One of my favorite Christmas Eves was twenty years ago tonight, in Gullane, East Lothian, Scotland. I was visiting my uncle, auntie and cousins and had settled into a week long stay. It didn't take long for it to seem like to everyone in the village I was that "coosin frae Gan-ee-der." People …

I own so much cheese right now. There must be 12 pounds in the house. And the flesh of four sorts of mammals and uncountable forms of sea life. I hope the kiddies like it: "why are you crying, child? Port and stilton is a classic!!" Why do people crap on British cooking all year and then crave it …

There are so many things to celebrate. It is not enough that we have a holiday season now, nor even just Christmas and New Year's Eve but we have, in our house, Hogmanay as well as Hanukkah at the neighbours, an old pal celebrates Kwanzaa and I suspect my university pal who married into an …

When is Yuletide anyway? Is it the same as Christmas time or what? I know that Christmas time is a longer period of time than Christmas but is Yuletide longer than Yule? Who knows such things? I know one thing. The Sox are giving themselves a very nice set of gifts over the season so far. It's … read more »

Really? Our entire democratic process can be sidetracked this easily?  •  Next year’s pivotal federal budget that could trigger an election will be put together without the legally required input from Parliament. The Commons finance committee has decided to shelve its prebudget report after a … read more »

Man. Somehow I hit the wrong button and ditched the whole Friday bullets script. Man oh man. Such bullets they were, too. One about the Sox trades. Another about the economy of Poland. Another was asking why the PM couldn't have found one song to sing that is under two decades old. And there was …

There's a headline you won't hear on talk radio. But it is true:  •  The US Treasury has sold its remaining stake in Citigroup, in a deal which it says will make a $12bn (£7.6bn) profit on its overall investment. Citigroup was one of the worst victims of the financial crisis, and the US government …

Man am I Christmassy. I am way more full of the cheer than you. The beer blog Christmas photo contest, now in its fifth year, is actually winding up already. It's a fun tradition. Fun. I seem to be more and more interested in fun. It's way better than exercise, diligence or thoughtfulness …

It would be a joke of the quote read the other way. We all know this about the CBC - and that it is not an over abundance of anti-Americanism so much as an absence of actual creativity - so who really cares?  •  Or should I really be concerned about how Canada is represented on, you know, reruns … read more »

The Electoral College system of US Presidential elections, that's what:  •  Mr. Putin said several American presidents had been elected through the electoral college system even though they did not win a majority of the popular vote, but that Russia does not press the point. “When we are talking …