I am a lucky man. Those last four letters in my name, leod, are Old Norse. It has something to do with a word like "ljot" and refers to culturally and contextually appropriate berserkerism. Very odd, you might say. Very handy, says I. Example: roasting chickens Norwegian style a few weeks ago. For …

Oh, to be not driving. The last two two weekends worth of driving could have seem me somewhere deep in Central America had I aimed in a different direction. Don't get me wrong - I like a long drive. But I like not doing it was well. What did I learn? PEI is a long way away but most places aren't …

In what has got to be [Ed.: oxymoron alert!] the most excruciatingly boring Canadian election ever, it is nice to realize that today is the last working Monday left before the vote. Yes, the days have dwindled down to a precious few and the only recent trend I can see is that steady slipping of …

Did you know there was a $400,000,000 investment scandal in little PEI related to a Federal-Provincial program which includes the giving out of immigration rights? Here is a good place to start if you know nothing. Just for the record, that sum equals about $3,000 for every man, woman and child in …

...and what have we learned? One thing is that Stephen Harper and the rest of them can have a fairly civilized discussion when they sit at a table rather than point and pontificate from a podium. Next election, some beer and bags of sour cream and onion chips in the middle, please. Other than that …

Let's face it. We have all mishandled our relations with Quebec. The NDP were never really there. The Liberals were never liked under Chretien and Dion was a big part of that. And even the separatist Bloc has to accept that the votes they get really have their fingers crossed about the whole …

Wall Street welfare. That's what I have heard it called - imagine the insensitivity. Just because it is centred upon ensuring those who messed up get to both control the solution and be the sole beneficiaries of the solution. How can people be so cruel. David Brooks in the NYT stokes the flames of …

I heard a very helpful investment talk show on WHAM 1180 AM from Rochester this morning. WHAM, you will recall from five years ago(!), is the station with a call in show on wine, an amazing concept. Anyway, this morning the WHAM voices explained the meaning of things like "mortgage-backed …

I had no idea:  •  The government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is making waves far off American shores. China is watching the events closely because some 10 percent of China's gross domestic product is invested with the troubled mortgage giants."  •  That makes for a rather dependent …