Atheists Unplugged
January 31st, 2012 § Leave a Comment
The publisher of The Atheist’s Bible: An illustrious collection of irreverent thoughts should have taken Mark Twain’s advice: When you catch an adjective, kill it. The word illustrious adds nothing to the subtitle. See Ben Yagoda’s When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It: The Parts of Speech, for Better and/or Worse. Actually, the entire subtitle is unnecessary. The Atheist’s Bible—nice and clean.
I was perusing The Atheist’s Bible at Starbucks and a passerby, with a look that he had discovered something sinister, interrupted me. Isn’t that—Atheist’s Bible—an oxymoron? he asked. I nodded yes, remembering the quote, “The total absence of humor from the Bible is one of the most singular things in all literature.”
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Page Fright: Writers do it everywhere
January 28th, 2012 § 1 Comment
I’m left-handed and writing with a pen almost always ends up being a messy affair. In the West, we write left to right, making my left hand drag the ink along and smudge the page. Even with a pencil, my hand tends to cramp as a left-handed person must write inward across the page. I’ve often envied right-handed people who can gracefully write outward across the page like a violinist with his bow extended to caress the sweet high and low notes.
The computer is an equal-opportunity instrument, though I imagine if I researched the origins of the QWERTY keyboard, I’d find it was designed not only for the slowness of mechanical typewriters, but also for the prominent right-handed population. Even though I prefer writing my first draft in longhand, I often start on the computer.
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Life in the fat lane with journalist William Leith
November 11th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Reviewers of The Hungry Years couldn’t quite classify it—memoir, personal diet book, literary journalism, creative non-fiction—and this intrigued me.
What would a sometimes-overweight and well-known British journalist do with the topical issue of fat? William Leith needed a good angle for Hungry Years: confessions of a food addict and he found it in his interview with Dr. Robert Atkins.
Leith, the last person to interview the infamous doctor before his death, went on the Atkins diet as any good fat journalist would do for research. And, to spice things up in the book, Leith also chronicles his fondness for cocaine, painkillers, caffeine, alcohol, as well as his penchant for women who smoke and shop too much. Leith is desperate one moment and funny the next.
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An apple a day—wisdom or myth
October 19th, 2010 § 3 Comments
The green apple on the cover of An Apple a Day caught my eye. But the subtitle caught my breath: The Myths, Misconceptions and Truths about the Foods We Eat. I panicked. I assumed that an apple a day was a good thing. As you can see in the book’s cover photo, there are some startling unhealthy sounding elements in apples.
The author, a scientist named Joe Schwarcz, is the director of the Office of Science and Society at McGill University. He knows his food chemistry. He also knows how to turn a dull technical subject into an entertaining read.
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The morning after the night before
October 4th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
The main thing in life is when you fall, you need to get right up again. Someone who has the incredible endurance to keep on going, is Cathrine Ann. This week, I’ve been reading her memoir, Beautiful Buttons. I couldn’t believe how many times this woman was knocked down—some of her own doing—only to get up again and keep moving. She now operates a multi-million dollar business from Sechelt, BC and has won numerous biz and entrepreneur awards.
Catching a curve ball
September 27th, 2010 § 1 Comment
It’s those curve balls that can get you down. And your weight up. Get you off track. Or in the vernacular of the day, cause you to fall off the wagon.
After wiping out on my bicycle, I’m going to hold back on exercise for a week or two, or until the pain in my neck subsides.
I was cycling along Jericho Beach, one of the city’s most spectacular spots, when a large woolly terrier bounded from the off-leash section of the park, into the pedestrian and cycle path. To avoid the dog, I crunched down hard on my brakes and swerved to the right, hearing myself think, I’m going down. In those split seconds I recalled a passage from Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers about a co-pilot saying to the captain, “We’re going down,” seconds before the fateful airplane crash.
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Sport has never caused anyone to be slim, according to Montignac
September 20th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
La Méthode Montignac, developed by Michel Montignac, is the original glycemic index diet.
Montignac was a French pharmaceutical executive—I won’t hold that against him. While his work came with the luxury of dining out—and he put on the pounds—his work also gave him access to scientific literature. After learning about the newly developed glycemic index, he wondered if it would work for weight loss. He developed a plan and in three months, he lost 30 pounds. Since then, Montignac has authored 20 books on diet and health, achieving international fame—though I never hear of him before.
Montignac was so convinced with his method that he claims people don’t have to exercise. It works that well, he says. He is, of course, criticized for this view, but I’m sure he didn’t mean for us to sit around on our asses. And no one follows a diet 100%, 100% of the time, so exercise is an important adjunct.
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Women writers who whine too much
December 31st, 2009 § Leave a Comment
In Salon.com women writers continue to whine over male writers getting more attention in best lists and awards.
Some have been whining about this for years. Here’s a 1998 article, Are men better writers than women? reviewing the Harper’s piece, Scent of a woman’s ink: are women writers really inferior? The editors who write the titles could do with a little writing face lift.
And here’s a story about a woman writer who had a hard time making it until she wrote with a male alias. Why James Chartrand Wears Women’s Underpants? But, hey a real male writer would never say, “women’s underpants.” Panties. Babes wear panties. Even my 90-year-old mother wears panties.
Murakami’s perfect reader
August 16th, 2008 § 3 Comments
Writers’ body parts don’t usually get media attention. The profile of Haruki Murakami in the Globe & Mail described a man with toned biceps and quadriceps. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, a memoir of Murakami’s running and sitting life. Murakami, a former jazz club owner and successful novelist prone to reclusiveness, took up marathon running to combat the sedentary life of writing. This resonated with me. As a production artist working at a computer for hours, my extra pounds stay on an upward trajectory along with my age.
Steve Martin: Man of many hyphens
June 7th, 2008 § Leave a Comment
Gee, I thought Steve Martin’s memoir Born Standing Up would be funny. What it lacks in humour, though, it makes up in tenderness. Subtitled, A comic’s life, the book focuses on Martin’s life and career as a television comedy writer and stand-up comedian. As the book jacket says, by 1978 Martin was the biggest concert draw in the history of stand-up. Three later, the rock-star comedian quit stand-up.
Martin’s story is a portrait of discipline and hard work, punctuated by long-time difficulties with family relations, particularly with his father. On the comedy-circuit road, Martin was often alone and lonely. He eventually manages reconciliation with family and lovingly describes his last meeting with his 91-year-old mother.
I cried more than I laughed while reading Born Standing Up.
