Mary Soderstrom's Blog, page 77

What I'm Doing Today: Reading Page Proofs!

The page proofs for my new short story collection, Desire Lines: Stories of Love and Geography have arrived from Oberon Press! 
Very interesting to go over the text after several months away from it.  The pub date for the book itself is Nov. 1.  There will be details about the launch later.

Desire lines, urbanists say, are paths that people take whenthey want to go somewhere. They frequently have no relationto the formal layout of roads and sidewalks. They sometimeslead to new places. They are often maps of the heart. The photo is of such a path, such a "desire line," in the Champs des possibles that got me thinking.

Page Proofs Have Arrived....

Oberon Press just sent me the page proofs for my new short story collection: Desire Lines: Stories of Love and Geography .  So correcting them is the task for today.  Yay!

Sprawl As the Motor of Inequality, Or Did You Ever Try to Get There from Here?

Paul Krugman talks about commuting, public transportation, sprawl and equality today in Stranded by Sprawl .  It reminded me of the time many, many years ago when I was a reporter on a suburban daily newspaper in the East Bay of San Francisco. 

We had a car--a Volkswagen bug that Lee bought with his paper-carrier savings, believe it or not--and I made a daily reverse commute from Berkeley where we lived and he was a graduate student.

Occasionally, though, the stalwart little car needed service, and I had to take public transportation to Walnut Creek where I worked.  Most mornings it took me 14 minutes door to door  in the car, but on the bus, more than an hour with split second timing involved.  Had to leave our house on a certain bus to meet the Greyhound commuter bus on the eastern edge of  Oakland  That bus ran every 45 minutes or so, and missing it meant a very long wait by the side of the road.

I was the only white face on the bus.  Everyone else was African American, going to work as maids, housekeepers or gardeners in toney East Bay suburbs like Orinda. 

Friends tell me that the Bay Area Rapid Transit trains make a commute like that easier now, but I wonder if the racial composition of the reverse commute passengers is any different.

Certainly getting there from here in suburban America (and to some extent Canada) is not easy at all without a car today, and that is not good for social or economic equality.   Krugman writes:  "A new study suggests that (cities) may just be too spread out, so that job opportunities are literally out of reach for people stranded in the wrong neighborhoods. Sprawl may be killing Horatio Alger."

Sataurday Photo: Chicory and Queen Anne's Lace

This morning was a good one for a walk on the wild side--that is in the Champs des possibles, the old city yard which has now become a delightful going-back-to-basics city space.  A couple of years ago it was mowed, but since then it has been let go, aside from some hand-pulling of ragweed. 
 On our walk today, it was clear that another attack on the nasty, allergy-causing weed  is in order, but aside from that, the other "weeds" were lovely.

Chicory is a non-native plant, and considered by some to be invasive.  I like it though, because its cheerful blue flowers look great with just about ever Queen Anne's lace also is an import, but I like it too.  Maybe it helps that I'm also an import! 

No, It's Not a Holiday...

Who says that Grandmas aren't useful.  Jeanne has a fever so she's chez nous today.  As a consequence lots of stories are being read, but not much writing done.

Don't Miss the Lady in Black: The Burka Avenger!

Are you reading for a flying, pen-throwing, book pounding female defender of education in Pakistan?

It seems the world must be because a new series to be broadcast in Pakistan in Urdu is taking to the air waves next month, accompanied by iPhone ap and video game.

It was created by Aaron Haroon Rashid, a Pakistani pop star, "as a way to create a positive role model for girls and a champion of girls’ education." “Each one of our episodes is centered around a moral, which sends out a strong social message to kids,” Rashid told the Associated Press. “But it is cloaked in pure entertainment, laughter, action and adventure.”"

The song's pretty catchy too.

Feeling Insignificant Department: Saturn's Moons and the Earth

The little arrow is pointing to the Earth in this photograph taken from the space probe Cassini from Saturn's neighborhood.  Makes our problems seem pretty inconsequential, in the (very) big picture. 

Open Borders: The View from the US When French Canadians Flooded South

Former US Foreign Service Officer Steven Kelly has an interesting comment on the results of open borders in The New York Times today.  He notes that thousands and thousands of French Canadian cross the border to work in the industry, particularly in New England, throughout the 19th century and well into the 20th.  The result, he says has been a net gain for the US.  He suggests that opening the US up to economic immigrants now would be a good thing.

Francophones  from Quebec weren't the only ones who crossed the border to their benefit and, ultimately,  to that of the welcoming country. 

My paternal grandfather Dave McGowan left Napanee for the West sometime around 1890 for reasons that remain obscure.  He fetched up in Washington State and convinced a number of Canadian and British ex-pats to go back to Canada to enlist in World War I well before the US entered  the fray.

My maternal grandfather took his family from Massachusetts to Sasketchewan about the same time so he could work on the railway in the dry prairie air (which seemed to cure the turbculosis he'd been diagnosed with.)  An anti-Monarchist, he famously got fired from the Canadian Pacific for not uncovering his head and bowing when the train bearing the Governor General of Canada, the King's representative, passed.

Two points of view from men who crossed the continent to end up in the same town in Washington at the end of their lives.  Would they agree about opening up immigration today?  Don't know, but from my vantage point I'm glad the border was so porous.

Further to the Local Food Movement

The New York Times has a nice story about sustainability at McGill and elsewhere. 

More on Gardening in the City, This Time Commercially

[image error] Le Devoir this weekend had several stories about the movement toward urban gardening.  Chief among them was one about Lufa Farms, which has built a commercial rooftop greenhouse.

This is the third year that the firm  has delivered boxes of fresh produce to Montrealers--the 3,000 subscribers can share in the 1000 to 1500 pounds of produce harvested daily.  Lufa Farms is also building another 40,000 square foot rooftop greenhouse in the Montreal area to add to the 30,000 square foot installation that is set in an industrial area.

A great idea!

The photos are of what the current farm looked like last winter, and inside a greenhouse in full tomato season.