Thanks to @mrbullbull.bsky.social for giving my equity research report flash fiction a home (and a cool photo)

Jay Birds Robbie Craig n.d.

Still thinking about The Surrogate, on for another week at @crowstheatre.bsky.social. Lots to think about, lots of laughs, and a lot of heart. I wasn’t the only one wiping away tears when the lights came up.

“Tawdry” comes from “St. Audrey’s lace.” At fairs honoring the Anglo-Saxon saint Audrey, vendors sold cheap lace necklaces to pilgrims. The phrase St. Audrey’s lace slurred into tawdry lace, and eventually tawdry—meaning cheap, showy finery. #etymology

It’s a start @shawnmicallef.bsky.social - and @dylanreid.bsky.social ’s handiwork, after I tried valiantly in what turned out to be the wrong spot

New year, new additions to my map of little free libraries in the east end of Toronto (for this project: roughly Broadview to Woodbine, O'Connor to the lake) -- now over 100 identified! www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...

I am calling upon the people of Ireland to immediately begin construction of a thread on this site about how you or someone you know was roasted for a fashion choice. We need it. All roasts must have come from Irish people *only*. Please respect this important rule, it makes a difference. Tanks

I couldn’t even turn on the sound until the last strikeout.

My dad died a month ago. Among his photos I found some he’d taken on the shoots of movies and TV he‘d worked on as a sound recordist/mixer — including some nice ones of the late Graham Greene while filming Clearcut, the 1991 indigenous horror movie that was featured at that year‘s TIFF.

How did I get this far in life without knowing about "corn sweat" and its contribution to stifling humidity? www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2025...

The oven has been turned off. #dlws

Slightly regretting that I didn’t pick up this 1979 album from my neighbour’s lawn when I had the chance.

Saw a few movies at this space on Gerrard during its last revival as a cinema, including what ended up being a private viewing (me and spouse) of the great Turkish film Winter Sleep. Great to hear it's coming back to life as a music venue. www.thestar.com/entertainmen...

Thanks to @patrickcain.bsky.social for this great overview of the Don River naturalization project in Toronto Today - excited to learn some of the parkland will be open this summer: www.torontotoday.ca/local/enviro...

For no apparent reason when I slipped on ear buds on the way out the door for a frigid run early this morning they were streaming Renaissance polyphony off Apple Music. I was about to switch to a podcast when I realized it was, in fact, exactly what I needed to start this February day.

Les Éboulements, Charlevoix County A.Y. Jackson 1924

Breakfast with Marmalade Joseph Plaskett 1976

North Shore, St Lawrence Dr. Maurice Hall Haycock 1947

My annual photo of books I read over the past year *and still have a copy of in my house*: a really odd stack this year of an early 20th C travelogue of Canada, War and Peace, Natalia Ginzburg, and a fascinating history of East Germany. I read a lot more fiction, too, not pictured!

"Ghost Apples" in the Fruit Ridge area of Kent County, Michigan - An unusual phenomenon when freezing rain coats rotting apples before they fall, the apple turns mushy and eventually slips out, leaving the icy shell still hanging on the tree. ❄️🍏Photos by Andrew Sietsema 🤗 #folklore

Afternoon tea in the lobby of the Royal York hotel yesterday: more women, girls, glitter and sequins than I have ever seen, PLUS hockey fans on their way to the game, AND a huge number of men in kilts and women in gowns on their way to the St Andrew’s ball above = a fun Toronto evening.

I have a short story out -- during Short Story Month, apparently, and just as everyone is thinking about short stories because of the loss of short story queen, Alice Munro. It's about being Canadian, cross-border travel, Latin vocab, and friendship: saranacreview.org/issue19/fict...

What links bubble era Tokyo, one of the best comedy scenes in this century, and one of my favourite songs, in my latest Song of the Day (or week or month), which I should rebrand as The Fortnightly Song: mollymccarron.substack.com/p/listen-to-...

So proud of the @spacing.bsky.social gang, and especially of @dylanreid.bsky.social for his work as executive editor of this issue! A really great anniversary package that speaks to Toronto’s recent past, the present, and the future, and captures the best of the magazine.

Liked this melancholy homecoming story by Rachel Sargent (only on the other place) in Gulf Coast (ditto) about how small events change everything: gulfcoastmag.org/online/36.2-...

"I start with an emotion and then I try to find out what story can kind of accomodate that emotion" - from this great interview with Ling Ma.

In which I am discombobulated by the appearance of real spring in March, and write about a seasonally-appropriate jazz singer.

While I wait for the snow to melt off the garden again…

Finally, my years of semi-successful gardening have made it into something I've written! Grateful to @emergejournal.bsky.social for publishing this piece: emergeliteraryjournal.com/current-issu...

Delighted to see one of my favourite podcasts, @backlisted.bsky.social, taking on The Stone Angel in their customary humorous, curious way. I was a latecomer to this book and had no idea it was so funny and cutting (as well as sad -- it has everything going on). A great discussion.

Canada has produced plenty of winter songs, but surprisingly not many about freezing cold temperatures as such. @mccmolly.bsky.social writes about a delightful one, though, not surprisingly from Montreal. #music #IlFaitFroid #songs mollymccarron.substack.com/p/il-fait-fr...

My stack of 2023 reads represents books I read over the last year *that are still in the house* - which, absent library books and anything I’ve shared onwards (I’m an active donor to neighbourhood library boxes), makes it a pretty random pile!

Christmas tree at my father-in-law’s retirement residence, festooned with empty Moderna vials.

The new issue of the /temz/ review is out, with a powerhouse prose selection including a great little flash, "Dear Reader", from @carolinehung.bsky.social, and "Tinted Windows", a fantastic fiction debut from Yasmeen Mohssenzadh: www.thetemzreview.com/issue-25.html

Periodic update to my map of little free libraries in east Toronto - roughly Broadview to Woodbine, O'Connor to the lake. A few additions since the summer. Other updates welcome! www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...

"Writing a story about a sentient refrigerator can be fun, and a story like that might be fun to read, but if fun is the only goal, you’d be better off chugging a beer and jumping into a pool with your clothes on. No book can compete with that." boydwords.wordpress.com/2023/12/02/o...

Lovely essay from Electric Lit's The Commuter on, among other things, the loneliness of grieving for a friend: electricliterature.com/replying-all...

From the must-eat list at a local “sugar water cafe”, some Brontë-inspired snacks.

Every year I look forward to the Moroccan clementines showing up in the grocery store in darkest November. Great story here about why eastern Canada eats clementines while to the west it's mandarins, among other things. www.thestar.com/business/her...

Is snow-hail a thing? Is that’s what’s falling right now??

Really interesting food shortage story, especially for any lovers of South Indian food like dosas. www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

Dark at 4:30 and pounding with rain. The essence of November.

Fave recent Toronto little free library find was this 1958 British edition of Nadine Gordimer short stories, which someone bought at a Cape Town bookstore and left a ripped-out a magazine ad for 1950 Studebaker inside. (Not sure how the timing works…) And really enjoyed the book.

It's dark, it's cold, but I'm Feeling Good while listening to melancholy music this November: open.substack.com/pub/mollymcc...

Last group of trick-or-treaters included a respirator and rain gear wearing self-identifying “bathroom explorer”

How easy it is to transform an otherwise unremarkable part of a major arterial into a nice place to walk with some good trees.

I love this Radiohead song

Keeping the light in these dark days.

Was glad to spend an hour or two at the 38K mark of the Toronto Waterfront marathon today cheering on runners. Friendly cheers helped me hugely in my one and only marathon (especially that last stretch) and crowd support is limited in this city!