Angel >>Jean-Paul Riopelle The eccentric Montreal-born, internationally renowned painter died on Tuesday, age 78. Perhaps the most famous of all Canadian artists, Riopelle spent about half his life in France, where he became a member of the celebrated cultural elite, before returning to Canada in 1989. Chummy with Giacometti, Chagall and Samuel Beckett, Riopelle was especially active among the surrealist automatiste movement of the 1950s and ’60s, which believed art should be a subconscious expression of the soul. A larger than life figure who ate, drank and fornicated prodigiously, Riopelle, a Companion of the Order of Canada and a member of the French Légion d’Honneur, retired from painting in 1992.

Insect >> Work On Monday, StatsCan reported that 27 per cent of Canadians above the age of 15—6.6 million of us—are workaholics. These unusual creatures, from all income levels (23 per cent of people earning under $10,000 consider themselves workaholics), whom the report calls obsessive-compulsive, put their work before their families, before their personal time and before sleep. The report says that while workaholics worry about the effect their habits have on their personal lives, simply cutting down on work won’t be enough to make them normal: achieving balance “involves deep personal introspection and insight.”