I’ve always wondered what it would be like to spend a day exploring a part of the world that billions of us visit every day, that’s completely transformed pretty much everything in our lives – and didn’t exist until 1990. That place of course is the internet. And what better time to view its distant […]
The Plague-Ground – Travel to a new world. No cost. No waiting. Satisfaction guaranteed. Read More »
Commencement Speech season started this weekend with Barack Obama delivering two of them online: one to high school students and one to the graduates of historically-black colleges, where he said: “More than anything, this pandemic has fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what
When I was half my age, I used to believe that idea from Robert Frost. Now, I’m more into the “in length” part of life’s cycle. But I was reminded twice yesterday how the world can change long before it enters us. I was on the phone with an old friend Dr. Joe MacInnis, and
The Plague-Ground – Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length Read More »
When was the last time you saw those three words in a sentence? Applied to Ottawa? In a pandemic? Exactly. Our expectation of speedy service from any government, let alone the Feds, is so low that anything short of craven indifference is hailed as miraculous. Perhaps it’s time we put this bias aside. When Ottawa
The Plague-Ground – A bureaucratic miracle Read More »
I heard this from Heather Ross who was speculating why fewer people seem to be having heart attacks during the pandemic than before. Maybe it’s because we exercise, get more sleep, spend more time with our families and less time getting to and from work. I say ‘speculating’ because Dr. Ross doesn’t do that. She’s
The Plague-Ground – “In Spain people are renting out their dogs for walking.” Read More »
Thirty years ago today, I left Talbott Recovery Center in Atlanta where I’d been in treatment for four months for cocaine addiction. I flew home to Toronto where Jean met me at the airport and took me directly to the plot of land on Georgian Bay where we pitched a tent and where we are
The Plague-Ground – “My Name’s Bob and I’m an…” Read More »
Yesterday, I tripped over one of those New Yorker articles that snatches you and carries you into the black holes of a subject you knew absolutely nothing about. It then pops you to the surface 30 minutes later gasping at the bizarre and amazing things thing you saw. So it was with Thirty-six Thousand Feet
The Plague-Ground – When is a nurse worth more than a baseball player? Read More »
I’ve noticed something odd in my Zoom calls, and maybe you have too. It’s that they sound better when the video is Off than when it’s On. By this I mean the experience is richer and more ‘real’. This may not be as true when there are a dozen square screens of bobbing faces on
The Plague-Ground – I See What You Say Read More »
No, and for three reasons: it’s hard to get together, and even if you do, you’ll likely get caught. What’s more, if you get caught and get thrown out of the house, where exactly will you go? But I ask because affairs generally unravel social cohesion and when 8 billion of us are already enduring
The Plague-Ground – Is a pandemic a good time to have an affair? Read More »
I wouldn’t want to be an airline these days. Even more, I wouldn’t want to be an airline passenger. Those long waits to go through security will feel like recess compared to the technology that will save us from infecting each other before, during and after we fly. This is a certainty in the next
The Plague-Ground – Planes, Trains and Automobiles Read More »
Like you, I’m growing numb to the torrent of advice about how the world can/will/must change after the fog lifts. Looking at pictures then and now of Venice with its pristine canals and Delhi with its crystal-clear air, makes me say “Let’s keep it that way.” Part of me yearns to Make Change Happen. The
The Plague-Ground: Daddy, tell me the one about the virus again. Read More »
On the weekend, Spain redefined the meaning of stay-cation by letting its people leave their homes – but go no further than a kilometre from them. Such is the nature of travel these days. But that will all change once we have the all-clear, and a vaccine, and rigorous testing at choke-points like airports. Hong Kong International has already installed
The Plague-Ground: We’re not all in the same boat. But we are all in the same storm. Read More »
