Anthony Burgess wrote that, and as someone accused of rushing to go to the opening of an envelope, Not Going couldn’t come a moment too soon for me.

In the thimbleful of benefits of Growing Old, surely this is the best, with nodding off at will a close second. Life costs less when you stay in, takes less time and brings on less stress, certainly than when Going counted for so much more.

I was reminded of this because TIFF opened this week, and at age 48 is deeply into its own middle age. I was involved in the earliest years when you could walk into any movie, and if you didn’t like it, you’d walk out and go to another movie next door. My wife and her medical colleagues would take a week off work in order to binge on Festival films. Their diet was coffee and croissants, and they competed to see the most films each day.
Meanwhile…