The right move if he has to go, especially if there is inter-league with the Yankees this year.

On the way out the door of #1's place yesterday, I was handed the entire Patrick O'Brian Jack Aubrey series of novels, as in the film Master and Commander. Am I doomed to late nights now? Will I wear I powdered wig by the time I am done them?

This is news? One of the reason I cannot get excited about iPod - or however you misuse capitalization - is that the quality of the audio is awful.

In the late 80s there was an echo of punk that came to be grunge. Nirvana and Pearl Jam came out of Seattle and the Pixies came out of Boston. Like 70s punk with its intellectual anger, these bands spat loud about the question "why?" or rather "WHY????". Of them all, the Pixies were the most …

Recently I have been thinking about what writing on this place is. Craig has been thinking about it, too, and wonders if there are structural opportunites which could create community. Nick has been thinking about it as well. He has been greatly troubled by unwelcome responses to his posts and …

I am not as opinionated on Buy Nothing Day as Mike. Anyone should protest anything they want to especially to make us think about the faith of consumerism. But I did buy two Tusker ales from Kenya yesterday and was as a result directly supporting third world workers making a quality product. I …

One think I like about the digital camera is the ability to hand it to the kids, turn off the flash and let them go. Click on the photo for the big picture.

“"Nobody gave us a gay and lesbian discount when were paying into the CPP, so we should not have a gay and lesbian discount when they're paying out of the CPP," said Doug Elliott, the lead lawyer for the claimants.”  •  As reported in The Toronto Star, the Ontario Court of Appeal has awarded …

Overnight, this was news on the US radio talk show circuit. Nothing on CBC yet, but there is a story in the Globe and Mail:  •  “If Ottawa does send election monitors to Iraq, it will mark a new participation in efforts to rebuild the country after Canada refused to take part in the U.S.-led …

There is a certain point every fall that I think I really need to sleep for 17 hours. I am thinking that blogging is adding to this. I have watched the Flea go through any number of service attacks of some king or another, been in on a 100 plus comment argument over at Willson's place, helped test …

Too long it has been since the lovely man, Thierry Henry of Arsenal, my Kylie, has graced these pages so I will give him much space:  •  These are troubling times. The man without reason, Sepp Blatter, head of FIFA, actually said that a game could well have rightly ended with a walk off when …

As reported on the beer blog, Canada has proposed a 100% tariff on beer imported from the US. That is all fine and good if we are talking 18 wheelers of Old Milwaukie - which is brewed in Canada by Sleemans now anyway - but it includes my little jaunts to the Galeville Grocery. Fortunately you can …

Watching the news last night about events in Kiev, I was amazed by the stat that there are over 1,000,000 Ukrainian Canadians. I knew that we have the biggest French city outside France, the biggest Icelandic community out of Iceland, pretty massive Italian and Haitian communities for not being …

NYCO has posted some of the best of her summer photos of the part of New York just over the St. Lawrence in a great slideshow like the one I appropriated above of a scene near Boonville. Follow the tiny little arrow to the lower right. Time for Willson to get misty.

NPR's Talk of the Nation had an interesting talk this afternoon on "family values" and for the first time I think I have some inkling of the pro-family-values set's explanation of what they think it is: principles which support the value of families - values that value the valuable. Does not sound …

Who new that Winston Churchill wrote a bad novel about fighting the tyrant when he was in his 20s? Of course, Mike did. And apparently it is now being published 104 years after being written.  •  I sometimes wonder what influence the Winston statue in Halifax had on his interest in Churchill …

“Last week, when two burly men showed up at the home of Madeline Granzie, in Golden Lake, she says they were not wearing police uniforms, but they flashed a badge. They told Granzie to take her dog outside while they talked to Weckwerth. I told them to stay outside until I put my dog out," Granzie …

While Cory and the boys at Boing are going on and on (and on and on) about the reasons why artists and other creators should go without payment, the BBC is apparently doing the right thing for us all and paying our way. I am watching the wonderful Franz Ferdinand video for "This Fire" from a link …

With the Canadian dollar well over 84 cents US, thoughts turn to 1970s drives to Bangor, Maine. The Globe and Mail this weekend even had a column about the return of cross-border shopping on Saturday so its got to be true. I'll be making my bi-monthly hike in early December for some Santa work and …

Down by the waterfront the other day, to the west of the Steam Museum and the east of the Murney Point Martello. The Kingston Yacht Club and its more than a century old club house sits among some of the nicer older homes in town, some of which are rebuilt 1840s warehouses.

I watched the Grey Cup last night and was happy to see the Argos win with style. Odd that BC chose to go with the back-up quarterback, expecially as the other one won the league MVP. Dickenson's choke on two time delays ruining a two-point conversion opportunity followed my a missed kick for one …

My neighbour across the big river, our correspondent and 10th Mountain Division paralegal in Iraq, Brian, has created a photo gallery confirming that the occupation law is perhaps a little less dynamic than the TV shows would let you think. Despite that, it is an example for me of one of the most …

The blog known as "but what about the plastic animals?" has a wonderfully good panorama shot of Manhattan taken from the author's doctor's office looking south. On reflection perhaps it is goodly wonderful. I have been at a loss for words this evening after watching the Haircut 100 reunion show on …

Santa Claus parade in a downpour after dark. The four-year old had enough sense to ask to get out of the rain before the old red soaked stuffed rinsecloth drove by. It is better to listen to Nirvana and Jethro Tull in a car parked in a Canadian Tire parking lot than to stand in the rain. I know …

Those of nations lacking membership of the Commonwealth may find the title strange but the Supreme Court of Canada this week did a good job of reminding us what it is all about - in a ruling arising from the Haida's claim that the government has to include it in land development planning where …

I get a kick as you may have gathered about learning about a whole bunch of aspects of the life and the history of the City. This week I go to to walk around this room late on an autumn afternoon with the yellow sunlight coming in low from the west. These are the original two steam pumps from the …

Hemingway wrote something about bullfighting as the only tragic spectator sport, where those watching know no good will result and that as a result were particpating in something of a morality play. I was listening to a bad talk on stand-up comedians this morning and wondered why there are no …

I have never been exactly clear on what a punter is in UK pub lingo but I think it is a slur on both pub-goers and the Irish as the "punt" is the name/nickname for the Irish pound. I brace for correction. That being what it is, slightly related to my point, only in Canada could the following be …

How do the people involved celebrate achievements like this? And do they sneer at peoples' wrists?

Perhaps for no other reason than the irony, perhaps we could all post the link to Secrecy News, a project of the Federation of American Scientists. In one report this week, we learn of a former US Republican Congresswoman learning about secret regulations while undergoing an airport security check …

Roaming around this morning pre-caffine, I came across this site on the statistics of Iraq war casualties for the coalition forces which is impressive if for no other reason than the incredible effort it must take to maintain. Here is an example, which, if an accurate representation of the …

"Ich heb gestruckt eine groot vall" - H. Van Dumpte.  •  That being the wall where I know I wrote something somewhere in the 1360 odd posts and thousands of innane replies and I have no idea how to find it as my categories and key words are all failing me. You would think that a category called" …

Hunting for some authority for my claims on colonial constitutions, I came across these two photos of 1860s Kingston on the web site for the national Library and Archives of Canada. I am fairly sure I know where each of these are, the one on the right being King Street West a couple of blocks west …

David v. Goliath? Perhaps, less dramatic - a nuisance suit. It seems that Prince Edward Island, North America's tiniest jurisdiction, is pulling out the colonial stops and suing the motherland over the issue of fisheries quota and lines in the water. The Government's press release includes the …

Recalling as I can the days of the federal Tories in the 80s and early 90s and their straight-faced announcements of 30 and 40 billion dollar annual shortfalls in our national budgets, I am never less than right some bejiggerdly slappy-faced at the outcry that the Liberals have been able to …

Michael Demmon, the former Discount Blogger, is back with a new blog, Gay Orbit: Discover your Inner Homo. Interesting to note that, like A Good Beer Blog, it is to be a multi-author blog. Is this a bloggy trend? Are we tired of being the uni-voice, alone in our quest for better and better stats …

I was wondering how I would figure out how to get herself to see the Fantastic Four movie but see that I will in fact be dragged to it now that it is known that Ioan Gruffudd will play Mr. Fantastic, as illustrated in blue. I have all my mid-70s Marvels in the box that has been lugged through …

The low angle of the November sun at 9:00 am lit up St. George's Anglican, newly through the restoration of its front entrance. I've written about St. George's before here, here, and here.  •  Click for a bigger view.

First reports are coming out about the crushing wet snow that hit my old home of Nova Scotia with electrical pylon crushing force. Arthur tells us how the storm kind of snuck up on the province. Mike is still shovelling and has yet to post on it. Reports? It'll be plus ten here in the tropical …

Saw this on the BBC this morning, a plane that goes 6,000 or 7,000 miles an hour, ten times the speed of sound to beat its old record of Mach 7 by hitting Mach 10. I just hope the cheesey disposable shaver industry does not feel the need to keep up to these Mach levels.

I was very surprised to read this article in Satuday's Globe and Mail as I had not heard this ruling about slander by email was coming down the pipeline. Madam Justice Wailan Low of the Ontario Superior Court held against a person who did not appear in court to defend a case of slander by email …

I went to church today. Being a PK - preacher's kid - I was weaned off the pew fairly early, being tired of being the subject matter of too many sermons. Now that I am the Dad, I do drag my feet somewhat and go less than others, implictly relying on the Pa Walton excuse whatever that was. But it …

If there was anything to do other than direct you to Arseblog and his goal by goal account of the game as he watched it from a pub in sunny Spain, I would do so. I nicked this photo from that spot but I believe the Arsemaster did not snap it himself so will sleep well tonight.  •  I, at the time …

The excellent - and ale-erific - Michael in Halifax includes this fact in a post today:  •  “At the battle of Towton in 1461 - Britain's bloodiest battle - the Yorkist faction had as many as 20,000 archers. At 15 arrows per minute that's 300,000 arrows per minute - 5000 arrows per second. 28,000 …

What is a tyrant? For me it is a government without oversight, a check without a balance, all the best players on the same team because the bully says so. Tyrant is the word that popped into my mind as soon as I read about John Ashcroft's first speech since quitting as US Attorney General:  •  “In …

From the very bowels of the beast, from the heart of darkness in the main stream media comes a graphical comparative description of information that the suits were too scared to print! OK, it's just a couple of maps...but they were secreted to this publication. Any comments?

My vision and plans for the GX40 HQ compound have come into focus with the learning that Tumbleweed Houses exist. Too bad they are in Iowa. Too bad I have no land. 24,000 clams for a 16' x 16' house is my kind of cottage. A cluster could form. Then...an empire!*  •  “  •  “  •  “*[Ed.: The author …

Somedays I am reluctant to write a post. Sometimes it is because the caffine has yet to organize my mind. Sometimes it is because there is no news. Sometimes. like today, it is because I do not want to see something slip off the front page above the fold. That something is the bowl of Mr. Tran's …

Chef Q. Tran and Co., K' Street, K'town  •  The best thing for a frozen day. Not fancy. Menu on the wall and you drink out of styrofoam. Chef Tran was trained by Mr. Vann I think. Mr. Tran makes a Western Style that is not so explosively hot...though I suspect Chef Vann's up at Cambodiana is more …

One of the oddest thing about the downtown Remembrance Day services is that they were plural. One is held at City Park with an artillery piece, one at a navy memorial on Ontario Street and the big one on Water Street by the martello at Murney Point. I caught the navy officers in the first photo …

Another relatively miserable day weather-wise for Remembrance Day. The other week I wrote an email to John Donovan, the ex-US Marine Sgt. Major who has written a good piece about his thoughts on entering his first Veterans Day parade. I was writing about experiences and stories of members in our …

Washington has rejected the idea of publicly fiancing a baseball stadium for the to-be-renamed Expos:  •  “On Tuesday, the City Council answered with an ambiguous maybe. Facing evidence that Washingtonians are deeply concerned about publicly financing a new stadium, the council delayed a final …

A few years ago now, I wrote a thesis about a type of surveillance and included a quote from a 1928 dissent in the Supreme Court of the United  •  Justice case Olmstead v. U.S. 277 U.S. 438 (1928):  •  “Ways may some day be developed by which the Government, without removing papers from secret …

Not a peace mission into Iraq or Sudan, but between Canadian provinces.   If it were not for the dismal record of the PEI government in court on the constitution (not strong swimmers), I'd think the threatened case arising from the same situation might actually be interesting.  •  [Link Rot Free]

Via Atrios, there are uncomfortable patterns around the voting in the Cleveland area...like more votes than voters and precincts claiming exactly the same number of votes.You don't have to be in the "stolen election" fringe to properly wonder why these things could be.

I often wonder at some of the incidental buildings of Kingston, the repurposed. This one just up Queens street from St. Paul's Anglican always catches my eye. The porch's roofline is very Quebec and I wonder if it was some sort of roadhouse when it was first built. It is listed in the Ontario …

So last Tuesday there was only one choice to continue the work of fighting for security from terror and now...mission accomplished. From the BBC:  •  “US Attorney General John Ashcroft has resigned from the Bush cabinet, the White House has announced...Mr Ashcroft, in a letter announcing his …

I was actually thinking about these the other day and where kids now pick up their copies of Spidyman. They are gone from cornerstores and drug stores. This one is in the Indigo bookstore on Princess Street.

My pals at silverorange have participated in the development of the open  •  source browser Firefox and today is its 1.0 release. Go  •  read Steve about the big day and then go download it.  •  Yes, I called it Foxfire.

I noticed this on my noon walk today as I was passing St. Andrew's Presbyterian at Princess and (I think) Clergy. Notice that the cannon is in the lower right of the picture at the left. Click for bigger images.

OK maybe you don't...  •  Apparently there was a massive solar flare last night which set off amazing northern lights. And I snoozed through it. And I should have known as all you could get on the AM radio here last night was Toronto, Rochester and Syracuse. More detail at Space Weather News. I …

Sensitive readers will recognize my advocacy of respect for reasonable and  •  lawful taxation as a cornerstone of the new  •  morality. It is with that purpose I suggest that readers have a look at this  •  story wherein billions have gone unpaid all in the name of smuggling coffin  •  nails …

I never saw this coming:  •  “A strict law forcing students to stay in school until they are 18 is coming soon, Premier Dalton McGuinty says. McGuinty, speaking at the annual Liberal policy conference yesterday, said it's the only way to deal with Ontario's troubling 30-per-cent dropout rate …

I am having a bit of a time figuring out what to do with myself as a sports fan now that the baseball is over, given the NHL lock-out. I listened to Syracuse lose to Houston in the AHL on WSYR 570 just now. Minor hockey by radio is maybe not going to fill the void, however. There is football but …

Interesting times over at our sister-station, A Good Beer Blog. Mike reviews the Gales Best Bitter he had at the Wykeham Arms in Winchester, England recently and I review the writings of Terry Foster, 40 years a brewer. Notes about two Adnams beers were also posted.  •  I also discuss the recent …

You know you are a big jerk when you read a story in The Globe and Mail about the events of rebellion and peace keeping in the Ivory Coast, illustrated by a second story photo of people on the street, and find yourself thinking "sweet soccer jerseys". The red and white one I think is Monaco from …

Like clockwork, every November: I ♥ Huckabees. Liked it. Thought it said smart things while hiding a Felini film under a comedy using 1960s film techniques. Not nearly as many cannon battles at sea as Master and Commander but, you know, it still worked. Isaac appears to star.

Johnny Bower hits 80. When I was a kid in grade one, he was the goalie of the Leafs. That was 35 years ago so he was 45 at the time. I still have the 1969-70 O-pee-chee card of him when he played behind Tim Horton. Happy birthday, Johnny! Break out the "Honky the Christmas Goose" 45s everyone.

Six on six on the first Friday night in November. Two short short films - thematically dark I might add:  •  My feet, red socks [1.7 MB].28 years old when I was born [3.3MB].

I have small moments of memory that persist like character flaws, fragments of memory that run like three second movies taken from my early childhood. Standing outside a store in Toronto in rain, being carried at night on my father's shoulders looking past the parking lot lights at a deep black …

I am thinking a week in Delaware by the beach. Soft-shell crab and warm water. The kind of water that does not come with the lie about "the warmest water north of blankty-blank". We can get there reasonably in ten or twelve hours and would likely take a break in southern PA. Recommendations?

I have copied a lot of maps of of the Votemaster's site this US election and I will do it one more time. Here is a map of the election county by county. Click on it for a bigger version.  •  Any conclusions to be drawn? We are of the river? They are of the woods? Pennsylvania is interesting. The …

NYT:  •  “The Black Watch Regiment is one of the oldest and most storied in the British military, originating with six groups of Scottish highlanders from clans that remained loyal to King George I in the Jacobite rebellion of the early 1700's.”  •  The BBC reports, the three soldiers of the Black …

To wind things up, I am declaring Kateland of The Last Amazon as the winner of US Election Pool 2004 as I do not see anyone catching her and, like Ohio, I really don't want to count everything that should be counted. As a prize, she has picked a white T-shirt with the logo to the left ironed upon …

So here we go. What are the elements of the plan to take back the middle? In this post I do not want to discuss the content of the elements so much as identify them in no particular order.  •  Communication - the right has spent over twenty five years creating shock-talk radio, evangelical TV and …

The US after this election is witnessing the results of an effort which has taken the best part of forty years through which socially conservatism has become mainstream. It has been a comprehensive effort which has worked its way through the media, economics, academia, the churches and government …

Until New Mexico and Iowa are settled, the pool cannot give final results. We are now, however, able to give preliminary points in four of the five categories.  •  Electoral Vote ?286B/252K?PrezKey Swing States  •  bold=correctSenateWild Card  •  Alan285K/253BKerry  •  0K: Fla, Pa, Mo, Oh;  •  B …

Just in case you were wondering, 2 November 2004 was the biggest day ever for this here blog with 2281 visits from 1026 unique visitors. Mucho gracias, readership.  •  Pool outcome still waiting on provisional votes.

Thanks to the night writers who stayed up for...nothing. Three states up in the air still and Ohio law appears to say, from what I heard at 2 am from the Secretary of State from there, that there are ten days to count the provisional votes. Power vacuum. If this was 1807, Canada would attack right …

I am under a denial of interest attack. Why can't people in Ohio all vote before noon? Is it too much to ask?  •  On the upside the Daily Show is doing an hour long special.  •  Update: Gmail lives again.  •  Update: Why isn't Alaska's Peter Tosh memorial ballot measure being reported during this …

Kinda boring right now.  •  Update: Gmail is down. ISN still getting the spam through. I seem to have picked Meestah Bleetzah as my talking head of choice.

W. exactly T.F. is this suppose to tell me?

The news at the moment:  •  No break for Kerry or Bush yet.The internets work so far.CNN the three-guy panel talking to Wolf Bleeeetzahhhh over the table beats the big three US TV broadcasters hands down.CBC Newsworld likes like it found its commentators on a street somewhere.BBC World has a great …

Plan tonight's anxieties ahead of time. The polls close at the following times in the following states:¹  •  “  •  7 p.m. ET - Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia.  •  7:30 p.m. ET - North Carolina, Ohio, West Virginia  •  8 p.m. ET - Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware …

Even though the referral logs are buzzing, the aggregator is as quiet as I have seen it on a mid-week day. The internet has yet to start chugging. Will it?

Me  •  watching Watertown watching Canada watch the US election.

Just 24 hours until I am stuck in front of the TV, ignoring the kids, eating junk food, forgetting I need to sleep, acting like a sports fan all for an election. I love an election.  •  And apparently the US election loves this the internets and especially this small bit which has misled people …

Over at Xtcian, there is a great post on Hallowe'en in New York. Check out the washer/dryer girls.