I have a new hero – Mick Jagger. Of course he will not replace Macca in my heart, and he’s not really new, I’ve always enjoyed his chutzpah, but still … I just read the weekend NYT, which had an article on the extraordinary longevity of this band and the new film about them, Crossfire Hurricane. It mentioned the 2011 Grammys where they performed, so I Googled. It’s phenomenal. The Jagger you see is 68 years old, a knight with 7 known children. He has the smallest hips and legs in Christendom. I want that kind of energy ALWAYS. BABY!

Mick Jagger – Grammy Awards 2011 Performance – Vìdeo Dailymotion

Gearing up for my next trip to Ottawa tomorrow. My brother warns me that Mum is incoherent, glassy-eyed, always asleep, not there. Maybe my trip will revive her, he says, but I should be warned. They tried to put a tube down her nose and failed because she kept pulling it out. I don’t blame her, poor woman. What can we do, how can we rescue her? I spent the morning on the phone to Ottawa, looking for nursing homes where she can go after hospital, and learning the lingo – my mother is a “two person assist,” we are looking for “hospital to home” care etc. Hanging onto the women on the other end who sound kind and patient. Mike and I will go see some of these places on Friday. Profoundly sad.

However. There is joy – not just from my children and grandson, but from my students, the end of the Ry term Monday, the second last class at U of T Tuesday, marvellous rich work, and at Ry, a group that instantly, the next day, organized their next meeting. What a blessing to love my work as much as I do, to love watching writers bloom.

And then to come home and pour a glass of wine and watch Jon Stewart, and yesterday, Rick Mercer as well, and then Colbert, because he was interviewing Newt Gingrich. I expected to be laughing in derision, but the man, under his helmet of ivory coloured plastic hair, has a surprisingly good sense of humour. They were talking about the number of billionaires devoted to Newt versus the much larger number for Mitt (where do these Republicans get their names?) – and Colbert said, “Sounds like a new reality TV show – ‘The Battle of the Billionaires.'”
“We just had it,” said Newt. “It was called the election.”