Month: March 2026

On Tracey Emin and David Hockney, in London

I was fortunate to be in London  last week when two great artists were having shows there.

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The larger of the two was the Tracey Emin exhibit at the Tate Modern. While I was happy to be finally able to see “My Bed”, there was so much more to the show I thought was great, from her fabric work, to her sculpture, to the many bold paintings on display. I was especially struck by the film she made, ‘Why I Never Became a Dancer’. I find most films by artists uninteresting, but hers was not. I highly recommend the show, not only because of the Emin work but also for an extensive exhibit of Nigerian artists on display.

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The smaller one was Hockney’s at the Serpentine gallery. Here is a review of the Hockney show and while I disagree with it, it’s a good summary of the show.  I think Hockney continues to be ahead of his time, and I admire his efforts to adopt new ways to make pictures.

For more on Emin’s show at the Tate, go here. Also check out this review: unlike the dismissive Hockney show, it’s better.

If you want to read more about Tracey Emin, you can go here.

For more on Hockney’s show, see this.

 

Restaurants loved and living: St. JOHN and Brutto

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It was a delight to be able to go back to London last week and eat at two of my favorite restaurants: St. JOHN and Brutto.

St. JOHN has been around since 1994, and since first reading about it, I knew that some year I would dine there. Brutto has only been around since 2021, but it also sounded perfect to me. In 2022, I was blessed to dine at both in one week.

They make an odd pair. Unlike St. John’s signature nose‑to‑tail menu of English cookery, Brutto features Florentine style cuisine. The decor differs significantly as well, with one being a minimalist dream of white and black and the other being a maximalist trattoria. Those differences aside, they’re similar in both having Michelin awards, both being in Smithfield,  and both having great food, great ambience, and great service.

St. JOHN can make people nervous with some of the offal dishes they serve, but on their menu lurk dishes that are somewhat more traditional, even for fish and chip fans. Likewise there is a wonderful green salad (with something of a horseradish kick) and the warm madeleines at the end are worth the wait, especially with a glass of dessert wine.

Brutto’s menu is more familiar for most people and the difficulty there is settling on a choice. I recommend the fried dough balls to start and the tagliatelle with meat sauce to follow: both are so good. I can’t recommend just one dessert: you’ll have to try several. Should you start off with a small negroni for 5 pounds? I’d say yes.

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There’s some restaurants that you can dine at once and be done with them. There are a few restaurants that as soon as you dine there, you dream about when you can dine there again. For me, Brutto and St. JOHN are a part of that set of few restaurants to dream on.

 

Move slow and fix things

You may have heard the phrase: move fast and break things. It is a philosophy that many businesses adopt to succeed through disruption.

An alternative philosophy would be: move slow and fix things. If such a philosophy sounds appealing, then so should this article in The Guardian on its favorite Japanese repair kits for ceramics, clothes and more. In learning about these kits you’ll also discover kintsugi (gold‑joined pottery), sashiko (invisible stitching), boro (waste‑fabric repair), and kumiko (wood inlay). Not only will you learn new skills by using such kits, but perhaps you’ll adopt a different way of life.

P.S. On the topic of repair, I’d like to also recommend a new book by Stewart Brand, “Maintenance of Everything: Part One“

The Depanneur in Toronto…a food lover’s delight

As a longtime fan of Sanagan’s Meat Locker, I was excited to discover Peter Sanagan (the owner) was offering a class on how to make sausages from scratch. I signed up right away.

Not only did I have a good time making sausage, but I discovered something new: The Depanneur (thedepanneur.ca). Beyond hosting cooking classes like Peter’s, they host supper clubs, private events, and  more.  If you love food and are in Toronto—or planning to visit—sign up for a cooking class; act quickly, as spots sell out fast. The Depanneur also offers a helpful newsletter—subscribe at the website for updates and avoid missing out on events.

Toronto: sometimes good, sometimes bad

A lotof good events have happened in Toronto since my last newsletter in September. Some bad, too.

First up, the biggest of good events: It. has. finally. happened. Finally. After more than a decade of delays, the Eglinton Crosstown LRT launched in February! I honestly wondered if it would ever open. People didn’t know what to believe about possible opening dates. But it happened. After 15 years of disruption on Eglinton, it happened.

Should there be an investigation into this construction fiasco, given it only took 6 years to build the Chunnel and 40 months to build the CN Tower? I think so, though it’s doubtful. I don’t even think residents will get an apology. People like Doug Ford and others will just shrug and move on or say we should be grateful, I guess. As someone who had to live with this mess for all of that time, I am feeling disgruntled and I expect to stay that way for awhile.

In other transit events, this was good: the Gardiner Expressway reopens over a year ahead of schedule. Yay! Not sure if it is good or bad but the Dundas subway station just changed its name. However I noticed that Dundas West still is…Dundas West. Perhaps that will change some time in the next 15 years.

In non-transit events, the other big bad thing that happened since my last newsletter was the Toronto Blue Jays’ heartbreaking loss of the World Series to the LA Dodgers. Hey, I am glad for Los Angeles: that city has suffered much recently and could use the win. But I would have been delighted if we had won it. I got to go to the Skydome and see the Jays win the last two World Series: I would have loved to see them win again, even if — like everyone else in Toronto — I was watching it on TV.

For more on that plus other good things that happened in 2025, go here.

Another bad thing that happened in the last while was eight current and former Toronto police officers bein charged in the Project South probe as part of an organized crime bust. You know things are bad when it gets worldwide attention in newspapers like The Guardian.

Homelessness is not a new thing in Toronto. There’s never enough resources, it seems. To see what I mean, you can check here and see: Daily Shelter & Overnight Service Occupancy & Capacity – City of Toronto Open Data Portal over at open.toronto.ca. However, one good thing that happened was the Slaight family donated $25M to fight Toronto homelessness.

The Ford government recently privatized the blue box recycling program in Toronto. It was bad at first, with many complaining about the botched roll out of it. Even on my street things were not picked up for a time. It seems to have sorted itself out though.

Speaking of the Ford government, it seem they will not be  proceeding with changes to rent control laws. That’s likely a good event for tenants. In terms of other events, Mayor Chow and the city unanimously  passed their recent budget. John Tory toyed with the idea, but it looks like he will not be running for mayor in the next election. But maybe another member of the Ford family will? Who can say.

I can say that these are all good: Toronto’s best diners: 5 local icons picked by Toronto Star readers. Also good? This piece on five of Toronto’s oldest restaurants. New restaurants are talked about all the time. It’s good to see the older establishments get more recognition.

Finally, I must say, it’s been a winter. I am looking forward to spring. But before I go, here are some good Toronto links I want to share:

See you ’round six months from now. In the meantime, go see the Cumberland Terrace while you still can.

Be aware and avoid URLs that start with https://storage.googleapis.com/

No matter what I search on these days, be it software or salad, I will see websites that start with the following: https://storage.googleapis.com/

In my case, it happens when I ask to see just the images of my search results. The images look appropriate, but when I click on the link, it will take me to some site which has nothing to do with the search or the image. Who knows what else is happening when you go there.

Based on this, it looks like it is not a new problem. You might think Google would want to clear it up, but apparently not.

So keep an eye out for that URL in your search results, and make sure you do not click on it no matter what.

On the iron triangle of project management


Everyone who works should be aware of the iron triangle of project management. In essence, it says:

  1. The quality of work is constrained by the project’s budget, deadlines and scope (features).
  2. The project manager can trade between constraints.
  3. Changes in one constraint necessitate changes in others to compensate or quality will suffer.

Another way of looking at it is with this formula:

  • Quality = (Time X Resources) / Scope

If the scope increases without increasing either the time it takes to get done or the resources to get it done, then quality will decrease.

I think about the iron triangle a lot as a consultant. Clients often want to fix the values for time and resources while increasing the scope and not decreasing the quality. Sometimes consultants will want to increase the time and resources on a project without increasing scope in order to provide higher quality. It’s a balancing act, keeping all four measures aligned such that everyone is happy.

Anyone who provides a product or service to a client or customer should be aware of the iron triangle. Work makes more sense once you are aware of it.

 

There are greater inventions than the Internet or AI

What is the greatest invention since the 19th century? If you’re someone like Om Malik, you might say the Internet. Others might say the personal computer, or computers. AI might be the choice of others.

While these are all great inventions, I’d nominate two others: medical technology and farm machinery.

 

Medical tech like vaccines and blood transfusions alone have saved billions of lives since they were created. And that’s two out of the many medical inventions that have increased our life expectancy according to this. It’s why we now can expect to live to be 80 as opposed to 40.

If that technology allows us to live longer, farm machinery enables us to do more than work the land in order to survive. Tech like tractors and the McCormick Reaper make it possible to harvest more food than ever before with much less effort. Other inventions like fertilizer enable us to get much more out of our harvests.

The Internet and other IT are grand inventions that help us in many ways. But I don’t think any IT can hold a candle to the benefits brought to us by medical and farm technology.

P.S. For more on farm technology, go here.