Blog
Sneak preview of my latest memoir
I cram my red hair into my helmet, heft my bike out the door and down the peeling wooden stairs of a sad porch that leans to the left, then wheel it along the cracked concrete of the front walkway. ...
My friend Ozzy Osbourne
Please suspend your disbelief. Ozzy and I had a very intense relationship in the early 1970s. Or at least, Black Sabbath and I were a thing at the time, although I admit it may have been a little one-sided. Let ...
My Friend Dave Sage
I met Dave at my first job at a company called Dataline in 1979, a company I talk about in detail in my second book, How I Invented the Internet. I was in possession of a master’s degree in library ...
Cottage Status Report 20250608
Last night, I heard my owl for the first time this season. I’m not sure if it’s a girl or a boy, or even if it’s the same owl from year to year, but its “woot-too-woot,” usually around four in ...
Cottage Status Report 20250510
The hummingbirds are back, complete with their asshole behaviour, dive-bombing each other to get to the feeder even though there is more than enough to go around. The day after I filled the feeder with pseudo-nectar, I noticed it was ...
Suburban Status Report 20250330
Today, I unearthed (un-snowed?) my Globe and Mail newspaper from February 7. I wasn’t completely sure what had happened to it at the time, but suspected it had been plowed under the windrow at the side of the driveway, and ...
Canadian Status Report 20250308
I decided to retire my parka late last week, when the runoff from Toronto’s snowmageddon was pooling in the crevasses of the wonky sidewalks and the snowbanks were withering under a sun that hadn’t been seen for many months. Only ...
Blame Canada
I went to the grocery store today, Farm Boy, a resolutely Canadian grocery store. I just had to pick up a few things I needed for dinner today and tomorrow. Lasagna incorporating freezer leftovers. Some kind of curry, ditto. As ...
Just Another Manic Sunday
Even though Mondays no longer spark the opposite of joy, and even though Saturdays are no longer reluctant shopping days, there’s something about Sundays that still stretch languidly, with ample time to putter in the kitchen. So that’s exactly what ...