A Reading Recommendation

For those appalled by Russia's rampant homophobia (and I hope that's everyone, Real Women notwithstanding), The Star's Judith Timson has a column in today's paper well-worth reading.

By the way, speaking of Real Women, The Star's David Macfarlane has two choice words for them.

Appreciation of Small Pleasures

In this life, filled as it is with so many vicissitudes, I firmly believe that we have to enjoy small pockets of pleasure that come our way, whether it is a sumny day, a walk in nature, a good book or, in this case, the return of David MacFarlane to the newspaper. MacFarlane, a gifted writer, once had a regular column in Canada's self-proclaimed 'newspaper of record', but like countless other incomprehensible management decisions of the Globe's past decade, was terminated several years ago, a fate he shared with the likes of Heather Mallick and Rick Salutin, both of whom now have permanent places with The Toronto Star.

It is also where you will find MacFarlane's new weekly column, debuting in today's edition. Although he is ostensibly writing on the arts, if this is your first exposure to him, after reading today's piece, you will realize that he is writing about much much more, something I always appreciated in his past work.

Witty and gifted, MacFarlane's writing is not a bad way at all to start off your Thursdays from now on.

Rick Salutin's Demise

The phone rang this morning about 8 o'clock as we were skimming the new and 'improved' Globe and Mail, filled with pretty colour pictures printed on glossy, magazine type paper in some sections. My wife noticed immediately that the physical size of the paper was smaller (explained in the Globe as a way of making it easier to handle for the reader), but it wasn't until the phone call that we realized the changes were much more than physical.

It was our daughter calling to inform us that she had been listening to C.B.C.'s Metro Morning and learned that Rick Salutin has been fired from the Globe, with no reason given. While I might not always have agreed with Salutin's points, (indeed, there were some columns where I wasn't really clear on what his point was) I always looked forward to reading the thoughts of a man who interpreted events in a way few others did, putting forth a point of view that usually hadn't occurred to me at all. The only other Globe writer whose work I had savoured as much was David Macfarlane, who for a number of years wrote a column entitled Cheap Seats before being reassigned to one concentrating on Toronto. He inexplicably met the same fate as Salutin.

So the pace of journalistic decline continues at The Globe and Mail. I suggested to my wife that we give the paper one more week, but without a reversal of the Salutin decision, I believe we will be cancelling our subscription to the paper after having received it for an untold number of years.