Let’s get one thing straight: nobody has to write King Lear during social distancing. “Productivity” is not a priority. If your social distancing means chilling and/or taking care of the day-to-day and/or just focusing on surviving, then that’s what you should do. For me, with my individual personality and disposition,…
Like many of you (I hope), I’m practicing social distancing in the hopes of flattening the COVID-19 curve. That is, I’m not leaving our apartment unless I need to for food, for medicine, or to take out the trash; I’m taking precautions like staying 2m away from other people if…
Note: I wrote this, like, the day before everything in Toronto went strict social distancing. I’m glad we’re taking such precautions as a community to flatten the curve and protect our vulnerable community members. I think most of this still stands though. An additional few things that are shaping up…
Dexter did it. So did Mulder. And House. Sherlock Holmes did it in both his shows, sometimes more than once. It almost makes you think there should be a support group: “Hi, my name is Sherlock, and…” (“Go on, Sherlock.”) “… I get out of tough situations by faking my…
Elementary is dead, long live Elementary. Yes, I only just now got around to watching the final season of Elementary, which aired early last summer. And it was the best of adaptations, it was the worst of adaptations. It didn’t have Sherlock‘s slick style; it often crossed the line from…
Since I love to read mysteries, it makes sense that I also love to write mysteries. When I write speculative fiction these days, my stories have an element of discovery and investigation. My characters uncover clues, wrestle with what they’ve learned to extract facts, and finally reach the conclusion around…
Among the many reasons I find myself fascinated by modern adaptations of Sherlock Holmes is the way they always implicitly address one of the themes that speaks to me: the relationship between expressing emotions and strength. Most Sherlock Holmes characters swear by the Great Detective’s lived maxim that (paraphrased) emotion…
How did I do with last year’s goals? Who can really say? … This blog. This blog can say. 1. How to own a condo or other residence. Oy yoy yoy, the Toronto housing market. Husband deserves all the credit on this one–he really dug into the market and the…
Here are 10 things I learned in 2019. 1. How to stop squirreling things away I am really bad about hanging onto stuff. Used to be, my big excuse was that I “might need it.” That one, I’ve got over; at the start of the year, my bigger excuse was…
Well, not really in December–as you may notice, we’re barely a week in. But I have to make room for my New Year’s blogs, don’t I? Anyway, here’s an incomplete list of small things–media and otherwise–that have been making my life better this final quarter. STEVEN UNIVERSE MOVIE!!!! Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!! :D…