February 2017

Criminal Minds

Ken and I discussed a T-shirt last week that was drawing fire as racist. It was a Walking Dead-inspired shirt, that depicted Negan’s wire-wrapped baseball bat named Lucille and the character’s threatening words as he decided who to kill in the season six cliff-hanger: eenie meenie miny moe…. …

Spam I Am

It’s been some time since I last shared some of my favourite spam. Spammers are getting craftier about trying to slip past the gates of my website comments and onto the live pages. They’re easily identified by their names and fake email addresses, terrible grammar and awkward phrasing. But the fake praise they pile in a heap is worth sharing!  …

Review: The Wild Edge of Sorrow

This book came to my attention because Derek was hired to narrate it for an audiobook. Many times through the process he would share with me a phrase that resonated with him, or tell me an anecdote from it that hit close to home. Once the audiobook was finished, I purchased a copy from North Atlantic Books and popped it on a memory stick which I listened to while I drove.

Boob Job

Some people call them “boob lights”. They’re those ceiling fixtures that sort of resemble breasts. You see them everywhere and the most basic design can be had for less than $20. It’s what was on our kitchen ceiling and once I set my sights on it, its days were numbered.

Musings on Media

A massive report on Canada’s media was released a couple of weeks ago. It aimed to study the country’s corporate media landscape – newspapers, radio, television, Internet – and report to the federal government on what can be done to make sure that 1. journalism survives and 2. democracy also survives because without journalists, no one keeps politicians in check. This is why Donald Trump is attempting to repeatedly discredit major media. But I digress.   …

Cupid’s Arrow

I’m pretty sure I’ve never written a mushy Valentine’s Day post. And I’m not about to start! But today is the most wonderful of all fake holidays. Chocolate will be eaten. Hallmark will get richer. Single people will grumble or ignore the day, and rightly so. One day someone will sue Lindt because their heart-shaped boxes are exclusionary, or they feel shamed by the “couple’s special” at their favourite restaurant. (I’ll bet it happens!)  …

Wise Girls

We are binging on all seven seasons of Gilmore Girls. When the four-part series revival came out last year, I was intrigued, mainly because my friend Lianne is such a huge fan of the show. It’s to the point that she couldn’t bring herself to watch Bad Santa because Gilmore Girls star Lauren Graham plays a sexy bartender, nothing like young mom Lorelai Gilmore.  …

Tables Turned on Meanies

Imagine if someone was let into your workplace specifically to tell you what a bad job they thought you were doing. They responded to your every move in a negative way and repeated, often using foul language, how unqualified or unfit you were do be in your position. They made blanket statements and assumptions and battered you with their verbal assaults. Imagine also that you had no idea who they were. Their identity was hidden. That’s what it’s like to be a host in talk radio.  …

Throwback Thursday – Icelandic Adventure

How quickly a year flies by. Last February, we went to Iceland and got to see and experience things that aren’t available anywhere else in the world. From the jagged and unique terrain to the opportunity to actually stand between two continents, to the friendly people and their unusual way of life, it was truly an adventure.  …

DIY Coasters – Published in The Londoner

Forgotten CDs Play on As Drink Coasters Dec 19/16

CDs, once the brave, new technology for recorded music, were left in the dust by digital technology. And in the dust is where they sit, in piles or on racks. Even though we might not listen to them much anymore, they’re difficult to part with. But a quick walk through any second-hand store will show you how little value they have today.  Now that almost everything is downloadable, merchants can’t seem to get rid of CDs at any price.