We need to argue. We need to find that we can actually communicate ideas. We need to get past the constipated condition where things are unspoken and solitudes are respected. We need to argue about this:  •  A fresh war of words erupted at a Heritage Committee probing the scrubbed re-enactment of …

Best line about baseball I have ever read:  •  Rogers Hornsby played second base for the St. Louis Cardinals in the early 1900s. He said, “People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.”  •  The first grapefruit …

It's all feeling a bit deja vu these days. Have you noticed that the public mindset of cheerily spend spend spend of really just last summer has already flipped to the cheery save save save? It's in the ads, it's certainly in the political agenda and apparently it is also in the newspapers and … read more »

Even though there is much that is so fundamentally wrong with elements of the financial system - like massive investment in the pure nothing of credit default swaps by the wizards in charge, the dislocation from going spending with paying it off, the planning to sell a million houses to people who …

Remember the transfat surprise post and thread that went to a jolly 137 comments about how French fries (i) couldn't be that bad for you or (ii) were Satan spawn? The thread in which the disproportionate risk of getting yourself in a pickle was subject to claims of professionalism but then … read more »

I had a tinge of jealousy yesterday as I watched the behind the scenes bonus documentary that came with the DVD of the 1975 Doctor Who "The Sontaran Experiment." In the documentary, the writers, technical producers and stunt men explain how limited the resources were, how nothing really worked as …

February goes like a bat out of hell. That's what Rob said back in college. Before you were settled in after Christmas, you were stuck with term papers, studying for exams and then you left. A week Sunday is March. It's going to be over. The thing I dislike more each year, winter, is going to be …

Looks like someone had too much of the Twitterberry pie today. I wonder why he didn't just write "Obama came to Canada to see me! Me!!" Sure, we all know PM Harper has a cube farm of Albertan teens on the Twitter mill but do we really need eight or so twit-units rammed into one 140 character space?

What an odd choice of a word by the Globe and Mail for its headline: "preacher". Images of 1890s church picnics dance in my head, plates of food covering checked table cloths as children run three legged races. Or visits to the hospital to hand out caramels here as a kind thoughtful word is placed …

It boggles the mind. It feels like the CRTC toying with rolling back the clock and examining ideas around somehow nationalizing a segment of the internet, like a mapled AOL, gating a bit of the web and only letting people in who are carrying Tim Horton cups. What do the actors say about this …

The NYT has great coverage of the press conference by Alex Rodriguez on his use of steroids in the first part of this millennium. But who doesn't. It has been the sole topic on sports radio for over a week. For Canadians needing a hockey analogy, it is tantamount to Wayne Gretzky admitting he was …

Thank God for Family Day. It was great. As we sat around in our pajamas, dilly dallying with unconsciousness, trying to kill of the last of our colds until mid-afternoon when we got to watch the mailman deliver the mail. How delicious to have a holiday that is not applicable to the Federal civil …

It is sad. I see a child in the street wearing one of those awful Blue Jays hats and I think "poor kid...he has no idea." There are years of tears and confusion to come for sure but even in the short term why do this to any young person? Just consider the latest from the Blue Jay's spring training …

Great flibberty jibberty. I sure am grateful that there are smarter people out there than me. I sure would hate to be left to my own devices to make my way in the world and understand, you know, stuff. So it is with appreciation and relief that I read the news today that the media might soon be …

I have come to realize that Canadians are happily blind to their own history. It is really self-inflicted. But it may now be national policy if this really comes to pass...or rather does not come to pass:  •  The controversial re-enactment of the 1759 defeat of French forces on Quebec City's … read more »

Jay came up with a great idea in the comments last night: creditor's prison. What a clever bunch of civilized Whigs we are. Or are we civic republicans? A veritable moral meritocracy. Gone are the days of comments with "people like you" finger pointery. No, now we are getting to the 18th century …

I hadn't heard things were not going so well in Dubai. We have extended family in the Gulf - as apparently everyone one does - but hadn't heard a peep about charms like debtors prison:  •  Now, like many of the foreign workers who make up 90 percent of the population here, she has been laid off … read more »

History is tough. We Canadians don't like talking about the wars with the Americans from 1775 to 1845. I am sure that Americans may still be a little ticklish about the Civil War in some parts. And no one likes to talk about the fall of the eastern half of New France 250 years ago right about now …

It has value for sure. Plenty of rec room space, nice neighbours and a prudent but comfortable lot size. It is a 1960s bungalow. Just like the 1960s bungalow I lived in when I was in kindergarten except it is not semi-detached. But what is it worth? The tax assessment says it has gone from 90% of …

It was worth watching the Grammys if only to watch Robert Plant:  •  "I'd like to say I'm bewildered," said Plant. "In the old days we would have called this selling out, but it's a good way to spend a Sunday."  •  Raising Sand is one of the best albums I have ever owned, so last night's five …

We need to remind ourselves once in a while that the people who lived in our towns and cities in generations past were not better behaved and that there was no golden age other than the one we live in. As today's proof, I give you a tidbit located in today's "From The Archives" column in the Globe …

Do I like it that he now goes from A-Fraud to A-Roid in the course of a week? Certainly I do. He is a Yankee. What is not to like about this new embarrassment just before training camps gather for the start of another baseball season?

These thaws are coming in very nicely. It was -18 C yesterday but it will be plus 40 F tomorrow. I can't explain why I am better with Celsius below zero but Fahrenheit above. Just another of my wonders. I think it is going to be OK. After all, I have gotten this far into winter and have not …

This is good. Good stuff, too. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney working with PEN and even author John Ralston Saul, honorary patron of PEN and husband of former governor-general Adrienne Clarkson to get a political dissident out of China and into Canada:  •  Mr. Kenney issued a special … read more »

Don Martin has a very interesting observation in this morning's National Post:  •  Mr. Obama’s massive fiscal stimulus has a preoccupation with tougher fuel emission standards, renewable alternatives, hybrid cars and assorted cleanup priorities, all aimed at putting the producers of dirty oil out …

People are panicky out there. Times are tough and when I traveled south a week ago there were obvious signs that things were tighter than in our neck of the woods. The US government is clamoring for a buy US first policy and Canadians are scurrying to convince them that such ideas are, frankly …

So, if the daily circulation of the New York Times is about 1,000,000 with more on the weekend and the web readership has gone from 34,000,000 to over 40,000,000 a month in 2008...how exactly is it that it is becoming irrelevant? Isn't it just suffering from the web as a business model but not the …

Odd that I have to be somewhere...now. It's early but I'm late. I know this is no tragedy and certainly I used to have to be speaking to matters first thing but I wish this morning I lived in Pittsburgh. Not because of the win but because they seem to understand when a two hour delay is very well …

When I was early on in being a Dad, I figured it would be supporting the girl's confidence that would be a concern. However, at a certain point, the pervasive girl power stuff and its cousin the dopey Dad in TV ads wears upon you if only because the opposite is taboo. So it was with a bit of …