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We must say goodbye to our sweet Tala today. At the vet yesterday, we got the worst possible news, and we know we must do this right away. I'm grateful that it's a clear decision. Tala, Tala Bobala, Talabo, T-bo, T. Skinny Face. Princess Tala. My Little Girl. She started life in a puppy mill in Tennessee. She was rescued to Ohio, then to Husky Savers in Western New York State. Then finally to Canada -- on the underground railroad to freedom. We fell in love with her on Petfinder and have been that way ever since, now one month shy of 10 years. Talabo. Spinning wildly in circles, a white blur. Patroling the perimeter of her yard to keep us safe from the evil squirrels. Barking and spinning in the car , nonstop. Barking until someone would finally spray her with a hose, hopefully until she was soaked. Staring at the hose, waiting for someone to spray her, or perhaps trying to will the hose to spray her. At the sound of the word "upstairs," even in casual conversation no

Netflix has added many older movies to its library, including several classics and modern classics. Among them I noticed "Mean Streets," the 1973 film that put both Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro on the map. I always thought Scorsese took the film's name from Piri Thomas' autobiography, Down These Mean Streets . Thomas' work is a landmark of urban and prison literature, and was highly influential. What I didn't know was that both Thomas and Scorsese borrowed their titles from a common source: an essay by Raymond Chandler, published in 1950, called " The Simple Art of Murder ". The essay is a gem. Chandler analyzes and critiques the murder mystery novel -- its formula, its artifice, its unreality. He refutes the idea that the murder mystery or detective novel cannot also be well crafted piece of art -- and he goes one step further, dismissing the false division between "quality" literature and "escapist" fiction. I loved this p

When I tell people I'm going to Egypt, they are happy and excited for me. Then, almost everyone asks me if it's safe there, and says, "Be careful." The recent incident in Berlin has caused me to reflect on why this is. First: I am not complaining about friends expressing concern for my safety. I know that they are coming from a place of care and concern. But they are also coming from a place of fear. The media has conditioned us to think of the Middle East as inherently unstable and unsafe. Add to that the violence during and after the 2011 Egyptian revolution, and western fears that US-backed dictator Mubarak would be replaced with a fundamentalist theocracy. In Canada, there's also another layer: what I observe as a prevalent Canadian attitude about travel safety. To my mind, many Canadians are inordinately worried about safety when travelling. They are often timid about the world, risk-averse, people who value safety over adventure, and the known world over e

December 10 is International Human Rights Day . The date commemorates the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the first global human rights document. Every year on December 10, Amnesty International Canada holds Write For Rights . All over the country, Canadians use our own human rights to support people who don’t have them. We write letters in support of prisoners of conscience, and letters to prisoners to let them know they have not been forgotten. It’s a powerful experience, and very easy to do. This year I will be writing letters, and I've invited our library system to join me. Library staff are always looking for display ideas. I compiled a list of materials, sent it out to all staff, and suggested a human rights themed display. Several people were interested, and I sent them each a poster template and Write For Rights bookmarks that I got from Amnesty. If you create library displays, I invite you to try this! You can share photos of your display

December 10 is International Human Rights Day . The date commemorates the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the first global human rights document. Every year on December 10, Amnesty International Canada holds Write For Rights . All over the country, Canadians use our own human rights to support people who don’t have them. We write letters in support of prisoners of conscience, and letters to prisoners to let them know they have not been forgotten. It’s a powerful experience, and very easy to do. This year I will be writing letters, and I've invited our library system to join me. Library staff are always looking for display ideas. I compiled a list of materials, sent it out to all staff, and suggested a human rights themed display. Several people were interested, and I sent them each a poster template and Write For Rights bookmarks that I got from Amnesty. If you create library displays, I invite you to try this! You can share photos of your display

We are going to Egypt! We're super excited about it. It's someplace we've always wanted to go. In fact, it's the only country that Allan has always wanted to see. (We went to my number one spot -- Peru -- in 2006.) Just after New Year's, we celebrate our anniversary, and we always go away for the 5s and 10s*. I thought for number 30 we should go someplace really special! The trip is in February. In preparation, I'm learning some Egyptian Arabic, using Mango Languages , which I can access at no cost through my library card . I'm really enjoying it. Here's why I love Mango. - It breaks up the lessons into bite-size pieces, which makes the process less daunting. - You hear the language spoken by native speakers. - You can record yourself speaking, then play your words simultaneously with Mango's, to hear a real-time comparison. - Mango teaches language concepts, rather than just rote phrases. For example, in the lesson that included I speak , I learned

Blogger has rolled out a redesigned dashboard. For those of us who write or manage blogs with comment moderation, it is decidedly not  an upgrade. And for those of us who manage multiple blogs with comment moderation, it downright sucks. Unfortunately I can't illustrate this post; I didn't know my dashboard was going to change, so I didn't screenshot the old one. Previously, when I went to Blogger , which I have set as one of my home pages, I would see -- on the same screen -- all the blogs I manage. In one glance, with zero clicks, I could see if any comments were "awaiting moderation," as Blogger calls it, on all blogs. Now when I go to Blogger, I see only one blog at a time. First I have to choose a blog. Then I have to click comments , awaiting moderation  to see if there are any comments. Then choose another blog, click comments , awaiting moderation , and so on. I did notice that when I return to the page, it has remained on the comments field, kind of like