A TSUNAMI WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR  •  CHILE / PERU / ECUADOR / COLOMBIA / ANTARCTICA / PANAMA /  •  COSTA RICA / NICARAGUA / PITCAIRN / HONDURAS / EL SALVADOR /  •  GUATEMALA / FR. POLYNESIA / MEXICO / COOK ISLANDS / KIRIBATI /  •  KERMADEC IS / NIUE / NEW ZEALAND / TONGA / AMERICAN SAMOA …

I hate February. The only thing that makes the winter Olympics alright is that it happens in February so that there is something to do - like watching the bobsled. I usually a have a bad cold in February as I still do now, holding on for more than a week. My eyeballs feel like grapefruits. I had … read more »

There are few phrases more evocative for a Canadian of my early middle age than "Canada Russia".  •  When I was nine I heard the final game of the 1972 series broadcast from Moscow on the car radio sitting in a parking lot in Middleton, NS. We won. We were not always successful in the … read more »

The New York Times has published the thoughts of five prominent Republicans on the health care question and this is good. You wouldn't catch FoxNews or Limbaugh setting out the position of the right. Responsibility for one's own ideas carries too many risks. But the care that has gone into …

Bug? Beat? Who knows? I was fine at 11 pm but by 1:30 am it had me. The "YE SHALL NOT SLEEP" throbbing sinus thingamabob. Ginger beer seems to help. The spicy sort. I have to remember in these troubled times that, like Gordon Lightfoot, I am still alive.  •  How far can Canada go after being held …

Sooner or later things reconcile. Often it is after those holding the two sides of the unhappiness are dead. Is Bouchard trying to prod the matter along sooner than that?  •  ...Lucien Bouchard has steadfastly avoided public comment on his once-cherished cause. On Tuesday evening, however, he …

It's been a bit less of an Olympic lovefest, hasn't it? Chantal Hebert reminds us of the most Canadian of our failings:  •  Most of the weekend's anti-Quebec rants were anonymous. That's par for the course for commentary sections on most media websites. There is no onus of accountability placed on …

A murky picture today of a bridge at Cobourg Ontario west of C.F.B Trenton. It was taken yesterday afternoon. People had been filling bridges crossing the 401 for miles. Then emergency services vehicles joined them. All draped in flags. The casket of Corporal Joshua Caleb Baker was being brought …

And so it begins. An embarrassing manufactured jingoistic spend-fest. Imagine the regret in March, the bills, the questions as to whether all the bronze medals and seventh to seventeenth place finishes were worth it. But then it will be spring, there will be baseball, representational democracy …

While I do seem to recall that minimum wage laws in Canada have exceptions including for agricultural workers - oddly, in Alberta, extras in film or radio productions are out as well - I am a bit surprised to read there is a suggestion that there be wholesale "two tiered" minimum wage as a general …

Really? I think more likely none or three but nevermind. I am drawn to this article mainly because I think the last line below may not be correct:  •  According to the report, the diocese – “like most across Canada” – is in crisis. The report repeats, without qualification or question, the results …

We've spent a lot of the last 20 years hearing how that bit of Canada known as the West - the bit between BC and Saskatchewan - isn't understood, doesn't fit and (quite conversely) wants to rule us all. What has that done, all that cultural decentralization. Well, the Globe speculates this morning …

Well, that's it. The 2010 sports season is over and it finished with style not to mention an ugly yet brilliant interception. And at least that interception removed the question being only about the NFL's stupid overtime rules. So, all in all, one of the better Superbowls with 57 minutes of hope …

The light is obviously coming back now. A week into February places us as far from the longest night as almost Halloween. The leap from Yule to winter fest has been made. Once the Super Bowl is over, the sports of 2009 finally give way to those of 2010. Because no one watches NHL before New Year's …

We are generally clever, we humans. We figure things out by what we see about us. But there are two problems - what we haven't seen yet and what that we make decisions without considering what we haven't seen yet. Consider this:  •  ...in recent months at a clinic in Liège, Belgium, the patient …

I like a drink as much as the next guy but am I a Cocktailian? I am not sure I could even communicate with a Cocktailian if I met one in the street or, better, in a cool darkened subterranean public space. Yet all is not well in the Land of Cocktailia:  •  ...no Pegu imbiber is known to have … read more »

It really was. So is this so weird:  •  “Father, we thank you for tonight,” he said. “We pray that we will be a representation of you.” An hour later, a member of his flock who had bowed his head was now unleashing a torrent of blows on an opponent, and Mr. Renken was offering guidance that was … read more »

I need to break loose and do mad cap things like post sports bullets on Mondays. But not every Monday. That would be a rut. But as it is no longer January, I am no longer in a rut. Spring Training starts this month. It is the month before spring. Plans are already started for the vintage base ball …