Updated on April 10: scroll to bottom I spent four years at Queen’s University shouting in Gaelic at football games, waiting in line at the campus pub and preparing for slide tests (I was an art history major). In between socializing, two ideas mentioned in passing during my painting seminars shot up like flares: Men […]
2010 Roundup
Originally published in December 2010 in Blog
The scariest post to write My best posts are usually the scariest to write. I’ve found that the more scared I am about the content, the more likely I am to connect with my readers because we all struggle with the same stuff. But there’s a fine line between tacky confessionals and honest storytelling. Maybe […]
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Originally published in November 2010 in Blog
Your letters
Originally published in August 2010 in Blog
My friend, Emily, always has something thoughtful to say. Here’s what she said about my last blog post, “Female emancipation never looked so bad.” “I agree that it is a bit depressing to think about the media messages being absorbed by teens today (not to mention that it makes me feel really old!). Of course, […]
Female emancipation never looked so bad
Originally published in August 2010 in Blog
©AGJ You’re circling the drain Take back the message Yeah, it takes work Focus and vigilance The lowest common denominator takes seconds to achieve Overriding decades of work You’re discouraged? OK! Let’s work with that No, you say And throw a party To make you feel better The theme? Your own degradation You invite your […]
Move it!
Originally published in June 2010 in Blog
On some mornings, I get up thinking about Twyla Tharp (left), the American choreographer. And I’m not even a dancer, I’m a writer. I don’t know Twyla, but I do know that she moves like Fred Astaire (leading, not following) and once directed a line of classical ballerinas to sing en pointe. Years of studying the […]
Anne is back!
Originally published in June 2010 in Blog
A happy follow-up to my post Best Before Dates, written three months ago. Broadcast journalist, Anne Mroczkowski (left), fired last February as co-anchor of Toronto’s CityNews at Six on City TV, is back on air tonight. The rumours on Twitter were true. Global wooed and won her as the new co-host (with Leslie Roberts) of […]
Paris notebook
Originally published in April 2010 in Blog
When I lived in Paris, predatory businessmen searching for a cinq à sept used to chase me past apartment buildings like this. After a while, I stopped worrying about what was behind me and started thinking about what was beyond the balconies in the flats above. I imagined rooms dressed in faded cream and mint […]
Je ne suis pas flattée
Originally published in March 2010 in Blog
When French poet Jean Cocteau told Coco Chanel “you think like a man,” mad, she countered by grabbing a silk ribbon and tying it around her head (bow forward). “Chanel may have believed she was equal to any man,” writes Janet Wallach, “but she never confused the two sexes. Parity was important, but femininity was […]
Best before dates
Originally published in March 2010 in Blog
Anne Mroczkowski has thought about it, but gender is one rabbit hole she doesn’t want to go down, at least not in public. Last month, the award-winning journalist and co-host of Toronto’s CityNews at Six on City TV was fired. She was one of about 35 staffers handed their walking papers and one of seven […]
