FROM THE ARCHIVE: Whenever and wherever there is music playing, if you look down, you’ll find people tapping their toes. In rock-and-roll retail stores or jazz-fancy restaurants, people move their feet.

FROM THE ARCHIVE: From the next Harry Potter installment to next year’s Oscar hopefuls, it’s all crammed into the holiday season like a big buffet of turkey and fixings. After that, nothing but leftovers.

Like most of the world, Canada uses the metric system of measurement. But our closest international partners, the United States and, to a degree, Great Britain, use the old imperial system of feet, yards, pounds, etc. It can lead to confusion. Luckily, there is one system of measurement common to all. Wherever cable, satellite, radio, or wireless signals can reach, everyone recognizes the football field system.

I’m standing on the deck of the River Gambler on a seductive summer evening in Toronto, here to observe what is being billed as the first ever Cougar Cruise—a five-hour tour with the ostensible policy reason of matching up “cougars” (older women) with their “prey” (younger men). The Love Boat, it isn’t. The air is thick with Chanel No. 5 as groups of …

At one end of the sprawling temple complex known as Kathmandu Durbar Square there’s an open plaza where merchants spread their handicrafts on the ground. Just before you make it past the last beckoning call, you will pass a final blanket. It belongs to the Rai family.