This is not really following the script at all.

If January were a person I would not like him. The guest that never seems to leave soon enough and doesn't bring enough when he does show. The month that starts with a hangover. The only reason we do not celebrate the end of January is that February is coming up behind. I used to hate February … read more »

It is not often that I think that I might buy a book about sports. Sure, I buy the odd tome about the Red Sox when I travel and have received welcome gifts about any number of sports like hockey and soccer. But this flap about former and highly successful Yankee Manager Joe Torre has me interested …

I am a little surprised that Iggy is not completely on board but what is the guy to do? What would he look like if he jumped up and down clapping his hands and shrilly screamed "I love it, I love it!!!" like a school girl? He has to buck at the reins but I don't see an election this spring. Who …

All the town is abuzz with the budget day news. Half the street had their lights on before 5 am, faces pressed to the windows waiting for the newspapers to be delivered. It's budget day! It's budget day!!!  •  Budgets used to be so drab. In the 70s and 80s there was a guy like Marc Lalonde stoking …

That is what the boy called it. The Hill From Hell. 1500 feet long with about a 150 foot drop. Some days when the snow blows children play there, tumbling in the billowy fluffy. Other days when the fields are green, rabbits gambol. But when it is a sheet of crusted and lumpy ice, morons from … read more »

That is what I would be Alex Trebek would want to be asked for this photo daily double. More from Damian over here. Hit the tip jar. He's got tim bits to buy on your behalf.

Things are loosening up. There is no minus sign in front of today's temperature and that is in Celsius. It's back to the deep cold tonight but one day of a lighter jacket and slushy rubber boots not mountain climbing gear is good. Things are lightening in the political world as well. Obama (aka …

It is a funny old world. We walk around in a haze of assumptions and build up layer upon layers of accepted truths which can leave us amazed by the unexpected things we hear on any given day, which leave our beliefs challenged:  •  The Dalai Lama, a lifelong champion of non-violence candidly … read more »

...meeting clever people. I have never bought into the idea that the internet creates community or makes you more clever yourself. But it is undeniable that it gives you a direct connection to clever people whose lives are on other paths than your own. This morning, I got a link to Evan Rail's new …

OK, this is when it gets a bit embarrassing to be a Canuck. Things like knowing your own history, celebrating your own country and its traditions or celebrating what you have in common is all so, you know, blurry around the edges for us. We need to have a sit down on a day like this. Heck, we get …

Being in a border town where I can see another nation out my office window, I suppose it is not odd that I am affecting by doings down south. But sitting here between the AFC and NFC championship games and the Superbowl as well as the day before the inauguration of their next President, this is a …

I have to admit. I have a general idea of the relationship between brass monkey and extreme cold but not the specific source of the idiom. Apparently there are a number of meanings. Thank heavens for wikipedia which contains a vast array of entertaining and authoritative speculation. Regardless … read more »

I just lost the seven things about me post that I was tagged with doing after a power flicker at 6:45 am which was 95% done so I am not going to recreate it as I am too bummed out about the whole thing. It was tender and evocative. Challenging yet funny. I can never recreate that this morning. I …

Nice one for the Igg-ster. If this was one of those 1980s high school angst movies like Pretty in Pink, this might be a moment of foreshadowing of the big scene at the dance later on:  •  Newly minted Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff has snagged a senior adviser right out from under Prime Minister …

I suppose you want to have your leader struck with an unfailing confidence but there are bits of yesterday's final press conference by outgoing President Bush that do make you wonder about the man:  •  Mr. Bush said he was not certain why he had become so divisive. “I don’t know why they get …

Jay has finally done what a thousand bloggers before have pledged: he is creating a political party. Sure, it's a one issue party but is it good to start small, take baby steps. For those who don't know or haven't cared, the Plan B Party is about a section of the Human Rights Code which permits …

Recession? What Recession? Who needs to worry about a recession when you can now go one a bender in Iceland for one-third of the price of a year ago.

WHAMMO!  •  Just like that, Canadian politics are sent for a loop one more time. Coalition gone. Smug Harper staring at the numbers and we are all saying "Thank God Stephane Dion is Gone-dee-bye-byes!!"  •  Liberal support stood at 34 per cent, one point ahead of the Conservatives and up eight …

There aren't many days when I think that blogging has fulfilled its promise but when Damian wrote me yesterday to tell me that he has been selected to be embedded with the Canadian Armed Forces in Afghanistan, I was both pleased for and proud of him. He's a graduate of RMC so should know his way …

Douglas Coupland has an op-ed piece in the Globe and Mail yesterday which discussed the problem of Gloomage which is worth considering. The piece starts with a consideration of the current recession to Y2K:  •  I mention this now because it seems to me we're inside another Y2K-like hysteria …

Oh dear. This is how it starts. You start liking the Yankees when you are a kid and sooner or later - WHAMMO - your misplaced love lands you in the political hot seat:  •  The city’s acquisition of the Yankees suite had drawn scrutiny, especially after e-mail messages surfaced in November showing …

I am using Twitter more and more. I am enjoying the ability to quip, to note, to park an idea. It is a veritable hotbed of fifth-rate wags like me. But there is trouble afoot as the BBC reports:  •  Micro-blogging site Twitter has admitted that some of its most high profile bloggers have been …

If this article is correct, the Huffington Post gets about 481 times the readership of A Good Beer Blog but only around 60 times the ad revenue. Who knew? Which means I have an +8HP$ ratio.

Not having a real Senate and supporting the abolishing of the one we have, I find the powers and make-up of the US one pretty interesting. Consider this question raised in the NYT today:  •  Candidate Obama promised to “re-engage” and “work constructively within” the United Nations Framework …

No more days off or days where you think you really should be off. It's like coming off a drug. January. Plans need to be made to avoid the day when the urge to hibernate meets the desire to get to know Mr Christie better. Plans to keep up the housework, to get out and about, to pay off. The sun …

It is always a giggle when rankings get debated. Robert Jago does a good job figuring out Canada's top political blogs with little thanks and even ranked me 15th this month even though you abandoned me durning the holidays. This month's rankings, however, are getting an extra cherry belly full of …

This surely is the unnamed holiday. The shadow twin of Boxing Day, the orphaned Friday stuck between that holiday with a hangover and a weekend. I will suit up and make my way to work but will there be work to meet me there? There likely will be an emptiness, desks without jockeys, voice mail …