Medical miracles...

I was interested in this news item about this woman who regained mobility after being paralyzed for twenty years.

I wish Christopher Reeve was around to see it.

Sights and sounds of the city...

I saw President Bush today.

Well, I didn't exactly see him, I saw his car. He was in it, going by the window of my office, about ten feet from my nose. His was one of several dozen huge impressive-looking black cars, all with equally huge impressive police escorts. The traffic through the whole area was being rerouted and, in fact, this was all being set up ten minutes earlier as I came back from the bank. If I'd timed it a few minutes later, I don't imagine I could have come back from the bank - not without waiting for the President and his party to go wherever they were going.

I wonder how many people actually were demonstrating and protesting? Traffic all over downtown was a mess, but the transitway was a breeze. I went by bus to South Keys from the University of Ottawa in record time.

Just as well that controversial heads of state don't visit more often.

Melancholy Baby...

I finished reading the new Robert B Parker novel, Melancholy Baby. It isn't a Spenser story, it's about his female private eye, Sunny Randall. I tend to think that Sunny is simply a female version of Spenser - they're very alike, except that Sunny's love is for art not poetry, and her dog is a pit bull named Rosie. In this story, Sunny is hired by a young woman who believes her parents are not really her parents, and she wants to find out how this could be.

I've heard Parker fans say they don't like the Sunny Randall books nearly as much as the Spenser novels, and though I don't like Sunny quite as much as I like Spenser because she isn't as witty and doesn't quote poetry. I like the books just fine.

But I noticed two things this time. ( Spoilers follow. )

Finding Neverland...

I went to see Finding Neverland tonight with Pat, Sandi, Beulah and Lyn.

I loved it. There were no surprises, even though I don't recall deatils from the biography of Barrie that I once read. It was a delightful tear-jerker. It was just as it should be, except the costumes and sets were better than I dared hope. Freddy Highmore did some marvellous acting as young Peter Llewellyn-Davies, I thought Radha Mitchell (as Barrie's wife) was far more attractive than Kate Winslet.

And my goodness Johnny Depp is a beautiful man.