It is the ending we wait for, in the telling of the cautionary tale, the puncture note of the swollen ego.
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He will say cold soup. When asked what he’s learned from 22 years of marriage, the Greek never heard of cold soup until he married the Wasp.

As for what’s rubbed off on me, the answer is soccer. We were active kids, yes, but I wasn’t brought up on soccer. In the schoolyard, the soccer ball missed my group in the corner, busy conjuring ways we could remake the latest Little House on the Prairie episode.

That was then.

Today begins a month of little else but watching a ball on a screen. When not cheering, cursing, waving his arms about, or tapping his jersey-festooned belly, he will share a stat, a story, a detail we missed. The door swings open for another fan. Will the floorboards hold? The couch is warm and those boys on the field sure are…fit.

There are some passions meant to be shared.

Here’s a fun interactive guide to World Cup official uniforms since the the competition began in 1930.

GO GREECE GO!

Gloria Steinem turns 80 tomorrow so she can be forgiven for suffering a little writer’s block.

In a profile in Sunday’s NY Times, she reveals that she’s been working for a decade on a book, not yet completed, even after four visits to a writer’s colony.  Sitting still is a challenge for Steinem. She plans to celebrate her birthday in Botswana, riding an elephant.

A self described “hope-a-holic”, the activist took part in the first annual Makers conference last month where she was interviewed by Jennifer Aniston. I’ve never much thought about Aniston in one way or another.  I have to admit now to pure envy, not for her infamous hair or her one time marriage to Brad Pitt, but for her access. Perched there on the conference stage with this ageless trailblazer, an icon who wants most to be remembered for “a kind heart”, Aniston’s cosy chat with Steinem was that strange sort of cultural hybrid that worked, despite a stumbling kind of awkwardness: Aniston’s comedic timing to Steinem’s wit, matched by unmistakable star charisma. If this is indeed what 80 looks like, we can all start singing.

Here’s a clip:

Here’s to a spectacular elephant ride but be safe: we need you around for some time to come.

For more on favourite trailblazers, see:

In the garden with Joni

The fairest prince

Can you hear me cheering from here?

You make me feel

A bitch to love

Toronto welcomes people from all over the world. 170 different languages and dialects are spoken here.

We’re all Irish when the parade passes by.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

If you read only one thing today, read Andrew Solomon’s essay in the New Yorker. Then go hug your kids and your parents.

Read the long essay here

In it, Peter Lanza has broken his silence for the first time since his son Adam killed 20 children in a mass shooting at Sandy Hook school in Newport, Connecticut. Solomon met with Peter Lanza six times for extensive interviews and the result is a heartbreaking story of colossal loss.

“Interview subjects usually have a story they want to tell, but Peter Lanza came to these conversations as much to ask questions as to answer them. It’s strange to live in a state of sustained incomprehension about what has become the most important fact about you. “I want people to be afraid of the fact that this could happen to them,” he said.”

Solomon interviews psychiatrists and scientists in his exploration of Adam’s crime.

“Scientists are sequencing Adam’s DNA to see if they can find anomalies that might explain what was broken in him. And yet, if someone has committed heinous crimes and is then found to have bad genes or a neurological abnormality, should we presume that biology compelled him? It’s a circular argument that conflates what describes a phenomenon and what causes it. Everything in our minds is encoded in neural architecture, and if scanning technologies advance far enough we’ll see physiological evidence of a college education, a failed love affair, religious faith. Will such knowledge also bring deeper understanding?”

Good journalism goes back to the scene long after the yellow police tape is gone. It uncovers the truth that headlines news organizations and social media cannot. It takes time to unwrap layer upon layer and is careful about easy answers. It is longform journalism worth fighting to protect in the heavy traffic of rushed deadlines.

What Solomon’s essay studiously outlines is that Adam Lanza was a troubled kid from birth and his parents struggled for years to help him. Neither of them could ever have predicted such a violent act but that they loved him is clear.

For parents and families everywhere in this muddled modern time, this article will resonant and remind us of our vulnerability. We aim to be caretakers of one other but we can never truly know the privations that linger and take root.

Sometimes love is not enough.

Canadians have two choices in winter.  Forget those who check out for the whole season and head to a warmer climate. Sorry, you don’t count here.

The rest of us can hurl ourselves into the chill and become parkas on skis, skates, boards and cheap plastic sleds.

(Yes, that’s me, pretending to be an experienced snowshoer on Lake Simcoe, Ontario)

Or we can hibernate and watch others do it better, much better, in our wildest dreams better. As we hunkered down to watch, the Winter Olympics offered vicarious thrills and fascinating narratives to ponder.

For all the flapping gums over our Stratford busker boy gone wild, the obvious is still only a whisper. Don’t put your kid in show business unless you can be a warrior parent.

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When our great grandchildren study their ancestors, they might point to today as a pivotal turn toward Pod living.

The Canada Post decision to phase out home delivery puts us one step closer to living without human interaction. Read More

Noise, noise, noise. There’s traffic everywhere. Here’s what stood out for me this week.

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The fall out is spectacular. Sure, the comics have choice meat to grind and we wince a little, even as we chuckle along.

Brilliant as he is, Jon Stewart is managing to puncture our pride with every punchline. But something else is happening, something magnificent and momentous.

We are engaged again. Is this the end of apathy? Read More