MILLION hits on Youtube, while the second has a paltry 134,000. The kids are all right. Read Full Story

Don't have much time today to go into this in detail because I'm involved in setting up an interesting conversation about jobs and the economy, "Working in Canada Today: A Real Challenge. " As I wrote yesterday Tom Mulcair will talk about his economic plans after a couple of union reps will telll about their difficult experiences with the Harper government. But I must draw you attention to the great gulf between what Stephen Harper says will happen to our pension system in the next few years... Read Full Story

There has been much chat this morning about a young MP from the South Shore of Montreal who brought her three month old baby into the House yesterday. She says she'd been recalled suddenly for a vote, and couldn't find her husband who ordinarily is there to take care of the little guy when she's in the house. Now, this is not the first time a baby has been in the house: I think there was a photo op with Sheila Copps 30 years ago when she brought her daughter. But some of the reaction has been... Read Full Story

Last week I posted about the the informal end-of the-day reception coming up on Thursday and organized by the NPD Association of Outremont. on "Working in Canada Today: A Real Challenge." Now we're expecting to have a representative of the United Food and Commercial Workers of Canada (UFCA) who'll talk about their difficulties in organizing and in the treatment of immigrant workers. Richard De Stephano of the machinists union at Air Canada ((l'Association Internationale des Machinistes et des... Read Full Story

I should have posted this link last week: ERDC notices to members of its class action. After nearly 16 years, the Electronic Rights Defence Committee case against Th e Gazette is winding up. The case was against five legal entities, all charged with being implicated in uncompensated, unauthorized electronic publications of work originally published in the Montreal newspaper. The big settlements came a year or so ago, but two parts of the suit--against Hollinger and CEDROM-SNI--have been... Read Full Story

The New York Time s had an interesting article yesterday by Evgeny Morozov about what he thinks is a missed opportunity in the Internet Age: the way it allowed us to poke around, looking for gems of ideas or perceptions. He compares it to the very Parisian idea of flanage, which sometimes is translated as loitering. But it's something far more interesting: strolling and looking, a habit that was lauded by Walter Benjamin and others as a delightful and instructive way to pass time... Read Full Story