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I always like to have a detective-mystery series to follow. I try many of them, like a few, and watch several episodes in a row as downtime relaxation. I recently started the Canadian "Murdoch Mysteries," which takes place in Toronto at the turn of the 20th Century. Back when we still had cable TV, I frequently saw promos for Murdoch Mysteries, but I thought it looked kind of cheesy. But when I recently clicked on it through Netflix, I discovered it's actually quite good. I'm now well into Season 2, and I'm finding the mysteries not obvious and the character development absorbing. Very Canadian, and not only because it is set in Toronto One episode was particularly interesting to me, and very Canadian, something you'd be most unlikely to see on US television. In " Shades of Grey ," Season 2 episode 6, a girl is found dead. Dr. Julia Ogden, the pathologist who is Detective William Murdoch's friend, colleague, and love interest, reveals that the gi...

According to the good folks at WoodGuthrie.org , our hero Woody Guthrie wrote these New Year's resolutions, which he called "rulin's," in 1943. Happily for us, an admirer at another website has transcribed them. Woody's rulin's are by turns sweet ("learn people better"), fanciful ("dream good"), and practical ("wear clean clothes"). Some are downright hilarious: "wash teeth if any". 33. Wake Up And Fight 32. Make Up Your Mind 31. Love Everybody 30. Love Pete 29. Love Papa 28. Love Mama 27. Help Win War — Beat Fascism 26. Dance Better 25. Play And Sing Good 24. Send Mary And Kids Money 23. Have Company But Don't Waste Time 22. Save Dough 21. Bank All Extra Money 20. Dream Good 19. Keep Hoping Machine Running 18. Stay Glad 17. Don't Get Lonesome 16. Keep Rancho Clean 15. Learn People Better 14. Listen To Radio A Lot 13. Read Lots Good Books 12 Change Bed Clothes Often 11. Change Socks 10. ...

I've just finished The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks , by Rebecca Skloot. I’m sure many of you have read it, but if you have not, please run to your local library or bookstore or website and borrow, purchase, or download a copy immediately. This book is literary nonfiction of the highest order, a melding of social, cultural, and science history, and a triumph of research and writing. Henrietta Lacks was an African-American woman, a poor tobacco farmer who lived near and in Baltimore. Henrietta died of cancer in 1951, at the age of 31. She left behind five children, destined for poverty and all manner of abuse. She also left behind, without her knowledge, some cancer cells that doctors at Johns Hopkins University Hospital removed for study. Those cells, and their descendants, would help Jonas Salk to develop the polio vaccine, and would continue to form the basis of cell research around the globe for decades, continuing to this day. Those cancer cells and their descendants are kn...

Tonight I tried again to watch "Love Actually", and once again am left shaking my head in disgust (at the movie) and disbelief (in its popularity, among people who ought to know better). Why does everyone love this movie? Why is it hailed as the great ode to love and romance and a beloved holiday-season classic? It is not romantic. It is not funny. It is crap. I should start by saying that I didn't want to see "Love Actually". The presence of Hugh Grant alone is enough to drive me away. But so many people - people I respect! people with brains and thoughtful opinions! - said that they liked it. One smart man said the movie had "all the markers of a movie I should hate," but he ended up thinking it was wonderful. All right, then. I'll give it a go. Costs me nothing. Wrong! Tonight I tried a third time to watch the film (the first two tries unsuccessful), so that I could tally (a) fat jokes, (b) older male bosses drooling over too-young subordinates,...

One day, as I was getting off the subway on my way from Brooklyn to my workplace on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, people were handing out these tabloids. I never learned who made them, where they came from, or where they went. But I'm so glad I saved my copy all these years. It's a whole newspaper - news, sports, weather, ads for fake movies, personal ads. Brilliant. In case you can't read the date, it was 1984. And special bonus from one decade later, The National OJ . I had to scan them in two parts, but they are each tabloid size.

Since moving to Canada in 2005, my experiences with Ontario's health care system have been extremely positive. Through the public system, my partner and I have been able to access health care whenever we needed it, in convenient and pleasant settings, at no cost - that is, paid for with our taxes. The quality of care has been at least as good, and often superior, to anything I experineced in the United States. I love our public health care system, and I would love to see it expanded.* Single-payer, nonprofit health care is the only system that makes any sense. When I fractured my foot , I experienced a flaw in the Ontario system for the first time. The consequences for me happened to be minimal, but many people are affected seriously, and negatively. And apparently, the flaw stems from attempts to improve the Ontario health care system. Like many people, I had no idea that bones in my foot actually had fractured. I couldn't put any weight on my foot without excruciating pain, b...

Every year I seem to break the holiest commandment of the holiday season: I'm not busy. I always hear how "everyone is so busy this time of year" and "this is such a crazy time of year, you can't get anything done," but that never reflects my experience. We don't travel to see family, we have no extra social events, and we don't do Christmas shopping. Many years ago, we used to send a huge pile of winter-holiday cards, but we've gone digital with that, and we don't do it every year. So Christmas is an extra day off, and here in the Commonwealth, we have Boxing Day, too. Two days off with nothing to do and no obligations. A strange scheduling glitch at the library gave me four days off in a row, which I am thoroughly enjoying. I'm reading, doing things around the house, and we're taking that final move-in step that never got done: hanging pictures. And one more thing! Here's something else I'm doing with my un-Christmas winter...