Footnotes to a Conversation, June 9, 2025
“Don’t let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live.” – Mae Jemison
The Women of the Roman Empire
History far too often focuses on kings and battles, completely overlooking women and the ordinary people going about their daily lives. In contrast, A Rome of One’s Own by Emma Southon steps forwards through Rome’s history, profiling individual women. One is known because of the wonderful epitaph her husband wrote when she died. Another was a Christian martyr, and there’s a grandmother who was the power behind the throne. I particularly enjoyed reading about a businesswoman in Pompeii who owned an elaborate leisure centre with restaurants, pools, and gardens. Southon writes in a surprisingly colloquial style, which fascinated me as a writer. [Emma Southon]
Design & Disability
How do we make a home, a city, a world accessible? Too often the spotlight is on ramps or grips to help people with arthritis open jars. But there is so much more to living full lives. An exhibit at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum showcases an all-purpose hands-free vibrator and a harness that allows deaf and hearing-impaired gig-goers to feel music as vibrations on their chest. There are self-tightening shoes and a bike with a built-in leg brace. And many of the objects have been designed and built by people with disabilities. [The Guardian]
Health Hacks
I walk up and down two flights of stairs in my apartment building and an additional two flights of stairs to the walkway around the Inner Harbour several times a day. I’m delighted to learn that taking the stairs has huge health benefits – and not just the obvious ones. It helps prevent cardiovascular disease, increases lower body strength, and improves balance, but it also positively affects our cognitive abilities, such as problem-solving, memory, and perhaps creative thinking. [BBC]
If climbing stairs strikes you as way too energetic, why not take a few slow, deep breaths? It could help lower your blood pressure. [Harvard Health]
Paris, je t’aime
If you’re a Francophile and/or dreaming about visiting Paris, do take a look at Fabienne Delacroix’s modern-day artworks – old-fashioned, naïve, and ever so romantic. [Fabienne Delacroix]
Footnotes to a Conversation is a weekly Monday feature covering an assortment of topics that I’ve come across in the preceding week – books, art, travel, food, and whatever else strikes my fancy. I also post occasional articles on other dates, including frequent book reviews and travel tales.
If you share my love of nature, check out EcoFriendly West, an online publication encouraging environmental initiatives in Western Canada, and Nature Companion, a free nature app for Canada’s four western provinces.