This is from a talk I gave to my fraternity on their Career Day. We are in an age of transition. Like those who went from calligraphy to the Gutenberg press, so we are going from pen and print books to tablet computers and ebooks. Up until early last century, manuscripts were written by hand.…
Category: Essay
Tax Relief in Canada for Those With Disabilities
You’re an adult, you’re tripping along, living life, working hard, and then the universe sends you splat, and suddenly you’re seeing doctors, suffering, in pain, not working, and watching your bank account slide into the red. While you may be receiving good help for what ails you, you’re probably not getting good help for what…
Santa Claus Comes to Town
One of my favourite memories of winter was when the snow first fell and Santa Claus came to town. I wrote this short, memory-story for an e-mail course I took to relearn how to write back in 2003. It took place on a day like today, many years ago, when Santa Claus came to Toronto,…
Chopper Trip into the St. Elias Mountain Range, Yukon
So we’re driving along the Alaska Highway in the middle of nowhere, literally. Not the usual definition of nowhere, where there’s still a town just down the road or a shack that-a-way. No, this is nowhere. No other cars for long periods of time, no shacks, no people, no nothing. And then all of a…
Nibbles of Chocolate
“Never trust anyone who tells you they don’t eat desserts. You know, those people who look at you smugly when you offer your pièce de résistance and say, ‘Oh, I couldn’t; this dessert is too rich!’ We simply respond with, ‘We don’t understand the concept of ‘too rich’ — or ‘too chocolaty’ for that matter.”…
Agatha Christie Muses on Euthanasia in “Curtain”
I have not read all of Agatha Christie’s Poirot books, but he’s such a timeless character, the series not needing to be read in order, that I recently devoured the very last Poirot book: Curtain. I’ve been reading Christie for as long as I can remember. Well, maybe not since the age of 2, but…
The Soft Light of Christ(mas)
The woman stands at the tall lobby window, staring out into the night, waiting. The car races down the darkened road. The crosswalk lights sway erratically in the black wind, casting shifting shadows onto the melting snow. People jostle strangers in the light-bright mall, un-noticing. The mother cooks in the kitchen. The father sits on…
Happy Canada Day
Forty years, four months, and fourteen days ago, I landed at Toronto International Airport with my mother, my baby brother, and my teddy bear. My father was waiting to greet us, as he had been in the country for one month already, starting work, finding a place to live. Thirty-five years, four months, and fourteen…
The Toronto Public Library Rewires Human Brains
As promised, here is the essay I wrote on the Toronto Public Library way back in 1997. I’ve been informed that nothing has changed, except that the catalogue is now driving everyone nuts. ♥ The future looks bleak for the Toronto Public Library (TPL). Its budget has been downsized, users continue to pour in, while…