The shooting

    Last month there was a fatal shooting at the Salsa on St. Clair Festival just a few blocks from where I live, causing mass panic.  But I slept through the whole thing! (That's the story of my life.)

    Our rebuilt air-conditioning system got rid of the vent to my room, so the only connection is the door.  A few weeks ago the forest fire smoke reached Toronto (I could smell it!) so I had to close my windows anyway.  It was then that I realized I could improve my room's AC connection by setting up the fan near my door!

    Tianjie quit as organizer of the History Salon, so I took over.  I'm now leading a series about the history of Canada! (The first event was about New France, and the second will be about British North America after 1763.)  I'm also doing evening walks with the Over 60 Meetup and stitch.com every other Wednesday, starting at Davisville and Broadview subway stations.  And I'm trying to get a book talk group off the ground.

    Last week my book club discussed the spy biography Agent Sonya, and next month will be The Librarianist.  I'm reading A Short History of Pakistan for next week's History Meetup.

    I got a new credit card, but couldn't activate it over the phone. (Some trouble about the security code not being recognized...) So I activated it by going to Chapters-Indigo at the Manulife Centre and buying a copy of Marjane Satrapi's graphic memoir Persepolis from a pile of books recommended by Heather Reisman. (I saw the animated movie version.)

    For some reason my link to the Empire City game no longer works.  Oh well, I'd got past Level 120 and was already thinking of quitting.  I've also quit Steam City, where I reached Level 40.  And I reached Level 500 on Candy Crush Saga, then found out there are over 2000 levels, so I've quit that game too.  Now I've started Wild West City instead.

Where were you when the snow fell?

    On Sunday, January 25, Toronto had a record snowfall.  It was waist deep but very light, so shovelling a pathway was surprisingly easy.  Just as well that the Sunday afternoon history salon wasn't on that week, otherwise I might have tried to go to it just in case it wasn't cancelled!

    My book club met a week late to talk about Educated. (Tara Westover's family was like the Waltons on acid!) Next month we're reading Martha Beck's Beyond Anxiety.

    A couple of weeks ago Debbie and I saw the Alan Bennett-Nicholas Hytner choir movie The Choral.  It wasn't bad--it reminded me of my own experience in choruses--but it did include one shameless cliche:  an MIA soldier thought to be dead returns without calling ahead, causing his girlfriend to faint!

    Last week John P. and I saw Amanda Seyfried in The Testament of Ann Lee, about the woman who founded the Shakers. (I rewatched Ken Burns' fascinating PBS documentary about the sect.) It's a beautiful, stylish hagiography.

    Moira and I are rewatching The Wire.  It's a great show that never loses its freshness; if anything, I understand it better and better with repeat viewings!

    Yesterday was my 64th birthday.  I bought a big strawberry shortcake at Loblaw's and we ate felafels from the corner shop.

    I'm now reading Cleopatra:  Last Queen of Egypt for next week's History Meetup.  I've passed Level 100 in Empire City and Level 4100 in Candy Crush Saga!

    The latest issue of Harper's is really interesting!  There are articles on America's gambling problem, London as seen by the Situationists, the issue of Presidential pardons, and the legacy of the War on Drugs in the Philippines.

The heat is on!

    John finished installing the heat pumps, and a few days ago our new heat system started working, in time for Christmas!  I have to leave my door open most of the time so the heat will get in my room, which is hard to get used to.  I keep waiting for someone to say "Were you born on a raft?"

    Last week I led the book club discussion on Kidnapped.  We had a cookie exchange and I brought gingerbread which I'd baked.  But it was a bit of a disaster:  it stuck to the bottom of the pan and fell to pieces!  But the others didn't seem to mind.  Next month we'll discuss Educated, Tara Westover's memoir of going from a homeschooled upbringing by survivalist parents to a Ph.D. at Cambridge.

    Next month my history discussion will be about Ethiopia, so I'll be reading a book of Ethiopian history by Saheed A. Adejumobi. (I finished that book on the Republic of China in time to return it on the day it was due!)

    Stephen printed a booklet of some of the memoir group's pieces and I bought two copies. (I contributed pieces on my Toronto home, cartoons, the autism spectrum and bereavement.)

    I'm optimistic about my Meetup for people over 60.  I've straightened out my stripe.com account and I'm starting to attract people from stitch.net .  I intend to get the reading out loud group going in the new year--some people have expressed interest.  

    I'm approaching Level 4000 in Candy Crush Saga and Level 100 in Empire City!

    I've ordered new pajamas online, and I'm about to order new winter boots. (My old ones are leaky and the soles got so wet that whenever I use them they leave my socks wet too.) I'd have ordered them already, but I'm a bit of a procrastinator these days.

Netflix

    We've been watching some interesting series on Netflix.  There's Death by Lightning, about U.S. Gilded Age president John Garfield and the lunatic who assassinated him.  We've started watching a new version of Giuseppe di Lampedusa's The Leopard. (Those Italians have some great faces!)

    And there's an adaptation of Gabriel Garcia-Marquez' "magical realist" novel One Hundred Years of Solitude.  I was prepared for disappointment because I loved the book so much, but it's actually a worthy adaptation, visually imaginative and well-cast.  It's just the first half of the book, so I imagine they'll do the second half next year or so.

    Meetup restored the members of my 60+ group, so I've started doing the Saturday lunches again.  I tried to start a walking event on Wednesday afternoons, but it's too cold for that. (I'll try it again in the spring.)

    I went to another stitch.com lunch at Dimpfelmeier's Bakery in Etobicoke.  On the way out there the subway was closed west of Jane Station, so I had to take a shuttle bus and was half an hour late.  But it could have been worse--on the way back it was closed west of Ossington Station so I had an even longer shuttle bus ride!

    Read Clare Chambers' Small Pleasures for my book club, and we had an interesting discussion.  It's about a lady reporter in 1950s London investigating claims of a virgin birth, but it proved better than I expected.  Next month we'll discuss Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped and I'll lead the discussion! (I read it when I was 11...) My History Meetup will be discussing Chiang Kai-Shek, so I'm reading Xavier Paules' The Republic of China: 1912 to 1949.

    John P. and I saw Blue Moon at the Varsity few weeks ago, with Ethan Hawke in rare form as Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart.  The other week we saw Guillermo del Toro's version of Frankenstein at the Scotiabank.  It's vivid but gets a bit too talky in the second half: the overly articulate creature is a flaw that goes back to the book... (This week my historical movie watch party is showing Ken Russell's Gothic about how the story got written.) Next Tuesday we'll be seeing Nuremberg.

    Our new heat pumps aren't installed yet, and it snowed last night.  But I can make do with my electric heater for a while longer!

I goofed

    Last month I connected my meetup.com account with stripe.com to create a system where all members of my two Meetup groups would automatically contribute annual dues of $5 or $10 to pay my Meetup fees.  Unfortunately, I botched the stripe.com connection to my bank account--couldn't satisfy the ID requirement--and all but about 30 of the members in my Seniors Meetup got removed automatically!  I've messaged Meetup and asked them to restore them. (I tried to use my residency card for the ID, but it got rejected as unclear, so I'll have to wait till my new passport arrives next month.)

    John's rebuilding our furnace and adding heat pumps and stuff so for a couple of weeks we'll have no heat except from electric heaters.  At least the cold weather hasn't arrived yet!

    On Saturday I had lunch (spaghetti) at Terroni's with a stitch.com group.  But I had a hard time finding the place--I was looking for the street address, which wasn't posted out front--and was half an hour late.  Afterward I passed by Toronto's No Kings protest near the U.S. embassy. (There was an evangelist with a megaphone nearby!)

    Finished reading Ann Patchett's novel The Dutch House for my book club.  It's a great book, with an unconventional narrative approach that resembles a first-draft memoir before it's been edited...  I gave the book to Moira, and she likes it too. (Now I'm reading Lindsey Hughes' biography of Peter the Great for my History Meetup.)

    Yesterday John P. and I were going to visit the Royal Ontario Museum and see the exhibit of Flemish artifacts.  But he told me to meet him "under the dome" at the entrance, and I somehow thought he meant the dome that used to be the McLaughlin Planetarium! (I haven't been thinking straight lately.) Oh well, we'll go on Friday.

    Today I went to Bay Street Video to rent A Royal Affair for my Friday night watch party, but they only had it in incompatible Blu-Ray format!  So I rented Lawrence Kasdan's 1985 western Silverado instead, which I've never seen. (Back at the time I was put off by its ad line "Get ready for the ride of your life":  I don't care for these oversell lines that presume my inattentiveness.)

    I've started watching a PBS documentary series about Lincoln and his wife.  It's quite good.

An interesting week

    Last Thursday I had lunch with Debi at an Indian restaurant.  My chicken biryani disagreed with me so strongly that I was sick the rest of the day!  The following day I was still worn out, though I still showed the Danish movie The Promised Land at my historical movie watch party. (It's everything they say!)

    It turns out that our boiler is leaking gas, so we've had to go without hot water until it gets fixed.  Thank goodness John's working on it!

    At the Saturday snack with the 60+ Meetup at Yorkville Village food court, half the people came there but couldn't find me! (I thought I was wearing my cowboy hat...) Arif now wants to try Sunday events, and we'll do one this weekend.

    Sunday afternoon I visited Edwards Gardens with a couple of people from stitch.com .  Today I also had lunch with a Stitch group, at the Aroma Expresso in Yonge-Eglinton Centre.

    Tuesday I saw the Spinal Tap sequel with John P.  Another droll comedy.  John was complaining that the theatre was too loud and I quipped, "They raised it to 11."

    I've been reading The Roman Republic:  A Very Short Introduction for my History Meetup.  When I went to the movies I lost it!  So Wednesday I had to go to Maria Schuka Library and straighten that out.  I also went to Bay Street Video, as I usually do on Wednesdays, to rent the historical movie DVD I'll be showing Friday night.  But I rented the wrong movie and had to go get the right one today! (This week's Beloved; The Great Caruso isn't till next week.)

    The book club is next week, and I haven't even started reading 15 Dogs, which I got in Ebook form. (Oh well, it's a short novel.)

    A very interesting week indeed. (I could go on twice as long, but there's a privacy issue...)

Stitch.net

    I've joined stitch.net , which is like Meetup but for people over 50.  I'm now inviting Stitch people to my GTA 60+ Meetup events. (We're now meeting at Yorkville Village every second Saturday afternoon and Demetre Danforh every fourth.) Next Saturday we're also meeting at High Park again.

    Last week I visited the Aga Khan Museum with a couple of Stitch people.  Muslims took a very original approach to calligraphy!

    I finally had to give up on the Classical Music Meetup.  Nobody came last month!

    The other week John P. recommended Chat GPT to me.  I subscribed but had trouble thinking of anything to ask it--guess I don't have many questions.  But I started out by asking where in Toronto you can get sugar cane juice (they have a few places) and how to stop Zoom bombers from drawing graffiti on our shared screen (you disable the annotation feature).  I've also asked what was the first talking feature with no musical numbers:  it was the lost horror movie The Terror.

    This month I'm reading Matthew Parker's Panama Fever about the making of the Panama Canal, for the next History Meetup.  It's a great story, involving engineering, finance, microbiology, civil wars and geopolitics. (When I was little I read about William Gorgas, the sanitation expert who solved the yellow fever problem--Gorgas struck me as a cool name!)

    This week my book club is discussing Cutting for Stone, which I haven't read! (Too long for me to read in just a month.) But I'll come anyway.

    I've reached Level 69 in the game Empire City.  One of the fortifications is the Eastern Wall, and it keeps reminding me of the lines from "If I Were a Rich Man":

If I were rich I'd have the time that I lack

To sit in the synagogue and pray,

And maybe have a seat by the eastern wall...

    Tianjie's going back to China to get married, so his history salon is on hiatus for a while.