Fascinating stuff

 Finished Barbara Amiel's memoir, entitled "Friends and Enemies" and was both impressed and surprised.  Impressed because of her crazy life, but surprised by many grammatical mistakes.

Yes, yes, I know.  I do harp on about grammar, but it is important to me.  Years ago, I came across a book in a second-hand bookshop with the irresistible title of "Grammar is Important".  Naturally, I bought it.   Published as a teacher's handbook in 1949, it is a resource that desperately needs to be given mandatory new life.  It is filled with progressive lessons for students, which go from the very basic to the very complex.

Anyhow, back to Amiel's book.  When I lived in Toronto, female journalists like the late Christie Blatchford, Margaret Wente and Amiel were my contemporaries.  They went on to great heights, but I married a guy who wanted to move to Ottawa to start a business and I went along, leaving my illustrious career behind.  Although I did very well, I always wondered what might have befallen me had I stayed in the heady world of journalism in Toronto in the seventies and eighties.  

In her book, many people she mentions I knew, hence I found it fascinating.  I always thought she was a b-tch, but frankly, she was just definite and went after what she wanted -- including rich men.  She had four husbands, but finally stuck with Conrad Black -- prison sentences and all.

Jarring to me were her grammatical errors.  She mixed up "fewer and less" and actually used the word "reoccur", which I always thought was "recur".  And of course, "till" for "until" was everywhere.  As to the 'past perfect'?  MIA most of the time.  Too bad Penguin Random House didn't pick this stuff up.  However, if you want a 600-page page-turner, buy it.

At the end, she actually includes long lists who she considers "friends" and those who are in the "enemy" category.  Friends include Brian and Mila Mulroney and John Turner; enemies listed are Stephen Harper, David Johnston and Beverley McLachlin, among dozens of others.  

All in all, she's quite the broad.