It’s Not About Me
The next time I’m asked to speak about my career to a university or college class, I’m going to say no. It’s not that I don’t want to help them, it’s that I don’t think that I can. Â …
November 2016
Review: Secret Life, The Jian Ghomeshi Investigation
Journalists discuss ethics. A lot. We notice when someone’s lost their integrity and we constantly ask ourselves and each other if we as individuals and as a group, are maintaining our own. …
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Luuup Review
It’s always easier to explain something that’s totally terrific or absolutely horrible. It’s more difficult when it lands somewhere in between the two extremes. …
Ken’s Gift Can Be Yours, Too
Whenever I’m asked about my cohost Ken Eastwood, “good guy” will come up in my answer. …
Throwback Thursday – Righting Some Wrongs
In 1989 I put a 45 on a dusty turntable in the FM102 music library and listened to a song called Soldier of Love. It was shipped without a label, purposely, so Music Directors wouldn’t be biased before they got a chance to hear it. I declared what I heard would be a hit song, It turned out that the artist was Donny Osmond. And that’s the one and only time I predicted a song would be a hit and was right! …
In the Luuup
Cats can be kind of disgusting. They’re more-or-less clean and rather obsessed with self-grooming but…well…if you’ve ever had a cat, you know. So when I heard about Luuup, the self-described Best Litter Box Ever Made, I had to investigate. This reads a bit like an infomercial, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not because my beta phase with this product has only just begun AND I paid full price for two of them, delivered. …
What the #*&%?
It looks like I have several friends who are near-geniuses. Let me explain. New research shows we’re wrong when we assume that someone who swears a lot has a small vocabulary and equally small brain. …
Diss Ability
Parkinson’s has robbed my Dad of many things. He shuffles when he walks and sometimes loses his balance so he has to be watched carefully when he moves. His arms don’t always do what he tells them. He looks smaller than he used to. He’s fragile. …
Miss Information
The Huffington Post conducted a fascinating experiment this week. They crafted an article with a deliberately false headline just to see how many people would share it without even reading it. Thousands did. …
Coffee Culture
A few years ago, I met a fellow author at a book-signing event at Chapters here in London. We had both been guests on a Rogers TV show called The Book Nook. Joe Ornato wrote Neurotic Money: The World of Debt & How It Has Hijacked Your Brain. …
Dad Club London
I’ve long admired the mission and motives of Dad Club London. They’re a bunch of Dads and dads-to-be who help each other navigate the complicated world of dad-hood. This is not your father’s diaper duty. …
Joshing You
Perhaps I’ve played the proud Aunt once or twice before, and mentioned that my eldest nephew, Josh, is training on the Canadian Olympic bobsled team. Josh is an elite athlete in track and field, and after getting his university education on a U.S. track scholarship, he thought his Olympic dreams were over. …
News is News
One of the things I try to teach my news-writing students at Fanshawe is to avoid presenting a story as good or bad. It just is. It’s up to your listener/viewer to decide whether something is positive or negative. A prime example of this is the state of the Canadian dollar. When it goes up or down it can be good or bad depending on what you want to do with it. If you want to spend money in the U.S., it’s not so good when the value of our dollar falls. If your business relies on selling goods to the States, it’s not so bad. …
Lest We Forget
There She Goes
The best-kept secret in broadcasting was finally revealed, and sent a shock through the broadcasting world yesterday. After nearly three decades on CHFI mornings, Erin Davis announced her retirement. …
President Trump
“Upset” describes what Donald Trump pulled off and how many people feel this morning. …
Election Prediction
A former colleague once said to me, “people are liberal when they’re younger and they get more conservative as they get older”. My first thought was, well isn’t that a sweeping statement! And my second: that doesn’t apply to me. …
Minding Your Business
Friday is, of course, Remembrance Day. And now that November is here, like toddlers who have eaten too much sugar, some super-excited Christmas-lovers are already in the spirit. Boy oh boy, are they in for a lashing on social media. …