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In late 2015, I blogged about a remarkable documentary: " Call Me Lucky ," about the life and times of Barry Crimmins. Barry died last week at the age of 64. Describing Barry as a comedian somehow seems wrong. He was a social critic who used biting humour and righteous anger to enlighten and to skewer. He was a fierce opponent of any system that furthers war, poverty, and repression, and a stalwart advocate for equality, justice, and peace. He was also a master of wicked one-liners, as his thousands of Twitter followers knew. Barry was in many ways a cynic and a curmudgeon, but that didn't stop him from being an idealist. He constantly called attention to the mistreatment of children, the kind that happens every day in our own communities. Barry went public with his own horrific story of child sexual abuse. In the 1990s, he became an activist against child pornography, after discovering that AOL chat rooms were harboring pedophiles. As Barry often said, "Child por...

Well, I finally did it. I gave up my BlackBerry, and got a Samsung Galaxy phone. Yeah, I know, welcome to the 21st Century. Goodbye, old frenemy I previously only used my phone for talk, text, and organizer functions (calendar, contacts), and still felt -- still feel  -- that nothing beats the physical keyboard. But now my Nexus mini tablet is dying, and there's no good low-cost replacement. Which means I'm not buying another tablet. Which means I want a phone that knows how to do everything else. And despite what BlackBerry says and the apps it has and its tiny touch screen, when it comes to everything else, it sucks. And since I've been blogging about device decisions for nearly 15 years, I thought I should record this momentous decision here. My last post about a device decision was in 2012:  talk me out of buying a new blackberry (if you can) . The phone I bought then is the one I am now giving up. Thus I am breaking a personal rule of not replacing something that is st...

I don't do New Year's Resolutions, but I do enjoy using the revolution of our Earth around the Sun as an excuse to take stock in where I am and think about where I'm going. This is not a Big Promise To Do Something; it's not even goal-setting. In my ongoing work to free myself from a strong tendency towards All Or Nothing , to not paint myself into a corner, to not create Rules which I then use to limit my experiences, I don't even set concrete goals. My thinking takes the form of general precepts that I'm trying to remember. When the weather is nice, spend more time outdoors. Walk more. Remember to make plans with friends sometimes. Do a jigsaw puzzle now and again. At work, take my full one-hour dinner break without doing union work. Remember that it's all right to make mistakes. Explore local history. Stop multi-tasking. Remember to blog instead of Facebook. Read more.

Last year, I took a break from my annual "i hate christmas" post. I don't remember the circumstances, but it was probably related to getting ready for our trip to Egypt. We lost Tala a few days later, but for better or worse, we were ignorant of that until the day before. This year I revive the fine wmtc tradition and then some. I did a stupid thing and it caused me to remember just how much I hate Christmas, like a sharp slap in the face: I went to the mall. Yes, after all my years of not stepping foot in any store for any nonessential shopping during the holiday madness, I found myself in a gigantic mall, three days before Christmas, in the afternoon. My hair salon happens to be in the mall. I normally go there first thing in the morning and am well clear by the time it is the slightest bit busy. But I waited too long to make an appointment, and I can't wait until January... and thus I ended up in a mall, the Friday before a Monday Christmas, at 4:00 in the afterno...

You can read the story of how we got these: here . This, below, is the smaller painting that the salesman added to the pot after the price would budge no further. It is possibly painted on banana leaf, a cheaper and less durable papyrus substitute. There is also a third, yet smaller painting, also "thrown in," but not display quality or worth framing. The celery-looking stuff is fresh papyrus. We watched Papyrus Guy make a small sheet. That's our painting behind them!

I've been taking a break from social media, and I am feeling the positive effects. But I do miss people. But I feel better...but I miss people...but I feel better. And so on. This is your brain on fibromyalgia I struggle with low concentration and intermittent brain fog. I believe it's from fibromyalgia, but whatever the cause, it's a minor disability or a weakness for which I must compensate. I have devised various coping mechanisms, and for the most part, they are integrated into my life, as are all my many coping mechanisms for all the bullshit life throws at me. (Not complaining, merely stating.) I recently went through a rough patch where my mental state was particularly frustrating. I had a really hard time chairing a small meeting. (When I apologized, people told me they didn't notice anything different. But were they just being kind?) I had to write an email with a lot of names and dates -- numbers are the biggest challenge when I'm mentally impaired -- and ...

I've been scanning some old photos -- some of Allan and me through the years, others with my siblings at various ages -- and have been posting them on Facebook. This experience has led to two insights. The thoughts themselves aren't new, but this walk on memory lane has recalled and reinforced them. Insight number one: my self-image was extremely distorted throughout my life.  I thought I was fat and ugly. Yet there is evidence that that was not the case. I am now overweight, but that's a different story. This was a girl well within a normal, healthy weight and size range, thinking she was seriously overweight. It was no surprise that many of my female Facebook friends related to this. We came up with the following list of reasons. The reasons are not ranked in order of importance; it's a big mix, a preponderance of evidence, as the legal phrasing goes. 1. Media. We are constantly barraged with images of what is supposed to be beauty perfection; most are completely unre...

The City of Mississauga has a community recognition program , through which community groups can have their banner fly at City Hall for a day. When the program was announced, I said to a few of my union sisters, "I know a flag I'd like to see there...". I was only joking -- but they took me seriously! This morning, to the astonishment of many, the beautiful pink CUPE 1989 banner is flying beside Mississauga City Hall! This week marks one year since the members of CUPE Local 1989, Mississauga Library Workers, walked off their jobs and onto the picket lines. It was the first strike in our local's history and the first strike against the City of Mississauga. I am a member and now the president of Local 1989. In the past year, I've been invited to speak on panels, in conferences and conventions, in rallies, meetings, and gatherings of labour activists. Our local was honoured at the CUPE Ontario convention , and featured in a conference called "Building Strong Loc...

In our home, shopping at Whole Foods was once reserved for special dinners or used a stop-gap during an extremely busy week. Then slowly, over time, it became habit -- and a big one. For a long time now, we've had two regular shopping days each week, one at Loblaws and one at Whole Foods. Sometimes we end up at Whole Foods multiple times in one week. This has been expensive, of course, but I felt it was worth spending more for better quality, and even more so for convenience. Because of Whole Foods' prepared food, we've been able to spend less time on food preparation, but still eat healthfully. Where prepared food in most supermarkets consists of rotisserie chicken and mayonnaisey pasta salads, Whole Foods carries an array of fresh, healthy, delicious -- expensive -- choices. Over time we relied on this more... and more. I did determine that some prepared food was actually no more expensive than if I had made it myself: see my post about Roman tuna salad . Now I suspect th...

Do you watch Aziz Ansari's show " Master of None "? I like it. It's not zany or wacky; it doesn't try so hard to be funny, which I find annoying in so many TV comedies. Parts of the show are funny, but parts are earnest, and interesting. It's not sappy, but it's not afraid to be a bit serious. In the episode we just watched, we see Dev, the main character played by Ansari, as a child, encountering bacon for the first time. He's at the home of a friend, and when his mom calls, he innocently tells her that he's eating bacon. Mom reminds the young Dev that Muslims don't eat pork -- and informs him that bacon is pork. Young Dev looks at the bacon, confused and a bit perturbed, deciding what to do. Then he opens wide and takes another bite. Back in the present, the episode involves Dev and his friend Navid eating pork and drinking alcohol -- but leading their parents to believe they are devout. * * * * If you grew up in Canada or the US, and you...

You may recall, we decided to have Diego's DNA examined to see what breed mix he is. Here's what the folks at DNA My Dog have determined. Supposedly Diego is 37-74% German Shorthaired Pointer, 20-36% German Shepherd , and 1-9% Collie . I just don't get it. Diego looks nothing like a German Shorthaired Pointer . Other than his prick ears, he looks and behaves nothing like a German Shepherd. He does somewhat resemble a Smooth-Coated Collie , but that's a very small percentage. No Border Collie, although he exhibits some classic Border Collie behaviour? No Staffordshire Terrier or American Pit Bull Terrier, even though we see the bully boy in his face? No Boxer, no Mastiff? Here's Diego. Now look at images of images of German Shorthaired Pointers . Really? If you comb through dozens of images of German Shorthaired Pointers, you can find one or two pics where the colouring bears a slight resemblance. But certainly it is not the norm. Can a dog be up to 74% of one bree...

At the beach! Diego's favourite place. What kind of dog is that? People ask this all the time. All our dogs have been rescues, but most had recognizable breed markers. We could answer "white Shepherd-Husky cross" or "Lab-Shepherd mix" or "Jack Russell-Fox Terrier cross". Of course those dogs probably had many other breeds in the mix. When you think about it, unless a dog is actually the product of two purebreds, it's likely to be the product of dozens of different breeds. A mixed breed mates with another mixed breed, and their puppies mate with other mixed breeds, and so on. But people really want to hear two or three breeds! So I'd go with the obvious, and that answer would satisfy. With Diego, I've never known how to answer. I've thought of making up a breed -- a Burnhamthorpe Terrier, for a street we live near, or a York Hound, for the Toronto North York animal shelter where we found him -- but I never seem to think quickly enough. S...

The ancient technology I grew up with, including the colour. We still have a bit of antiquated technology called a home phone. We use a VoIP phone -- have done so since 2002 -- which is why I say "home phone" rather than "landline". Our home phone is not a landline. I've blogged about VoIP in the past: it's reliable, very inexpensive, and easier to use than Skype.* I also like the flat-rate monthly fee that includes all the bells and whistles. The only catch is that if your internet connection or power goes down, you have no phone, so it's best to have a cell phone as a backup. Then we graduated to this. The other relevant fact here is that Allan doesn't use a cell phone. He's had a cell phone at various times, and he hated them, and doesn't want to be bothered. (I actually have several friends who don't use mobile devices.) And now this. But they suck. This means that if I'm not home and there is a power failure or internet failure,...

I recently had a very positive experience with anti-anxiety medication, and realized I should share it here. I've written many times about the wonders of modern medicine for treating depression and anxiety, and the life-changing, relationship-saving, and quite possibly life-saving effects of using the right medication. While these drugs may be sometimes prescribed unnecessarily, I believe they are under used -- that many more people could be helped by these meds, if their own biases didn't stand in the way, and if everyone had equal access to healthcare. My mega-wrap-up of my perspective is here: in defense of drugs: anti-depressant medication saves and improves lives . * * * * I've had a prescription for an as-needed anti-anxiety medication for many, many years. In the past, I used them very infrequently, less than once a month, and sometimes only a few times a year. Two years ago, I had a sharp uptick in anxiety, and realized I should be taking the meds more often. When ...

EgyptAir, we love you! I'm writing this from an airport hotel, where I did not expect to be. After Ridiculous Breakfast #3, we did a little negotiating (see below), then packed up for the airport. On a tip from the concierge, we stopped at the beautiful Zalatimo Brothers for Sweets on the way. I was quite pleased: this saved time and solved a problem. And then, as we walked into the airport, we saw... Zalatimo Brothers for Sweets! They have a small outpost near the international departures. The flight from Amman to Cairo was fast and uneventful. The EgyptAir rep in Amman told us we would have to go through passport control and customs, get our luggage, then check into our next flight, and so on. Turns out this was untrue. We were waiting in the passport control line in Cairo, when a man approached us, claiming to be from EgyptAir, saying they have a free hotel room and dinner for us, and do we want to see the pyramids, too? It took quite a bit of convincing that he was legit, but o...

The United Nations Educational, Scientic, and Cultural Organization -- better known as UNESCO -- has created a list of natural and human-made sites that "are of outstanding universal value" and meet a selection criteria. UNESCO: Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations. Our cultural and natural heritage are both irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration. The list helps identify sites that are at risk because of war, environmental degradation, neglect, or tourism. I love the very idea of this list -- that all the peoples of the world share a common heritage. All our pasts are linked, as is our future. I went through the list by country, and picked out the sites I have visited. Sites I want to visit -- that's pretty much the full list minus whatever I've seen. That's not a realistic travel goal! So when we plan travel, I do like to know if there are any UNESCO sites on the itinerary. Here's my...

After our second ridiculous breakfast, we took a taxi to a public bus. Tourists are "supposed to" book a tour or a taxi to the sights outside of Amman, but when we travel, we usually just take the local bus. Egypt was the exception to this, because it really wasn't possible there. We went 30-40 minutes south of Amman, to a town called Madaba, which has many Byzantine-era mosaics. The big draw, which we were keen to see, is on the floor of a Greek Orthodox church -- a mosaic map of the region, dating from the 6th Century. It is really interesting, depicting some biblical locations, some geographic locations, animals, plants, and names of towns (in Greek). The best and most famous section is a map of Jerusalem. The mosaic is the oldest surviving map of the so-called Holy Land. Just now looking online to confirm some facts, I notice that the map described on Wikipedia does not bear a strong resemblance to what I saw today. The entry makes the map sound more detailed and prec...

I'm writing this from the beautiful lounge of the Amman Marriott Hotel while drinking a Bailey's hot chocolate. Allan is drinking a Bailey's martini and working with the guidebook for tomorrow's adventure, the final day of the trip except for flying. We decided not to do any sightseeing today, but rather to explore the city a bit. There are things to do here -- an archeology museum, a museum about the history of Jordan, several Roman-era ruins -- and if we were here for a week I'm sure we'd see them all. But in between Petra and Madaba, I thought we'd just get a feel for the city. After a ridiculous breakfast, we took a cab to Rainbow Street. Breakfast is ridiculously huge and ridiculously expensive, but we're not in a neighbourhood where you can find a local breakfast shop -- and it could be that no such neighbourhood exists. I keep saying we should take a bag and collect food for lunch, but I don't think we'll actually do it. Although I'm n...

From what little we've seen of Jordan so far, it is the opposite of Egypt in many respects. I admit we have a small sample size, but in both countries, we have seen the capital city and visited the country's top tourist attraction. Petra vs the Pyramids at Giza is a stark contrast. Working animals Petra: standards posted everywhere (online, print, posters, brochures), conditions passable to good, tourists asked to contribute to animal welfare by reporting perceived abuse Giza: no standards to be found, conditions deplorable, no oversight or concern noted Cleanliness of site Petra: spotless, cleaning staff deployed throughout Giza: deplorable, no trash receptacles, possibly some cleaning staff (unclear) Washroom facilities Petra: adequate facilities, very clean, paid staff onsite Giza: don't ask, your stomach can't take it Information for visitors Petra: professional guides available for hire, noteworthy areas signposted in Arabic and English, fully professional visitor ...

Staying overnight in Petra was a great idea and worked out beautifully. After an elaborate but nondescript (and overpriced) breakfast buffet at the Petra Moon, we left our luggage at the hotel, and took a taxi to the little-used "rear entrance" to the site. On a tip from Lonely Planet, we would start the trail at the very end, and walk back to the beginning. This would allow us to walk the entire trail without having to double back. The car climbed uphill on switchbacks, past crazy rock formations and tiny Bedouin villages. When we entered the site, we were the only tourists on the path. A Bedouin shepherd was moving his goats; men with donkeys were offering us rides. The pink and orange rock formations were all around us. It was so quiet and peaceful. By the time we reached some ruins, the tour groups had caught up with us. It was wonderful while it lasted! In the centre of the Petra park are the ruins of the commercial centre of the ancient town -- a long market road, a mar...