Taxidermists, snake charmers, deep sea divers, astronauts, strippers, proctologists, butchers and vegans all have something in common: I can find a way to understand why they do what they do, even though I have no intention of ever joining them. But there’s one group of people I simply can’t wrap my head around and perhaps someone will shed some light on them for me. …
There aren’t too many people to look up to in broadcasting anymore. Thousands who thought Jian Ghomeshi was all that sure got a slap upside the head in the past year or so. And the business is less stable than ever. Even some of the well-liked, long running hosts find themselves at the wrong end of a pink slip. Take Jennifer Valentyne. She was let go from CITY-TV after 17 years simply because they found a cheaper way to do what she does. …
My Mom hates wind turbines. She’s certainly not alone in that but unfortunately for Mom, turbines have been creeping into her world despite her efforts to stop them. …
It’s easy to condemn more than 500 Ontario doctors who billed the government for more than a million dollars last year. The list came out showing 12 of them practice in the London area, although names aren’t disclosed. …
One of the first people I met when I moved back to London was Derek’s friend Kevin Bulmer. Kevin is a former on-air guy in radio, a singer-songwriter, Dad to two great lads and a whole lot of other cool things. He also hired me to work at Delaware Speedway several summers ago. Now we also work in the same building. …
Whenever someone mentions Prince, the following story comes to mind. And yesterday, when news of his death at 57 started burning up social media, it came back in vivid purple colour. It was the time Prince came to London, Ontario. In 1984, I was working at CKSL and so was Derek when his purpleness was spotted in the Forest City. As my friend Dan Brown writes, this was long before he lived in Toronto or had any ties to Canada. …
Lee Roy the border collie has been gone for going on a decade. Now, our friend Barry has a new puppy, Carly, and seeing her regularly, coupled with the rediscovery of this photo, has been bringing back sweet memories of Lee Roy. …
Throwback Thursday – Lee Roy Meets His Great LoveRead More »
Perhaps you’ve heard of the latest dumb thing to come out of my city. I love London, but sometimes we lead the country in idiotic ideas. …
Sometimes you have a choice. You can wipe your hands on an old fashioned, environmentally-unfriendly paper towel which you toss in the trash, or you can use one of those fancy-pants hand dryers. There’s no mess afterward and your hands dry off in record time. But a study shows that you may as well dunk your hands in the toilet. …
Photos of me without makeup show an undereye area that’s as dark as a bruise. Interestingly, that shade extends all around the eye. Mother Nature isn’t content to just give me dark bags. No, after so many years of getting up in the middle of the night, the circles actually go into my eyelids! …
For years, when we drove down Colonel Talbot Road toward Lambeth, we’d look at a large, grey-sided house set back in a generous yard and oooh and ahh over it. It came to symbolize a “dream home” for us. It had an attached double-garage and looked very stately and beautiful. …
Last week one of my former 680 News colleagues put a “did you know” post on Facebook concerning “hidden” messages on the iPhone. If you followed the simple instructions, you’d find messages sent to you that you weren’t aware of – I assumed it was bogus but I followed along and BAM! Dozens of messages appeared from people I do and don’t know. I couldn’t believe it! …
The home inspector who gave the all-clear on my Toronto house missed some big problems. Dangerous electrical issues and other things put our lives and bank accounts at risk. He was also a jerk and if you haven’t gathered, he was incompetent. …
Back in the late 1970s when I discovered Bruce Springsteen, who knew that it would become a life-long relationship? Loving his music offered no guarantee that he wouldn’t go all Ted Nugent on us. …
One thing I’ve never been called, is a best-selling author! I have written four books and they’ve all had varying degrees of minor success. My most popular book, The Naked Truth, continues to sell a few dozen copies each month. Every author dreams of best-seller status, but a book marketer in Texas decided to expose the notion of what that means these days. …
This week, NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. burned up the Twitterverse with a post about his favourite sandwich. You remember Elvis’s ‘nana and peanut butter? Try banana and mayonaisse on white bread! …
If you’re lucky enough to work at a good place, you develop a sort of short-hand with your colleagues based on your experiences. You might also get involved in some silly things, that make sense to you but look ridiculous to someone else. …
Keep in mind that this is real. The National Rifle Association, the powerful gun lobby in the United States, is rewriting classic fairy tales and posting them on the NRA website. They read like the parodies they are, but the NRA’s spin on their reason for the edits is what makes the whole thing astounding, even for them. …