test 6

The Red Sox, that is. One game out with three to play against the momentarily first-place Yankees, and tied with Cleveland for the wild card. It looked all gloom and doomy last night, but I insisted on staying positive and I was rewarded. We are keeping the faith. I haven't the slightest idea how this team will make it through the playoffs, but I know they can make it to the playoffs. On tap for today, some Toronto exploring! I'm meeting wmtc commenter Marnie at Union Station; we're walking around and going to the St. Lawrence Market . Marnie, like me, is an urban explorer. She writes about her meanderings at You Are Here . I was trying to read the whole blog before meeting her today, but alas, I did not. But I will, because it's my kind of place. I've been combing through old comments on wmtc, gathering up all the links and suggestions you guys have made, the ones where I said, "I'll look at that when I have time." Now I'm making good on that: c...

I am overcoming my extreme aversion to showing photographs of myself, in order to bring you our new [drumroll...] Permanent Resident cards! Everyone knows these official pictures never look good. But these cards are bee-yoo-tiful !

Ta-da! A new "what i'm reading" post. I just did a Blogger search for all my "what i'm reading" posts and found fifteen of them, dating back to July 25, 2004 , back when no one read wmtc. We used our new Mississauga library cards for the first time yesterday. I found the Robertson Davies's trilogy I mentioned yesterday . We also spent a while around the history shelves, and I saw a lot of Pierre Berton books I want to read. I don't like not knowing any Canadian history. Fortunately it's a condition easily changed. We also spent a small fortune at Home Depot, ordering window shades for our bedroom and my office. I'm watching our bank balance go down, and it would be nice if there was some money coming in, too. I'm not seriously worried - that's why we saved so much money, and the work will come. It would just be nice. I spoke to Dr S yesterday, our specialist vet from New York. She's really pleased with Buster's progress and...

I just might write another "what i'm reading" post again: yesterday we got Mississauga library cards! There's a small branch library down the road from us, and the big main branch is a short drive away. On our very first visit to Toronto, we actually ended up using the internet at the main library, which is really big and looks great. I'm going to pay it a visit today. One author I want to read much of is Pierre Berton . Since I love well-written history, and I want to read about Canada, Berton seems like a great place to start. He's the best known Canadian historian, and he's a terrific writer. He was also incredibly prolific, so there's plenty to choose from. (Berton died last year at the age of 84.) We have his Niagara: A History of the Falls , which I bought for Allan long before we knew Canada was in our future. Allan started reading it a few days ago, and I'll pick it up next. After all, the Falls are just down the QEW from us. In yesterday...

The Sox were rained out last night, so, feeling lazy and tired, we ended up watching a bunch of shows on the Comedy Network, including Air Farce and Kids In The Hall. We saw our second or third episode of The New Red Green Show , which is surprisingly funny. I've been trying to figure out how to describe this show to non-Canadians. It's a spoof on a home-improvement show, hosted by a redneck whose answer to every challenge is duct tape. It makes sport of country folks, and men in general, but in (what seems to me, anyway) a warm and self-knowing way, as in, this is us, ain't we funny. The host, played by Steve Smith , has a deadpan delivery a la the great Bob Newhart. The show he hosts from "Possum Lodge" is "a fishing show, a fix-it show, and a men's advice program all rolled into about 3/4". What do you guys think? Hate it? Love it? Ignore it? * * * * I haven't been blogging about baseball, but it's basically all I think about right now. Th...

Ontario California , that is. Commenter Liam J brought this story to my attention over the weekend. ONTARIO, Calif. - A 14-year-old student was expelled from a Christian school because her parents are lesbians, the school's superintendent said in a letter. Shay Clark was expelled from Ontario Christian School on Thursday. "Your family does not meet the policies of admission," Superintendent Leonard Stob wrote to Tina Clark, the girl's biological mother. Stob wrote that school policy requires that at least one parent may not engage in practices "immoral or inconsistent with a positive Christian life style, such as cohabitating without marriage or in a homosexual relationship," The Los Angeles Times reported in Friday's edition. Stob could not be reached for comment by the newspaper. Shay and her parents said they won't fight the ruling. School administrators learned of the parents' relationship this week after Shay was reprimanded for talking to ...

I went out last night with my friend BC. BC and her partner are the two Trontonians Allan and I knew before I started blogging. She and I met online through a mutual friend (who neither of us are friends with anymore!) and the four of us got together on both our exploratory Toronto visits last year. Last night I took the GO train into town and met BC for Thai food. I had a great time - excellent food and excellent company. But the evening was momentous to me because it felt like real life . I frequently go out for dinner with female friends, taking public transit at night, while Allan has some quality alone-time at home. This pattern is as old as our lives together, and this was the first time in our new home. The only difference is the GO trains run once an hour, and you have to be mindful of the schedule. The NYC subways presumably run a little more often. On the other hand, I live closer to downtown Toronto than I did to downtown Manhattan, and there are more places to go out in my ...

What's the deal with wine here? I've figured out that the LCBO is owned and operated by the Province of Ontario. Certain US states have a similar deal; when I lived in Philadelphia, we bought wine or liquor at a "state store". Are liquor sales controlled by the province throughout Canada, or do different provinces have different liquor laws? I assume the latter. More importantly, are all LCBOs the same? There's one right around the corner from us, and while it's terrifically convenient, the selection is poor. Yesterday we checked out another LCBO - this one conveniently located next to a Beer Store - but the selection was nearly identical. So is this the wine that's available in Ontario? I know Canadians are beer-lovers, but stereotypes aside, what do people do when they want to drink a nice bottle of wine? We're also trying different Canadian beers, so if you have recommendations, send them in. Right now we're drinking Export (I prefer it to Can...

Yesterday there was a big anti-war rally in Washington, with similar protests in London, Paris, Rome and other cities. It felt very strange not to be in DC. Certainly Allan and I would have taken the day off, arranged for dog-walking, and gone to Washington. We both feel it's our duty to do so. But I was at home, doing errands and yard work, watching the Red Sox. Not good. (The day was good. Missing the demo was not.) On the other hand, my taxes are no longer supporting that war. Very good. As for the demonstration, it sounds like turnout could have been better, even by organizers' standards. But there was a decent amount of mainstream coverage, and more than stock footage of a guy with purple hair and facial piercings shouting "Death to the new world order". Here's coverage from Reuters , AP (via CNN), BBC and the Globe and Mail . * * * * The New York Times has changed their website to make most of it - most of what I want to read, anyway - available only by ...

Yesterday we had the surreal experience of buying a lawnmower at Sears. The friendly, helpful salesman was out of a 1950s time warp, making silly sexist jokes about yard work and stockings. So now we own a lawnmower. We are suburban. This has been a good time to be buying things like barbecue grills and lawnmowers, as everything is discounted for the end of the season. It's purely by coincidence, but it is nice. Yesterday, for the first time since we moved in, I needed a sweatshirt on my morning dog-walk. It's still warm during the day, and just a little nippy in the morning and at night. The weather continues to be gorgeous, life continues to be heavenly.

Here's my favorite thing about Canada so far. Every time I turn on the TV, "Kids In The Hall" is on! I'm really not watching TV outside of baseball, but sometimes in the afternoon, feeling spacey and in need of a break, I flip it on. And there's Mark McKinney and Dave Foley and Scott Thompson to the rescue! You can sometimes find KITH re-runs on American TV, but not as often. We also saw "Royal Canadian Air Farce" for the first time. Air Farce is a sketch comedy show, in the Saturday Night Live or MAD TV vein. I've been hearing about it for about as long as I've been blogging. It was pretty funny, not hilarious, but it spent a lot of time making fun of the W & Co, and we loved that. It's very political, with a definite anti-war, anti-empire, anti-big money point of view. The first episode we saw was kind of flat, but sketch comedy is often uneven, and you can't judge it properly on one take. The second episode was definitely funnier...

I forayed into Toronto's Chowhound message board yesterday for some tips on Chinatown, and on good food in Mississauga. Do you guys know about Chowhound ? It's the brainchild of food writer Jim Leff , a/k/a The Alpha Dog, and it's a great way to (among other things) find good food all over North America. In New York I would use it when exploring a new neighbhorhood, or if we were going out for an extravagant dinner and wanted to pick the perfect place. Yesterday I knew that I'd be able to post a message, and within hours I'd have the opinions of many friendly food-lovers in T.O. and vicinity. (Reason number 346,720 to love the internet.) I understand there are three Chinatowns in Toronto now - the same in New York - and that the oldest Chinatown, the one on Spadina, is now largely Vietnamese. That's also the same in New York. We drove into the Spadina Chinatown, left the car at a "green P" [US readers: reasonable public parking in Toronto] and wandere...

There's a discussion going on about whether or not Canadians are generally anti-American . It's pretty much Rob against everyone else (but what's new). I personally haven't seen anything I'd characterize as anti-American. People vehemently oppose current US policies, for sure. But if they were anti-American, I don't think they'd be so warm and welcoming when they learn we are Americans. And if Canadians are a tad obsessed with the US, who can blame them, sharing a border with the 800-pound gorilla of the world. On our last trip to London, I remember thinking that the British were similarly obsessed, and this was many years before W stole the election and Tony Blair dragged them into a useless war. Rob sent me an essay by an self-described liberal American living in Toronto . (It turns out several wingnutters sent this to me when it first ran.) The writer sees anti-Americanism at every turn. Now, she didn't relocate to Canada for political reasons. She m...

It's officially autumn today, but it still feels like summer here in balmy southern Ontario. Even at 6:30 in the morning, walking my dogs on the lakefront, I'm still wearing short sleeves. The Red Sox are taking a night off from driving us insane tonight, so we're heading into Toronto for... something, we don't know what yet. Maybe Chinatown. Nothing much to report today, except how happy I am with this house, this neighbourhood, our car, and life in general. It's all very, very good.

In comments somewhere, we were recently discussing the changes at the Canada-US border. The border is less open than it used to be. As of January 1, 2006, passports will be required, and many border guards have been putting the policy into effect early. A million years ago (a few days before we moved), Alan With One L sent me a story from The Economist about the changing habits of both Canadians and Americans when it comes to visiting the other. Turns out it was a very good story, and I'm glad I kept it in my inbox all these weeks. (Thanks Alan! Better late than never, eh?) Story here , but it may not be accessible, so I've copied it below. The unfriendly border Aug 25th 2005 | OTTAWA A withering of people-to-people contacts augurs ill for a historic friendship Travel across the border between Canada and the United States long followed a predictable pattern. When the Canadian dollar went up, shoppers would flood south and a few budget-conscious American tourists would forgo th...

We have passed another milestone in our Canadian journey: our first trip to Canadian Tire. Non-Canadian readers, Canadian Tire is kind of a cross between Home Depot (without the lumber) and K-Mart (without the clothes) - an all-purpose hardware and houseware store. They are everywhere (at least in Mississauga), and when you buy something anywhere else, someone will undoubtedly tell you that you can get it for less at Canadian Tire. In truth, their prices weren't so fabulous, but they were fair, and they had a lot of what we needed. Living in a house, we need so many things that we didn't have to deal with as apartment-dwellers. A lawnmower and a rake, for starters. Fortunately we both grew up doing yard work, so although we're rusty, we're not complete novices. Today I will rake leaves for the first time in, let's see... 30 years? Yikes! * * * * A helpful commenter just reminded me that I forgot to mention Canadian Tire's most famous quirk! Every time you sho...

Mississauga's recycling program is amazing. We have barely one large bag of garbage each week. Now I can see how the "three bag standard" is possible. * * * * I also wanted to clarify something regarding my earlier observation about the relative frugality of Canadians. Although I have had some private amusement over concerns about the price long-distance phone calls and parking, at the same time, I've been bowled over by Canadians' personal generosity towards me and Allan. So many people - including many of you - have shared their time, thoughts and support. Some of you have given us "welcome to Canada" gifts (both edible and not!), which we are much abashed to accept. This is clearly a culture that values giving to others. I see that on a daily basis.

The internet is an amazing thing. We move to a country and a city where we don't know a soul - but really, we do, thanks to the blogosphere. I've been suffering from sushi withdrawal since moving, wrenched from my Friday night sushi habit into what may be a sushi wasteland. (Or may not, we have to look more thoroughly.) Fortunately, Toronto is only a short drive away, and it appears to be sushi heaven. First we saw James and Lori's really cool house in a downtown neighborhood. We had lunch in The Beaches, a neighborhood of beautiful old homes and an "urban village" that borders on Lake Ontario beachfront. Dispelling all myths about Canadian frugality, these generous Trontonians insisted on picking up the tab. Welcome to Toronto! After lunch, we walked on the boardwalk, saw some of the neighborhood, and scarfed down delicious ice cream at Ed's. Oddly enough, this was our first time in the city since moving - we've been so focused on our home and our neighbo...

Allan accompanied me on my morning dog-walk today, so I could have my hands free to take pictures. Here's some of what I see every morning. This is the park at the end of our street, where we join the waterfront trail. Lake Ontario This is the view in the other direction, opposite the lake. Lest we forget where we are. This is at the end of the Port Credit marina. I discovered that if I go all the way to the end of the park - and if I stand on the stone wall - I can see the top of the CN Tower. Some wildlife on the rocks. This is what most of the neighborhood looks like. And this is across the street from us: the back of the condos. Back home.

From today's Globe And Mail , check out the Intelligent Design Science Quiz . I thought question nine was particularly amusing.

I can read again! When I'm under a lot of stress, my concentration suffers. The more stress, the less concentration. In the extreme, dealing with a crisis, a fog envelops my brain. I can deal with the issues at hand, but nothing else. I don't know if this is a common phenomenon? Does this happen to any of you? Sometime over the summer , I lost the ability to read books. I mean, I could read words, but I couldn't concentrate on anything long enough to understand it, let alone enjoy it. Blog posts and short magazine articles were the most I could manage. Last night, graced with the lovely prospect of a free Sunday evening, I sat down with a small pile of back issues of the New York Times Book Review , and read them. Read them all. This signals an adjustment to real life. Of course, a full transition to our new lives will happen gradually over a long period of time, but being able to concentrate again means the end of that initial disorienting transition. And none too soon, as...

A victory against Wal-Mart in Canada! Remember the Quebec Wal-Mart that closed rather than have a unionized staff? The Quebec Labour Board has ruled that the closing of a Wal-Mart store this year amounted to a reprisal against unionized workers and has ordered the company to compensate former employees. The labour board concluded that Wal-Mart Canada, Inc., failed to prove that the closing of its store in Jonquière in April was "real, genuine and definitive" as required under the Quebec Labour Code. The board will determine the "appropriate remedies" for the former employees later. As many as 79 of the store's 190 former employees filed for compensation under the labour code. During hearings, the board was told that the retail giant has yet to rescind a 20-year lease on the store building and has made no effort to sublet it. This led the labour board to conclude that the store could reopen and that, under the province's labour code, it was closed as a sancti...

This morning Allan and I will be enjoying an Irish breakfast at our corner pub. This is the place where we stopped for lunch, and accidentally discovered Port Credit, on our first visit to Toronto. But that's not why this brunch is a noteworthy event. I started working on weekends in late 1995; Allan joined my schedule three years later. We still find it odd to have our weekends free! Friday nights still feel like Sunday, and I still expect to be exhausted on Monday morning from working late into Sunday night. When we lived in Brooklyn, we used to go out for Sunday brunch all the time. If I recall correctly, we knew all the places that served complimentary mimosas. (We were young, poor and thirsty!) But it's been at least 10 years since we've done that. Today: brunch at The Brogue !

I enjoyed my Saturday Globe And Mail ( mop and pail ?). Well written and substantial, without the 20-section overkill of the Sunday New York Times . Lots of interesting features, plus many more opinion and essay pieces, which I appreciate. So far so good. I wish there was a way to get only the New York Times Book Review and Magazine in print form. But I think I'll be able to live without them. I think. I'm also noticing that two years of skimming the Toronto Star online have paid off, as I'm familiar with most local issues. I don't understand them in depth, but I'm at least aware of them and know the basics. Here's a cool bit of Canadian news. Two Toronto-area scientists have won the prestigious Lasker Award, sometimes called North America's Nobel Prize. Both recipients are in their 70s, and made their pioneering discovery 45 years ago. From the Star story : Almost 45 years after their breakthrough discovery, two septuagenarian Toronto scientists — rever...

Immigration Equality , a US grass roots organization, fights for families torn apart by discriminatory immigration laws. A US citizen cannot sponsor her partner for a green card, no matter how long they've been together, how many children they have, or whether they were married in Massachusetts or abroad. Immigration Equality also focuses on winning asylum for LGBT refugees fleeing sexual orientation and gender identity-based persecution, and fighting for an end to the immigration discrimination against people with HIV. A friend from the Haven Coalition has just been named the group's first Executive Director. She's a great activist and an outstanding person. Immigration Equality is lucky to have her on board. Some wmtc readers might find this information useful for their own lives. Lots of info here.

Last week I was thinking I should get home delivery of the Globe And Mail . I really like the paper, and much of the online version is only available with a subscription. I miss reading an actual paper, and home delivery seems like the way to go, here in suburbia. No sooner did I have this thought than, on my way out of Loblaw's, a man stopped me: he was hawking home delivery of the Globe And Mail . I felt sorry for him - an older gentleman in a shabby jacket and tie, earnestly trying to interest busy shoppers. He was giving away $10 gift cards and free map books of the area as incentives. Having just bought a car, I thought a pocket-sized map book was a great treat. I'm sure I was his easiest sale all day. Today, the first paper came to our doorstep. I've blogged many times about my addiction to the Sunday New York Times , and how I thought I would miss it. Commenters have told me it's available in this area, but I'm not sure if I'll subscribe. In the weeks bef...

Today's post brings us south of the border. Here are two emails I received about the Hurricane Katrina crisis. I thought they were worth sharing. I'll post the information and excise most of the donation pitch. The first, from Wal-Mart Watch : Dear Friend, We've seen a new side of Wal-Mart in recent weeks. By being first on the scene in many of the places hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina, Wal-Mart and the Walton family have shown how the private sector can and should respond - with haste and generosity. Working closely with federal, state and local authorities, Wal-Mart's fleet of trucks, temporary stores and ruthlessly efficient distribution network has, no doubt, helped saved lives. We applaud Wal-Mart's employees, the Walton family, and CEO Lee Scott for their generosity. We also take pride in knowing that our campaign to hold Wal-Mart accountable for their business practices has, in part, spurred their hasty and generous response. But because generosity in time ...

Go to Google , type in "failure," and hit "I'm feeling lucky". Go! Enjoy! Many thanks to Kyle_From_Ottawa .

We keep hearing about people going "up to the cottages". Qu'est que c'est?

Star columnist Rosie DiManno has a terrific column about sharia law, the McGuinty decision and Canadian identity. The time has come for Canadians to be weaned off the teat of multiculturalism as a primary source of sustenance and self-identity. Surely, in the 21st century, we are more than the sum total of our diverse parts and hyphenated definitions. What once bound us together in a less self-assured era - the appealing dynamics of ethnic and cultural distinctions undiluted by melting pot nationalism - served its purpose well for several decades, since first advocated as a cementing ideology by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. But somewhere along the line, perhaps when human rights tribunals and clumsily codified diversity legislation began to illogically skew the social balance, asserting minority rights over majority concepts, the whole thing began to unravel. DiManno goes on to say that the decision is not racist, anlabelingng opposition to the use of sharia "Islamophobic...

Here's something ALPF brought to my attention. (Just like old times, eh?) In an annual Harris poll , Americans were asked how they feel about a list of countries. The scale ranges from "close ally" at one end to "unfriendly and is an enemy" at the other. In this year's survey, Great Britain, Canada and Australia continue to lead the list as the countries perceived to be our closest allies, followed by Israel and Japan. . . . Great Britain still holds a very special place among U.S. adults as almost three-quarters (74%) think of them as a close ally. Canada (48%), Australia (44%) and Israel (41%) receive high marks but they are quite distant from those received by Great Britain. In 1997, 73% of Americans surveyed felt Canada was a close ally. This year that number was down to 48%. I can only think this is the result of war propaganda. I remember when we had our fingerprints taken for the FBI check for our Permanent Resident application. We went to a local pol...

Cable has been out all afternoon and early evening. I know, I know - welcome to Toronto. I hope I don't regret using VOIP here. No cable or internet is bad for blogging and commenting, but good for continuing to set up our home. We got so much done today! And now I have a few dozen comments to catch up on. Still no word from any of my editors. Also good for blogging and setting up, but bad for income. No worries there. I'm enjoying this weather and the house entirely too much to work. I gave Cody a bed on her landing, to help keep the carpet cleaner, and because she loves this style bed. What a good mommy I am.

After my recent post about the banning of religious tribunals in Ontario , a great discussion about the pros and cons of the decision ensued. The discussion morphed into one about Canada's national identity - whether such a thing exists, and if so, what it is. This is a big topic about which there is no definitive answer, but here are some random thoughts. First, what do we mean by national identity? Is it a shared history? A shared culture? The first thing people think of when they think of the country? A collection of myths? What the country has contributed to the world? Kyle_From_Ottawa offered Wikipedia's definition , and answered the question this way . Rob , wmtc's Resident Conservative, believes Canadians don't have a national identity. The historian Gerald Early has said the United States' three great contributions to the world are baseball, jazz and the Constitution. I really like that. But does this constitute the US's national identity? I don't t...

Cody always likes to lie in a spot that's well clear of human activity. She likes to be alone, one of the many reasons I know she is really a cat cleverly disguised as a dog. It took a week, but she has found her favorite spot in our new home. This is Cody On The Landing. In a rare moment of generosity, the alpha dog shares a mat.

Looks like we picked the wrong game to attend this week. The Sox took two out of three, but we saw the Jays thrash them silly. It was nice to see the Blue Jay fans wake up, though. The last time we visited Skydome/Rogers Centre, Tronno fans were very subdued, and Red Sox fans were making all the noise. The GO train was great. It would be nice if they ran more frequently, I would certainly take the train more often if they did. But the trains are nice and the ride is fast. No one took our ticket! I've read that the GO train operates on an honour system, but seeing this in action was surprising. Do huge numbers of people ride for free? Which is the stronger Canadian value, frugality or honesty? * * * * Last week, on one of my early morning walks with Buster and Cody, Cody became suddenly alert, telling me there was an animal nearby. In the barely-dawn darkness, I saw a dark shape scurry across a neighbor's lawn. It was a humped, low to the ground, like a hedgehog or woodchuck. As...

One last trip to Buffalo this morning, so I'll post when we return. Til then, here's something to look at. It's new! And it's Canadian!

Today is two weeks since wmtc-day. (Thanks to David Parsons for that name!) We've made tremendous progress. After our day off on Saturday, we had a mammoth Ikea morning on Sunday before game time. (They serve breakfast! For a dollar!) Much to my surprise, we knocked off every major item on my list. The only things left are either little things that we'll pick up here and there - on the order of a paper-towel holder - or large decisions that I'm not tackling yet, like what to do about the living room windows. Now the house is filled with Ikea boxes, which will magically turn into furniture. Yesterday we got our auto insurance, which was more expensive than we planned because one of us still has a speeding ticket on record. I'll let you guess who. But the ticket will be gone in six months, so our rates will go down. Today we pick up our new car (!!), and tomorrow we return the rental to the Buffalo airport once and for all. That's a huge item crossed off The List. W...

This morning I see that Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario, is banning the Muslim religious court known as sharia . This ends months of debate about whether sharia would be legal and binding in Ontario. I'm quoting at length from the story in today's Toronto Star because many US readers are likely not up on this. In a surprise announcement that caught both supporters and opponents of sharia law off guard, Premier Dalton McGuinty says he will move quickly to ban all religious arbitration in the province. McGuinty made the announcement in a telephone interview with The Canadian Press yesterday after months of debate and controversy surrounding use of Islamic sharia law in family arbitration. "I've come to the conclusion that the debate has gone on long enough," the premier told the news agency. "There will be no sharia law in Ontario. There will be no religious arbitration in Ontario. There will be one law for all Ontarians." The announcement prompted t...

This is way off-topic for me, but I was so struck by this article , I had to share it. Hurricane Katrina has produced a diaspora of historic proportions. Not since the Dust Bowl of the 1930's or the end of the Civil War in the 1860's have so many Americans been on the move from a single event. Federal officials who are guiding the evacuation say 400,000 to upwards of one million people have been displaced from ruined homes, mainly in the New Orleans metropolitan area. Knowing something about the Dust Bowl , and about the Great Migration of African-Americans from the rural South to northern industrial cities in the early part of the 20th Century, I find this fascinating. Hurricane Katrina - and the massive failure of the US government to serve and protect the country's cities - may result in a sea change in American culture. Carrying the scraps of their lives in plastic trash bags, citizens of the drowned city of New Orleans landed in a strange new place a week ago and won...

As G often reminds us, in Iraq, every day is 9/11. Surely there's something just a little bit ridiculous about September 11th being a kind of gruesome national icon, while people suffer on a massive scale in Darfur, and Rwanda, and Iraq, and . . . Nevertheless, 9/11 is a day I lived through , and it remains a potent memory for me. I'm using today's anniversary as an opportunity to plug an incredible work of art: Art Spiegelman's In The Shadow Of No Towers . I recommend it highly. If you're not inclined to buy a book like this, sit yourself down in your local bookstore and read a few pages. Spiegelman, creator of the famous Maus graphic novels about the holocaust, lives near what is now Ground Zero; on September 11th, his daughter was in school only blocks away from the attacks. After 9/11, Spiegelman suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome, and creating comic panels about the experience helped him regain equilibrium. For a long time, it was the only work he c...

See G for a laugh.

We bought a car! I am 44 years old and this is the first car I've ever owned. I bet that sounds pretty bizarre; it certainly is unusual for an American. I learned to drive at the minimum age, but as a teenager I shared a car with my mom, then I went to college in Philadelphia, where having a car was a toy, not a necessity. Once I settled in New York, there was no reason to own a car. Keeping a car in New York City is either a great expense or a great headache, or both. We rented dozens of cars over the years, but daily life was lived on foot or on public transportation. But now we're suburban folks, and I'm excited about having our own set of wheels. We chose a Chevrolet Optra Wagon , a Canadian-only model, the GM equivalent of the Ford Focus. There was a 2005 available, we got a good price, and we went for it. We're hoping to get insured on Monday morning and "take delivery," as they say, on Monday afternoon. Our friendly Car Dealer Guy and the Final Pricing ...

People email me all the time about emigration. About a year ago, I tried to gather together some advice . At that point in our process, most of what I had to offer could be summarized in two sentences: fill out forms carefully, and be patient. Now that we're here, my advice can be more concrete. Here are some pointers I can pass along about the move itself. 1. Save more money. Calculate the amount of money you think you're going to need, double it, and make that your new goal. Even if you don't reach it, you'll be better off for having tried. Moving is always full of unexpected expenses, and with a move of this magnitude, the expenses increase accordingly. 2. Bring a big wad of cash with you. While you can withdraw Canadian currency using your US ATM card, getting the contents of your US bank account transferred to a Canadian bank account is not simple and doesn't happen instantly. We didn't do this and I wish we had. It wasn't awful to fix, but it created a...