quality of life in any place in the world is a function of one?s immediate surroundings and acquaintances. We had the good luck of finding the Glebe eminently compatible in both senses from the very beginning. We were neighbours to the poet George Johnston who had at that time, while he was on sabbatical, a Quaker Co-op resident in his house. Across the road was a Buddhist Co-op which later became a women?s co-op. Further down the block lived a husky football player who distinguished himself and our block one night in the mid eighties by noisily beating the living daylights out of a thief who was trying to break into his house at three in the morning. Nearby lived Mitchell Sharp, the Minister for External Affairs, as well as Flora MacDonald, a leading Member of the Opposition Conservatives, the owner of the satirical "Frank Magazine", and the ambassador of ill fated El Salvador, a Baptist minister, a renowned ballerina, some teachers and some architects. Our house we bought from the writer economist Scott Gordon just about the time that he was winning a philosophical battle against James Coyne, the Governor of the Bank of Canada over how Canada?s finances should be run. Our neighbour on the other side was Charlotte McEwen whose well publicised support for the Palestinian cause made us wonder whether our house might not get blown up by Mossad. She in turn was watched by the RCMP from a house across the street. Such was and