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R.I.P. Pierre Berton

SvenGolly asked if it would write some kind of elegy for Canadian journalist/historian/author/television personality Pierre Berton. As I mentioned earlier,

my schedule today is rather packed, but let me say that one of the

things I admired most about Pierre was his ability to challenge and

confront other people in a genial, gentlemanly way.

If you want a good elegy for Mr. Berton, allow me to point you to Colby Cosh, who provides an interesting writeup; after all, he’s a new-school conservative who’s writing up an old-school liberal.

And for your enjoyment, I’ve enclosed a video that you’d never see a

similar American figure take part in; it’s of Pierre Berton explaining

how to roll a joint.

(The video is included with this article as an enclosure.)

Photo: Pierre Berton in 'Rick Mercer's Monday Report', holding a joint.

In the words of Louis Riel, “What you need is a fatty boom-batty blunt!”

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In the News

Our Pro-Bush Contingent Can’t Draw a Crowd, Didn’t Learn from "Star Wars" and are Cheapskates

[via Relapsed Catholic] Here’s a breathless writeup of a pro-Bush rally organized by the unintentionally funny site FreeDominion.ca (“Show up and be counted”, the banner ad for the rally says).

Judging from the photos, I think I get more people at my birthday parties, and I’m not a world leader. Yet.

Photo: FreeDominion.ca Pro-Bush rally outside Ottawa.

A funny moment: The “Queen Amidala Decoy” trick actually works in real life!

Finally, the big moment — the fake Bush came through with his

motorcade and we cheered, not quite certain if this was the real thing.

Fortunately, the Secret Service intervened and held us back, at which

point everything clicked for those of us who weren’t certain. In

hindsight, it seemed a little strange that the President was driving

his own cadillac.

In addition to being unlikely to solve quadratic equations anytime soon, they’re also bad hosts:

Also unlike the anti-Bush rally, we outnumbered the Americans by about

10 to 1 at our pro-Bush rally. Nevertheless, the Americans who showed

up displayed the class as the President — after the pre-rally, they

approached each of us Canadians and personally thanked us for giving

the President a warm welcome. (They also showed American hospitality

when, despite our protests we should treat them as our guests, they

picked up the tab for coffee and donuts at Tim Horton’s between the

pre-rally and the rally.)

Yup, despite outnumbering the guests 10 to 1 and being more likely to

have the local currency on hand, the FreeDominioners completely fell

down and let the visitors

pay for coffee. The poltical right, in spite of the fun I poke at

them, are generally much better with the social graces than their

cousins on the left, but ours completely fell down on the rules of

hospitality while the Americans went above and beyond the rules of comity. We’re not talking chateaubriand-and-claret dinners here, folks, but coffee! No wonder we Canadians have a rep for being bad tippers.

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In the News It Happened to Me

Thank You!

Photo: Cover of the November 25, 2004 issue of 'eye' Magazine, featuring the 2004 Readers' Choice Awards.

eye Magazine is one of Toronto’s “alternative” weekly magazines.

Last Thursday afternoon, I was in a small town outside Boston, eating Thanksgiving hors d’oeuvres

at my future in-laws’ place. During that time, I noticed that I’d

received a phone message. I checked it later that evening and got a

rather excited voice mail from Meryle telling me that The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century had won “Best Local Blog” in eye Magazine’s 2004 Reader’s Choice Awards.

Photo: 'eye' magazine's 'Toronto's Best' 2004 logo.

I didn’t even know that they were taking nominations, so my thanks to eye Magazine and all of you who voted for me!

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In the News

The Ultimate "People Who live in Glass Houses Shouldn’t Throw Stones" Example

Here’s a hilarious-yet-sad story

about a father who tried to scare his kids off drunk and disorderly

behaviour by calling the cops on them, only have the tables turned on

him:

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A father’s attempt to teach

his daughter a lesson about drinking backfired when the teen led police

to a stash of drugs and weapons inside their home.

Kevin Winston, 46, called police at 2:45 a.m.

Friday after his 16-year-old daughter came home drunk and unruly. When

police arrived, however, the girl told them she feared for her safety

because her father stored drugs and weapons in the home.

The girl led officers to a crawl space above the

ceiling where they found four semiautomatic guns and more than 600

vials of cocaine.

Winston was charged with numerous weapons and drug charges. His five daughters were placed in the custody of a relative.

“He called us on her and ended up getting locked up himself,” said Newark Police Director Anthony Ambrose.

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In the News

Textbook Disclaimer Stickers

[via MetaFilter] You may be aware of this stickers being put into science textbooks in Cobb County, Georgia — they look like this:

Photo: Cobb County book sticker on book that teach evolution.

Colin Purrington, Associate Professor of Evolutionary Biology at Swarthmore College has come up with his own disclaimer stickers.

I suspect that if I were a high school student in Cobb County, I’d

being doing detention for applying these stickers to my classmates’

books.

Photo: Parody of Cobb County book sticker.

Photo: Parody of Cobb County book sticker.

Photo: Parody of Cobb County book sticker.

Photo: Parody of Cobb County book sticker.

Photo: Parody of Cobb County book sticker.

Photo: Parody of Cobb County book sticker.

I refer you to the first verse of M.C. Hawking’s Fuck the Creationists:

Verse 1


Fuck the damn creationists, those bunch of dumb-ass bitches,

every time I think of them my trigger finger itches.

They want to have their bullshit, taught in public class,

Stephen J. Gould should put his foot right up their ass.

Noah and his ark, Adam and his Eve,

straight up fairy stories even children don’t believe.

I’m not saying there’s no god, that’s not for me to say,

all I’m saying is the Earth was not made in a day.

For my take on the whole thing, read my one-act play, Sacrelicious!

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In the News

"We’ve got BOTH kinds!"

Comic: Blues Brothers meet Condi Rice.

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In the News

John Ashcroft’s Retirement Card

It’s funny.