Weather forecasters are not always right, of course. But I am prepared to concede that they probably know more about the weather than I do. And so I took it seriously when I heard yesterday morning that “Waking up to a winter wonderland on Christmas Day will be more of a dream than reality for […]
In the past this website has expressed admiration (and even sympathy) for two Southern California belles of some notoriety, Lindsay Lohan and Paulina Gretzky. See, eg, my colleague L. Frank Bunting on “Why are the puritans still persecuting Lindsay Lohan?” and (only half-repentantly, at best) “Sober second thoughts on the persecution of Lindsay Lohan?” And […]
A Huffington Post Travel Blog article this past Friday – by Mitch Moxley, a “Freelance writer in Beijing” – seems to be stirring a lot of dust in Vancouver. It’s called “Welcome To Vancouver: ‘No Fun City’.” And it certainly isn’t flattering. Moxley allows that, physically and geographically, “Vancouver is a beautiful city. Gorgeous.” But, […]
OTTAWA. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2012. Retired senior citizens in desperate need of afternoon naps were well served by the CPAC TV presentation of Question Period, in the just-back-from-summer-vacation Canadian House of Commons yesterday afternoon. The favourite word of New Democrat MPs this season is apparently “reckless,” as in the Harper government’s “reckless cost cutting,” etc, […]
Ghosts must exist in some sense. That at least is the conclusion I have drawn from the various celebrations of the 35th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley at Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tennessee, on August 16, 1977 at the age of 42. The biggest celebration was no doubt at Graceland itself, where “75,000 […]
On this very hot and languorous summer day in the Great Lakes region of North America, the news from the mysterious east has finally drifted in on some erotic sunbeams: “Nazril Irham Freed” ; “Peterpan’s Ariel Is Finally, Sort of, Free” ; “Mixed reactions greet pop star’s parole” ; and “Ariel Will Publish A Memoir […]
The counterweights editors have just informed me that a piece I did last summer – “Catching up with UK hacking scandal .. Rebekah Brooks (nee Wade/Mrs. Ross Kemp) and Wendi Deng Murdoch!” – has been receiving some striking fresh attention from readers. And the editors have asked me to quickly update the ongoing adventures of […]
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA. SUNDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2011. This afternoon will see this city’s 107th annual Santa Claus Parade. From 1905 to 1982 the event was sponsored by the now defunct Eaton’s department store. Then a consortium took over. This year’s sponsors include Coca Cola, Lego, Mattel, McDonalds, Mercedes-Benz, Pfizer, Scotiabank, Shopsy’s, Sony Pictures, Tim Hortons, […]
Now that the new Harper Conservative majority government (still elected by less than 40% of the Canadian people) has restored the pre-1968 “abject colonial” names of “Royal Canadian Navy” and “Royal Canadian Air Farce,” related new rumours are heating up in Ottawa (aka “the last lumber village before the North Pole”). Sooner than anyone may […]
If you were among the tens (or even hundreds?) of thousands (or even millions?) who watched the strangely moving ceremony in which new Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Roberto Alomar’s Toronto Blue Jays’ number 12 was officially retired, on the sunny early afternoon of Sunday, July 31, 2011, you may share a certain puzzlement among […]
