Hallowe’en means two things in Cabbagetown: one, a massive flood of kids. Unbelievable as it seems, each house gets 800 or 900 trick or treaters. Once the rush begins, after 5.45, it doesn’t abate until

A student, after hearing me go on about Ira Glass, sent me a link to a series of four interviews with him, some years ago, about storytelling. He’s speaking about broadcasting and radio, but almost

It’s apocalyptic out there – lashing winds, torrential rain in the darkness. Friends have emailed that their fireplaces are stoked and sleeping bags piled in front, they’ve filled buckets with water, have their flashlights and

Pardon the pun. Yesterday night, as I headed out the door to walk in the rain to Massey Hall, I wondered if the hall would be nearly empty. Who, I asked myself, besides a few

Dark and very, very wet. I gather some sort of storm is about to explode over the East Coast, which worries me. It’s like the Jewish joke, how every bit of news gets the response,

A savvy, wealthy, conservative friend of mine told me yesterday that  Romney is going to win. He’s glad, because his partner is Syrian, and “Obama won’t arm the rebels but Romney will.” That was enough

The third campaign debate over, thank the lord. This time I watched it on CNN with the squiggly lines – incomprehensible. Are they attached to the voters’ foreheads, is that how they work? Anyway, I

 Five months and 89. Eli gnaws on Great-grandma’s knuckle Extraordinary beauty  First encounter with beets The boyz and Great-grandma.

Overload, almost – a weekend in Ottawa with my entire close family. The Toronto contingent drove up in a small rental car on Friday morning, a glorious drive with fall colours exploding along the highway, forests

One of my great-grandfather’s plays is opening tonight in New York. Well, in Brooklyn, which is where he lived, though in his time, his plays were all performed first on the Lower East Side, before