what i’m reading: two by two favourite authors: part two: zadie smith’s the fraud
In an earlier post, I mentioned that I recently read novels by two of my favourite authors, Roddy Doyle and Zadie Smith. I wrote about The Women Behind the Door…
lgbt stuff
what i’m reading: two by two favourite authors: part two: zadie smith’s the fraud
In an earlier post, I mentioned that I recently read novels by two of my favourite authors, Roddy Doyle and Zadie Smith. I wrote about The Women Behind the Door…
what i’m reading: shuggie bain, brilliant and devastating fiction by douglas stuart
Any novel that wins the Booker Prize will be worth reading. Not all literary prizes reflect quality, but the Booker Prize carries a lot of weight. So when a debut…
"you guys" revisited: further thoughts on the language police
If you know, you know. In October 2020, I wrote a post about the expression you guys, and whether or not using guys as a gender-neutral term excludes transgender people:…
what i’m reading: like other girls: best youth fiction i’ve read in a long time
A girl wants to play football. That’s all. Well, not quite all. Mara wants to be herself. And that self wants to play football, among other things. Mara isn’t trying…
what i’m reading: sometimes you have to lie: the life and times of louise fitzhugh, renegade author of harriet the spy
Until very recently, I didn’t know anything about Louise Fitzhugh and had not thought about her at all. Of course, as a child I read and loved Harriet the Spy,…
wondering what to do with all that privilege and surplus good luck? try #write4rights 2020
Here we are in the middle of a global pandemic, and I feel (to paraphrase my favourite baseball player) like the luckiest person on the face of the earth.* I’m…
first celebrate, then organize: good things that happened in the 2020 u.s. election
United States Vice Presidents After the positive result in the US election, so many of my fellow leftists refuse to find joy in the occasion. They seem determined to not…
"you guys": change language, do no harm, but can we please leave space for learning and growing?
First reactions: the language police I’ve recently learned that calling a group of people you guys may be considered insensitive to transgender people. My first reaction to this was an…
ruth bader ginsburg, rest in power
These highlights of Ginsburg’s decisions and dissents on the SCOTUS are a joy to read. I used two sources, and decided to keep the overlap. Many highlight the reason she…
the deadliest organized-crime and terrorist enterprise in the history of humanity: the catholic church
In the entire history of human beings on this planet, has there ever been a criminal enterprise more devastating — to as many people, over as long a period of…
rest in power, larry kramer
We activists like to paraphrase the legendary labour activist Joe Hill by saying “First mourn, then organize”. Larry Kramer, who died yesterday at the age of 84, defined the phrase.…
three thoughts arising from a focus on the housing crisis
Today I attended a working meeting that included almost all the service providers in the region. These service providers were brought together by the Mount Waddington Health Network to build…
thank you megan rapinoe!
I have a list of topics I want to write about, and I’m not finding any time when my brain is working to write. So on this topic I’m taking…
update: the gay cop on barney miller comes out, plus an adorable child sex worker
About a month ago, I wrote about an episode from the late 1970s-early 1980s sitcom “Barney Miller”, in which the squad discovers that an officer from their precinct is gay.…
ancient tv history: a gay cop on barney miller
Watching my comedy-before-bed daily dose of Barney Miller last night, I was surprised and pleased to see an episode about a gay cop. This remembered this post — turns out…
what i’m reading: giovanni’s room by james baldwin
James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room, a landmark in LGBT literature, is one of our library’s current “Raves & Faves”. The 1956 novel takes place in Paris, narrated by a young American…
things i heard at the library: an occasional series: #23
Girl: Do you have this book, something like, “keeping a secret about you”? Me: Let’s take a look in the catalogue. Hmm, do you mean Keeping You a Secret? Girl:…
what i’m reading: four realistic youth novels
Young-adult publishers’ mania for series, with the emphasis on fantasy, has finally ebbed. There are still plenty of fantasy series to go around, but the new crop of youth novels…
bernie sanders, the pope, and the politics of amnesia
I see a lot of excitement online, in places like Common Dreams and The Nation, and in my Facebook feed, about Bernie Sanders, supposedly remaking US politics, and Pope Francis,…