About Beth

Some Blogs I Follow

Archives

• 2023
• September
• Book launch date: Monday November 6
• Charlotte’s Castle, Fashioning the Beatles: fall is busytime
• Nettie Wild’s “Go Fish” and V. Zelensky: winning over Toronto
• Robert Macfarlane wins, and Doug Ford loses
• a new viewing of Greta Gerwig’s Little Women
• Midlife Solo has a cover
• Greenbelt scandal fallout – good riddance!
• The Authors Book Club interview
• August
• Everything’s hunky dory, for once.
• late summer with peaches and rain
• musing about the Ex and joining a choir
• harvest
• Jane Austen fans, and Barbie
• idyll in Muskoka
• Past Life the film, and the past lives in student books
• No Caribana here
• Birthday report, Mrs. Harris goes to Paris, and Abigail Thomas
• July
• The Effect – and another birthday
• rainy Saturday
• The pleasures of Write in the Garden
• The joy of stress. Not.
• friendship at soccer camp
• Olivia Chow and me
• burning the candle of memory
• letter to disgraced architects Diamond Schmitt
• The Colour of Ink
• June
• Happy Canada Day! Think about roses, not nuclear war.
• Other People’s Children
• Mayor Olivia Chow
• democracy and roses
• Celebrating a great Canadian: Peter Herrndorf
• new website up
• cancelled
• U of T Summer Writing School July 10-14
• Father’s Day
• Eleanor Wachtel’s last show
• Midlife Solo at the finish line
• Little Amal comes to visit
• smoke gets in your eyes, and Matisse gets you in the gut
• community and friendship through the years: a celebration
• hot but here
• bloggus interruptus
• May
• Halifax fires, and the sacred fire of David Suzuki
• Halifax, Day Three, feels like Week Three
• Old home week in Halifax
• Word on the Street and a new title
• birthday boy, and the hunt for a title
• A star is born.
• a celebration of aunts on Mother’s Day
• In which people say nice things again and I admire tulips
• a writer’s reality – and spring beauty
• Tom Allen’s kind words, but another friendship lost
• Paddington 2 and the coronation
• It’s spring. With worries.
• all kinds of nice things today
• On being alone versus loneliness
• April
• The Banshees, and Miep Gies: A Small Light
• The wonder of Wonderland: magical children’s books
• how to be sick, Lesson One
• Proof that Paul McCartney is rock’s greatest vocalist – as if we needed proof
• In the Same Breath: Covid incompetence and mendacity exposed — devastating
• The sublime Vermeer, and my beloved penpal Barbara
• In which I rant about Republicans, Carlson, PP, RBC, and the weather, to no avail
• On Writing and Failure and ChatGPT’s inventions
• Coming round to Succession
• it’s summer in Toronto, for now at least
• Happy Easter to you all
• Happy Passover!
• “Write down your accomplishments every day,” it said. Ha.
• March
• Bach’s B Minor Mass and a swim in Lake Ontario
• Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, and Mary-Ellen Mark in Ward 81
• The Mahabharata, Part One: thousands of years ago and today
• Instead of Paris: family, theatre, “Four Thousand Weeks — Time Management for Mortals”
• In which, in the absence of anything else, she lauds herself
• Cancelling my trip – and ChatGPT, cancelling writers?
• it’s winter and it’s the Oscars
• A visit to Oakville, and Merrijoy the star
• calm after the storm
• #thundersnow
• February
• Alice Neel and my father, Kappy
• So True triumph
• anxiety
• Annie Ernaux’s The Years, Things I Know to be True, and Angela Davis’s surprise
• A Beautiful Morning – Un Beau Matin – wonderful film
• So True, Saturday Feb. 25, 1-3, be there or be square
• Joseph and his Dreamcoat, and Parliament Street’s world cuisine
• Paris in the springtime, and Tàr
• Great news: Solo Woman goes to Mosaic Press
• The John Tory story
• Joe Biden triumphs; Beth and Chris design her blue commemorative plaque
• A fan gets in touch
• Stolen Focus, by Johann Hari: a superb must-read
• Jean Vanier and L’Arche
• January
• A Girl’s Story, Stolen Focus, a gratitude letter
• Everything Everywhere — no, not so much
• Turn Every Page: the adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb: must see
• Bill Nighy’s Living and Beth Kaplan’s drinking
• geeking out over documentaries, and a poem from a friend
• The So True reading event returns
• Here comes the sun and I say, it’s all right
• The Wonder and Harry
• letter about the J. K. Rowling controversy
• a manuscript out in the world
• The US debacle, “Miss Austen Regrets,” and health returns, kind of
• Life in Squares, and just life
• report from the front lines
• 2023, Day One
• Happy NY!
• 2022
• December
• a new housemate
• Kennedy Centre Honours and looking in the mirror
• hooray for Paxlovid!
• a misery diagnosis: guess what?
• misery
• Christmas blessings
• sitting this one out
• time out: calm before storm
• His Dark Materials
• a brief encounter on College Street
• Christmas memories
• The Crown in the snow
• RIP Andy Rhodes: actor, musician, writer, madman
• The Hours: Metropolitan Opera in HD, and Lizzo
• Ben McNally’s new store, and a Canadian woman you should know about
• Women Talking: a triumph
• news re Chris of “Chris Walks,” the blog to the left
• Maddaddam and The Fabelmans
• November
• nice words for this writer, and disgust for Bill 23
• “It’s okay to raise kids in apartments” : Toronto Star op-ed
• toasting a hundredth birthday
• Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt – and So True returns
• the magic of Jacob Collier
• So many motherf*ckers!
• My will is in the file drawer marked “Life”
• celebrating Joe Biden
• Report from the American front lines
• PHEW! Could have been worse.
• Here comes the sun, and I say, it’s all right
• a protest in Toronto and a powerful encounter
• celebrating the YMCA and the weather
• October
• shining on, with coffee
• and the autumn weather/turns the leaves to flame
• Codename Sally: bravo PEN!
• reaching October
• Pina Bausch and Rite of Spring; winter prep
• The opera Carmen, George Saunders on empathy
• Learning to Speak: new essay on the Brevity Blog
• Thankful on Thanksgiving
• Cabbagetown apartment for rent
• Annie Ernaux and Karin Wells
• The Shark is Broken, and Where You End and I Begin
• September
• Proud daughter speaking
• Ian McEwan and high-rise jeans
• a storm and various revolutions
• My mother’s silver spoons: essay in the Globe
• Sam’s best friends
• reflecting on the Queen
• a visit to Stratford
• Two big yesses
• NYC itinerary and notes
• 3rd Avenue street fair
• Matisse’s Red Studio in NYC
• More New York pix
• Some NYC pictures
• mourning the Queen in New York
• the problem with travel
• Beth’s workshop at the Parliament Street library, Thursday Sept. 22
• exploring Dad
• August
• Annals of Aging #6719
• New York New York
• hot and happy
• giving blood – from August 16
• infestation: viruses and mice
• The joy of music and shelves.
• RIP beloved Sempé
• power outage in Toronto
• complaining about Toronto drivers
• Summer bliss, new rules, Green Planet, how to wear socks
• They say it’s your birthday, you’re gonna have a good time …
• July
• Nowhere Special
• summer pleasures
• the pope comes through
• Prima Facie and the importance of writing to living writers
• watching Thursday’s Jan. 6 hearing
• The Green Planet
• Writing in the garden
• Edward Burtynsky’s “In the Wake of Progress”
• Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – superb!
• cottage life
• @#$#&% Rogers!
• remembering my father
• BK yammering on national radio
• having the great good fortune to live in Canada
• June
• Borgen: the best
• celebrating family
• the heart bursts
• What you won’t do for love
• on writing and gardening
• in mourning for my damaged, neglectful city
• Word on the Street, CNFC, the Tony awards
• What You Won’t Do For Love, and the Jan. 6 commission
• WOTS: the joy of memoir, and honouring family
• new tickets for WOTS workshop and Where the Blood Mixes
• trying to ignore the election
• May
• worry and good news
• pets, motherhood, art
• Word on the Street panel with BK and Helen Humphreys
• celebrating a young life and a vanished life
• “Correspondence” from Queen’s Quarterly
• learning to say no – but yes to Simu Liu
• Yours Truly, a book of the blog
• Happy Caregiver’s Day
• Jeopardy and the blog as a book
• Fuck the hypocritical right wing of the Supreme Court
• Guy Lafleur and Flossie Lewis: masters of their domains
• April
• Beth’s Write in the Garden workshop, July 17
• remembering Wayson
• letters
• Bandit comes home
• nightmares, art, pansies
• A vital journey to sobriety: month one
• Spring!
• Zelensky for the Nobel peace prize or some *&#$^ prize
• puppy love
• My world bridge champion, and Benjamin Franklin
• A full life: hair, essays, pup, “Julia”
• March
• “Other People,” Daniel Brooks, brilliant and moving
• Oscars, the tooth fairy, Betty White
• reporting back
• “Correspondence” in Queen’s Quarterly
• Submisson, in both senses of the word
• nearly spring
• V. Zelensky speaks to Canadians
• Beans
• return of the appendix?
• no, cancel that
• Phew – manuscript draft done
• fear for the world
• February
• marching for Ukraine
• David Sedaris: Carnival of Snackery
• my Ukrainian family
• Parallel Mothers at TIFF
• reunions
• the PDF of “Correspondence”
• “Secret” essay in Full Grown People
• yes, suffering from graphomania
• trying to talk to an anti-vaxxer – sigh
• News flash: Rally cancelled because of state of emergency
• Good morning
• The Great Reset nonsense
• Free online writing seminars next week
• lawless brutes bellowing
• January
• winter schminter
• the truckers of the apocalypse
• Covid slump, Hitchens heights, and a big fat yes
• the bliss of a Sunday routine
• The essay book goes out
• Portrait of the Artist: my article on Alice Neel
• on writing
• StoryCorps, Matt Galloway, Macca’s “The Lyrics”
• The Lost Daughter
• Essayer: to try
• Portrait of the Artist: my article in the New Quarterly
• non, je ne regrette rien, sort of – well, maybe not, but I’m trying
• support for Jo Rowling, Don’t Look Up, Joan Didion
• 2021
• December
• A joyful NYEve to you all
• I’m the one person in North America who doesn’t have Covid
• Ann Patchett, Lucy Grealy, Truth and Beauty
• Xmas and Omicron recap
• it’s looking a lot like Covid
• Bletchley Park; Joan Didion
• She has returned for real, with the Silverback Mac
• Pix!
• I’m back, sort of
• The Chef, Succession, and a sick Mac
• PS The Jewish Shakespeare on Jeopardy!
• “Wakefield” and piles of paper
• a gift from a fan
• Tick Tick … Boom; David Suzuki and Tara Cullis
• Get Back, Part 3. Human beings gather.
• my boy in the snow, 1997
• November
• Get Back, Part Two, in the snow
• Get Back #1 – be still my beating heart! – and King Richard
• furnished basement apartment to rent
• I exist! Alice Neel in The New Quarterly
• Protest, and a treat
• Macca cheers me up, again
• Penelope Jane Harris, 1948-2019
• Paul McCartney’s triumphs and Dan Aykroyd’s music
• Remembrance Day
• Ruth takes on corporal punishment
• praise for “Loose Woman” and writers in general
• Stonehenge and fame
• Letter to the Editor and Shuggie Bain
• Hallowe’en’s been
• October
• stunning
• found found found
• finding lost things
• celebrating: Jerri’s life, autumn, new phone, family
• R.I.P., Dame Martha Henry
• home, with Deborah Levy’s pointed words
• last night reflections
• not this time
• winding down, winding up
• The Whistler Writers Festival begins
• On the way to Whistler
• Bowen beauty
• farewell to Gabriola
• There are places I remember, all my life, though some have changed.
• quiet pleasures
• visiting Patsy
• West Coast pix
• Gabriola beauty
• the Sylvia Hotel
• departure imminent – will she get there?
• friends
• Truth and Reconciliation
• September
• I’m getting warm
• joy in the mail
• Election relief, and the beauty of Monet
• dealing with the crazies
• one of my favourite writers gets in touch
• the beauty of the fall
• the joy of praise, and arguing about letters
• autumn anxiety chronicle
• in which Beth feels sorry for herself
• Brava Leyla Fernandez!
• I heart Nova Scotia
• Labour Day and Canadian tennis stars
• Picture a Scientist
• sparking joy, spreading gloom
• August
• hooray, Queen’s Quarterly, and let’s dance!
• finding a champion
• a lesson in Instagram
• The Chair
• “a gentle joy”
• Cabbagetown apartment to rent
• Ingersoll visit, book club heaven
• garden love
• Sky Ladder and goodbye
• My Happy Family – highly recommended
• making friends with white pine
• greetings from paradise, Ontario
• the terror of the empty desk
• having her cake and eating it too
• Leos roar on their day
• July
• pre-birthday rant
• fan mail
• Hooray for beautiful Mary Simon our new gg.
• definitely not my Salinger year
• celebrating a good book, a good writer
• In love with Margaret Renkl
• celebrating human creativity – Macca and my friend John
• a Zoom memorial for Patsy
• controversially in praise of Facebook
• FINALIST!
• status update
• my essay about Chris
• news of Chris of the Chris Walks blog
• confessions of a cheese junkie
• The Summer of Soul
• health report: all good
• Yahrzeit
• roses and thorns
• a muted but beautiful Canada Day
• June
• tumult
• reflections on celebrating Canada Day this year
• crisis passes, Moderna hooray!
• Canadian wildlife
• Gunda, the loving mother pig
• pep talk to self
• Paul McCartney turns 79 and I care
• “Cheese: a love story”
• out and about and celebrating a son
• Under the Gaze of Angels, and The Observer
• celebrating the life of Patsy Ludwick
• confronting Canadian racism
• in which an anxious mind chatters to itself
• One lucky woman
• Another merry adventure in Sickland
• a big day in the life of Beth
• May
• on not watching the big game
• shopping with gun
• not dead yet
• Victoria Day breezes
• recovery
• writing “a magnificent story”
• honouring and missing Patricia Jane Ludwick
• last day
• in the midst of grief, a great blessing
• venting is good for the soul
• Two Old Guys Talking to Beth
• anticipating a terrible loss
• my baby turns forty
• finding Alice Neel
• April
• today’s heroes: Joe Biden, Mandy Patinkin, Pa Leadbeater
• The Oscars, and The Father
• In which Beth launches a bitchfest
• justice, blessed relief, and snow
• Couples Therapy – if you’re a couple, a must see
• in the doghouse, but busy
• showing a slick chick how to eat watermelon, 1944
• beautiful things
• excavating my mother’s passionate past
• “Misbehaviour” on Crave, and Beth moves on
• Anna makes a speech, and Hemingway and the weather bewilder
• Hemingway, and a neglected pandemic essay
• Shtisel: terrific drama portraying religious absurdity
• keep on keeping on
• March
• checking in
• Alice Neel, Alan Turing, and the beaver
• celebrating the Brits
• One and done!
• finding new family
• vaccine booking
• in praise of books and fires and moving right along
• onward and upward
• baseline ambulatory, and how
• completely different take on St. Mike’s
• in which Beth muses about some miracles of modern medicine
• Mystery solved.
• Oprah, beautiful young people, sick old people
• update
• E.coli? Existential ennui of the gut?
• blessings
• stayin’ alive
• a little bit sick and scared
• “In and Of Itself” with Derek DelGaudio: highly recommended
• February
• mourning Kathleen
• Celebrating sunshine
• excavating the past with “Soul” and spirituality
• Chocolate is the answer. Who cares what the question is?
• Paris and Belgravia
• The New Corporation: an unfortunately necessary sequel
• nothing happening – could be worse
• Toronto Little Free Pantries Project
• the Munk Debates: Yuval Harari, Masha Gessen
• Canada one of the 5 strongest democracies in the world
• The Dig, Lupin, Call My Agent: Netflix keeping us alive
• January
• Toboggans and juicers
• glitches
• Bernie at the fire
• Biden time: a new world dawns
• words from the wide world: Ajerbaijan, London, Provence, Zurich
• let there be fire
• that was the week that was
• “I was wrong again.” The right wing faces reality.
• Radioactive Republicans
• as the dust settles
• watching CNN in disbelief
• watching Jeopardy, trying to ignore Georgia
• tweeting up a storm
• kind words aplenty
• vaccine article in today’s Globe
• 2020
• December
• 2020, a reflection
• remembering Jeffrey Dallas in the silence
• Boxing Day recap: lovely but moving right along
• Merry Everything
• joy to this little world
• Getting to yes.
• Hot fresh audiobook available on Audible.com. Get yours today.
• Giving Voice
• bitching
• Christmas through the years, an essay for the CBC
• Loose Woman on the march!
• Lights in the darkness
• A bizarre contract from 1948
• Zoom rehearsals
• November
• Loose Woman in Zurich
• Toronto’s second best bartender and Ian Brown, first best CNFC speaker
• more nice words about the memoir, and French onion soup
• notes about taking notes
• remembering
• a fascist coup?
• the first day of the rest of your life
• Van Jones weeps with relief and so do we all
• the nightmare is ending
• body blow
• 11 p.m. wanting to puke
• Election night
• Mayor Pete slays the Fox dragons
• October
• a gathering of indie writers and more sweet words about the book
• “No nation should kill children,” said my dad.
• a prayer for Joe Biden and the Democrats – save the world!
• health report: all clear
• a marvellous review brings the sun on a chilly grey Sunday
• a beautiful day, with sadness
• picture ledges save the day
• “American Utopia,” and the brilliant, unforgettable Angela Hewitt
• In which Martha Henry writes a review and Annamie Paul says hello.
• celebration
• an extraordinary revelation, a mystery solved
• In which Beth manages an interview in French
• on a solitary Thanksgiving, giving thanks
• “Hamnet and Judith” and unwanted presidencies
• researching Dad, revealing the truth
• More than life
• the best bartender in Toronto
• September
• Beth is interviewed in New York
• Pierre Trudeau made me cry again today.
• Musing in the heat
• Our stories are worth telling and worth telling well
• saying goodbye to Lola
• on the deck in the sun
• reviews of the book coming in
• Mourning RBG, fear for what’s next
• Back to basics
• non-starving artist signs book at Ben McNally Books
• Things I Bitched About That Got Fixed Department
• a perfect day
• Cabbagetown Short Film Festival triumphs!
• Yes!
• LAUNCH DAY!
• September – back to … to what?
• TRUE!
• Labour Day silence
• musing about the Democrats
• reports from “Loose Woman” readers begin to arrive
• August
• Write like a motherf*cker
• Summertime, and the livin’ is … pretty damn weird
• killing a garden
• home in the heat
• heaven in Muskoka
• The Democrats nail it
• Goodreads, Amazon, MailChimp, Zoom
• grappling with the demons of doubt
• Covid test
• Beth puts in a workday
• the greatest blessings
• blessings
• disaster from the water gods
• Seventy – true or false?
• Bravo Macron
• mourning Brent Carver
• the cat and the birds
• report on aging
• the new decade begins
• last post in my sixties
• July
• Cottage time
• Wayson comes to visit
• “Loose Woman” galley proofs
• We have a winning cover.
• a prisoner of comfort
• zucchini sex
• Sunday doldrums
• the deep water test
• “Jesus Christ, now what?”
• moaning on Sunday
• sexing the squash
• rain at last
• Sorry in summer
• the bliss of haircuts and Hamilton
• Les Blancs, and scams
• Canada Day – a silent celebration
• June
• saying goodbye to Michael Enright
• Furnished apartment to rent in Cabbagetown
• hooray for the Nova Scotia Department of Tourism
• Toni Morrison
• Father’s Day feast
• The Merb’ys of Newfoundland – Happy Father’s Day
• Normal People
• Macca’s birthday, and Radical Acts of Love
• listing the garden and missing the Kinks
• lovely friends
• sweet peace
• Anne Frank’s birthday
• We Are All Broken
• 9.30 a.m. and all’s well
• bad/good
• First We Eat
• kind words about my memoir
• Trump the fascist
• gettin’ ‘er done
• May
• an only slightly bitter rant about publishers
• screenshots
• “Being Canadian” and “Mrs. America”
• Cynthia Nixon in the heat
• Good People: Mark Sakimoto
• hot hot hot
• TRUE TO LIFE: Chapter 21, Claim your truth
• Sam Heffer on CBC, Michael Moore, Roz Chast
• 26 degrees and all’s well. No, Joe Biden is not a racist.
• way better, thank you very much
• sad today
• soupe au pistou
• Montfort cheese, Zoom, and the Moth
• Wednesday’s thrilling report
• TRUE TO LIFE: Chapter 22
• Happy Mother’s Day
• saving the day
• WISEST and Bletchley Park on VE Day
• TRUE TO LIFE: Chapter 15
• joyful noise: Once Were Brothers and banging pots
• in the storm
• TRUE TO LIFE: Chapter 14
• Call the Midwife: sob! And Shelter.
• Forsythia
• Beth_Kaplan is Wiki’d!
• TRUE TO LIFE: Chapter Two
• seven long weeks now
• April
• TRUE TO LIFE: Chapter One.
• note from a fan
• Stronger Together: hooray for Canada!
• Waiting for Guffman – thank you Christopher Guest
• “True to Life”: how to tell your story
• Earth Day: David Attenborough tells it like it is
• Is this Tuesday?
• just like normal, only not
• One World
• covid day 4,672,918: my drag queen life
• hooray for Zoom
• Notre Dame rings her bell
• the gene
• Must see: National Theatre Live, Jane Eyre
• robins galore
• all good
• a good Good Friday
• peanut butter crisis
• Zoom wrestling
• heated Covid controversy, and One Man, Two Guvnors
• chocolate will save the day
• The Windermere Children
• surreal planet, Day 6,713: The Museum of My Clothes
• defying death at the St. Lawrence Market
• falling down, standing up
• my “break-through” book
• March
• My Brilliant Friend and the new reality
• today’s excitement
• the wise old woman
• a frightening wake-up call
• finding family
• the arts to the rescue!
• distancing day 463
• “I have it yet about my heart…”
• music and spaghetti – life is good
• All Covid all the time around here
• Day six
• Day Five
• Covid homestay Day Four
• Pandemic, Day Three
• note from the trenches
• Pandemic Week, Day One
• Meeting the Beatles in India – and a certain virus
• “Emma,” and a satisfied student
• Hamilton, and the Sit Spot
• Macca and Beth!
• This way madness lies
• Crystal Pite, “”The Art of Downsizing” on CBC
• EasyJet and Blackstone: FEH!
• Small Print Toronto, Us/Them
• February
• Brian Doyle, my new hero
• the Bermuda Triangle of publishing
• Jean Vanier: shocked and appalled
• the joy of produce and producing
• note from a writer fan
• San Miguel pix
• hasta la vista San Miguel
• stuffed
• San Miguel writers’ conference Day Four
• pretty nice
• San Miguel Writers’ Conference Day Two, the Canada connection
• Vive Mexico.
• Arriba y adelante to San Miguel
• a phenomenal community organizer
• Beyond Moving : a must see documentary
• Rosie: must see
• 51% Jewish
• Pythons: The All-England Summarise Proust Competition
• January
• Successful aging
• Beethoven’s piano
• getting through
• Anna disses this “vile” government
• Cabbagetown Youth Centre crisis
• advanced class Life Stories II, and dancing
• here comes the sun, and I say, it’s all right
• and furthermore …
• in which Beth feels briefly sorry for herself – again
• The Grizzlies and the Two Popes
• the brilliant Emmanuel Carrere’s “Lives Other Than My Own”
• Beth’s classes
• Little Women – five stars
• the cartoonist sees all
• Marriage Story
• Onward to 2020
• 2019
• December
• 63 Up: the subject tonight is Love.
• survived another one
• Christmas 2019 = the flu
• it’s the winter solstice and all’s well
• Beth speaking Jan. 2 at the Yiddish Vinkl
• Spongebob Squarepants
• Rubens and “Manon”
• Knives Out
• a tiny bit of gloom
• New York Day Four
• NYC Day Three
• NYC Day One
• heading to Noo Yawk
• Pain and Glory
• November
• the joy of testosterone
• So True recap
• So True – eight stars coming up
• the sun, and Margaret Atwood
• annals of aging # 643, Lightfoot, Verlyn Klinkenborg
• So True next Sunday
• Don Cherry and “Klaus”
• Twyla Tharp: “Wake up and dance, y’all.”
• the joys of Michel de Montaigne
• Barkis is willin’
• Jojo Rabbit
• October
• So True Sunday Nov. 24
• fall forward
• Wayson’s memorial
• pleasure and colour
• a stress zombie
• win some/lose some
• we’ll be fine, she said with fingers crossed
• the Balenciaga ballgown
• frazzled and fried: election overkill
• holiday blessings, and Nuala
• thanks thanks thanks
• harsh words
• Happy Birthday, Sylvia Mary Leadbeater. R.I.P.
• much-needed praise
• Downton Abbey and Girl from the North Country
• heat wave
• September
• later that same day …
• Meanwhile, this morning in Parkdale …
• Adam Gopnick
• curses on you, wheel thief!
• forward and back
• Bill Morneau comes to call
• the life of a writer and the Exodus
• The Band’s Visit
• Trudeau’s Blackfacegate: moving right along
• mother-in-law in the sun
• fall beauty and the pain of old letters
• The Lehman Trilogy – a tour de force
• the writer’s lament/manifesto
• the Democrats – hope for humanity
• mothers and daughters and hoarders
• information on Beth’s courses at U of T and Ryerson
• In which she comes in sixth and looks for cottages in Nova Scotia
• my mother’s lover
• “MIracle of Miracles”
• August
• cool, and “My Favourite Shapes”
• trip to the country and “Nathan the Wise” at Stratford
• Saturday night, no fever
• the Israel dilemma
• departure
• murder
• SNC yadda yadda
• Now we are six
• student success story
• celebrating Canada once again
• the vagina painting party and other wonders
• the sanity of the garden
• taking a break
• musical storytellers and sharks
• Shari Ulrich Back to Shore
• sixty-nine
• par-tay
• July
• a mere 68
• summer joys
• peaches and time
• summer rhapsody
• workshop heaven
• Ben is four
• Welcome to the Silver Hammer
• The joy of sadness
• Mac misery
• cottage catch up
• Yesterday
• City life
• broken Mac
• Muskoka
• arguing wth love
• June
• Annals of aging, part eleventeen
• writers and truth and Eleanor Wachtel’s Books on Film
• Downchild Blues
• Write in the Garden July 21
• marketing summer
• overload
• Conference finale
• We are the champions!
• our creative nonfiction conference launched!
• another day in paradise
• Gabriola Island
• Vancouver and Raptors
• a peaceful protest in the morning
• on the road redux
• celebrating Wayson
• Write in the Garden July 21
• May
• spring yes it is
• So very True
• So True
• Harry Potter in Parkdale
• celebrating green
• So True: next Sunday May 26 2 p.m.
• rejection dejection
• electrics
• bearing witness, taking sides
• Mother’s Day?!
• “Amazing Grace” – Aretha in concert, a must see
• with a little help from my friends
• spring, rain
• Life Stories coming up at U of T
• Cabbagetown’s Forsythia Festival, meeting John Tory
• Wayson in the NYT and a possible memorial for him
• pain
• Wayson in the Globe and Blackbird in Mi’kmaq
• protesting in the cold
• April
• a visit
• loss
• Uncle Wayson
• Wayson Choy: “utterly amazed and happy still”
• cardinal love, coming home
• another note from a satisfied customer
• letter to the editor
• coming together
• note from a grateful student
• shelves of glory
• in which she fusses about money
• Beth’s courses at U of T and Ryerson – plus jet lag
• the state of the province and the world
• home on the range
• last day in Paris
• Our Lady – still standing, still beautiful
• Notre Dame on fire
• Sunday’s hike
• Saturday on Saint Germain
• la Fondation Vuitton
• Parigi
• absolutely last pix of Bologna
• last pix of Bologna
• an invitation to Prague
• last day in Italy – in love with Bologna
• Beth’s spring classes at U of T and Ryerson
• Padua
• pix of Verona
• seeing Juliet in Verona
• Tutte le ribs.
• pix of Bologna
• Bologna SI!
• notes from Milan
• Torino Torino!
• moi in Italy
• letter to the Globe re its coverage of SNC etc etc.
• the beauty of Milan and the Milanese
• a bit more
• first day in Milan
• on the road
• a visit with Isabel
• strolling the narrow streets
• March
• a perfect day in the Cave of Forgotten Dreams
• Les gilets jaunes
• marketing with Madame Blin
• Montpellier report, a mess at home
• hasta la vista
• speeding toward the finish line
• NYTimes obituary of Peter B. Kaplan
• Beth’s courses at Ryerson and U of T and upcoming nonfiction conference
• the countdown
• Getting there, with pictures
• no miracles today
• a miraculous day
• disgusted with the news
• There be light! And not.
• wake up call
• the sound of painting
• getting there?
• miles to go before I …
• onward and upward: basement suite rented
• Why Quebecers are unimpressed by the “scandal”
• celebrating my men
• Cabbagetown suite for rent: pictures
• coming into the closet
• FOR RENT: both basement suite and newly-renovated top floor room
• Leah McLaren in the Guardian
• hounds on the hunt for blood
• February
• GET A #@$# GRIP, CANADA!
• Sam’s memoir in cocktails
• parsing The Blue Flower
• reno woe #6749
• Michel de Montaigne, my new hero
• discovering greige
• superb Oslo
• Margaret walks the Camino
• one-bedroom basement suite for rent
• eye of the storm
• moody blues on a Monday morning
• dining with the fam
• back to the garden
• recovery and Mr. delicious Darcy
• apologies – and student success story
• absolutely final floor finale
• floor finale
• learning something new
• real walls!
• January
• surviving the polar vortex
• despite the storm, your inspiration for today
• Black Earth Rising – and snow
• student success story, Russell Baker, Diana Athill
• Esi Edugyan and her editors
• The Bruce McMouse Show at 20 below
• still life with insulation
• 1979 in the snow
• protesting the NYT Book Review on behalf of Leonard Cohen
• working in chaos: it’s fun!
• “The Good Place”
• Hannah Gadsby
• men in my bedroom
• Reno-land report and Roma
• “I think you’ve been looking for me.”
• coming home
• apartment for sale in Ottawa
• INFO ON BETH’S CLASSES AT U OF T AND RYERSON
• the view from here
• putting demons to rest
• recap: 2018, a tough year
• 2018
• December
• Beth is free! Temporarily.
• Ben at the AGO
• re: BETH’S CLASSES AT U OF T and RYERSON
• blessings
• Merry merry merry
• a voice from heaven
• “Nothing like a dame”
• “Relax into the blow”
• MORE gloom and doom
• a slump
• Yo Yo, light, “Will You Ever Forgive Me?”
• discovering Facebook Messenger
• saving my sanity
• kill dem bugs
• The Wife, and Every Brilliant Thing
• yikes
• ripped apart
• bad news/great news
• termites
• “Middletown”
• books – feh.
• November
• packing
• The brilliance of “My Brilliant Friend”
• “Stellavision” and “My Brilliant Friend”
• fixing a hole where the rain gets in …
• My Brilliant Friend
• the greatest gift
• Where there’s smoke, there’s fire
• clearing up, clearing out
• “Sally4ever”: YUCK!
• Ain’t Too Proud: the Temptations
• the bee’s knees
• the Monday before the Tuesday
• sorry
• dust to dust
• clearing the lot
• October
• “Hyperfocus” on Hallowe’en.
• Love will win
• her bloody eye
• In which Kristyn wins and I have an unrelated bad dream
• Go Kristyn Wong Tam and Keesmat!
• So True Sunday, 2 p.m.
• Rebecca Belmore and Anthropocene at the AGO
• RIP Doro and Sylv
• Dorothy Marion Arevian, 1920-2018
• the eternal sunshine of Paul McCartney
• dire straights
• I like them apples
• adventures in contentment
• hot, “Hyperfocus”, E.B. day five.
• E.B.White Day Four
• Thanksgiving, E.B. Day Three
• A Star is Born, the ivy comes down, E.B. White Day Two
• E. B. White Day One
• waiting for the wine fly
• The Robert Handforth Theatre Archives at Carleton
• September
• “Egypt Station” and “Colette” – divine
• the confirmation hearings and I, screeching to a halt
• Christine Blasey Ford, speaking for us all
• one more adventure
• on top of everything else: a tornado!
• Macca forever!
• notes about Macca and the Little Free Library
• The Gospel of Saint Paul
• “Let it go” dance party, Eli’s protest signs
• our dictator
• Old Friends
• André the Anti-Giant
• my great-grandfather at Ashkenaz
• Stratford – Coriolanus and friends
• August
• R.I.P. Ann Ireland
• French friends in Trawna
• the ten minute hurricane
• blessings
• raining in my heart
• Mourning Aretha
• midsummer day’s dream
• Kenojuak Ashevak’s owls
• after the flood
• “Eighth Grade” and “Sorry to bother you” = A+
• the beach, the beach
• onward
• July
• wild life
• Ottawa
• still crazy after all these years
• Write in the Garden = A+
• vegetating with the vegetables
• northern capitals: Helsinki, Ottawa
• good times
• terrible, no good, very bad day
• Macca tickets and “Yellow Submarine”
• Beth’s Let It Go Dance Party Sept. 14
• Good For Her – yes and no
• Dad in his labcoat
• thinking of my father
• old loves
• hope on Canada Day
• Exactly!
• June
• “The Dead Husband Project”
• Magnetic Fields: 50 song memoir
• pictures for children in cages in Texas
• Carpool karaoke with Macca
• Burning Doors – Belarus Free Theatre
• Write in the Garden July 22
• one of those days, including the police
• Paul Simon: bravo
• death on Bloor Street
• PTSD
• The nightmare begins.
• hope, voting, and eyelids
• Beth’s Write in the Garden
• Carole’s 70 and Beth’s a slug
• tea at the Chateau with Do
• May
• neat stuff
• the power of plumbers, and Roseanne winning today’s Vileness Award
• Ripley’s Aquarium and Trump at yesterday’s debate
• the grammar lady
• summer!
• “She Loves You” – good times
• “She Loves You” at Miles Nadal Thursday May 24
• the sweetness of the garden and yet another T@#$#mp rant
• the man with the bag of books
• okay, yes, I watched it
• Now we are six
• horror in the news
• the superb “Sutra” – and mothers
• Beth analyzes her one and only flaw
• Confessions of a Lifelong Beatlemaniac May 24
• Lee Maracle: walking everyone home
• feedback
• U of T and Ryerson courses are both a go.
• conference high
• onward!
• U of T course Life Stories I is a go!
• April
• “The Whirlpool”
• the little battles of life
• my Beatles talk at Miles Nadal May 24
• ode to chocolate
• I’m down, I’m really down, as Paul McCartney sang
• Itzhak Perlman plays and the sun comes out
• the last temptation
• the rain will see me off
• last day
• sun and sea
• Vancouver friends, including that bright thing in the sky
• “Itzhak”
• last day – dinner with Patsy
• treez
• “The Outside Circle”
• Phantom Thread, 3 Billboards, Unforgotten
• forest bathing
• domestic bliss
• Lincoln in the Bardo
• sun and water
• sun on the trees
• March
• Chris’s domain
• slowing down
• island life
• Gabriola
• the shape of water, the sequel
• marching
• rain rain go the @#$#@$ away
• made it
• nearly on her way
• basement suite to rent May 1
• “If the rocks could talk”
• celebrating Diana
• the man who knew too little, the woman who knows too much
• Zoomer expert c’est moi
• So True readers triumph, again
• blocking spam
• February
• the renovation blues
• Pepperland
• the love of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir
• Mr. Smith goes to Washington
• So True coming up: Sunday March 4
• mourning
• Spettacolo
• “Conversations with Friends” by Sally Rooney
• Eric Clapton
• snowed in
• not watching the Super Bowl
• I heart Noo Yawk
• Mark Rylance and Lucy Kirkwood, bravo, brava
• January
• the Angel Orensanz center
• off to la Grande Pomme
• the big fight
• Baryshnikov/Brodsky
• January 20, 2009, a great day
• new driver in the family
• The Post
• warmest Jan. 11 on record – we’ll take it
• The Florida Project
• Toronto the filthy but great
• New York New York
• minus 36
• loving Leonard
• great gifts for the new year
• Life Stories II at U of T
• New York, Coco, Happy etc.
• 2017
• December
• student story
• all is calm
• merry
• getting there
• the Christmas concert
• an editor an editor my kingdom for an editor
• 2017 recap
• The Lorax: sublime
• Doug Jones saves the world – or at least Alabama
• Faces Places (Visages Villages)
• the infuriating loss of Al Franken
• Jane Goodall and Ben Bradlee – a magnificent pair
• homeward bound
• Lady Bird
• celebrating age in Ottawa
• November
• good times
• plugged-in shoes
• inspired by Suzuki
• the King streetcar miracle
• SponsorLand
• Loving Vincent, saying no to Beth
• Remembering Marion
• a student’s piece for Remembrance Day
• So True’s truths
• Love is … California Typewriter
• meeting Miriam and Avi Hoffman
• October
• Happy Hallowe’en
• All My Loving in the library
• Bernie blasts through, Brian gets well, Eli is cheerful
• a Hallowe’en devil
• Trump’s Africa
• adventure at the museum
• home, still hot
• after the talk
• Washington
• John Dunsworth RIP
• publish a book and grow rich – lol
• celebrating Sam
• moving right along
• P.S.
• giving thanks
• Rosedale Heights celebrates
• a big decision
• September
• Obama and Harry in Toronto: swoon
• some crazy stuff
• and now for the good news: Macca in NYC
• reasons to drink
• Word on the Street in the heat
• hot, with cucumbers and a rant
• the reality of real estate
• the best tabbouleh recipe
• nearly there, I think
• Cabbagetown Festival
• gearing up for fall
• labour day podcasts
• “working very well”
• Kathy Dawn Lang
• August
• Stratford and Ingersoll pix
• Stratford 2017
• Pam’s memorial
• Fitness by Kathleen
• Menashe, in Yiddish
• my sentiments exactly
• a chuckle in the rain
• a successful student
• “Beautiful”
• moving right along
• gazpacho
• high summer
• love is …
• you’re gonna have a good time
• they say it’s your birthday
• July
• Michael Moore forever
• “Indecent”
• “Dear Evan Hansen” – wow
• No internet
• New York New York
• Write in the Garden, summer 2017
• the big city
• NO WHINING
• thank God for Jane Jacobs and David Sedaris
• explanation
• Ben is two
• Pam McConnell RIP
• the merry-go-round
• Ottawa
• picnic
• Naomi Klein forever
• Toronto glows
• Happy Canada 150
• June
• Georgia O’Keeffe
• Write in the Garden – three spots left
• truth and beauty
• Justin Trudeau at Pride
• breathing in the sweet, sweet air
• a Father’s Day essay
• Macca, Companion of Honour, turns 75
• Edgar at the Tonys
• WRITE IN THE GARDEN JULY 23
• brava Bonnie Raitt
• a beautiful gift
• readings and CNF competition
• If you’re not in the obit, eat breakfast.
• saved by “Sgt. Pepper”
• So True – inspiration
• Sgt. Pepper and pot, the joys of 1967
• May
• rejected
• John Shields’s death in the New York Times
• So True next Sunday
• The Boy in the Moon
• “I am Heath Ledger”
• turning five
• King Charles III
• Beth was wrong
• springing
• Writers’ Union of Canada @#$storm
• My heroes! Tonight!
• Brucie
• Macron, rhodos, Ancora: a triumphant day
• the Creative Non-Fiction Collective hooray!
• champagne with Chris
• bed rest/seaview cure continues
• the ocean-view cure
• distant memory – heat
• Le Patin Libre – glorious
• April
• extreme, even for Vancouver!
• think twice, another day in paradise
• Mom’s the Word 3
• Vancouver
• today’s Facts and Arguments
• science march heroes
• weather in Vancouver: wet
• information on Beth’s classes
• Maudie: must see
• gulls
• over the Atlantic
• David Hockney and hungry
• Sunday stroll
• Easter Sunday in London
• The Goat
• Harriet’s movie, Regent’s Park, Bloomsbury
• Good Friday
• thursday pix
• Don Juan in Soho
• Jewish Londoners on stage
• visiting the past
• London
• St. Jean Cap Ferrat
• London weather – straight downhill
• la Promenade des Anglais et Canadiens
• Nice with Bruce
• Montpellier
• black eye
• visit to L’Arche
• and now for something completely different
• les flâneuses
• March
• Vermeer at the Louvre
• Pere Lachaise
• Shaena Lambert’s workshop on Cortes Island
• fruit, flowers, friends
• one of the remarkable trees of France
• l’internet, pas trop bien
• we’re baaaaack!
• a new woman
• jet-lagged afternoon walk
• the eagle has landed
• almost gone
• tuneup
• la Boucanerie Chelsea
• Impeachara
• Etgar Keret, my new crush
• the bamboozle
• Kedi – Istanbul hearts cats
• Elke Town
• my usual winter travels
• So True is so NOW.
• February
• So True and Oscars: good!
• So True this afternoon
• women’s English conversation circle
• So True: Sunday Feb. 26
• Women’s English Conversation Circle
• Seinfeld and my two Beatles
• Stuart McLean, a minority view
• the miraculous pneumonia diet
• the best analysis of El Trumpo yet
• absorbing Yuval Harari and Dani Shapiro
• Sam’s soup
• relapse and fame
• FB forever
• Melania’s diary, and Piers Morgan makes a tiny bit of sense
• I accidentally bought a giant pig
• mmmm medicine
• a little white whine
• Here comes the sun
• So True changed back again!
• memory of Cruel Tears
• sick as a dog
• “Canada, Leading the Free World” and SNL
• creating at the AGO
• January
• new date for So True – Sunday March 5
• terrorism in Quebec
• The Best Worst Thing That Could Have Happened
• 20th century women, and the end of the impasse
• La La Land and the blog’s tenth anniversary
• family and football
• marching for love
• surviving El Trumpo en famille
• critiquing
• Beth is ageist. Sigh.
• L’Arche and good habits
• another student in the Globe
• Gwen Setterfield and Julieta
• re: Beth’s winter classes; Life, Animated; Moonlight; Meryl
• Come From Away and the end of the Trump Slump
• writer Rita Davies in the Globe
• conversation, music and habit: “Better Than Before”
• a message from Honolulu
• Beth’s classes starting mid-January
• The Aga Khan, Sherlock, and Macca on St. Bart’s
• Loss and gain
• 2016
• December
• happy and yappy
• Things To Come with Isabelle Huppert
• Caitlin Moran – surprise! – speaks her mind
• wonderful Christmastime, done and done
• merryness
• Hannah Arendt on Trump voters
• my new Knotten
• So Sad Today
• Book report
• the election, torpedoing us all
• Nicole Breit’s advice
• The Crown
• snowstorm
• Greenery: Colour of the Year, 2017
• The Hollow Crown and Trump’s America
• Mystical Landscapes and London Road – double wow!
• open letter to Mayor John Tory
• British radio interview
• O Canada
• Fantastic Beasts in the snow
• our nation’s capital
• letter to Santa
• Karl Ove and Gratitude, yay, Cafe Society boo
• November
• Arrival and niqab
• Quebec my country mon pays
• Wrestling Jerusalem
• Bingo with Stella and other joys
• back soon
• working
• so sad
• My talk at the Miles Nadal Thurs. Nov. 17 1.30 p.m.
• recovery
• the next world war, Cuisine, Leonard
• Soma chocolate saves the day
• aftermath – a few wise words
• 8.30 a.m. the day after
• 11.30 p.m.
• election night 9 p.m.
• election night 7.30 p.m.
• Thanks, Susan B.!
• five p.m. election night
• the heat of November
• the KKK, the KGB and the FBI all love Trump
• clean at last
• October
• So True true true
• The Beatles 50 T.O. exhibit
• defeating Rogers, maybe, and brava to Madeleine Thien
• the Economist loves Canada
• first world problems and bad bad John Tory
• a place in Paris?
• Krugman on Hillary
• cuteness alert
• “All but gone” and Chihuly
• best friend
• Citizenfour
• Randy Bachman and “All My Loving”
• inspiring Marni Jackson
• the Moth – meh
• Grownups Read Things They Wrote as Kids
• Ann Patchett, comedienne
• on Lionel Shriver, grievance and the bubble
• gold
• September
• smells from downstairs, in 5777
• Missing Kat
• Annals of Aging Part 1
• the debate! McKelsey defined.
• my boychik
• notes on writing
• A View from the Bridge, WOTS
• autumn begins
• Finding the Jewish Shakespeare hooray
• Ellen Seligman
• brilliant, scary Doonesbury
• my boys and their lustrous brown hair
• Eight Days a Week
• pix from me to you
• A United Kingdom
• my classes and the Special Needs Hotel
• Idea of North
• Helen Mirren at 70
• Labour Day
• cute boys
• Ryerson class full
• August
• cottage love
• O Canada – morning walk in Muskoka
• cottage bliss
• Woody and Beth’s fall classes at Ryerson and U of T
• Southside with You + Macca and puppies
• cucumber query
• catching up
• celebrating Gord and the Hip
• praise for “All My Loving”
• home three days early
• up and away
• Once more to the lake
• killing me softly …
• Bach on the mountaintop
• home in the heat with giant cucumber
• Ludwig forever
• Beethoven pipes me in
• stopping by the woods
• Mel Hurtig, great Canadian, R.I.P.
• moving day
• Soixante-six
• birthday girl
• July
• Stratford hooray
• Obama = heartthrob city
• The Democrats and show biz
• Michelle Obama for President
• Go Democrats.
• the magnificent Ursula Franklin
• missing Macca, seeing Yo Yo’s “Silk Road”
• music and roses
• garden party
• gimme shelter
• benign is the right word
• a little Captain Fantastic and a big one
• mmmm praise, can’t get enough
• Time magazine, Feb. 1, 1982
• grief and the garden
• ArtSpin
• whining about back pain
• asymmetry
• What three words dot com?
• Cabbagetown apartment to rent Sept. 1
• wild abandon
• Wimbledon on right now, hope someone wins.
• New York Day Five – Tuesday
• New York Day Four – Monday
• New York Day Three – Sunday continued
• New York Day Three
• New York Day Two
• New York Day One
• Write in the Garden in three weeks
• June
• off to New York
• the James Plays at the Hearn – must see
• The Onion and the New Yorker nail it, as usual
• Britain and the big no
• return after a long absence
• Happy Birthday, Macca
• genes
• No words
• The Tony Awards provide solace
• Toronto Beatles fest in August and Joan Baez
• Paul McCartney the life, by Philip Norman
• Koneline: must see
• grownups discuss things they wrote as kids
• of teeth
• Write in the Garden July 24
• Beth’s new subscription option
• Robin Phillips and Shakespearituality
• May
• So True recap – we done good
• Bernie maybe and Storycorps
• check your passport!
• the perfect holiday
• Bryan Cranston as LBJ – brilliant
• long weekend – and “Hangmen”
• must see
• must read
• for your reading pleasure
• Cabbagetown house for rent July 1-6
• the famdamly
• Anne Lamott
• Tony Kushner – an intelligent homosexual’s guide…
• Happy Mother’s (and Writer’s) Day
• it works
• Nettie Wild won!
• arguing about Trump and Bernie
• A sign for Macca
• Beth meets a nice guy with strangely big eyes
• fury today
• birthday and Woodstock 2016
• kind notes
• daffodils
• Beth’s Ryerson class starts Wednesday
• Koneline: our land beautiful, Hot Docs must see
• April
• Sam and Drake
• Love Is, installment # 6748
• Beth’s writing classes
• Star Wars and home
• goodbye to the invisible elk
• Peter Gzowski and the planet
• the naked Mountie and other stories
• the Icefields Parkway of heaven
• my two seconds of fame in Maccaland
• Creative non-fiction at the Banff Centre
• 4/20 Vancouver – the smoke wafts in
• Macca rocks Vancouver.
• going to meet my Macca
• English Bay, sunset and orca
• Stanley Park summer
• oh yeah
• the Sun Run
• space and time
• sky
• azalea heaven
• whale outside my window
• Mashup at the VAG
• Monday without Macca
• spring in Canada
• true – sigh
• pink and white petals
• island to mainland
• a drink by the sea
• the west coast of Vancouver Island in the rain
• treasure
• Macca in Vancouver!
• April heat
• paradise in Lalaland
• March
• “Good People” and Van Dusen Botanical Gardens
• Vancouver bliss
• seawall
• 7.30 a.m. Easter Monday
• settling in
• the Trudeaus travel
• back in Van
• Ellen Seligman, editor extraordinaire, RIP
• Good Friday in Victoria
• rejecting J. K. Rowling
• disagreement
• The Lady in the Van
• wet
• gorgeousland
• up and away, minus tiny tiny knife
• the big rip
• my kids: a love story
• Suzuki the magnificent
• Friday
• new exhibition on Yiddish theatre in NYC
• perfectly crazy – me and Sam Bee
• Why I dance
• back to the land of health
• a crazy fan
• Macca in Vancouver
• my son the cocktail champ
• How I Won the War
• Downton ends – sob!
• snowy
• down the rabbit hole
• February
• John Oliver on Donald Drumpf
• Oscars and Kaplan, Louisiana
• So True pix
• So True and Oscars, together at last
• our first Photo Laureate
• a new fan
• So True this Sunday at 4.30
• hooray for Michael Coren
• “Betroffenheit” and justice on Vinyl Tap
• the Abigail Thomas Fan Club
• Doonesbury nails it as usual
• “the unicorn platform”
• dream
• Downton yes, Vinyl no, John Oliver forever
• no mourning for Scalia
• The Thing About Life Is That One Day You’ll Be Dead
• noise bylaw – URGENT!
• being rich
• Robert’s photos
• judging Jian
• Downton delights
• “45 Years” and “Kiss and Cry”
• Master class! Moi!
• spring? not quite but almost
• Jian’s mother
• January
• celebrating Mike Nichols
• today’s favourite things
• blessings
• So True Sunday Feb. 28
• Tuesday, January, keeping warm, onward
• “Pierre Trudeau made me cry again today”
• Happy National Handwriting Day
• Lady Braindead Looselips
• Branson is back!
• Cousin George Gordin
• Bowie gets it
• Alan Rickman
• fab gear
• Obama!
• ROOM FOR RENT – pass it on
• Monday visit, Globes, Jobs and Bowie
• “Carol” and “The Danish Girl”
• New York Times loves Toronto
• a note from a former student
• “Trumbo”
• correct dates of Beth’s upcoming writing courses
• favourite male persons
• “Room” – another must see
• new review of “All My Loving”
• “Traces”
• True!
• Sherlock
• “Al Purdy was here”
• the wisdom of Oliver Sacks
• Being three
• 2015
• December
• “Spotlight” – must see
• Ottawa in the snow
• Britannia Park, Ottawa
• moving right along
• done and done
• Christmas Eve in shorts
• Oh Canada!
• hot for the holidays
• P.S.
• vacation time
• a Christmas essay
• festive
• Anne Lamott in Toronto
• aloha
• on the plane
• Proud to be Canadian
• gone
• more from the Honolulu Art Gallery
• going …
• going
• out there somewhere…
• heading north, but not that far north
• another day older in Paradise
• various beauties
• another dreadful crowded beach
• Vitamin G for green
• botanical gardens
• internet problems
• Kauai
• Honolulu
• onward
• celebrating Canada’s landscape
• a damp grey beauty
• Lotusland bliss
• November
• Vancouver
• up and at ’em
• Woman of the Year
• “Haida Gwaii”
• Paradise, here I come
• bits and pieces
• re: the island airport and Marcus Gee
• A ++ for everyone
• John Oliver nails it, as usual
• for my students …
• Seminar: superb
• Toronto, in solidarity with Paris
• all love sent to Paris
• This is happy??
• Seminar the play
• the perfect family
• remembrance
• old but feisty
• Nine Canucks nom’d for Dublin IMPAC prize!
• Cumberbatch’s Hamlet
• my favourite day
• still golden
• truly madly deeply
• new day
• playing dress up
• October
• gifts
• recommended books about writing non-fiction
• Motown, Beckett, Book City, friendship
• Reminder: So True
• retreat
• wise stuff
• my three seconds of non-fame
• Try to see it my way
• liking his face
• He’s gone
• John Oliver for Prime Minister!
• tension mounts
• upside down video
• Paul McCartney at the ACC – the concert of a lifetime
• Elmo meets a very serious boy
• kissing Justin
• Sigh indeed.
• Can’t wait!
• oust the bum!
• turkeytime
• Thanks
• “Grandma” – “slick and trivial”
• delicate little shoes for sale
• Non-fiction writer wins the Nobel Prize!
• hope’s name is Justin Trudeau
• prayers, trees and “The Little Paris Bookshop”
• Spiderman and his brother
• at the Shaw Festival
• September
• good job, Trevor Noah
• Supermoon, superdad
• hot Sunday
• wealth beyond my wildest dreams
• love and tapes
• remarkably cheerful
• the vote split on the left
• today’s tree
• Trumper
• Beatles in 1965 and PETITION AGAINST SHELL
• Heather Mallick for Prime Minister
• Emmylou Harris forever
• Terry Fox and TIFF
• Macca and moi, together at last
• the elite
• running in the cold
• fabulous women!
• U of T’s Life Stories nearly full
• Michael Coren – today’s hero in the Star
• re Beth’s classes and body parts
• Mary Oliver and dancing
• a hill of beans!
• Ottawa overload
• Where I am
• the McCartney tulip
• August
• gifts
• Oliver Sacks, RIP
• The Wolfpack
• Macca then and now
• love those genes
• My housekeeping motto
• glitches
• Camilla Gibb leads the charge
• MACCA!
• about writing and the perils of this chair
• Margaret Atwood takes on The Man with the Iron Hair
• Macca in T.O.! Ticket info please?
• cast and crew
• THIS PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS.
• seafood ahoy
• Oliver Sacks on the Sabbath, and life
• ’nuff said
• gold medals
• The NYT takes down Harper! And I see “Amy”
• encounter
• the woodpecker posts
• acutely missing Jon
• APARTMENT TO RENT
• sad
• Carrie Snyder on the writing life
• preparing to mourn our lost Jon
• Babies
• Veuve Cliquot and thou
• August 1 horoscopes
• We are amused
• Queen for a day
• July
• boithday, Bethday
• when I’m no longer 64
• balloons
• my sentiments exactly
• where I was yesterday – and where we should all be today
• at the beach
• the better Bell battle
• joy in human beings
• Robin Phillips, R.I.P.
• all you need
• famdamly
• Grampa’s here
• brothers
• tonight’s lessons
• baby brother Day Two
• recovery
• so small!
• little brother Ben
• Benjamin Edgar
• on his way
• Robert Lepage’s stunning “887”
• waiting for little brutha
• on missing men and trees and hating “Minions”
• women at work and play
• today’s message
• O blessed day
• Saturday pix
• Banff Centre’s new Memoir program
• a fan of “All My Loving”
• iPhone, explained
• celebrating fathers
• saving the world
• jam
• So true!
• Happy Canada Day!
• June
• Inside Out, Carol Goar, Michael Coren – Joy
• Luminato’s Apocalypsis
• Why I broke up with fiction to write a memoir
• blessings in the rain
• detached empathy
• Luminato’s Contemporary Colour
• bike paths and Luminato’s penises
• Dad’s day
• summer weekend afternoon
• The Past, R. H. Thomson, the Pope and strawberries
• Jon Stewart and Malala
• Happy 73, Paul
• today’s males: Karl Ove, Macca, Stickers
• Edward Bruin Green
• Aunt Do in Ottawa – my Woman in Gold
• hating stupid Mayor Tory today
• good reading from blog readers
• Wayson talks, the Tonys sing
• lush
• Welcome! This is my garden.
• rain rain
• men men my favourite men
• Truth and Reconciliation – at last
• Get ready!
• So True: better and better
• May
• celebrating toy trains, Gaslight, Laurel and clutter
• proud mama
• cover indeed
• That was spring?
• Stephen Harper in the closet
• Three small madmen who are three, and “Mad Men”
• gay wedding, yes; “Avengers,” no
• So True stories Sunday May 31
• David Sedaris yes, Tom Stoppard not so much
• meeting in writing class
• Old age pension?! Not for Anne Boleyn.
• Room to rent
• remembering Mama
• Andrew Coyne on the case
• my boychik
• Hooray for Alberta!
• Wild Geese, by Mary Oliver
• in olden days …
• information on Beth’s writing classes this week
• a fan
• we are family
• Seymour: an introduction
• good times
• April
• Writing classes start next week
• the issue of truth in memoir
• opening doors
• Thirty years ago …
• love is
• thoughts on home
• there to here
• chez moi
• Kathmandu
• les copines
• la fin
• Montpellier – Paris
• to the Alps for fondue
• Nice – Gordes – Embrun
• the second last stage – Montpellier to Paris
• onward
• Chris Cameron’s piece in the Globe
• Nice.
• our last supper
• last day with Bruce, boat trip, sick
• Boat trip part two
• If it’s Saturday, this must be Monterosso al Mare
• Globe personal essay contest
• Cinque Terre – heaven
• a tribute to Bruce
• How Lucca can you get…
• the giant museum
• more masterpieces and another five pounds
• In Cortona with Bruce
• joy
• Monday
• Eli – and then back to Florence
• Sunday morning in Firenze
• Theatre Passe-Muraille auction
• BK and BK, together again
• Bruce tours Firenze, Day 1
• London to Florence, grazie
• On to Firenze
• Thursday
• My night with Reg
• Time Out in London
• the Penn Club, Bloomsbury
• the British Museum
• Kew and Richmond
• a sunny day at Hampton Court
• spring – from Regent’s Park to Hampton Court
• my spoon and I take a walk
• Easter Saturday in London
• Hawks in London
• fame on Juliet’s blog and David Burke’s Paris
• au revoir, Paris
• last day in Paris
• flowering
• walking on Wednesday
• in a cold wind in the 5th
• Velasquez, the Tudors, the Abbey Bookshop
• March
• Yesterday’s walk
• old friends
• Dimanche
• More Montparnasse Cemetary
• nice places to live, or die, in Paris
• Enfin, tout va bien
• Friday pics – the sun!
• Chartres
• finding peace
• mercredi
• Paris sous la pluie
• Paris pix 2.
• Paris pix, 1.
• lundi
• Ca va mieux
• not so hot
• much love, beth
• I’ve gotta get out of this place
• Wolf Hall is coming
• See him run at 95
• 60 Shades of Grey
• protesting C51, teasing Chekhov and the “tyranny of we”
• Jean Vanier and L’Arche
• Daniels Spectrum wins award, Beth cuts back on wine LOL
• a couple of rains
• not so much
• spring is nigh
• winning essay
• Happy World Book Day!
• killed by a moose
• So True triumphs and Mrs. Hughes finds love
• February
• So True readings tomorrow.
• Karl Ove Knausgaard discovers America
• for your viewing and reading pleasure
• Oscar was wrong IMHO
• The Object Lesson
• Deconstructing “Revolver”
• sadness
• Deconstructing the Beatles
• the Dalai Lama encounters skiing
• Dave Barry on “Fifty Shades of Grey”
• Treasure
• Let It Be
• why marriage ends
• white men with guitars=love
• We all love Jon. Sun News, not so much.
• The Moth versus So True
• my new coat of many colours
• Two Days, One Night
• NOOOO – Jon, say it isn’t so!
• Book City on the Danforth, I love you
• Professor Jennifer Lopez
• enjoying Facebook
• The Backward Class: a must see
• dying with dignity: the family stories
• I am so over this guy
• thinking about Carrie Snyder
• truths on the table
• friends of “True to Life”
• Maggie goes skiing
• snow days
• January
• the best city in the world!
• room in lovely Cabbagetown house for rent
• my travellin’ shoes – Ferragamo?
• garden writing workshop – in the house
• the comforts of storytelling
• Oscar’s short films
• the Beatles outside my door
• a student success story
• a writer talks frankly about money
• Cathy Gildiner on writing memoir
• Are you gay?
• Ira Glass cheers us up
• No Jets T.O. meeting tonight
• There’s a sucker born every minute
• today’s message about writing
• stories about stories
• the miracle cure
• Where are the editors?
• a student story
• my turn
• message for Ryerson’s True to Life class
• Baby it’s cold outside
• Merry Christmas!
• sandcastles in the snow
• business
• Lynn was there, in Paris
• Searching for Mozart, and warmth
• Guardian cartoonist’s response to Charlie Hebdo
• Into the Woods
• red wine=hour at gym:YES!
• the power of pencils
• Beth’s writing courses: update
• Frank Zappa and his mum and dad
• Mr. Turner and “The sun is God!”
• God Only Knows
• Downton rapture
• a writing student describes her first class
• The Imitation Game
• Jon and Stephen
• the Brown sisters
• 2014
• December
• Lady Luck in 2015
• next year’s news
• Gerry Caplan nails the CRA
• Matisse and Robin Hood
• Eleanor Wachtel: Officer of the Order of Canada
• Chrystia Freeland in the NYTimes
• Jenny Offill and Colum McCann
• Been there, done that.
• Merry Everything
• Who is this Pope guy anyway?
• “It is, frankly, a long way from Jesus.”
• Steve says, Kiss my …
• winter solstice, home
• Have I got a piece of Florida for you!
• more about Birdman
• Bird land.
• Colbert’s epic goodbye
• Col – bear!
• “Rosewater”
• shopping in Texas
• Marni Jackson tackles Karl Ove
• Santa baby
• it’s tough but someone’s got to do it
• good news, bad bad man
• In memoriam – writers in 2014
• Macca and Jon – ecstasy.
• Guns don’t kill people? Really?
• What is that hot yellow thing in the sky?
• Basics of Listening at Ryerson
• Beth = house
• P.S.
• Ottawa pix
• lovechild and war
• off to Ottawa
• British Beatles Fan Club Magazine – woo hoo!
• Beth on the 49th Shelf
• Fox “News”
• Stephen Hawking and Alex Colville – lucky husbands
• November
• Lefty forever
• cheese and magazines
• Christmas recommendation
• putting your sex life on trial
• R.I.P. Dusty the donkey
• Ursula K. Le Guin, 85, takes aim and fires
• the Bible explained
• Great Romances end in tears
• celebrating documentary – Woody and Vivian Meier
• the Christmas vortex
• Alanna Cavanagh’s Open House
• your laugh of the day – David Sedaris and Mike Nichols
• Jon has a crush and so do I
• Benedict and Jon get married
• cold, guilt, perversion
• avoiding Santa
• a scary world
• Ray Civello’s library
• Julien Blanc. illiterate jerk
• writing and money – what’s money?
• Scary snake
• Gracias a la vida
• celebrating Nancy White
• Jimmy Carter, my hero, and “Arcadia”
• Shakespeare and Company: book heaven
• Paul Krugman, Jeffrey Simpson nail it
• what every writer dreams of … sigh …
• Republicans phooey!
• horror
• Sunday harolding
• schadenfreude, such a great word
• mercy for Jian
• October
• Happy Hallowe’en!
• John Oliver will miss the Fords
• NTL’s Frankenstein
• National Theatre Live: Skylight
• moving right along on all fronts
• Toronto has a new mayor. Praise be.
• today’s laugh out loud
• VOTE!!
• the unicorn report
• from Jian Ghomeshi’s former neighbour
• TODAY’S SHOW!
• remembering what’s important
• post Zoomer mortem
• Russell Brand gets Harper
• A. L. Kennedy writes for us
• Booth 1033
• So True stories, Sunday
• jihad in Ottawa?
• A French Ph.D. in Beatles
• NYT: Toronto on a bender
• What I want to do when I grow up
• Macca is live tweeting today
• goes without saying
• gifts come through the machine
• “Party of One”: how Harper is destroying Canada
• cheering the marathoners
• The Mountaintop and Carole
• making music, and Mark
• Florida rental
• CBC stories, Writers’ Union Publishing Workshop, Ruth Miller
• Beth and books at the ZoomerShow Oct. 25
• Maya Angelou
• Angry Yoga and Susan Orlean
• “Grownups read things they wrote as kids”
• This left-winger is voting John Tory
• Happy 30th birthday
• Hello Goodbye, Macca my love
• COC’s Falstaff
• Peter Blais and I
• the Times and writing memoir
• and most important of all …
• Puccini’s Butterfly
• more Nova Scotia
• Halifax redux
• Hooray for Malala
• Macca sings the blues
• autumn
• the Grammar School schism
• true
• Treez.
• Right some home.
• right some good
• a happy camper
• on to the Scarecrow Festival
• Been there, heard that
• Halifax
• September
• busy Monday
• Sugar Beach
• accomplished and gorgeous lawyer marries some actor
• Halifax here I come.
• when I’m 64
• a new old year
• Emma Watson – Hermione no more
• blessings
• cartoon from today’s “Star”
• Farewell Stratford – yo Word on the Street
• “King Lear” and an old love
• good news, and Alice
• FDR and Dad
• on the bus again
• launch pix
• book #2 launched
• the coolest neighbourhood in the world
• praise from a John Girl
• The son of a terrorist speaks of peace
• Bikestock 2014
• No comment
• Saturday, 7 p.m.
• Here, there and everywhere
• Karl Ove Knausgaard’s memoir
• Phooey!
• home page
• the hot pink gazelle
• failure guaranteed
• Wicked!
• the internet and spam from me
• still no ‘net
• Ryerson’s “True to Life” starts tonight.
• THIRD!
• inviting you to the book launch
• more Festival
• the Cabbagetown Festival
• not being Angie and Brad
• note from a happy student
• creative non-fiction workshop in Toronto
• the reject pile
• Eli catches a fish
• new skills
• another student in Facts and Arguments
• The Brian Epstein Story
• Goodreads: William Shakespeare and moi
• Sam Harris writes about Israel
• autumn thoughts
• first drafts
• August
• Open Streets Toronto
• master chef chez sa mere
• She likes it, she really likes it
• The Lanyard
• lovely long weekend
• summertime and the livin’ is easy
• Geist’s Postcard competition
• back to school in 1970 and 2014
• right now
• information on my upcoming writing courses
• Rich Hill
• becoming a writer
• The Chelsea Smokehouse woo hoo!
• Stratford
• A Chamber “Dream” at Stratford
• a ticket for Jon Stewart’s movie?
• Gratitude wins
• thank you Rita Davies
• On Turning Ten
• consumer’s report
• Octopus, Bestellen, The Trip to Italy
• Grandpa
• Dead Poets
• RIP Robin Williams
• oh my Federer
• True to Life, Step 39: wounds and scars
• Cut it again, Sam
• David Sedaris at his best
• Making your life as an artist
• beezy
• A Most Wanted Man
• Nick Rice reminisces about the Beatles
• Trinity Arsenault
• apartment for rent, apartment or house needed
• The Charity that Began at Home at Shaw
• Booboo at Caribanna
• Israel
• love
• They say it’s your birthday
• catching my breath
• July
• Samsung and Ira Glass
• from a happy camper
• True to Life – Step 7
• report on our “So true” event
• Boyhood
• So True tomorrow!
• True to Life, Step 5
• the raccoon highway
• on the freeway
• today’s joys
• phooey!
• blessings on a July morning
• “Beautiful dream of Israel has become a nightmare.” Gabor Maté
• Dinner NOW.
• True to Life: Step Two
• garden workshop feedback
• brilliance on the street
• the writer is pleased
• article about the book in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald
• Boyz.
• “True to Life” step one
• welcome, my own dear troll
• issues
• The power of two
• CBC CNF finalists
• the Beatles’ Paris concert, 1965
• Casablanca celebrates France and the French
• selfie with Paul McCartney and Warren Buffet
• country notes
• new cover
• home again
• Losing Carolyn
• Paul’s new video about him and John
• follow the yellow brick road
• your armchair adventure for today
• nice words
• J. Gordin Kaplan
• best boys, best friends
• nature and nurture
• Canucks at Wimbledon and Existential Comics
• He’s baaaaaaack.
• on stage
• Joyeux Jour du Canada
• June
• Proud of Pride
• Bam!
• Kate Trotter in “Tru Love”
• breaking buds
• Macca’s back(a)!
• the best of Monty Python
• say cheese
• letter from a crabby neighbour – moi
• Regent’s Park’s new green space
• Amazon review of “Finding the Jewish Shakespeare”
• word wrestling
• Kerry Clare, Paul Girl, writes a review
• storm shot
• Macca is 72 today
• Grace and friends
• Beth’s garden workshop
• ’nuff said
• Alan Johnson is my hero
• “Shelter,” a brand new opera
• nudes on bikes
• well said
• gardenia breath
• GO KATHLEEN!
• a beautiful review
• the wedding photographer
• Michelle Obama about Maya Angelou
• woke up, it was a Chelsea wedding
• dining
• outed
• Into the future with Kathleen Wynne
• Beth’s book launch talk with Sam
• from girl to boy, with the love of his parents
• Beth’s garden writing workshop July 20
• sweet Sunday
• High Park in the sun
• May
• Sigh.
• Bravo.
• Tomorrow’s So True: Life stories, well written, well told
• the tech genius
• the launch video: but it doesn’t work
• people say the nicest things
• book launch report
• a few shots
• Tonight, tonight, won’t be just any night …
• “Finding Vivian Maier”
• “My hero Paul McCartney” in the Guardian
• spring rhapsody
• Sean Martindale’s planter boxes
• The Curious Incident …
• Macca on CBC radio
• Eli is two.
• Macca is sick
• Fed Up: don’t miss it
• Today’s messages
• So True: our new reading series Friday May 30
• Book launch reminder, May 26 – eight days away
• Macca’s new music video – amazing!
• The horror, the horror
• Beth’s Garden Writing Workshop – Sunday July 13
• oldies but goodies
• story of my life
• review from Mrs. Big Bird and others
• a review from a former Mrs. John Lennon
• one proud mama
• true love
• More reviews
• another fan
• Sotrue.ca
• a fan!
• True to Life at Ryerson a definite go
• the Precariat
• the writer’s family
• LIfe Stories at U of T is a go
• we were all lello
• birthday
• Alistair McLeod
• the end of Ford WOO HOO!
• April
• Beth’s writing classes – one student’s success story
• Call the Midwife
• In case you haven’t heard …
• “I am Big Bird – the Caroll Spinney story”
• Saturday Night and “Le Weekend”
• recap
• HOOOOOOME
• The Wallace Collection
• London shots
• Once and Matilda
• Out of order: last day in Naples
• Londra
• Pompeii pictures
• Naples pix 2.
• pictures from Napoli 1
• Ciao
• Pompeii
• a tiny scare
• Beth’s classes
• My book on Amazon.ca!
• Napoli day two
• Napoli
• book launch
• Lunch in Nocelle with Richard
• the bus from Nocelle back to Positano
• Richard’s eyrie in Nocelle
• Sorrento to Positano
• Saturday evening in downtown Sorrento
• more Capri
• Capri
• the isle of Capri
• two handsome guys in Ravello
• last lap, Ravello to Amalfi back to Sorrento
• molto Italiano
• Positano and food
• the ride along the Amalfi coast
• the book is out!
• Sorrento lemons
• A description of dinner for Caroline
• last day in Rome
• art schmart
• beautiful downtown Rome
• que bella
• La citta eterne – Roma
• samedi après-midi
• samedi matin
• Snow in Newfoundland
• Friday at the Louvre
• the nearly 170 year-old Polidor
• the King tweets
• Eating. So what’s new already?
• a beautiful day
• March
• Shaena Lambert’s writing workshop
• Ida
• A Paris Sunday
• and now for something completely … True Detective
• O happy day
• Henri Cartier-Bresson and mustard
• old friends
• Dad’s tree forever
• the Batobus
• the photographer Brassai – “Pour l’amour de Paris” at l’Hotel de Ville
• Marché Monge
• Paris in the rain
• Neil Gaiman nails it, as usual
• Roz Chast nails it, as usual
• Paris, please
• pronking for joy
• Saturday – grandparents and “Her”
• Sunday: Montpellier to Gordes for lunch
• Linda McCartney and moi in Montpellier
• Thursday, midday
• All My Loving book launch invitation
• So True: Life Stories, well written, well told
• going going …
• An amazing story
• open letter to Konrad Yakabuski about the island airport
• a bevy of beauties
• You Like it, you really Like it!
• Happy Spring, Toronto! I’ve got Particle Fever.
• Chris Cameron and Elizabeth Gilbert – inspiring
• me in Italy soon
• The Platform
• auction auction
• lost
• Happy Birthday T Dot
• Travoltifying
• sob
• to tweet or not to tweet
• Hooray for Toronto, sez the New York Times
• February
• Speaking of our prime minister and our mayor …
• reading next Friday
• plans in winter
• Downton delight
• red and white
• moving on
• R.I.P.
• Macca in Montpelllier
• Two grandpa’s.
• Cirque du Soleil spectacular
• all my loving
• hockey schmockey
• deconstructing Pussy Riot and the White Album
• Sotheby’s
• throwing up
• an appointment
• “Inside Llewyn Davis” – four thumbs down
• Valentine’s bakers
• Roger Angell, Edie and Thea
• Reading – Friday March 7
• the joy of editing
• To hell with it!
• Olympic gold
• She Loves You, the essay
• Thank you, Macca mine
• together
• Link to the Sunday Edition
• Russel Brand
• CBC radio, The Sunday Edition, this Sunday
• more snow
• Bill de Blasio, my new crush
• karaoke at the gas bar
• Shaena Lambert and today’s Facts and Arguments
• Monday, The Great Beauty
• Be friending
• Libraries victorious, except for the brothers who can’t read
• January
• skiing without clothing
• puppies and Pete
• favourite men
• our beloved Pete Seeger
• “London Road” a must see
• yo Barbie
• FROZEN
• remembering “Catcher in the Rye”
• how to stop procrastinating
• Harper goes home
• a superb article on Harper and Israel, by Gerry Caplan
• Margaret Norquay, 1920 – 2014
• Good news
• warm memories
• Angels and Insects
• northward ho
• more!
• :Ryerson class cancelled
• polar vortex in Florida
• busybusy
• Delicious Downton
• once upon a time in America
• we are family
• the addict withdraws
• Anna Maria Island
• TRUE TO LIFE starts at Ryerson Monday Jan. 13
• Florida oh yes
• Happy 2014 bloggees
• 2013
• December
• swingers
• fragrancing
• Punctuation saves lives
• Philomena and the nuns
• RIP Ben Torchinsky
• Note to self: appreciate daughter
• 16-year old Christmas essay
• celebrating chez nous
• heat and light
• the ice storm
• Blue is not so warm, thank you very much.
• Par Tay!
• E. B. White on “Charlotte’s Web”
• Mark and Macca
• Noo Yawk recap
• saying no to Gertrude Stein
• adieu
• NYC miscellaney
• Mark Rylance, Peter O’Toole, New York
• my three favourite men right now – Mark Rylance, Vermeer, and my dad
• Santas
• NYC
• the Moth
• Crazytown
• Off we go
• NYC and Eye Kandinsky
• Alanna’s pad
• celebrating the miracle of greatness
• being of good cheer
• define failure
• old friends
• November
• let the celebrations begin
• Oh, poor Snow
• Louis C. K. my hero
• trying again
• rock the vote and then just rock
• Holly Golightly – moi?
• Support our libraries
• Dallas Buyers Club
• a mantra for right now
• standing up for the NDP
• Chrystia Freeland for me
• Angelina Jolie, humanitarian and wine-maker
• hearing the truth
• The power of words
• Tedeschi Trucks Band – the best
• Support our libraries – this Sunday!
• the death of children
• Simple Toronto pleasures – my Sunday
• Andrew Coyne hits the bull’s eye once again
• Are men obsolete?
• ways to donate
• a hot November day
• donate to The Humanitarian Coalition
• the health benefits of writing
• addictions of various kinds
• the resilience gene
• Is it okay to kill cyclists?
• actually funny about the scandalous
• remembrance
• our problem
• Some of us LIVE here.
• from one wise man about another
• Tony Kushner on writing
• Thank you Mike Harris
• Jon Stewart on our fine mayor
• Neil Gaiman on books and reading
• Addicts lie
• Tribute to Alice Munro
• “The Examined Life”
• dancing
• Woody the cowboy
• October
• Ford go go gone
• Macca’s “New.”
• Portrait of a writer
• NOT writing for free
• the Toronto Centre by-election
• Stephen King at the Author’s Festival
• Stories we tell about “Stories We Tell”
• invite to up-coming debate about “Stories We Tell”
• Fam-damly in Ottawa
• fall in Britannia Park
• books!
• Ottawa
• dating actresses
• “56 Up”
• a boy and his glamma
• leftovers
• stuffed
• writing styles and barking dogs, for Thanksgiving
• thanks giving
• fall
• Alice in NobelLand
• slightly used manuscript for sale
• the brilliance of “Peter Grimes”
• a limited Nuit Blanche
• hilarious improv skit
• Ai Weiwei, artist and hero
• write me back, please
• September
• the Don Valley Trail
• postscript
• Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling
• quitting the slough of despond
• David Gilmour doesn’t read women
• “Jane, the fox and me” by Fanny Britt
• Word on the Street
• Celebrities as “normal” people
• I don’t know why you say goodbye, I say hello
• “Wave” and niquab
• sculptures R us
• Bonnie and Aretha blow your brains out
• an attractive pair
• “We are the best” is the best
• for sale – eight track radio greats
• June Callwood writes to her daughter in 1973
• hot and wet
• on-line venue for creative non-fiction
• “the outward-looking memoir”
• Hey Jude as a flow chart
• Eli enjoys the Cabbagetown Festival
• non-fiction competition
• happy Cabbagetown Wet Fest
• Obama and Putin
• pre-sale
• the making of “Abbey Road” – acapella
• Macca and Carl Perkins – old documentary
• Ah, youth
• Jian approves – even without the official sign, which went up yesterday
• falling forward
• Macca’s new song
• great art: Blue Jasmine and Angels in America
• August
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane
• details about my memoir classes
• summer
• reading about writing
• summer going going …
• Broadchurch
• love that rain
• the joy of work
• Neil Gaiman sums up my memoir
• Elmore Leonard, Modern Prose Master, Noted For His Terse Prose Style And For Writing About Things Perfectly And Succinctly With A Remarkable Economy Of Words, Unfortunately And Sadly Expired This Gloomy Tuesday At The Age Of 87 Years Old
• back to work
• A mi casa
• Ikea’s instructions for Stonehenge
• Last night in Mexico
• Chris Cameron’s piece
• hola
• sightseeing
• Mexico City
• Can we stay, por favor?
• Domingo in SMA
• saturday in downtown SMA
• San Miguel and Guanajuato
• muy occupada
• las turistas – big day
• Hola.
• Fotografias
• Bienvenida en Mexico
• discovering writers
• best mostly American creative non-fiction writers
• arriba y adelante
• note to readers from Andy White and me
• happy holiday day
• the brilliant George Saunders
• sweet Sunday
• birthday present from the universe
• sparkling wine and a gift
• my ever present past
• July
• Sisyphus and the Pope
• the glamourous writing life
• inspired by J. K. and Anne and the gardenia
• Gorgeous Georges
• “Before Midnight”
• le Mas Blanc Writer’s Retreat
• getting ready to push
• all’s well
• remembering Linda Lewis
• tonight’s pix
• oh baby
• Atsa my boy.
• golden slumbers
• tornadoes
• Harper’s sweet smile and his new cabinet
• hot
• “Much ado about nothing”
• The story coaster
• The office, take two
• ding dong belle
• The office
• “Twenty feet from stardom”
• sweet summer
• Checking out 1964
• celebrating men
• CBC Literary competition
• A silent “Yesterday” for you
• Mayors face-off: Calgary versus Toronto
• substitute cuteness
• wet
• PMc
• Macca forever
• celebrating Robert Brustein and Oliver Sacks
• celebrating Andy Murray, awaiting Macca
• My word!
• not moving
• scars
• Macca
• “The War of Art”
• IN!
• June
• Happy pride, Bert, Ernie, Chris, Bruce, Wayson, JM, Richard et al.
• zombies
• Rules for Writers
• c’est moi la terreur
• what is a story?
• speaking about failure
• two out of three ain’t bad
• recovering
• getting my brain back
• the operation
• bouquets
• The Writing Life: routine
• the genius of Frank Loesser and Oscar Wilde
• Go home to Mama
• of Julia Child and Justin Bieber
• bloggers unite
• Quotes from writers
• Beth’s summer garden writing workshop
• BALL
• Jon Stewart, Macca and the gorgeous men brigade
• pre-op
• weighing in on “Book of Mormon”
• Thank you, Drs. Morgentaler and Frum, and Jane Purves
• A Ride for my Heart and “The War of 1812”
• recap
• it’s not over till the fat man quits
• May
• togetherness
• riches at the AGO
• first birthday cake
• now and then
• Save the CBC – a petition
• opening up the new room
• Hilary Mantel on memoir
• more coffee!
• Yuck – spam
• not so springy
• the courage of Angelina Jolie and Chris Hadfield
• Phooey!
• celebrating the Leafs
• Happy Mother’s Day to you all
• “This is water” – David Foster Wallace
• springing
• Enough said
• chaos
• news about writing classes
• *** Vital – save the CBC! ***
• “Good ol’ Freda”
• cedar
• the joy of here
• April
• springing home
• The Pacific Rim National Park
• More beautiful B.C.
• Crystal Cove
• Beautiful B.C.
• useful creativity
• City of Angelinos
• Austin
• sun to rain
• Santa Monica
• still here
• Texas
• catch up
• from an article in the NYT on the importance of talking to your baby
• the Texas winter
• lovin’ Austin
• the sorry story for writers
• Texas chronicle
• Sunday in Texas
• the wild west
• do si do
• from Washington to Austin, via Lunatic Air
• remember the Alamo
• pix
• Washington
• adventure awaits
• our beautiful dot
• “O the places you’ll go”
• And more depressing Harper to bring you down
• And more terrific men, for your viewing pleasure
• March
• your lord is risen
• the storytelling animal
• endorphin patrol
• the great E. B. White
• O happy
• to the glory of J. S. Bach
• Spring forward
• that is the question
• Stories stories stories
• Learning, as usual, from the CBC
• to friendship
• Booboo comes to visit
• on Catholics and cats
• Jack
• bliss
• resting
• a toast
• my parents
• winter whites
• gone
• mucking out
• moving out
• February
• “Clybourne Park”
• Oscar phooey
• echoes
• Saturday night
• OUT
• hello to Rick Mercer, farewell to Matthew
• BK and St. Jerome
• brutal
• Off
• Grumpy
• wildlife
• The State of the Union
• If it’s directed by Christopher Alden, run.
• Hamilton in the snow
• Bill
• snow day
• travel bug
• stuff
• January
• hyper parablabla
• Amour
• movies and memories
• R.I.P. the indomitable Susan Rubes
• Big news!
• thrift shop down the road
• My eulogy
• blurry shots of Ottawa
• getting home
• memorial
• remembering
• a wonder of starlings
• frozen faces
• “Why be happy when you could be normal?”
• Golden Globes and “Les Mizzzz”
• re: today’s cancelled Ryerson class
• treasures
• onward
• too hot for a Canadian
• life’s a beach
• A-MUR-ICA
• vegging
• Daniel Mendelsohn and Mary Renault
• Florida in the drizzle
• A satisfied customer writes in the “Globe”
• Pearson Sunday afternoon
• flying
• cats, dogs, horses, you name it, she loved it
• 2013 Colour of the Year
• singing through grief like a bird
• English rose
• Jean Harris, Charles Durning and my mother
• Mum’s obituary
• Ottawa winter
• Happy, healthy, peaceful 2013 to you all
• 2012
• December
• keeping stuff
• collecting memories
• “War Horse”
• Where have all the flowers gone?
• battered
• James Joyce says it better
• first Christmas
• sad
• a life
• Mum
• a new Christmas Eve tradition
• merry merry merry
• Humbug, with “Silver Linings”
• be still, my beating heart
• calm in the storm
• “Without You,” coffee and chocolate
• the Mayan end of the world
• Chris’s Christmas tree essay in the “Globe”
• Fatass bwana
• Singing in Times Square
• Christmas is coming!
• Stories we tell
• Terminus, Connecticut
• ‘Nuf said.
• U of T Awards night
• been there done that
• Second-hand Authoress
• the invention of peanut butter
• back to backs
• boy toyz
• pain
• mindfulness
• I heart Leonard Cohen
• reading the paper
• a present for you: David Sedaris in green velvet
• “Life of Pi”
• both recuperating
• last visit to Ottawa, a winter’s walk
• wonder woman
• November
• Booboo in hospital
• still here
• waiting game
• being there
• torn
• lessons from my father
• happiness is …
• so long, Mayor Ford, and don’t slam the door on your way out
• missing Macca in Vancouver
• Grey Cup chili
• Google schmoogle
• Filling the void
• authoress
• 5th floor, the Civic Hospital
• by her bedside
• sisters
• Move like Jagger, chuckle like Newt
• an apple for the teacher
• Why Detroit schools require shirts to be tucked in
• Today’s heroes: Jane and Hilary
• Today’s joy
• remembering the fourth floor
• giving us things
• fingers crossed for the planet
• A simple poem: Election day./ Let us pray.
• The help.
• “Timon of Athens,” bravo
• October
• hiding from Hallowe’en
• Ira Glass on storytelling
• Hurricane Sandy
• The Ira Glass menagerie
• Nighisti Semret
• cashmere, coffee and anxiety
• let’s get this election over with!
• Thanksgiving
• We are family, thanks
• God, Man and Devil, and Damien Hirst
• dwelling on the debate
• WOO HOO!
• Obama’s debate strategy by Andy Borowitz
• debating debacle
• The brilliance of “Seven Up!”
• the Sunday Time
• recovery mode for Democrats and me
• all you need is soup
• Chuck Close on Vermeer
• the flu chronicles
• Sickland
• Facebook art
• Rumble 2012: Jon Stewart debated some silly man tonight
• The Clock and other treasures and trash
• disaster, nausea, the presidential debate
• October
• Half the Sky
• Wake the @#$#@ up!
• September
• Nuit Blanche – report from an early quitter
• growing up with Eli
• catch up
• nice words indeed
• Many Words on the Street
• Eli today
• Daniels Spectrum
• from this week’s Canadian Jewish News
• osteophooey
• Winston Reckert, R.I.P.
• Fini NYC
• recap NYC
• back to Tranna
• more NYC
• Central Park
• NYC bliss
• Noo Yawk again
• beat
• Cabbagetown weekend
• One Term More, adapted from Les Mis
• Festival in the rain, and Dems triumphant
• Press release from New York – woo hoo!
• Learning to write – now.
• to cheer you up…
• pass the baby
• Michelle rocks
• the Tea Party as the Taliban
• cuties
• August
• ranting about Republicans, adoring Jon Stewart
• chez moi
• Van Gogh’s cherry blossoms
• the meaning of old
• eating, drinking, talking, walking
• more Montreal
• Sunday in Montreal
• summer pix
• Montreal
• busy busy busy
• missing and found
• from the Stella Adler Studio Facebook page
• six writers writing
• fixing things
• a brand new disease
• chaos
• Picasso’s sex life
• let the sunshine in
• Fifty Shades of Not Much at All
• The mighty termite hunter
• love the Who
• Then and now
• 40 days and nights
• There’s still room in the writing workshop. Termites not invited.
• the 10 most difficult books, and a few of the easiest
• more
• Ottawa
• swamped
• my bedroom
• in which she whines
• news of fresh disasters
• “civic-minded hip hop”
• Being 62
• Love, revolution and twits
• July
• great pic
• Backbeat the play
• what innocence looks like
• How to write, sort of
• The Olympic ceremony – remembering Ian Charleson
• daring
• noodling
• sweet
• the American connection
• My mother/the sky
• vigil
• Beth’s adventures in surrealland.
• Write in the Garden – August 19
• urgent
• the men of tomorrow
• buying albums again
• Seven writers writing …
• Special guest at tomorrow’s workshop
• Canada Writes – Creative Non-Fiction vote
• Raconteurs
• question for oldsters about 1964
• Hip and Urban Girl’s Guide dot com
• sweet
• Ottawa souvenirs
• Portrait of a woman in love
• chronicle from Smith’s Falls
• mothers
• integrity
• a little patriot
• July 15 garden writing workshop information
• stories from the Moth
• the joy of going backwards
• June
• Happy Canada Day weekend
• a cottage swim, and Nora E. redux
• my first pepper
• Nora Ephron and getting old
• Eli and Glamma: the conversation begins
• writing workshop only 3 weeks away!
• summertime and the livin’ is busy
• cute pussycats from FB
• Hooray!
• Paul McCartney does my math homework
• The emperor has nothing to say: “Spades” by Robert Lepage
• babycakes
• one of my favourite words: bookish
• News and a call for submissions
• the beach in Cabbagetown
• save these dates
• flowers
• wisdom and plastic bags
• cartoon, with a bit of effort
• just me and my sexy bandage
• of Jubilees and ankles
• Beth’s two Summer Garden Workshops
• Malahat Review competition
• Sunday jubilee
• Sunday walk
• preppy baby
• tidy for the heart
• the Fludde
• Lots of stuff for non-fiction writers: competitions etc.
• May
• new
• spring babies
• Drop in writing class Tuesday
• beautiful music
• okay, that was amazing, now back to work
• happy families
• Grandpa
• Day Four
• Eli comes home
• And he shall be named …
• going grey
• recovery
• adoring
• to health
• details
• May 21, 2012
• boychild
• welcoming our boy
• tonight’s prayer
• visitors
• The emperor has no clothes
• planting
• This one’s for you, Mitt
• chez moi
• wonderful arrival
• Angels
• It’s still Mother’s Day to me
• happy families
• The cab driver and the bank manager
• hello, ceramic Jesus
• Goodbye to Max
• the anvil’s lament
• Changes
• homes
• in the small boat
• mystery
• springing on
• flying colours
• MEMOIR WRITING
• tension
• April
• the good life
• pics
• taking a breath
• the nightmare
• Beautiful downtown Ottawa
• yesterday’s excitement
• Last day
• winding down
• last shots
• moving on
• French politics
• Let me forget about today, until tomorrow…
• even famous musicians were geeks, once
• Paree, continued
• a few notes on a cold morning
• Loving Leo
• Leonardo in the Louvre
• two beautiful people signing to a very nice song
• Sunday morning drool
• Friday’s walk
• AVAILABLE FOR RENT:
• Sunday, Paris
• elle approche
• Thursday’s spring walk
• kind words, soothing to the ear
• yesterday’s shots
• Cowbird
• taking a break
• Bonjour Paree.
• Cheerio, London
• Easter Monday in the rain
• markets, foundlings, my sandwich
• the rest of Sunday
• more Sunday stroll
• A London Sunday
• London
• the joy of theatre
• Burtonhole memory lane
• Blenheim et al
• castles and palaces
• Beautiful downtown Broadway
• on England
• From Cheltenham
• first day with Penny, Cotswolds in the freezing rain
• ye olde 2
• Ye olde …
• for scale
• Avebury’s stones
• What they imagine it looked like then
• breathtaking Stonehedge
• Bath
• Lyons to Swindon
• dinner in Lyons
• morepix
• more Lyons
• March
• FYI
• babies
• more Lyons
• from Montpellier to Lyons
• the socialists gather
• from retreat to soufflé
• J. K. Rowling is my hero
• winning the Tony Award
• just look at those bottles
• Chez Isabel
• The writer at work
• joke?
• le Mas Blanc writer’s retreat and wine bar
• I may be over here but he’s still there
• old friends
• more Montpellier
• on being in France
• la belle France
• under dark skies in Montpellier
• Madame buys tea
• Montpellier in the gloom
• PRESS RELEASE re BOOK LAUNCH
• Paris pix
• Montpellier
• apres la soupe
• je suis ici
• en route encore
• could have been worse
• nostalgic in Ottawa
• apple for the teacher
• a truer word …
• “Twelfth Night”
• Daniel Craig and Johnny D. – sigh
• the story of my adult life
• Barbie forever
• Monday in the sun
• breaking news, pig style
• upstairs
• “Mr. Lazhar”
• Me too
• February
• Where I suffer
• company
• down but up
• killing Oscar
• my underground home
• Florida wildlife
• OMG she’s burbling again
• Canada abroad
• Downton – kind of a whimper
• solitude
• down south
• A very good Friday
• today’s film script
• sad but true
• In the land of the lunatics
• getting going
• travelling and PMc.
• Caroline, or Change
• Ellen Roseman to the rescue!
• hooray for faction
• a crush on Spencer Tracy
• giving thanks for the friendship of women
• SAVE THE CBC!
• my dinner with A.
• Romneymania!
• January
• the Shafia aftermath
• Macca does it again
• listening and watching
• Be still, my beating heart
• it’s a jungle out there
• much better, thanks
• Merrijoy’s hip
• tapes of treasure
• Take THAT, Fat Fords # 1 and 2!
• Awake
• in bed with the sun
• Take heed.
• Bobby and Peggy and Heather …
• here and now
• here goes # 1013
• A winter walk
• Downton
• Save Our Libraries!
• the presence of still water
• Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
• What I bought second hand last week
• 2011
• December
• happy happy
• playing with yourself
• Woody Guthrie’s New Year’s Rulin’s
• bits and bobs
• the Barbarian Invasions
• important message
• snow day
• white at last
• Christmas report
• Done and done
• the eve of the Eve
• The Art of Time in Memoir
• What I want for Valentine’s Day
• Christmas week
• Today’s “Globe”
• R.I.P. Christopher Hitchens.
• The Artist
• words
• awkward family holiday photos
• the tree man is here
• saving the Farm: a proposal
• a warm sound on a cold day
• NEWS!
• O happy day
• student success story
• thought for today
• November
• blowing own horn, #6794
• one of a kind
• I’m down, as the Beatles say
• still warm
• two clips
• My friends at the Farm
• RIDE THE CYCLONE, asap
• a grown-up, singing with love
• down and up
• November sun
• remembrance
• British cooking at its best
• Ottawa
• November pix
• Gillers yes
• the mystery in Scotland
• the chance to dance
• having children
• the Peter Hessler Fan Club
• news new life new
• October
• a “Jewish Shakespeare” fan
• costume consultant
• the hermit muses
• royalty
• trees, colour, Chagall
• Canadian wildlife
• Jon’s team on Israel and Palestine
• RE HOUSE RENTAL TORONTO MARCH-APRIL 2012
• voice
• I’m with the 99% – at home
• don’t shoot the viola player
• The Life of Flowers
• One person named Chris Tyrell
• Thanksgiving
• BK interview by Julija Sukys
• burbling thanks
• The Story of My Life
• another Mrs. McCartney – sigh
• the Grateful Living
• PHEW!
• October lament
• Must See: “His Greatness” at Factory Theatre
• getting cold
• September
• Colbert rules
• Word and Iphigenia
• moving along
• missive from bed
• U OF T COURSE BEGINS SOON
• open letter to Mayor Ford
• gorgeous Tuesday
• Pina
• wowie
• burbling
• a pastoral Saturday
• silent weekend
• what I bought and where I walked
• picnic in Times Square etc.
• more NYC
• NYC pix
• NYC Day 2
• NYC Day 1
• en attente
• pendulum wave
• Noo Yawk again
• COURSE INFORMATION, RYERSON AND U OF T
• God’s punishments and Michelle Bachman
• Cave of Forgotten Dreams
• reading
• birthdays, passing
• August
• Emotional tone
• one of the most important articles you will ever read
• thinking of Olivia
• watching the funeral
• tribute to a life well lived
• At City Hall
• wearing the orange
• messages at City Hall
• dreaming in Jacknicolour
• And more …
• more Jack
• the candle in the window
• Jack – and the Liberal Democrats
• There’s one born every minute …
• today’s nature news
• she’s back
• woo hoo!
• Beth’s other business in Montreal
• family and writers
• images of Montreal
• making and renewing friends
• copping out
• Stratford hooray
• getting wet
• the fabulous Falls
• aging gracefully
• birthday sweets
• happy moi
• July
• Sunny Sunday on the Toronto islands
• sunny Sunday on the Toronto islands
• kill the tension music
• calm
• sadness
• sublime sweet Sunday
• summer miscellaneous
• my new love
• HOT
• water power
• great grammar book, petition and misc.
• fresh
• breakthrough
• My own private Giverney
• on hiatus
• GARDEN WRITING WORKSHOP AUGUST 14
• not a bomb
• sweet Monday
• no Trip today
• Vive le Canada libre
• June
• the cold wins
• a few of my favourite things (see post below)
• afternoon in Toronto, “Midnight in Paris”
• today’s show and tell
• I stand corrected
• on heads and hair
• singing the heart out
• “Just like her”
• what I bought and what bloomed etc.
• business news
• big fat peonies
• Watching the Tonys
• tectonic plates
• lots of satisfaction and a quibble or two
• Sunday in the sun
• A perfect Sunday in June
• boringly normal with a hint of battle
• the best so far this year
• May
• The Hare with Amber Eyes
• What I bought second-hand today
• shameless hucksterism, Part 2
• two WRITE IN THE GARDEN workshops, summer 2011
• the Writer’s Union
• @#$# go away, come again next year
• wandering in spring
• catching up
• We are famileee
• weighing in on DSK – Dominique Strauss-Kahn
• spring???
• where’s the ark?
• showered with kindness
• later that same day …
• troubles
• Friday the 13th and all’s well
• the water gods
• rewards
• Mother’s Day in heaven
• late and soon, getting and spending
• a touch of gloom
• my girl turns thirty
• still shivering
• drenched
• sad/happy
• big problem in the voting booth
• voting day
• Cross country marvel
• truth and lies
• April
• cancelling the Globe and Mail
• more wedding and election
• giving in to the wedding
• weddings and elections
• click on these
• CLASSES START NEXT WEEK
• reading a ghost
• gladness
• a cold but good Friday
• rhapsody in the key of home
• Jake’s Gift at Factory Theatre – must see
• not quite like last year
• last pix
• coffee before dawn
• jiggety jig
• Chris sets off
• a dusk walk and morning views
• What’s the spiky thing called again?
• Saturday and we’re off
• buddies in good times
• tree poem for Patsy
• our day with Claude Monet
• Arriving at Giverny, the house and view from the bedroom
• wandering, besotted
• just like home
• Giverny to beautiful downtown Vernon
• Manet, Monet and the boys
• streetscapes
• Monday Monday
• Sunday’s walk, and then the rest
• rhapsodies about runners
• Adjusted photo of the frontrunners
• the Paris marathon
• middle of the marathon
• end of the marathon
• saturday’s child
• samedi – 22 degrees
• sightseeing – Paree
• the ridiculous and the sublime
• jeudi dans le soleil
• l’importance du café
• nature and cheese
• settling in
• how to steal like an artist
• dimanche sous la pluie
• I love Paris in the … no, just about anytime
• ciao Montpellier, hola Paris
• a hot Saturday in Paris
• March
• bellyful in Montpellier
• Canada alert!
• contemplating groceries
• windows
• pilgrims
• St. Guilhem le Desert
• Farewell to Thpain
• sightseeing – Montpellier and Sète
• a new week
• praying for Canada
• Montpellier in the rain
• last day in Barcelona
• Fun with art on Friday in Barthelona
• a close call
• miscellaneous Gaudi
• Sagrada Familia
• Thurthday
• Toledo
• the terrible two in Madrid
• holy Toledo
• creativity, good sense and daffodils
• bintage
• Woozy
• the two of us – yo y Bruth
• Hola!
• en route
• one more sleep
• compassion etc.
• filial devotion
• Elizabeth Harris
• Dip di dip di dip
• homes needed and offered
• shenpa – hooked
• Missing James Travers
• pink and maroon and forest green and …
• petition against the vile Rupert Murdoch
• February
• moving on
• the Oscar grouch
• MacZine’s back in town!
• Ottawa, freezing cold, nice and warm
• still wandering in the night
• MacZine in the hospital
• My report on the Grammys. Since you asked.
• gifts of love
• keeping warm
• on editing
• Sunday report
• Snow neige schnee nieve
• January
• The Joys of Writing, #4962
• featuring today: Bill, Jian and Ellen
• in praise of Ruth Miller and Linda McQuaig
• The Farm in the snow
• Sunday muffled
• The weekend? What is that?
• important business
• writing report
• Condo in Florida for rent
• If you show me yours, I’ll show you mine.
• still learning, after all these years
• teaching update
• niceness re: “Yours truly, a book of the blog.”
• my week
• kvetch no more
• bitch bitch bitch
• re: CLASSES
• cool but not that cool
• happy
• 2010
• December
• loving Jane, with sand
• DONE! Ho ho ho.
• Forget your perfect offering
• A bribe and a red harangue (PUN!)
• “I have a voice!” shouts the King.
• home again, home
• a last message
• warm thoughts on a cold day
• ol’ man whatever
• Fox News yuck
• a literary soiree
• snowless in Toronto
• November
• thoughts about writing, writing about thoughts
• Marilyn Monroe and Maf her dog
• Snow
• John and Paul, again
• Stephen King on J. K. Rowling and adverbs
• The Social Network
• a tiny bit of snow
• the lady and the playwright
• baby musicians
• a few NYC shots
• New York New York
• off again
• good and cold
• Hallowe’en delight
• a friend’s visit
• October
• Jon’s rally YAY!
• great finds
• Alice and Beethoven
• Jon Stewart’s rally, Toronto branch
• transcript of CBC interview with our new mayor
• class
• Listen to the idiot, in case you wondered
• Ford and depression
• facing the moron
• this hideous election
• celebrating Eleanor and voting for Joe
• peace, at last – for now
• cute but dumb
• only good news today
• no complaints here
• O Canada
• tu whit tu whoo
• thanks
• too thrilling not to share
• cutting back, for awhile
• nature watch
• THE BOOK and how to order it
• letter to the sparkly new “Globe”
• thanks to the Y
• listen to the rhythm of the falling …
• sure feels like fall
• the disgusting Liberal Party of Canada
• “I love arts,” he said.
• September gone
• September
• NEW DAYTIME WRITING CLASS
• evening rhapsody, early fall
• a juicy reward
• Word on the Street
• sunny Saturday, with sting
• later that same beautiful day …
• Praising Jon, once again. Let’s go to Washington Oct. 30.
• one last garden workshop, because the garden is still so beautiful
• blowing own horn #4763
• on the body
• retraction
• The city hijacked by 905? Forget it, eat a peach
• home, with stuff
• old and not quite so old
• wonder
• nature girl
• Cabbfest continued
• “A Force of Nature” starring David Suzuki
• an early date with Jon
• mouthing off for today
• today’s geography lesson
• Arcade Fire nails it
• Labour Day and compliments
• “the sheer wonder of a successful workshop” – “a very specific type of joy”
• @ home
• good muggy Friday
• sign the petition against Fox News North
• August
• Happy Birthday, crime division
• Ryerson advanced class cancelled
• Monday’s bliss
• my letter yesterday to the Editor of the Star
• Toronto shining and not so much
• nature’s music
• love from flagrant lunatics
• getting better
• muggy rainy writing Sunday
• defining “kvetch”
• as a dog?
• a few McCartney concert pictures
• A few party pictures
• synchronicity and Yiddish
• O Rogers, Rogers, where art thou?
• Unbelievable but true – the Harris Library!!!
• after the storm
• the idyll ends
• from the Montreal Gazette about Sir Paul’s concert last night
• Paul Paul, we love you most of all
• Garden workshop August 22
• and still …
• I still seem to be sixty, for some reason
• it’s my party and I’ll babble if I want to
• the beeg day
• July
• Paul and Obama and Jon’s beard – scream
• unseating Harper, from sea to shining sea
• in my life, I loved you more
• it’s workshop time again, folks!
• The blog book is here!!
• missing yoga
• “fascist thugs” on a summer Sunday
• Danielle Steel and summer
• searching
• Olé!
• a nice day
• in the early morning rain
• meegwetch
• okay okay here I am
• cross one off the chore list
• ode to the crabby cat
• my diverse city
• serene Saturday
• cancelling the “Globe”
• June
• about privacy and the new kind of grandmother
• What do the rest of us think?
• calming down
• summit aftermath
• The black bloc are NOT protesters
• letter to the Editor of the “Star”
• Monday, getting our city back
• Sunday night in the downpour
• reporting from the riot zone
• 1 p.m., Queen’s Park – let’s march
• the Council of Canadians hooray
• reporting on the madness
• Wayson’s lecture on “Ideas”
• G20 paranoia
• on into summer and two requests
• la reponse
• ???
• What are those big white things anyway??
• Heaven in Cabbagetown
• more about this writing workshop, and the next
• blowing own horn yet again
• close encounters
• Ellen Roseman’s “Financial Basics”
• the art thing
• Garden workshop June 27
• my bit of heaven
• Boston joy for Laurel
• Macca returns
• Write in the Garden June 27, deadline June 13
• Obama and Paul and the winding road home
• Philly
• Hello, Brucie
• May
• still @#$%% – really – hot
• the merry broiling month of May
• the nastiest cat
• Please read Glenn Wheeler’s editorial in the Sunday “Star”
• Happy Victoria Day
• Insectopedia and more
• back in form
• Miss Otis regrets
• Laurel and the Times
• Write in the Garden – come one, come all
• a green Friday
• How’s your novel coming along?
• Happy Birthday, Beez
• catch-up
• INFORMATION FOR RYERSON CWWR 336 STUDENTS
• Happy camper report
• Pix of Paris
• I heart Toronto in springtime
• April
• last day in Paris
• sweet and slow
• my piece of the pie
• dimanche
• photos, Prague to Paris
• Saturday rhapsody, with writing
• stuffing her face
• she loves Paris
• yin and yang and jet trails
• final decision
• enough already, volcano
• at home, chez moi
• later
• Paris, Sunday morning
• Paris is hot…
• friends
• ash, Aida, Agnes
• celebrating Wolfgang
• found my vstupenka
• give and take
• wandering in beautiful downtown Prague
• a few photos of the trip
• on to Prague
• no Bach today
• last day in Berlin
• Thursday – Dienstag, I think – in Berlin
• Berlin
• last day in London, quiet Tuesday in Barnes
• ecstasy of the arts on Saturday
• Paris to London
• March
• a night’s sleep really helps
• onward
• saying goodbye to Goldie
• wise and not quite so wise men
• gearing up
• living out loud
• Saturday morning
• reading the paper
• summer already, in March
• right or wrong
• angels
• Canada Reads and reads and reads
• throwing off the chains of Oscar
• book launch, spring launch
• Blind Date – a must see
• waist not, want not
• P.D. James is flying home
• hockey report from Vancouver
• retirement? no way.
• February
• hockey
• dear diary
• off again
• news report
• Sunday, getting caught up in the sun
• Allez Canada!
• leaving the south
• still chill
• a Valentine from Patsy
• Olympic report
• dark and rainy down south
• freezing in Florida
• Sunday report
• paper stories
• Olympic report
• STELLLLLAAAAA!
• snow walk
• January
• updates
• O lucky day
• terrible horrible very bad day
• Best of Born to Blog?
• say it ain’t so, Canada
• happy Saturday
• humanity wins out, tonight
• dancing to Paul Quarrington
• “I know here”
• HOUSE FOR RENT
• the adventure of following the line
• development and peace
• MacZine is sticky
• I write because …
• saluting Miep Gies
• self-improvement 101
• Aging, sleepless and cold, yet perky
• info for students
• a reader’s glass regularly half full
• onward and upward
• Canadians against proroguing Parliament
• classes starting next week
• news of the world
• today’s rant
• resolute in the snow
• flexitarian time
• twenty ten
• 2009
• December
• Senior’s Day at Shopper’s
• Hell
• and now, a few words from our entertaining readers
• Boxing Day rain
• It’s a Wonderful Christmas Pageant
• Michael Ondaatje buys fennel and wins my heart
• Xmas Eve, 2009
• P.S.
• fun and fear
• Sunday rebuttal and “Every Little Step”
• Friday
• Morris, Ken, King Tut and George C.
• Wednesday report
• Sunday night
• Nick writes about Goldie
• getting a table
• the importance of sitting down
• mourning Goldie Semple
• another report from New York
• a guest blog
• December cold
• for Canadians: Ron Graham on Ignatieff
• wrap up, NYC
• the morning after
• discovering The Moth
• November
• New York in the rain
• arguing about memoir
• Bright Star
• pulling down the wall
• “More”
• pensive in the mist
• teaching and learning
• paean to this fine month
• the editor’s karate chop
• new life, old(er) life
• half of the Stella Adler poster again
• the week that was
• talk at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, New York
• and now for something completely different
• the dawn chorus
• My (almost) Perfect Day, by Beth Kaplan
• Departures
• a fallen friend
• the writing life according to Philip Roth
• writing and money, for no money
• October
• All hallows eve
• a letter with a fringe on top
• re the dangers of blogging and pity for pigs
• tips for a visit to Paris
• Clare Piller
• peaceful Sunday
• lighting the world with words
• my sugar bowl on TV
• All you need is love and writing
• the boys and the girls
• a Canadian scene
• To life
• autumn rolling in
• apartment and room to rent
• weather and TV report
• thanks, and concern for my country
• Thksgvg. weekend report
• an early giving of thanks
• Nuit Blanche
• so it’s cold, whaddya want, it’s October!
• Greetings, my forty readers
• September
• for the love of theatre
• celebrating love and Canada
• harvest bounty
• still figuring it out
• what a team!
• getting and spending
• is there a twelve-step program for bloggers?
• fooooooood
• totally crazy
• the cheese chronicles
• settling in and munching
• feeling free
• homemaker’s bliss
• more home
• August
• home again jiggety jig
• she’s cute but oh, so dumb
• Re RYERSON REGISTRATION
• Home
• derniers mots de France
• winding down
• Muriel Duckworth, 1908-2009
• she sure smells good
• vendredi – only 3 days left
• Montpellier and Paris pix
• celebrating indigenous art
• Paris versus Ottawa
• Paris rhapsody, redux
• Paree
• last night in Montpellier
• St. Roch
• a good wind, a bad time
• international date night
• Friday night in Montpellier
• at home in Montpellier
• memoires
• a few more pix
• morning in Marseilles
• the “it could have been so much worse” day
• flying trip to Spain
• on the beach
• on the road again
• last views of Provence
• back in the swing
• moving on, missing Sarah
• mourning a great woman
• It’s my party and I’ll eat cheese if I want to
• July
• wedding pix
• summer continued
• a triumph in the wind
• 9 am. wedding day report
• wedding madness
• feasting
• to market
• company for dinner
• adjustment disorder with anxiety …
• moseying along on Jeudi
• Allons enfants de la fromage …
• the calm after the 60th birthday
• Provence and birthday pix, Saturday
• alone and full
• Michael Jackson and writing while intoxicated with pleasure
• Stephen Harper tries to hug his mother
• Sunday afternoon after the feast
• gifts: Wayson’s words, a poem from Patsy, music from Denis
• 9 p.m., Canada Day
• Happy Canada Day!
• June
• in the garden in Gordes
• meals in paradise
• not on strike!
• here again
• wind in my sales
• the mistral, encore
• a few more pictures
• homesick
• a really big lunch
• One more.
• Friday in Gordes
• a few more, to give you the flavour
• The Peacemaker in Provence
• pictures from England
• June pictures
• Chris
• Filling in Tuesday to Thursday
• more boring bliss
• lundi
• blessings
• enjoying Montpellier
• Montpellier
• back to Barnes
• winding up London
• Catching up in London
• War Horse
• May
• Tuesday on Carnaby Street
• As We Like It
• Beatleland
• Mary Queen of Scots drinks beer
• Sheffield
• Potterspury
• speaking at Oxford
• Oxford
• a tranquil English day
• London
• Englishland
• The big schlep
• a last feast
• spouting off again
• Sunday night
• more May pix
• May pix
• visiting the jewel-box
• change of plans
• new friends
• Louvre marathon
• previous rambles
• Yesterday’s walk
• introducing … born to blog
• the general dream
• April
• pilgrimages
• sun, rain and gariguettes
• Monday night dans la pluie
• back and burbling
• more
• Mona Lisa fans
• this week’s pix
• a change of pace
• my God, she’s eating again
• Monday, in the sun
• how to make an entrance
• Samedi dans la pluie
• Friday night at the Louvre
• chatting away
• Orsay can you see …
• cutting back
• Champs-Elysees, Wednesday
• Tuesday and Wednesday pix
• Catty on the Right bank
• un peu d’histoire
• later that same day …
• the feast continues
• on Easter Sunday
• some pix
• samedi apres-midi
• a pretty Good Friday
• Stage deux
• Mmmmmmm
• talking in the rain
• art and endives
• Yes, we really are here
• the Monday walk
• L’aventure commence
• A bientot
• March
• approaching lift-off, maybe
• staying home is better
• Moet et Chandon
• wear your helmet
• the usual rant about Mike Harris
• the luck o’ Tuesday
• springing along
• Lessons from PBS
• what fine friends I’ve got
• Penny’s Magical Tour
• here comes the sun
• Qui – moi?
• painting teeth and writing songs
• February
• teaching and being taught
• Hugh Jackman rocks
• social whirl
• Halifax report
• Lobster tales
• the joy of newspapers
• natural gas
• Mrs. Paul McCartney, again
• cool eyes on a warm day
• Ben McNally’s beautiful store
• January
• a really big shew
• one (wo)man band
• The New York Times on self-publishing, and a website on routine
• John Updike on books
• bookish
• still blissful
• Hail to the chief, President Barack Hussein Obama
• of cold cats and hot dudes
• Good news for students
• information for students
• report from Florida
• 2008
• December
• A Great Idea
• Xmas Eve continued …
• A Christmas to remember
• the miracle of the left nostril
• white out
• catching up at Christmas
• great new review in time for Christmas
• the critic speaks
• coalition fever
• World AIDS Day and Chris Tyrell’s essay
• November
• an amazing and beautiful story
• writing in November
• Frugalistas unite!
• The Bob Rae and Iggy controversy
• Excellence from the snow zone
• I love Paris in the springtime
• “Happy-go-lucky”
• the Giller Prize and my beloved Anne
• floating down to earth
• Mr. Obama, Sir
• 7.45 a.m., November 5, a brand new world
• Yes we can, yes we will, yes we are right now
• October
• a fizzle on Friday
• How I Write, by Beth Kaplan
• words are now
• putting the champagne on ice
• My Own Private Editor
• Wow, that election was so like really worth it!
• nightmares of Stephen Harper
• upcoming seminar on memoir writing
• giving thanks for health and technology
• Anybody But Harper
• Ordinary Canadian artists unite!
• out of the blump
• nixing the debates
• September
• updates and events
• words on the street
• WRITE IN THE GARDEN 3
• Noo Yawk report
• on the road
• off into the wild grey yonder
• moving right along
• the reality of bullies
• doing something about it
• biting the apple and telling it like it is
• OF PEACHES and a change of date
• August
• of bicycles and Obama
• reading 1963
• INFORMATION ON CLASSES
• Workshop number two
• Woody scores
• August winding down
• your friendly neighbourhood theatre critic weighs in on Stratford
• Family
• “Facts and Arguments”
• August 2008 – pictures
• Write in the Garden, August 24
• the joys of summer
• July
• The Carless Weight Loss Plan
• Paul McCartney and I in Quebec, only 150 metres and forty security guards apart
• Sunday August 24, Write in the Garden
• open letter to Paul McCartney, from an old love
• the stupidity of artists
• The Writing Diet
• please forgive tooting of own horn
• workshop and book report
• book learning
• about my father Jacob Gordin Kaplan
• singing about love, singing about loss
• June
• Write in the Garden, #2
• a beautiful story
• tension schmension
• Junuary
• great U of T course, July 7 to 11
• the Garden of Cabbagetown
• “Write in the Garden” workshops update
• Go and see “Black Watch”.
• Good will
• The miracle of the transformation
• courses and dancing
• the secret garden last summer
• new idea for writing workshops – feedback requested
• The Mystery of the Screaming Raccoon
• That’s life.
• May
• cue the violins
• about a review
• of notebooks and notebooks in the garden
• “finished enough”
• getting some nice stuff off my mind and into yours
• clutter
• Mother’s Day
• parade of pleasure
• Starting Out in the Evening
• April
• different strokes
• souvenir
• in praise of Eleanor Wachtel
• Theatre people
• a cacaphony of Kaplans
• minus hairbows
• facing Kaplans
• a wunnerful town
• Noo Yawk Noo Yawk
• the streets of Philadelphia
• March
• Ladies Writing
• the joy of cousins
• the mystery of the Tuesday storms
• been and gone
• Onward artist soldiers
• news from New York
• “The Band’s Visit”
• my melancholy baby at Pages
• Little Miss Chatterbox
• “Stuff Happens”
• Googlemagic
• big bucks in literature
• pix and pixels
• dancing in the eye of the storm
• I love my job
• writing and life and getting involved
• February
• not a rocking chair
• the happiness test
• talk at the 92nd Street Y, April 8th
• ice fishing
• Wayson Choy: “Love has no rules.”
• missive from bed
• readin’ and writin’
• January
• ode to the Toronto Public Libraries
• the book in the world
• Good news on a rainy day
• New Year’s List
• 2007
• December
• freeing the elephants
• November
• All readers; all levels.
• Noo Yawk in springtime
• October
• my autumn letter to the World
• August
• What I did on my summer holidays
• in the fall and on the shelf
• Rich with nuanced detail
• July
• voices on-line and other wonders
• June
• book launch picture
• stack o’ books
• May
• OUT AND ABOUT
• April
• It’s my party and I’ll muse if I want to
• Holding the Taj Mahal of books
• March
• “Jewish Shakespeare” events and speaking engagements
• Elizabeth Hurley and I in Rajasthan
• February
• Birthing a book
• Moving out of the 90’s and onto the web
• January
• beginning the blog