Footnotes to a Conversation, May 16, 2022
Don’t Hit Me!
Being a pedestrian is scary. Drivers often pay scant attention to people on foot and get impatient if we “slow them down.” I was interested to learn that colourful additions to the pavement reduce traffic accidents involving pedestrians and cyclists by 50%. So let’s get out there and paint the streets red! [My Modern Met]
Welcome to the Neighbourhood
How well do you know your neighbours? I now live in a large, multi-storey apartment building and am delighted that I no longer have a neighbour who wakes me up at 5:30 am, but it’s somewhat disconcerting to no longer know who lives beside me. Author Ayşegül Savaş has assembled a list of 10 books about neighbours. She says, “Neighbours offer a unique vantage point in fiction, because they witness much of life on the surface but may be blind to the depths. The friendship of neighbours is also interesting to me: neighbours must maintain a delicate balance of courtesy for all the living together that lies ahead.” [The Guardian]
Lights, Camera, Action!
Nino Speranza is a vacuum cleaner repairman and self-appointed mayor of a small village in Italy (population 212). He keeps a compendium of all the saints handy on his desk so he knows who to petition no matter what the occasion. But he’s at a loss as to who will hear his prayers when he discovers he has less than 60 days to come up with 70,000 euros to repair the village’s water pipes. So he starts a rumour that a major movie star will be coming to make a movie in their community. The star has been delayed so he’s delegated production to Speranza. All is going well – the butcher has supplied the money (his son isn’t much of an actor, but he sings like an angel), his assistant has supplied the script, and the villagers are eager to act. But what happens when the actor actually decides to get involved? The Patron Saint of Second Chances by Christine Simon is a laugh-out-loud, heart-warming book and I’m thoroughly enjoying it.
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.