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A star-studded cast: Brian Brennan’s Brief Encounters

Set aside quality time over the holiday to enjoy Brian Brennan’s Brief Encounters with a star-studded cast of 64 entertainers. (Modestly-priced subscription required, see below*. If you’re a subscriber and lack your pass code, please email editor@canadianjournalist.ca) From poignant to charming to hilarious, the columns include Brennan’s interviews with satiric songwriter Nancy White; pop superstars Michael Nesmith and Kenny Rogers; actor Elizabeth Taylor; actor-director John Neville; authors John Mortimer, Leon Uris and Brian Moore; and singers Cleo Laine and Vera Lynn. Here’s a wee taste: “Andy Williams cracked open his fourth bottle of beer and pointed it at my notebook…” “Kenny Rogers was having a musical-identity crisis at age

Money jitters and Janet Yellen’s Federal Reserve

The world’s money people have the jitters ahead of a historic U.S. Federal Reserve decision on American interest rates, expected Wednesday. If rates go up, it would be the first time in more than nine years. Analysts are busy predicting either disaster or a boon. The decision may be the biggest development since the global financial crisis. Days before Wednesday’s decision gold edged up (Nasdaq) then down (WSJ); the Financial Times predicted a raise, and while global stocks rose Asian investors were cautious (BBC). What to make of it all? This story in F&O’s MONEY section may shed some light, by looking at the chairperson of the Federal Reserve. JANET YELLEN: an unorthodox economist: WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Janet Yellen is guiding

Findings: Best of the web

Once, during slow spells in a long-ago night desk job, I started a game to help keep me alert:  I inserted the word “kerfuffle” into as many news stories as were appropriate. It amused me, especially after I inveigled others to play. (Did I mention slow spells?) Today I’m amused to find a science version of this word game. The BMJ, a high-browed, peer-reviewed medical journal, reports on an “exponential” increase in references to BoB Dylan. “In 2014, it was revealed that a group of scientists at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden had been sneaking the lyrics of Bob Dylan into their papers as part of a long-running bet,” said

Democracy scores

Saudi Arabia held rare elections this weekend. For the first time since a ban on their participation was lifted, Saudi women voted — and several were elected to municipal councils.  As the BBC reported, “Elections of any kind are rare in the Saudi kingdom – Saturday was only the third time in history that Saudis had gone to the polls.” Meantime in France, strategic tactics and a late surge in voter turnout dashed the ambitions of the country’s anti-immigration, anti-European Union populist National Front.  “The far-right party in France, the National Front (FN),  failed to win a single region in elections Sunday despite record results in the first

Paris Agreement on climate

Paris Agreement: landmark accord, turn from fossil fuels, By Alister Doyle and Barbara Lewis  The global climate summit in Paris agreed a landmark accord on Saturday, setting the course for a historic transformation of the world’s fossil fuel-driven economy within decades in a bid to arrest global warming. Climate: Paris Agreement at a glance, by The Conversation staff. Report Paris Agreement massive “take-back” scheme, by Myles Allen, University of Oxford. Analysis I wonder how many of the delegates in Paris realise that they have just created the mother of all “take-back schemes”. The Paris emissions cuts aren’t enough — we’ll have to put carbon

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