It is novel, in a way, to walk down a wide, clean, intact sidewalk, and to hear city noises other than the cacophony of honking horns. Toronto, compared to Cairo, is so easy. The meat and fish at St. Lawrence Market look delectable (as opposed to suspect), the cars stop and go according to the […]
It is not terribly cold in Canada right now — locals call the 40-ish temps in Toronto positively balmy — but we are nonetheless glad that our hosts have loaned us warm, winter coats. Yesterday, we visited the wonderful Ontario Science Center. One of the first interesting items there was the set of lockers […]
On the first full day in North America, we were up by 3 a.m. Even with a good hotel breakfast at 6:30, this got us out and about way too early for almost everything. But in Toronto in wintertime, the free skating rink at the Nathan Phillips plaza by City Hall is open 24 hours! […]
I just hate it. You have to depart the house at 12:15 a.m. to be at the airport by 1:15, two and one-half hours early for the 3:45 a.m. flight to Frankfurt.
We leave in three hours. In the mean time, here’s something to marvel over: Over the past 72 hours, Evie has attended […]
As Sarah learned when we went shopping at Target last summer, I enjoy checking the “Country of Origin” labels on the back of garments and shoes for sale. Why? Because it is so interesting. As someone who, as a rule, doesn’t mind purchasing goods made in the developing world (in fact, I am all for […]
I have finished my spreadsheet, and I think Microsoft Excel is awful. Yes, I suppose the program can be useful if you need to add columns of numbers together or perform other calculations. But my table doesn’t involve that — I am merely trying to set forth a comparison of various international indexes or […]
I hadn’t checked out one of my favorite local blogs lately — Freedom for Egyptians – but now that I have, I recommend it. Lots to read about in Freedom’s latest entries, from the choice of Miss Egypt as a runner-up in the Miss Earth pageant; to the triumphant, refreshingly progressive Cairo International Film […]
I love it when my friends are in the news. This, from today’s WSJ:
In a paper that began circulating in recent days, a Securities and Exchange Commission economist concludes there is strong statistical evidence that executives manipulated the exercise dates of their options as part of a tax dodge. And a review of corporate […]
On any number of occasions, I have reported here on the endless supply of soldiers who are part of our neighborhood security detail. Recently, like the local community of cats, they seem to be proliferating. As more and more of them cram onto street corners, they spill out into intersections and prove to be a […]
The day before Thanksgiving, we were horrified to hear of the death of one of our favorite Cairo personalities: the Fantastic Happy Dinner Man. Very good meat, delivered to your freezer, and always solemnly presented first to your nose so that you may sniff it for freshness. (The very opposite of a certain […]