Sports talk radio is all over the opportunities and risks the Red Sox and Yankees each face in their considerations of whether to deal for Minnesota Twins pitcher Johan Santana. One caller I heard was convinced however good he was the Yankees should avoid him due to their crap records of signing …

Isn't having a minority government that knows it will never get a majority neat? Aside from the image of a runaway train clattering towards the disaster of earning the label "arrogant" faster than any government in Canadian history, it is a real lesson in the actual division of powers within the …

George Carlin had a great joke about saliva being discovered to be a cancer causing agent but there was nothing to worry about as it only had that quality when taken in small amounts over a long period of time.

Sick at home, I must have lost a few levels of my patience. Maybe it's the glimmer of green power now that Saskatchewan has won the Grey Cup, after the last time of which occurrence my Sask roomie at university gave us all a lifetime's worth of the various ways to display your bombastic Rider …

A photo essay at the BBC about Polish night bakers reminds me again how much I like chleb - rye bread - and other Polish food. And reminds me to write about it again. When folks came over the other day to test drive a couple of weisse beers that will show up at the LCBO next spring, there was …

Could there be any more embarrassing reason to maintain what used to be a worthy national institution until it got so boringly self important?  •  “"We do have some concerns about [the decision], notwithstanding fact that it happened on the French-language side," Ian Morrison, spokesman for … read more »

The first snow settled in to Easlakia just when a rotten creaky achy cold arrived as well. Days and days of not June. But, still, the holiday feeling is starting already. Just four work weeks to go, after all. But everything is not as jolly as it should be.  •  The spirit of the season appears to …

Seeing as I watch nearby upstate NY TV in the mornings for the local weather, I listen to NCPR most of the day, I listen to WFAN at night, and I watch the sports channels which is mainly ESPN, NESN and FSN...I have this feeling that I am missing a holiday today. It's only recently that I realized …

Being a Maritimer, this sort of thing is bigger than a blue moon, a cow jumping over the moon or hell freezing over:  •  “The legendary Irving family is moving to break up its $6-billion business empire as it struggles to accommodate the demands of new generations, thus ending a 125-year-old …

Consider entering the Yule photo contest at A Good Beer Blog.

I am quite saddened by the death of Robert Dziekanski. I am quite proud to have worked with police in one way or another my whole career and am of no doubt that this is a situation where something went horribly wrong so the step BC Premier Gordon Campbell has taken to call a public inquiry is a …

To a movement that tosses notions like "heritage" and "values" around without ever wondering what the content of these words means, it is interesting watching the differences in understanding pop out when the temperature starts heating up:  •  “In a province where Mulroney is fondly remembered for …

While sometimes I think accounts of new movements or fads are really just the combination of a particular instance or two with a reporter with the need of a story - but this is a more interesting than most:  •  “Science groups for young professionals who don't wear white coats, like the year-old …

The other day Brooksie posted a review of Christie Blatchford's book Fifteen Days over at The Torch and it included this passage:  •  “The other notable chapter was the polar opposite to me: the one story that really sums up what this book is about, that distills the essence of this fine …

Finally, someone has discovered how to defeat the forces of islamofacist jihad:  •  “A few inches of skirt length have led to an airport security guard's suspension. The skirt is too long – not too short – to please the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority. Halima Muse, a practising Muslim …

The recent weeks of spam have been quite depressing and the sort of thing that does make you wonder how long blogs have before they turn into use.net. Yet there is nothing as thrilling as turning on your admin and each and every spam comment has been caught. It reminds me of one good argument for …

While I am hardly an adherent to the "Hitler was a socialist" numbskullery that pretends there was never a right-wing dictatorship...or at least one you couldn't love, goings on in Venezuela are troubling - especially in how it is characterizing itself:  •  “But this is an upheaval that would be …

Rejoice! The war is won!  •  You may have noticed that there has been spam recently. The move to Recapture has apparently attracted a band of manual spammers who focus on sites who use it. Spiteful bitter Romanians for the most part. Anyway, this site's admin also allows me to customize the spam …

It is fine to call this one bad decision but it challenges the meaning of what is local and what is security:  •  “...officials wonder whether increased border security cost the firefighters precious minutes. Mr. Hébert said fires double in intensity about every minute. The six Quebeckers showed …

The Whig has a good article today about four young officers from the US on exchange at our Royal Military College:  •  “The one big difference they note is that Canadian military drill, based on the British system, is much more physically demanding than the French-derived American parade drill … read more »

I have a cat but I think having a cat is a weirdness. I am so ambivalent about the whole cats thing I am not sure what I think about this case:  •  “Mr. Stevenson, 54, does not deny using a .22-caliber rifle fitted with a scope to kill the cat, which lived under the San Luis Pass toll bridge …

First, I would like to thank the Canadian dollar for peaking just about the very weekend we traveled. Then I would like to thank the new customs guy who asked "you mean like a bunch of cases" when I advised I had 67 beer in the back - to which I responded "well, I have some singles." Woot.  •  Ann …

Yogurt in North American has disappointed me. When I was a kid, my grandmother in Scotland fed me Ski brand bacteria laden milk with flavours like pear, hazelnut or coffee. Those sorts of tastes kick strawberry or blueberry butt all over town. They laugh and point at our loser flavours. Would it …

Today. North of Waterloo Ontario. 12:10 pm. Click for a bigger view if you like.

Mike Campbell placed a link over here to a column he saw today in the Halifax Chronical Herald by Trevor Greene which is his first published writing since his injuries sustained in Afganistan. I thought I would repeat the posting here. This bit is the conclusion. Go read the whole thing:  •  “I’m …

As I slip into radio silence here letting the Romanian manual spammers have their way for a few days, it is comforting to know that there is much more than me keeping you entertained. I would encourage you all to spend a few days with North Country Public Radio, the voice of my region. I am …

You know like integrity, credibility? Is it possible that this is the last gasp of a now dead institution that not too long ago was touted as a pillar of the national community?  •  “A CBC spokesman said the network is simply doing its "due diligence" in holding Beyond The Red Wall: The Story of …

I am happy that Shilling's coming back. I think he as a better chance of contributing that Wakefield - unless Wake's back sudddenly drops 15 years that is. But I like the terms of the agreement:  •  “The deal provides for him to make an additional $5 million in bonuses and match his 2007 salary … read more »

Speaking of jiggling the toggle switches of the constitution, it appears we may well have a hope of the abolition of the Senate after all:  •  “Prime Minister Stephen Harper will support a move to put the future of Canada's Senate up to a nationwide vote if the government can't find a way to … read more »

I don't know what the simpleton fear-monger's view on the beating of pro-western constitutionalist lawyers by pro-western anti-constitutionalist soldiers and secret police officers is. The common law is the cornerstone of English-speaking democracy but it can get in the way. That may evade the …

Ah, standard time. Time to sleep. Time to get up not in a rush. Time for bullet points. What were we saving all that daylight for anyway?  •  Update: note the subtle underlying concept - no one is as smart as me and my friends:  •  “"I think he's a sincere and honest man," Mr. Manning said …

My pal Dan has been tracking the Hurricane Noel as it moved up the eastern seaboard and became a tropic storm before hitting the Canadian Maritime provinces. Here he is out in the wind this morning.  •  I think he thinks we can hear his voice over the roar. More here.

If you are interested, I wrote a bit about Halifax in the 1980s yesterday for The Session, a monthly thematic series where beer bloggers globally write on the one same topic. Yesterday was "beer and music" and that reminded me of the Halifax of my young wayward adulthood.  •  It also reminded me …

Go-wan. You know you want to.

We need to get a handle on what is really happening here:  •  “The seemingly unstoppable Canadian dollar surged to its highest level yet Wednesday, topping 106.17 cents (U.S.). The record came just after 4 p.m., when official trading ended for the day. Officially, the dollar closed at 105.85 cents …