Last year, I bought my father a polo shirt from Brooks Brothers for his birthday and the store has subsequently been sending me gorgeous catalogues, invites and even a handwritten letter from the sales staff that sold me me the shirt.
With service this good, I’ve decided that prep-essentials are best purchased from Brooks Brothers. This comes at a good time because I’m getting too old for Abercrombie & Fitch and their CEO recently came out and said he doesn’t like fat kids. Will Karl Lagerfeld please insult this guy?
Upon perusing the Brooks Brothers website, I found the most adorable manuals for “ladies”. I think these make for great gifts in a world that sees more Paris Hiltons than Audrey Hepburns. Plus, they look great wrapped up with a cardigan.
What do you think of them? Old-fashioned sexism or just plain cute? Scroll to the end for a hilariously inappropriate video from Little Britain on the delicate subject of ladies.
I spy with my little eyes — a book for the winning!
A big thank you goes to out to Penguin Canada who sent me a copy of A Tale for a Time Being by Ruth Ozeki to give away. I don’t do a lot of giveaways because I don’t like to share.
Just kidding. The truth is I don’t want to give away a book unless I love it. And I do love this one.
Ozeki’s writing isn’t just fantastic but unbelievably quirky. After spending a month in Asia, I loved how she melds both Japanese and North American landscapes so beautifully. See my full review.
Enter to win below. Canadian residents only. Enter by May 22, 2012,12AM EST.
I had the great pleasure of visiting my friend Tina in Montreal. Tina and I have been friends since university and she moved to Montreal last year to work a tres sexy job in the clean energy sector.
Day 1: I get into Montreal after a ridiculously long bus ride from Toronto. Tina takes me to the gorgeous Hotel Nelligan rooftop patio where we dreamt about living in one of these fancy condos in Old Montreal:
Old Montreal
Day 2: Tina uses her magic powers to get us seats at L’Avenue brunch where they bring us real maple syrup in a can. Why does Quebec eat real maple syrup while the rest of Canada eats Aunt Jemima? I’d take the real stuff any day.
Tina’s brunch at L’Avenue + maple syrup in a can
We spent the after going through super dusty thrift stores on St. Denis. Oh and they never taught us the French word for thrift stores in fourth grade. It’s “les fripperies”. Someone should teach a “Hipster French” class complete with mime workshops.
Unfortunately, les fripperies leads to les allergies so we took an obligatory caffeine break at Flocon Espresso. It smelled SO good here that I wished my room could smell like coffee every day. Maybe I can spray my boyfriend in coffee scented cologne.
Tina enjoys fine dining but when I mentioned that I just really, really, really want to go to St. Hubert’s, she had to oblige. St. Hubert’s makes Swiss Chalet look like garbage. All the classiest people drink cocktails at chain chicken restaurants, I swear:
Day 3: We go to the Biodome to watch penguins only to discover that they were more interested in watching us.
We also went up to Montreal Tower which is scarily built on a slant and seemingly held up with wires. Here’s Montreal Tower:
Montreal Biodome & Tower.
Here’s us going up the tower:
Scary ride up Montreal Tower
We also watched the craziest show in the newly built Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium. They spent $48 million dollars building this thing! Part one of the show is very artistic while part two is more educational. Unfortunately, lots of people slept through part two. One man was heard snoring while his son was curled up napping.
Here’s how part one starts:
Beginning of Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium Show
After that, you are hurled into asteroids while travelling faster than the speed of light. The best part is that you get watch lying down on giant beanbag chairs.
Day 4: Horrible Greyhound trip back to Toronto.
An overall beautiful weekend in Montreal. Conclusion: Farah should visit Tina more often and every Broken Penguin blog post should feature penguin videos.
Once upon a time, I read Tailor, Tinker, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre and hated it.
It’s his most famous novel but I just didn’t dig it. Too barren, too cold, too confusing. So I let his other novel The Secret Pilgrim gather dust on my shelf.
I’m glad I returned to le Carre because I loved The Secret Pilgrim. The Cold War has ended and a spy named Ned narrates what becomes of the British spy service. The Secret Pilgrim is actually a series of short stories about the agents that have fallen over the years — either turned traitor, had their cover blown or just plain gone missing.
Confession: I finally read this because I became hopelessly addicted to watching Homeland. This article sums up what it’s like to be a fan of this show. It’s a tad obsessive but it makes you want to read and watch anything and everything about spies. But I assure you, The Secret Pilgrim is not just about spies.
Loyalty is a fickle sport and you get to witness the mental anguish behind betrayal. We’re reminded that when it comes to war (and love, for that matter), there is no real clear divide between the good guys and the bad ones. And when you’re constantly caught between the two, it’s entirely possible to find yourself fighting on the losing side.
Le Carre also makes a political statement at the end of the book. I don’t want to give too much away but it’s a statement that’s very relevant today despite being written in 1990. Different war, same problems.
What’s the best spy novel you’ve read? And how anxious are you getting for the next season of Homeland?
