remembering Linda Lewis

Okay, so the royal baby has gone home. They are a most attractive couple, Kate looked way too good for having just given birth, and the baby looks like a baby. Moving right along.

An article in the "Star" today on the "27 Club" - the stars of the music world who died at the age of 27 - points out that, in a study of almost 3500 significant musical figures of the last century, "the age with the most fatalities was 62." Hmmm. I, for the next few weeks, am 62. Perhaps it's just as well I quit piano.

A sadder story - the loss to leukemia of Linda Lewis, editor first of "Today's Parent" and then of "More." Linda was only 52. I am profoundly grateful to her; both of her magazines were the first to open their doors to my work. She was respectful, straight-forward, generous, and always on time with the cheques, very rare in a magazine editor. I thank you again, Linda, for your kindness at a time when I needed it most, and send my deepest condolences to your family.

Finally - there's an agave

plant in the conservatory at Allen Gardens that is blooming for the first and last time in its 75-year old life, and they've had to make a hole in the the roof to allow it to do so. It will bloom for a few weeks, and then it will die. A woman who went to photograph it said, "Maybe when I'm 75, I'll shoot up and bloom."

I'm with her. 63, suddenly, sounds young.