Guilty Pleasure
We all have an ultimate treat. Something beyond bad for you, with absolutely no redeeming values, something that is so heinous (and yet, so delicious) that you only imbibe rarely. I limit consumption of my guilty pleasure to once a year, but luckily, it’s a three-month orgy of badness – if you’re only going to…
The Ghost Map
I find infectious disease fascinating. Not having it, mind you (thought I should clarify that), but transmission, history, properties, effects, the investigation process to determine origin and develop strategies to fight it – essentially, working for the CDC is on the short list of ‘Occupations I Wish I’d Had’. This fascination expresses itself in what…
Casts & Characters
Just flyin’ by in between running errands, running my life, running my mother’s life (good god, I never realized how busy that woman is) and in general running around in circles like a puppy after its tail. My Inbox overfloweth – if I owe you an email, I’m working on a response that can be…
Jockeying for Equality
Imagine you’re a jockey. Imagine you work at the country’s leading racetrack. Imagine that for the past two years, you have been the leading jockey at that racetrack. Imagine that the most prestigious, most important race of the year is coming up. Would it be reasonable to expect that as the leading jockey of the…
Once Was Enough
The first time I saw a cockroach was in Romania in 1980. We named him Oskar, which seemed to befit his truly gargantuan size, and talked about finding him a jaunty red bow. We’d heard terrific tales about the Black Sea mud and its effect on arthritis and so, mor took Janne and I off…
Is That An Echo I hear?
I’ve got nutthin’. Zero, zip, zilch. Nada. My little blonde head is entirely devoid of not only interesting or thought-provoking tidbits, but of pretty much anything. Seriously, there’s nothing. Yesterday – well, by the time you’re reading it’s today, but when I wrote it, today was yesterday and if I don’t stop this right now…
Mercury Retrograde Does It Again
A week ago, when my mother was about to drive off to see the Tinks (which is a long drive – two areas codes away and that’s quite a lot here in Southern Ontario), I told her to drive carefully, because I’d had a dream/feeling/something that there was an accident coming. Didn’t know anything more,…