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Animals I Have known
“Every scrap of evidence that you can gather is fine gold—a new fragment of the priceless mosaic that is a dream of every wise one, more beautiful and amazing than any of our dreams, for it will be the truth.” – ERNEST THOMPSON SETON, 1925 in my choice of title for this post, animal enthusiasts… Read more
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If On A Winter’s Night
If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller is the title of 1979 novel by Italo Calvino. The story begins as follows: “You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino’s new novel, If on a winter’s night a traveler. Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade. Best to close the door,… Read more
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The Last of the Group of Seven
As a young foreign service officer with the Canadian Embassy in Washington D.C. during the mid-1970’s (post Nixon, during Ford and Carter), I had responsibility for several of our (the Public Affairs Bureau) outreach activities. One of these was promoting Canadian arts and culture. That job included every discipline, including music, literature, art, etc. Not… Read more
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1909 (or The Cousin From Canada)
1909. It wasn’t a particularly memorable year when one thinks of grand, sweeping world events. It certainly wasn’t – to borrow from The Tale of Two Cities – the best or the worst of times. Not like 1900, the beginning of a new century, or 1914 and 1918, the beginning and end of the Great… Read more
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Truth Takes Time
On President’s Day (Family day in this part of Canada) I was listening to an NPR (National Public Radio) program about Lyndon Johnson’s biographer, Robert Caro. Caro’s monumental biography of the 36th President has already evolved into four mammoth books (the first two published by Random House; the latter pair by Alfred A. Knopf), the… Read more
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AI (Part 2): ArtificiaI Intelligence Tries Its Hand at Writing and Drawing
In part one of this series on artificial intelligence, I talked about the increasing interest in using AI as a tool for writing (and other things). The idea has been greeted with anticipation by some (“Microsoft Bets Big on the Creator of ChatGPT in Race to Dominate A.I.”, Jan. 13, 2023, NYT), dread by others… Read more
