We live in such a flat part of North America, that when we see clouds like these on the horizon, we say, "Are those the mountains over there?" and for a moment we share the fantasy that we are driving towards mountains like these. It is odd that millions of people sometimes live in the dullest countryside. Even the land surrounding New York is more exciting than the one around Toronto. Here we must search for the details.


Even our feet started small

Oh America !

Engand and France have their beauty,

But nothing like spectacular U.S.A.

I've got to get this down. Years ago I had a job as a bank courier and the man who trained me said that I should never walk on the escalators, either going up or going down. He felt they should do their work for you. So I always stand on the escalator at Union station even though it usually has a long line up. Well tonight I was going towards it slowly and I saw the man in front of me turn back. I noticed he had a slight limp. The escalator wasn't working, but people were still struggling up the oversized steps. I followed the man. He did not take the regular stairs, but went further back along the platform and summoned the elevator for handicapped people. I followed him in. I thought why the hell not. Me: "How old are you?". He looked offended, intruded upon, but I smiled and said, "I'm asking because you're obviously older than me, but you don't look retired." I had won him over. He also smiled and said, "I work for the federal government, I'm seventy seven and I love my work". "You have given me hope", I said and we parted. Later we almost shared another elevator to the train platforms, but there wasn't much room on it and I said I could wait for it to come down again. He has given me hope.

On Friday I went with Cathy to her hairdresser's, who now works in the basement of his own home. His wife, a colourist, also works with him. As Cathy had her hair done, I looked at hairdressing magazines and came to realize very forcefully the lengths to which many women will go to have attractive hair. I just go to a barber as rarely as possible and, like, most balding men, have even abandoned combing what little hair I have left. But even when I had hair, I spent as little effort on it as possible. To a woman, however, her hair can be an alterable extension of her appeal. Now, I think that a lot of a woman's care over her appearance is actually for other women. Most women I know do not need to attract a mate. They already have one as well as quite a few male admirers that they don't really need anymore. My theory is that women want to look presentable in front of other women. Conversely, men are encouraged not to care what other men think about their appearance. It's like the old thing of putting all men into similar dinner jackets while encouraging women to wear the fanciest gowns and adornment. Where men and women are more similar is when we look in the mirror. We want to be content with what we see.
I have just reread what I have written and I am strongly tempted not to publish it. However I throw it down as a gauntlet before my women readers. I challenge you to haul me up by my bootstraps and say, "No Marc, what sexist nonsense"!

Tamara de Lempicka

SHAHEEN

It seems that a University in Saudi Arabia is having a computer built for them in The United States that will be as powerful as a million desktops. Whether they will let women use it, remains to be seen..... The Saudi Arabians apparently have one quarter of the world's oil reserves. Deficits must seem as abstract to them as hyper super dooper computers do to us. I was going to post a learned article on this by copying it from another source, but my primitive laptop won't copy that for some reason. The dog is hungry, the cat malcontent and the wyf missing. Almost adult children are milling round me asking plaintively,"where's Mummy, Dad?". And so we leave Balham, gateway to the South. If anyone knows what the hell I mean by that, let him show himself, or let her show herself.