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This page has now been updated: best of wmtc, 2017, as chosen by Allan .

Even though I don't blog very much anymore, my editor still manages to find some highlights. Best of wmtc, 2016 edition.

I barely wrote at all last year, but my editor and partner managed to find a few (possibly) worthy of a best-of post. Thus,  this page has been udpated . I miss blogging. I love my job and I love leading our union. I love having a steady paycheque, too! But I miss my old life. #CantHaveEverything #StopWhining #YesIKnowItsAFirstWorldProblem

Every year since embarking on graduate school, then beginning to work full-time, I've thought: I have no time to write, I don't write any more. And every year, Allan chooses a sizable number of wmtc posts as best-of for that year. I'm always surprised at how much I've written. I believe 2015 will finally change that. Adding my new union responsibilities to the mix seems to have displaced this blog. This time next year, we'll see if that proves to be true. For now, this page has been updated. Thank you, as always, for continuing to read wmtc.

When we moved to Canada ( nine years plus a few days ago ), I wondered what, if anything, I would miss about the US. Who would have guessed it would be watching "Baseball Tonight"? Yup, the only thing I miss about living in that crazy country is watching a baseball-highlights show on ESPN. Not bad! In a similar vein, what do I miss about being a writer? A strange sound that I can't quite decipher. When people would ask that inevitable question, "What do you do?", and I would answer, "I'm a writer," invariably, I would get this reaction: "Ooooo..." Their eyes would go wide, their lips would form an O, and out would come a sing-song sound of amazement. I don't know why this was. I don't know what it meant. But it would always happen! Except in New York. No one "Oooos" over anyone's work in New York, and certainly not over writers. Writers in New York are more common than tourists in Times Square, or rats on the subway ...

I feel so disconnected from this blog, and from writing in general. I hate it. I love having  this blog. I love that when I do want to write, and have the energy to do so, and have something to say, I have a place to do it. But writing occupies such a small space in my life now.  I'm finding tremendous satisfaction from my job. Meaningful work from which I can actually earn a living! What a concept. I've also gotten very active in my union. The need to protect good jobs and the public sector has never been greater, so the timing is perfect, and I feel I have a lot to contribute. When I'm not working and not engaged in union activities, I'm re-charging. That means movies or baseball, sometimes reading, and trying to get some exercise. I've been very pleasantly surprised at my energy level. I'm very conscious of managing my fibromyalgia, but that's second-nature to me now. I know when to say no, or to cancel plans if I have to. If I do feel a little fibro-ish,...

The wmtc greatest hits page has been updated with the best posts of 2012, as chosen by my partner and editor. About this year's picks, Allan says: "I tried to be a bit more ruthless this year. Also you should highlight our Spain trip and also the tag "what i'm reading" since so many of those are great." All right, sir! Thanks for reading and sharing my posts, and thank you always for your support.

The wmtc greatest hits page has been updated with the best posts of 2012, as chosen by my editor and second-biggest* fan. Thanks for reading, and thank you always for your support. * My mother, who else?!

I'm re-running this, which I wrote for Socialist Worker Canada (now at a temporary site while a new website is being completed). If you are part of this struggle - or if you want to be part of it - and live in the GTA, please join us tomorrow night for Fighting Austerity in North America: Walmart Workers to Bill 115 . Details below. * * * * Workers Doing It For Themselves: Food service workers in New York and Chicago unite to improve working conditions One of the most exciting developments currently unfolding among the working class in North America is the organizing efforts of non-unionized workers. Non-union workers make up about 70 per cent of the labour force in Canada and about 88 per cent in the US. This represents untold volumes of untapped power. The recent actions of Walmart workers , while significant and exciting, represent only one of several groups of non-union workers organizing to improve their own working conditions. Historic win for Hot and Crusty Workers Associat...

My recent post about no longer voting in US elections caused some dismay and upset among some of USian readers. At least one friend interpreted that post as encouraging others not to vote. I was surprised by this - but my friend was surprised that it meant otherwise! It seemed like a clarification was in order. First of all, I would never try to convince anyone not to vote. For most of my life, the idea of not voting was anathema to me. I would have never considered it. And, in the first few presidential elections in which I was eligible to vote, I voted Democrat, and I didn't agree with people I knew who voted third-party. So I understand all the arguments about voting and about voting Democrat. I know where my USian friends are on these issues, because I've been there. What's more, the inaction of not voting is not enough. Boycotting the duopoly without working on building a new system, or educating people about alternatives, would be fairly useless. And I am certainly n...

Oscar Pistorius' historic run as the first double-amputee Olympic athlete has revived the ongoing discussion of whether or not the Paralympics should be integrated into the Olympics. (Stories in The Guardian , Slate , and on CBC's The Current .) Integration sounds like a great idea, and on the surface, the fierce opposition of many athletes with disabilities may seem purely self-interested. The issues, however, are far more complicated than most mainstream media is willing to take on. I wrote about this issue when I covered the Atlanta Paralympics in 1996, and I thought some readers might be interested. I uploaded one story through Google - Change, Growth and Exclusion: A Paralympic Identity Crisis - and a second story I found archived on the New Mobility website: Where are the Paralympics going? Both are written from the perspective of athletes with disabilities.

The writing part of my brain appears to be on vacation. It didn't request time off; it doesn't have to. It's the boss. I have a pile of topics I'd like to write about, but Writing Brain is off in the woods somewhere, recovering from academia. So what is the rest of me doing, besides working two jobs? There's baseball, of course. I've already dived into my spring and summer reading. I have the usual humongous spring list of chores and errands, all the things that pile up while I'm in school. I'm also spending far too much time on my latest obsession, digital jigsaw puzzles . I plan to return to the War Resisters Support Campaign , at least for the summer. I've been marginally active in the Campaign via email, but I haven't been able to attend meetings for a long time, and I really miss it. None of that explains why I'm not writing. But I've noticed that every year after school ends, I'm eager to get back to blogging, but I can't. N...

In the March issue of New Mobility , I have a cover story about Canadian musician Justin Hines. You can see it here. I wrote this over my winter break - just as the library job came through! Not exactly the restful vacation I was hoping for. Fortunately I had a lot of help; Allan should really have a co-byline on this one. The print edition looks terrific, full of great photos. It was a pleasure to interview Justin, he seems like a terrific guy. I add this to my profiles of interesting Canadians: Chantal Petitclerc , Stephen Fletcher , and the great Alyssa Manning . For those of you who can't get enough of my scintillating prose, I posted this with the Children's and Youth Advocacy group at the iSchool: A View from a Children's Library .

During the school term, I am frequently frustrated by not being able to blog. I have ideas for posts that never get written - unusual for me, and unpleasant. If this annual tradition of collecting my best posts from the past year serves no other purpose, it reminds me that I actually am still writing. This the long list for best-of wmtc in 2011. resistance is not futile: resistance is everything how to save the public library "all we know is we are going to get our freedom" (Report on forum on revolution in Egypt.) my police complaint saga comes to a close stephen harper dismantles canada's refugee system; jason kenney attacks canadian democracy haliburton wolves in winter ¡bienvenido diego! (Not best-of, but most important! More good dog pics here: in which i undertake something completely new: my first garden .) books on books, part 1: robert darnton, the case for books books on books, part 2: contested will by james shapiro books on books, part 3: reading matters: wh...

Today is International Women's Day . We've come a long way . And we've still got a long way to go . Globally, the picture looks much worse . See the current issue of Socialist Worker for a collection of IWD stories, including one by yours truly . At today's IWD March in Toronto , the theme is "Reclaim Our City: Together We Are Stronger!" Details here.

I have a little meta-reflection on writing my recent post about the walled-off internet . These thoughts are not specific to the topic; it could have been anything. As it happens, writing that post brought up some truisms about the writing process - one negative and one positive. Perhaps they are familiar to you. The first is that old bugaboo that haunts many a creative effort: The Perfect Is the Enemy of the Good. In this case a related pitfall was also at work: There's No Such Thing as Definitive. I had wanted to write this post for months. I keep a short list of topics I'm trying to get to, and some ideas will stay on the list for weeks or months, especially if they're not timely or pegged to an event. This idea - called "walled-off internet" on my scraps of paper - stayed on the list for ages. The longer it sat there, the more difficult it became to write. I started to feel as if I had to gather every scrap of evidence, research every corner, become a minor ex...

In case you missed it last week, my post on advertising and propaganda is running on Straight Goods . I hope you'll give it a read. Comments are best posted on the original thread .

I have been asked to write the final report for my portion of the research project that I've been working on this summer. There's a strict deadline - the grant ends on July 23 - and many, many loose threads to tie up. It's a great challenge. In keeping with my writing process, right now I'm a bundle of anxiety. I'm telling myself (as I always do), "This is the part where I freak out. This is the part where I think I can't do it." I adopted this method many, many years ago. At some point I realized that it was not down to experience, that these feelings would never go away. Much like an actor who has "stage fright" (that is, anxiety) before every single performance, no matter how much I write, no matter how many deadlines I meet, there will never come a time when I won't experience this anxiety. Once I understood this, I embraced the process. I don't deny the feelings, but I don't give in to them either. I feel them, but I also obs...

A slightly enhanced version of my recent post about Brigette DePape is running at The Mark: Why Brigette DePape's Actions Were Heroic . I had assumed The Mark was inundated with DePape-themed essays, but it turned out they had only run one , and it was very negative. I'm glad I bothered to send them the link.

My piece "Why I'm Holding My Nose and Voting Ignatieff" is now running at The Mark . I still don't feel altogether comfortable with the choice, and I'm sure I never will. But I've examined it from every angle, and this time out, this is what I have to do.