Friday is the new Saturday in the work world. Remembering working Saturdays in the years of schlepverk, retail wages funding weekends reminds me of dressdowns and finishing the afternoon ending with the Beat Authority:  •  Make a flake. Go ahead. You know you want to. Post them on the fridge in …

This is great. Four years of war and thousands dead to create a democratic foothold - and this happens:  •  “Giovanni De Stefano, a member of the men's defence team, said he heard the news from a colleague in Baghdad. "I was stunned because we were assured there would be no executions until at …

If I didn't do Friday chat, the Internet would stop. That is what the voices tell me.  •  How Canadian are you? What a dumb question to pose in relation to immigration? What is the benchmark? If they asked a group of Haligonians when I was young the answer would be "not much". We didn't think much …

Tough to decide four years in to embrace your inner Powell and grasp the importance of civil order but maybe it is not too late:  •  “President Bush embraced a major tactical shift on Wednesday evening in the war in Iraq when he declared that the only way to quell sectarian violence there was to …

Interesting to read in the Toronto Star that Conrad Black - a man of many troubles including some not of his own making - has actually made a very honest apology:  •  “In a letter to the editor of the respected literary publication, Black confesses: "On re-reading my review ... I find that …

Nothing gives me faith in the reliability of a source of information than solid technical descriptions of things. Hope it wasn't Whoville. In other news:  •  “Celebrities have been asked to check their facts before lending support to scientific research and campaigns, rather than risk misleading …

It's here. The last Friday of 2006. Like most, I hate New Year's Eve due to one or two nights of the bad party. Now I plan nothing and always get my way. Once many years ago - for reasons I can't get into and I can't really recall - I ate about five servings of fried clams and shot plastic dart …

I give up. It is nutty news day:  •  “The world's tallest man has saved two dolphins by using his long arms to reach into their stomachs and pull out dangerous plastic shards. Mongolian herdsman Bao Xishun was called in after the dolphins swallowed plastic used around their pool at an aquarium in …

Sometimes life does mirror really bad 1980s movies of the week:  •  “Myriam Bédard, a one-time Canadian Olympic hero, is now a fugitive wanted by police for parental abduction. Quebec City police have issued an arrest warrant for Ms. Bédard, who left for the United States this fall with her spouse …