Either not having my coffee yet or lacking basic elements of an understanding of medicine is getting in my way of understanding this good news:  •  “Children who attend daycare or playgroups cut their risk of the most common type of childhood leukaemia by around 30%, a study estimates. Researchers …

When I was in high school, my father's hometown team placed Celtic, they played Rangers - they were in the Scottish top league. Once in a blue moon in the 1970s, you could catch - on the BBC World Service, coming in on the organic flow of shortwave radio at some crazy frequency like 15220 (the …

Huzzah! Huzzah!  •  That's what you need to say to your co-workers and employers today. Let them know what you have been doing on the fifth day, how you have idled away the hours, frittered productivity potential leaving the nation needing to borrow to replace the shortfall. I think that is my …

This is an interesting idea: a McLuhanesque unintended outcome of the information economy where widgets and robots do all the work. We are getting dulled by it all. Time was when the leisure society was the promise. A three day work week for a 1968 lifestyle. We were all to be driving off to go …

For something that is supposed to be reflective of the new, "web 2.0" sure is getting long in the tooth. And, really, isn't it a bit passed it already? All it was supposed to mean was the responsive and chatty aspects of the internet - you know that aspect that was aways there but just not …

It is a wonderful thing to have an archive of your very own. A place to dip into the past and be reminded that just a few short years ago people seriously thought that blogging was going to replace journalism. Well, here we are in 2008 and the seeds sown may be bearing something unexpected - the …

Already, we hit the third edition of the Monday Morning Quarterback. I'm not that sure the theme has holding power but at least it gives some meaning, however meager, to my half-hearted obsession with sports.  •  The confusion within the Blue Jays has already hit a new level of panic even though …

Because it's my birthday! Imagine - me, forty-five. Boy am I old. So old I bought black Doc Marten boots yesterday which I now consider my first mid-life crisis purchase. And it's gonna be sunny and warm today plus through the weekend. And it's Friday. And portland's showing for the weekend. And …

You have to like this guy. He decides he is going after a child killer - and he gets him:  •  “Asked about the fugitive's condition, Mr. Robinson, a trapper and wilderness guide, would only say: "He's a hurting unit." Friends have said Mr. Robinson took it upon himself to go out looking for Mr …

I have no idea what this means, what the 7.8 expresses or even what the units are but apparently things are looking up:  •  “Americans are feeling slightly more optimistic this month as they come to grips with a struggling economy and an uncertain future, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released …

Let's just say "wow" is about all I can think of at the moment reading this news.

I wonder. I am as sympathetic to the farmer as the next guy who has worked a plot as big as I have. A farming friend - a brother, in fact - once let me know how you can spot a 40 cent a post cost hog farm from a 80 cent a pound one. One survives these times while others do not.  •  But not if the …

Not just TV, but I listen to the radio, too. I listened to golf on the radio at about 7 pm yesterday. 620 AM out of Syracuse had the end of the Masters going. Golf on the radio is hard to follow. Apparently there is a tradition and a guy playing lounge piano involved.  •  A guy from South Africa …

Rain is one of the shocks of spring. When the last snows pass you think that is it, worst is over...and then you get flooding rains and lashing winds and making snow angels suddenly don't look all that bad. Garden report: onions survived the winter and are already up as are the chives. There is …

I was within a couple hundred yards of highway 400 and highway 7 for around 18 hours not counting the drive to and from Toronto. It was very much like spending 18 hours within a couple hundred yards of highway 400 and highway 7. The oddest thing was getting out of the hotel room to go to where I …

OK, I have buckled and am dipping into the barrel o' prizes. I had to. Who would hold back when faced with the wisdom of this argument from Darcey:  •  “No damn prizes? But some beer on at least and my guys will be in...”  •  I welled up. I got verklempt. Is that not the most elemental Canadian …

I really should just make this a sports blog. After all, it's easy and is Harper really all that bad? Compared to him the evil that are the teams I dislike is to utterly diabolical, how can I take my attention off them? And these are evil times:  •  Yikes! But lets consider a few things. Toronto …

Boo hoo. Boo hoodly hoo. Sooner or later the International Olympic Committee is going to learn that no one thinks much of them and their embrace of totalitarianism. But this is just funny:  •  “The IOC will consider scrapping the international leg of the Beijing Olympic torch relay as a result of …

A taunt. All it takes is a taunt. Looking for meaning with a blog that is approaching five years of its troubled existence, a glimmer of hope and purpose shows up in a 27th comment:  •  “  •  Temujin [12:19 AM April 7, 2008]  •  http://hockey-madness.blogspot.com  •  How about a special Monday …

That's what happens when you get up at 7:40 am. People think you work at blogging! Hah!  •  Years from now, we'll all laugh about political blogging as a flaky exercise and none will be laughed at as this sort of flake. I have this little idea: before you adhere to another's point of view, think …

Thanks heavens when people speak for those who never asked to be spoken for:  •  “Jason Kenney, the Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity, said the issue has nothing to do with gender. While neutral on the panel report, he said the government opposes lowering the flag for …

This is great. No mention of what would be done to bolster Quebec in an asymetrical Canada of one nation in a country of non-nations. Just the statement that if there is a majority Tory government there will be a transfer of constitutional powers:  •  “The Harper government is telling Quebec that …

Aside from the likelihood that we'll be watching the athletes though heat sensing camera due to all that smog, realizing how disassociated freedom and Olympianism are is a bit stunning:  •  “Rule 51 of the Olympic charter, the constitution of the Olympic movement, forbids athletes from …