The Society of Others by William Nicholson.

The biggest problem with this book is I don't know how it ended. I read it, but I didn't understand at all what was supposed to have happened at the end.

The other problem is that I somehow got the impression from the jacket blurb that the protagonist was psychotic. It never said he was psychotic, but for some reason I got that idea in my head. So I was reading through thinking "This author is very clever, making a psychotic seem so rational and sympathetic," until I finally realized that he isn't psychotic at all. So I probably should reread it without thinking the guy is psychotic.

So to the plot: a 22-ish-year-old British guy keeps being nagged by his family to do something grand and adventurous with his life, so he spontaneously decides to take a trip, which he does by hitchhiking on a truck, which takes him to some unnamed unknown Eastern European country.

Then things get Kafka-esque. This is some kind of totalitarian military state, and they're after him and he doesn't know why, and he's helping the resistance and he doesn't know why, and the plot mostly but not entirely makes sense until it reaches a grand, violent ending that I still don't understand while the protagonist reaches a heavy-handed, preachy revelation of what an ungrateful little brat he's been and all those other things elders tell youth when the youth aren't spending every single moment of their lives lavishly thanking the elders for giving them access to such obscene luxuries as indoor plumbing.

I'm rather disappointed, because this book could have been so much better. If we'd had an explanation of who and where and why and the revelation wasn't nearly so heavy-handed or something, then I would have enjoyed it. But as it is, it didn't work for me. It's possible that the whole book is intended to be a metaphor, but if so it's way over my head.

Open letter to Bell Canada

Dear Bell,

The fact that your call centre is open only 8-5 Monday to Friday is far worse customer service than I would expect from such a major corporation. Those office hours are such that many people with full-time jobs will be unable to contact your call centre from home at all, as they'll be at work or commuting during all your office hours. This is particularly problematic if they require technical support for internet or satelite services, in which case they have no choice but to call when they're in front of the computer. Furthermore, some people are not able to make any phone calls from work at all due to the nature of their jobs, so they may have no possible way of reaching you by phone, at all, ever.

While being open 44 hours a week is certainly acceptable for small businesses and many professional services, the standard in North America in the 21st century is that major businesses and utilities are open longer, preferably 24/7. I can reach my banks and credit card companies 24/7, I can reach my TV and cell phone services 24/7, I can reach a representative of my property management company 24/7, I can buy groceries or drug store products 24/7. Phone and internet services are just as important, so your users expect to be able to reach you 24/7.

While I'm not the type to go around switching services at the drop of the hat, your very limited call centre availability has certainly reduced my loyalty to Bell and Sympatico. It is now no longer a given that I will get my landline from Bell when I next move. And if my phone and/or internet gets disconnected because I can't pay my bill because I don't know how much it costs or when it's due because I can't access it online because I don't know the account number because the account number is printed on the bill which I can't access, I will be seeking out another service provider rather than attempting to get my Bell and Sympatico services reconnected.

Brilliant Ideas That Will Never Work: Sabbaticals for all!

I read an article recently that said that for the economy to survive the coming decades, people are going to have to work longer, perhaps doing away with retirement entirely.

I'm not sure whether I believe that or not, but if it is necessary, I have a simple solution:

Let everyone take sabbaticals.

Professors can do it. They get six months or a year off every X years, and they can use the time to travel or research or veg or whatever.

I don't know if sabbaticals are usually paid or unpaid. If they're usually unpaid, then they'd be self-funded, maybe with a little something to help lower-income people, but the workers could still keep their employer benefits. If they're paid, their funded however universities do it.

Simply make it a universal employment standard that workers get X months of sabbatical every Y years. Then they can use the time to write or travel or study or renovate or whatever. If I have to spend 80 years in the workforce, the idea of getting regular sabbaticals makes it much more palatable.

Nobilo Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc

Rather zestier than most sauvignon blancs. This would be really effective in the summer, when you're drinking it chilled for refreshment purposes, but it's less effective in October. It's not actually bad or anything, it would just be better appreciated in a hot, sticky, oppressive day that makes the glass sweat, and I'm glad it's not that kind of weather any more

Things I Don't Understand

1. There have been a couple of recently-publicized incidents of hazing, one in an OHL team and the other at McGill University. In both cases, measures were taken to punish the wrongdoers and prevent future hazing. In both cases, people complained about the fact that measures were taken to stop hazing. WTF? I seriously cannot wrap my mind around that. Even if someone personally does not think hazing is a big deal, I cannot fathom why they would go to all the trouble to write a letter opposing stopping hazing. Why would someone want so badly to make random other people undergo abuse and humiliation that they would speak out in protest if the abuse and humiliation was stopped?

2. The grocery store was selling Hallowe'en-themed cakes. One of the cakes was decorated with rubber spiders. WTF? I know not everyone is an arachnophobic like me, but is there anyone for whom that sort of decoration would actually improve their cake-eating experience? I'm sure even people who think those . . . THINGS are cool would prefer not to have them on their cake.

Pop, Six, Squish, Uhuh, Cicero, Lipschitz

Cell Block Tango from Chicago is a damn good earworm. Unfortunately, since it's about murder, it isn't always appropriate for singing while you work.

Family and Friends

I read an article about allegations of nepotism in City Hall, and it mentioned in passing the possibility of a blanket rule against hiring family or friends.

Now, family is reasonable. You can define family. You can write a list of family relationships, tag on "or anyone residing in the same household," and someone either is a family member or isn't.

But "friends" is a more nebulous concept. I know who my friends are, I could provide the conflict of interest office with a list of every friend I had if they wanted, but part of conflict of interest is perceived conflicts of interest, and different people have different definition of "friend". Therefore, it is quite possible for some member of the general public to perceive a conflict of interest because their definition of "friend" is different from mine. For example, I don't consider most of my acquaintances to be my friends. Classmates, co-workers, neighbours, people who lived in my res. in university, people I know in online communities - these people aren't my friends. Some of my friends fall into these categories, yes, but not everyone in these categories is my friend.

In most cases, I could avoid a perceived conflict of interest involving these people, but I couldn't necessarily do so in every case. For example, I would refuse to translate a text that could harm or benefit someone I went to high school with, even if I've never spoken with that person in my life. But what if that person went to the same high school as me at the same time, but I never knew them and didn't recognize their name? It's certainly a perceived conflict of interest, but I'd have no way of knowing that. I'm not involved in hiring in my job, but if I were I would ask to recuse myself if one of the candidates was someone with whom I'm acquainted. But what if it's like the sister of my roommate from res, or someone whom I unknowingly was in a class with? What if I couldn't recuse myself from the hiring process because there's no one else to do it?

The other problem with perceived conflicts of interest is that it might be perceived as a conflict of interest if a candidate is a friend of a current employee, even if that employee is not involved in hiring, and even if the alleged friend is only an acquaintance. This could be a real problem in small professions. When there are fewer than 100 graduates in your field nationwide each year, it's quite likely that one of the employees went to school with one of the candidates, even if they didn't know each other too well.

I'm all for measures to eliminate bias in hiring, but they have to be careful not to go to far and punish people whose paths happen to cross with someone they've met in the past.

Helpful household hints learned through sheer laziness

The instructions on the Zero bottle say to use cold water and soak for like 15 minutes. However, if you use warm water and soak for a couple of hours because you don't feel like attending to your laundry, your delicates will come out noticeably cleaner.

Felix Solis Los Molinos Gran Reserva

This is quite smooth for a red. I don't know if it's typical of the varietal or if it's the longer aging process (it's 8 years old, which is older than $15 wines usually are), but it is smoother than I expected. The label mentions "silky tannins", and the tannins are, in fact, silky. However, it is quite complex if you swish it around your mouth looking for complexities. I think this is one of those wines that would change depending on the food you paired it with.

Even though they're the comics, basic logic still applies.

Dear Mike from For Better or For Worse,

There is a HUGE flaw in your hare-brained scheme to buy the house you live in:

You are currently living in the biggest apartment in the house.

Your children are currently sharing a room.

Your children are one boy and one girl.

Your children are soon going to need separate bedrooms, thus requiring you to get a new place to live, thus eliminating any possibility of your making a profit off this stupid investment.

Why on earth would Lynn Johnston present a character who's supposed to be sympathetic as so DUMB?

Things that don't make sense

My bathroom smells like cigars.

I don't smoke.

Mi cielito doesn't smoke.

No one who smokes has ever used my bathroom.

There has never been a tobacco product in my apartment the entire time I've been here.

An idea, free for the taking

If you happen to be female, and you ever find yourself in a situation where someone who happens to be male calls you any intending-to-be-derogratory name based on the physical attributes of being female, the correct response is "Oh, sorry, I didn't realize you were gay!" This must be delivered in whatever tone of voice you would use if you had honestly mistaken someone's sexual orientation and are honestly sorry about it. The logic here is that a straight man would be stupid to use a reference to female genitalia as an insult, but the kind of straight man who would do so is more likely to take offence at the suggestion that he might be gay. And if he does turn out to be gay, hey, no harm done.

I'm PROROW (or: IMBY!)

I support the boycott of businesses that oppose the St. Clair streetcar.

I have been a big fan of rapid transit ever since I was first exposed to it. As a child, I was greatly impressed by the hop-on-hop-off ease and convenience of the London Underground, and wished my own home and all my potential destinations were served by a subway. It seemed to me the ultimate freedom, even more so than a car. As an adult, I deliberately arranged my life in this way, so that the vast majority of my travels would, in fact, be by subway. As such, I greatly support building rapid transit anywhere and everywhere, as my vision of the ideal Toronto is like a super-efficient city in the original Simcity: you can get anywhere by train alone.

I have never lived or worked on Spadina, but I have had to visit there a few times for various reasons, and each time I was highly impressed by the streetcar service. Because of the quality service provided on Spadina's dedicated right-of-way, a trip down Spadina is no more of an expedition than a subway trip. Generally, if I need to do an errand, I think first "How can I do this in my immediate neighbourhood?" and then "How can I do this using only the subway?" Going down Spadina feels the same as using only the subway. Going down St. Clair does not. I rarely have any reason to go down St. Clair, but I know that if the street had a dedicated streetcar right-of-way, I would consider a trip along St. Clair to be no more difficult than a subway trip. I might even use the St. Clair streetcar to cross over from the Yonge line to the Spadina line when my intention is to go back north. (I currently find crossing over via the Bloor line takes up no more time than crossing over by bus, so I tend to ride down to Bloor since I can read on a train but not on a bus.)

If St. Clair doesn't want ROW, I would like to humbly suggest that they consider building it at Eglinton. I, personally, would welcome it enthusiastically, although I can only speak for myself. IMBY!

Terra Barossa Eden Valley Pinot Grigio

This is breadier than the other pinot grigios that I've sampled lately, but not unpleasant. The breadiness makes it go well with various foods (I guess like bread goes well with various foods?), which is good to know and keep in mind.

Hogue Pinot Grigio

Very smooth for a pinot grigio - tastes almost like a chardonnay. I quite enjoy it, but I think it might be overwhelmed by some types of food.

Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi

I didn't like this book as much as the original Persepolis. I think this is because the original book dealt more with the socio-political situation in Iran, while this sequel dealt more with the author's personal coming-of-age story. While it is perfectly valid for an autobiographical story to deal with the author's coming of age, it's just not as interesting for me personally. Nothing against the book - it's still perfectly decent - I just happen to prefer the first one.

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

I enjoyed almost all of this mystery novel, right up until the ending. The gloriously interlocking plots were all resolved satisfactorily, but the resolution happened off-screen and the reader was kind of told about it later. I would have preferred to be shown the denouement, not told about it.

There were also two subplots that didn't seem to contribute anything to the rest of the book. They sort of vaguely touched the other plots, but they didn't progress or resolve or add anything.

Despite these problems, the process of reading the book was quite enjoyable. I knew the plots were going to intertwine and I had fun reading along and guessing what would happen next (I guessed some things but not everything, and my correct guesses came along early enough that I felt smart, but late enough that I didn't feel cheated.) I just would have enjoyed seeing more of the resolution rather than being told about it after the fact.

Someone confiscate Lynn Johnston's sledgehammer!

Usually I enjoy For Better or For Worse, but today's plot device just made me gag.

We're supposed to believe that Elly managed to drive away without noticing that she didn't have her sunglasses? Prescription sunglasses are FOR driving! That's why she needs them! She would have noticed the instant she sat down in her car, if not within an hour or two of driving.

If Lynn Johnston seriously cannot come up with a better way to get Elizabeth to meet this police officer guy, she should have at least had Elly mention in passing that it was raining the entire way home or something, to justify her not having noticed the lack of sunglasses. This is like having the metaphorical gun tucked away in a drawer instead of sitting on the mantlepiece.

(Not to mention that they have either John's home email address or Elly's webmail address in their computer, and not to mention that there is only one school in Mtigwaki so they could have just called up the school to talk to Elizabeth. Gah!)

How to stop the violence

This past summer, Toronto had an unprecedented heat wave, and an unprecedented number of shooting deaths.

I think I have the solution.

Provide free air conditioning in all the apartments housing at-risk individuals.

This will serve the dual purpose of soothing hot tempers (it's amazing how much a hot, sticky, sleepless night can put one in a bad temper) and making the thought of hanging around outside (which various authorities peg as part of the problem, although I'm not sure I agree) less tempting.