As trained as we are to be cold and calculating in the big city, sometimes it is almost impossible not to be pleased by something in the news. My pleasure over the past few days has been (what I at least take to be) the broad public reaction to Toronto City Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong’s proposal […]

“Today,” my wife remarked as we were getting up, “is the original ‘great day for Canada.’” Having acquired much familiarity with our nuclear family legends, I knew what she meant. But I asked the obvious dumb question anyway: “You mean,” I said, “that this is your grandfather’s birthday?” (My knowledge of the legends  does not […]