I discovered Ernest Hemingway’s lean and evocative writing as a teenager in high school. For a few years he was the hero of my adolescence. Then he blew his head off with a shotgun in 1961. By 1964, when his memoir of his triumphant young adulthood in Paris was published posthumously, I had left Hemingway and high school behind. He had become just a door to somewhere else. There are many similar stories in the naked city nowadays, no doubt. I was reminded of mine in early February 2009, when I read the cutely headlined article "For whom the camera rolls: Ernest Hemingway biopic set for big screen," on the guardian.co.uk website. (Hemingway’s 1940 novel of the Spanish Civil War, in case you’ve forgotten, is called For Whom the Bell Tolls.) The article set me off on a leisurely stroll through "Ernest Hemingway" on Google Images. At the moment, I own only one book by Hemingway and one book about him. But before an accidental episode of creative destruction between college and my first full-time job, I had almost all his major works (novels and short stories) and a number of books about him. I had seen several Hemingway photographs, and heard recordings of his voice. I have just now, however, learned much more from Google Images. What a difference the world wide web has made!

TORONTO. TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2009. [And kudos to whoever waved the Canadian flag last night, in front of the MSNBC booth, on the National Mall in Washington.] "Who cares about local media personalities in Toronto, Canada?" is a good question. And of course I agree that my own answer ("I do, because I live here") will not cut any ice anywhere else — and in particular in Vancouver, say. The local Toronto media personality Merella Fernandez is so cute and multiculturally interesting, however, that I feel compelled to press on. My story is that I lost sight of her for almost a year. I have now discovered where she has been all that time. The plain truth is that this is just another senior moment in an aging brain. Yet I am also arguing that Ms. Fernandez and her one-time CP24 TV colleague Nalini Sharma say something about the fate of this astoundingly diverse city — and the various wider universes of which it is a part. Even my lame struggles to answer "Whatever happened to Mererlla Fernandez?" illuminate this larger proposition ... and almost shed some flickering Canadian light on the great events in the USA today!

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Almost everyone I ask still says they aren’t watching Matthew Weiner’s stunning new TV series, Mad Men — about a mid-level New York advertising agency in the early 1960s. Or they haven’t even heard about it yet. So it makes sense when John Sturgeon, who writes for a student newspaper in Philadelphia, describes the show as "critically acclaimed but seldom-watched." The series nonetheless managed to win the Emmy for top US TV drama this year. And according to CNN.com/entertainment: "Shy of being pumped into the water supply, Mad Men is everywhere — except on most people's TV sets ... About 1.5 million US viewers tune in weekly, with another half-million watching later on DVRs. That compares with the 19 million-plus audience for last week's No. 1 program, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation on CBS ... Doesn't matter. It's Mad Men that's permeating the zeitgeist." I can confess myself that I altogether agree with Jo Ann, who posted this past August on the part of the Charlie Rose website that archives his report on the top drama series: "Mad Men ... is by far the best show on tv." I find it utterly gripping. And I think this is partly because it is delivering poignant hints about where an older America is headed today. (It is not surprising that a "Mad Men DVD was spotted at the elbow of Barack Obama aboard his campaign plane.")

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