A while ago someone asked “If you were to live in a book, what would it be?” I immediately thought of the book in which I would most NOT want to live:  “Room.”   Emma Donoghue’s novel “Room” is … Continue reading →

                                    “Upscaling” is the next step up from recycling.  It means taking something old or broken or molecularly challenged or unfashionable and re-inventing … Continue reading →

Autocorrect can be handy…but is infuriating when one lives by the colour of saying, embroidering, dovetailing, language-hopping words to suit mood, flow and rhythm (using as a medium British English…none of your ‘colors’ here.)  If there had been Autocorrect in … Continue reading →

Alexander Claud Cockburn died on Friday aged 71 in Bad Salzhausen in Germany, where he was being treated for cancer.  He was, like his two brothers, Patrick and Andrew, and his father Claud before him, a journalist and writer. He … Continue reading →

  There was once a woman who was lost for 3.5 million years. When she was found in an Ethiopian desert, she was given the name Lucy and was hailed as our first upstanding female ancestor, the mother of our … Continue reading →

With loyalty points from our local supermarket Super U,  you can get fantastic gifts such as sandwich toasters and ice-cream sundae glasses and polyester pillows, but with an active imagination and a memory not yet lost to age or the … Continue reading →

  In or around 1910, my grandfather bought shares in the Munster and Leinster Bank and gave some to his children. Over the years, the name of the bank changed to Allied Irish, but the shares stayed in the family … Continue reading →

This week’s second day was Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Pancake Tuesday.  According to nephew Thomas, there is a French tradition that having a coin in your pocket while making the pancakes ensures good luck and money for all of Lent. … Continue reading →

  Today a French TV war correspondent died in a grenade attack while working on a story in an area near the city of Homs in Syria.  Gilles Jacquier of France 2 Television was one of a reported 10 people killed … Continue reading →

  Yesterday we went to Villefranche-sur-Saone for the Beaujolais Marathon, part of the weekend celebration for the ‘percée” or opening of the first barrel of this year’s Beaujolais Nouveau wine.  Villefranche S/Saone, capital of the Départament of Beaujolais, is a … Continue reading →