That cold I mentioned? Coughing for four weeks? Turned into pneumonia. Unlike Greece, however, there was a known accepted cure. Horse pills. Halfway through the great pharmaceutical experiment, I like big drug a little better. Even in my drugged haze, I found the choices for the best Canadian song a little weird. Like the Nickleback argument. But is "1-2-3-4" really a "best song" of anytime? Made iPhone ad = legitimacy. I need a tag for "why I stopped listening to the CBC."

⇒ Nice to see John Crosby is as warmly bluntly thoughtless as always. Nice guy. Met him once on a joint retreat of the law firm yoinks ago. Occasional foot in mouth disease meets boot to the arse tendencies.

⇒ Hazel! Always been a favorite even though you know the 27 year old single me could have never got a date with her due to her knowing waay more than me about sports.

⇒ Pushed Canadian brewing back five years yesterday afternoon. Made the Washington Post this week, too. Good week for beer thought.

⇒ "Eating like the English could save 4,000 lives a year in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland..." Great claims to fame of our times. Time for the oats and neeps.

Two people have left good beer at the front door in the last 24 hours. This sickness stuff ain't all bad.

Oh, remember the good old days when majority governments came and went and people didn't pretend they were ideologically superior? Well, it didn't take long for the pants to drop this time:

Liberal MP Justin Trudeau says he is upset and offended by a Tory MP who publicly questioned his adherence to the Catholic faith and his suitability to speak to students at a Catholic school. Dean Del Mastro, the parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister, said on Facebook last month that it was “outrageous” the Catholic school board in Peterborough, Ont. had invited Trudeau to speak for a second time in three years. “If they are looking for a truly great speaker, who also happens to be Catholic, perhaps they might invite [Immigration] Minister Jason Kenney,” Mr. Del Mastro wrote on Oct. 12. “Are there any tenets of the Catholic faith that Justin supports?”

Sure, it helps that it comes from one of the Tories who are not the three to five that matter but welcome to the era of the new tedious empty arrogant superiority. I recall in an election debate Mulroney digging at Broadbent saying that the NDP didn't have a corner on the market for morality. Seems like certain Tories foolishly think they do.

ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... zzzzzzzzzzzz... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ... zzzz... zzzzz.. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... zzz.

⇒ Mnurf... sniff... Zzz... Grits.. right... mzlurb... zzzz..
⇒ Zzzzzz...
⇒ Zzzzzz... !!!
⇒ Zzzzz... Hrumph... whazzat?... urg... Zzzz...
⇒ WHAT??? What time is it??? Way to go, Tims.

Pillow.. pilll... lowww... zzz-blad... zzzzzzzzzzzz... zzzz... z.

The actual quote from The Toronto Star is actually this:

I think the international community, of which Canada is certainly a part, is very powerful, much more powerful than it understands. And we’re starting to see that today. Many of our (U.S.) Supreme Court justices are now looking at international law and the actions of different countries and are beginning to perceive the United States as an outlier in certain areas. And I think this is all very beneficial to us who are trying to end the death penalty, not just in the United States, but worldwide.

I am sure that the person described in the Star as "M*A*S*H star and social justice crusader Mike Farrell" is swell - but he sure wasn't praising Canada in particular. He just confirms that he knows Canada is not the USA. And, really, if that is your hook to get me to read that story... shouldn't it be Hawkeye and shouldn't he actually praise Canada.

Canada's neediness. Our own national awkward turtle.

That is a shocking sentence to read. Gets the brain going. Here is the nub of an excellent post over at the always excellent The Last Exile:

Globalization was suppose to make us all free and rich. Although, it has not worked out that way for most of us. I am not any richer and my wages face a constant erosion from the rising rates of taxes and the general cost of just about everything while the corporate tax rate continues to slide ever downward. I know for a fact; I am less free today than I was 30 years ago. Canadians generally do not have any babies anymore; mostly because they cannot afford to when it takes a 2 person income just to raise a small family with ordinary expectations. We never really discuss that in this country, and if the topic does manage to come up in public dialogue, somehow the dominate ethos manages to give the impression that a woman who works outside the home rather than rising her children at home does so for selfish avaricious reasons rather than the fact that taxation, housing and transportation costs now claim a much larger percentage of family income than they did 30 years ago.

Add to that list communications device fees. I pay over $250 a month for home phone, internet, cell phone and cable TV. I could cut it but with the range of ages in the house it's not a practical solution. I am a bit shocked at electricity hikes added to natural gas bill, too. Again over $250 a month combined. If I ever created that stand alone blog dedicated to complaining about society's broken promises called Where the Hell is my Jet Pack??, I might write about these things or think about them more.

Why don't I? We are fortunate and a bit unconventional as fosterers and for other reasons, I suppose, but if I thought about it, I might have expected the sort of financial status we have now to have been the lifestyle in my late 30s rather than my late 40s. But maybe I don't care. Maybe the money or other resources go to intangibles and non-investments. Like better cheese. Like tanks of gas for wandering weekend road trips. I think I am better off. But who knows. I don't think I think about it all that much.

One of my favorite holidays of the year is the day I take a vacation day to go over to the US and help out with the NCPR membership drive. I have to deliver some prizes for draws given by helpful Kingstonians and these are received with great fanfare... or is it that they are received by exhausted public radio workers just fried enough to be exited to see a new face? With this cough, I likely won't answer phones. Not that I normally do. Sometimes there is even beer.

⇒ Another dictator dies. Great. But how weird to have been given the job to do this graphic for a newspaper. Nevertheless, the rat is dead.
⇒ Yes, there's the words of the allegedly greatest genius of our times. Android evil. Must destroy. Destroy.
⇒ I was published by the Oxford University Press... sorta.
⇒ Occupy Wall Street = Hooray for Everything + bad camping skills. Comment.
⇒ Wow. A real World Series without overblown stars. With actual stars. Without phoney rivalry drama or fried chicken in the clubhouse. Seems like its been years.

Well, that's it. Woke late and have to cross over the other side.

A pal of my Dad's over 20 years ago was brought into run the Halifax Shipyards. A Scottish school years' chum who had taken another path and came to Nova Scotia via Hong Kong, he was going to reinvigorate the place. He was not able to because he got very ill and soon passed away at an age I now realize was quite young. So I have a soft spot for the shipyards that go beyond my Haligonian loyalties. Good news, then, today:

A Halifax firm has won a massive government contract to build the next generation of military combat ships.News of Irving Shipbuilding’s winning bid for the $25 billion contract capped an intense competition that began in the summer of 2010 to land Ottawa’s largest-ever purchase — one that the government says will create jobs and boost the Canadian economy for up to three decades. The contract is for up to eight Arctic offshore patrol ships and 15 other weapons-baring ships to replace the current fleet of frigates.

Twenty five billion. That's seven months gross provincial output for Nova Scotia. Jobs. Job for your brother. Jobs for your Da. Jobs for the living. Jobs for the dead. That's at least how McGuinty's song about the prospect of government work went in the 80s. But this looks a bit more real.

Aches. Pains. Grimaces just like in the aspirin ads. I think it's over. It's been ten days. That's enough. I like the idea of the common cold - bundling up, laying in bed. Rum punch and bonbons... well do that, right? Well, it wasn't like that. But it's at least Friday. Sick Friday is better than sick Tuesday. Except you can't take Saturday off. That's like falling when you are already laying down. But that's autumn, right? The great laying down. The time of the return of the snooze.

⇒ The baseball playoffs are getting better than expected ratings. Maybe people are actually sick of the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies and Giants. Maybe Detroit v. Milwaukee is the dream match up after all.
⇒ Like the Occupy Wall Street protesters, I don't know what to make of the Occupy Wall Street protesters. Sure, corporations are holding on to a trillion bucks and stagnating the economy but what does that have to do with bad camping?
⇒ "One parent compared the danger of imitation peanut butter to fake guns." Remind me to avoid all parent teacher committees. Oh, I do.
⇒ Sorta funny when you realize the province's economy is based on something like 40% transfer of tax payments from other Canadians.
⇒ The real news of the day. Thank God for the internet so I know that this occurred. Best. News. Ever.

That is it. A quiet week punctuated by Amazon book deliveries, cold medication taking and dreary weather reports. Ten weeks until the days start getting longer.

It was quite a thing to watch. Forget the numbers involved in the drop from first to playoff observer. It was clear something was wrong when Lester didn't care enough to throw strikes in his last Yankee games. Today's Boston Globe sets out one interpretation of what happened, based largely on anonymous interviews:

By all accounts, the 2011 Sox perished from a rash of relatively small indignities. For every player committed to the team’s conditioning program, there was a slacker. For every Sox regular who rose early on the road to take optional batting practice, there were others who never bothered. For every player who dedicated himself to the quest for a championship, there were too many distracted by petty personal issues.

Blame is placed on Francona's health and marriage, too. But, a bit oddly, the most blame is placed on forcing a Saturday doubleheader against Oakland to avoid a hurricane coming through. Seems a bit of an odd thing to ditch a season over but the trio of Beckett, Lester, and Lackey are suggested to have done just that. Called a hatchet job, it's probably not the whole story but the idea that a team of millionaires who only have to play a game could get this sour and uppity is amazing.

Now wonder Epstein's with the Cubs now.