I got new glasses – or rather, new frames on an old prescription — and I now realize they are identical to the ones Molly was wearing before Marcia Brady turned her into a popular girl (and then Molly became insufferable).
Category Archives: Blog
Animals Allowed to Grow Old: Portraits
An important book – a write-up of it here.
Another Reason to Visit Italy
Not that there aren’t already so many. But a new museum explores 2,000 years of Jewish life in Italy.
Good News
Silly Little Country
A memorial for the Canadian soldiers who died in Afghanistan was unveiled in private – even families of the dead soldiers were not invited — and is not open to the public. This is madness. Christie Blatchford has her say, though I think my late brother said it best when he called his blog “Life in a Silly Little Country.”
Michel Bacos
A hero was celebrated in France last month. Michel Bacos was the pilot of the jet hijacked at Entebbe, the man who stayed – by choice – with the Jewish hostages, though he was not Jewish. What he was, was a veteran of World War II who had obviously learned the lessons of that nightmare. Hatikva, the Israeli anthem, was played before his burial.
Animals Nobody Loves
When I was a kid, my mum gave me a book called “Animals Nobody Loves.” I could not put it down – and now, as a getting-older lady, I wish I had kept it. Checked my library app and could not find it (though I found a book with the same title and probably in the same vein, written by someone else). Lo and behold, Amazon has it, and I still remember that cover (see link above)! Well, the glories of Jeff Bezos.
Why do I mention it? Because two days ago in the New York Times I found this column, which in my view is near perfection.
Epic quote:
World, world, forgive our ignorance and our foolish fears. Absolve us of our anger and our error. In your boundless gift for renewal, disregard our undeserving. For no reason but the hope that one day we will know the beauty of unloved things, stoop to accept our unuttered thanks.
One of those columns where I say, “Man oh man, I wish I had written that!”
Human Kindness
Australia, F*** Yeah!
Delighted to read about the (unexpected) results of the Australian election. Theory and media favoured the Left, but reality did not. Here are a few links: The Aussie Revolt Against Social Justice, from Spiked; …the Left’s Empathy Deficit Came Home to Roost, from Quillette’s Aussie founder; and A Climate-Change Drubbing in Australia, from the WSJ. (The latter might have a subscriber wall.)
Only Connect…
…as E. M. Forster wrote.
I am from a family full of addicts (food, alcohol, drugs) and issues – perhaps we are not so different from other families in that regard. I am also from a family which has always lacked emotional connections (unless you count vicious bullying as a connection). I am certain this is why Johann Hari’s Ted Talk about addiction caught my attention. It’s a tad simplistic, but his main point is a good one: “The opposite of addiction is not sobriety. The opposite of addiction is connection.” But of course it’s a vicious cycle, because the worse an addiction becomes, the more the addict isolates from other people, either by choice or because friends/family can’t stand being around the addict. Addiction creates deep mistrust, deep guilt, and constant dishonesty. It is difficult to connect with those things in the way.
Not unrelated – a fun link and blast from the past about Ted Talks.