I spend a lot of my life on airplanes. After a while it becomes second nature and like most of the jets I travel on, I'm on auto-pilot. Packing takes 10 minutes. I know what part of the parkade is closest to which airline, where not to buy coffee, the security or customs line that moves quickest. I also know some travel dates, like those around Christmas, can be fraught with unexpected complications and delays. Eventually even...

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Every Prairie primary school I attended pretty much shut down on the first of December. Christmas holidays never officially started until a couple of days before Christmas. But while a few of the teachers went through the motions of teaching history or math, most of the rest and all of us kids were otherwise pre-occupied with one thing -- The Christmas Concert. In the towns where I lived the bible...

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When I was a kid, we were taught that Canada had the world's largest supply of fresh water. We had something like 3 million lakes and endless rivers clear enough to drink from even if your mom didn't think it was a good idea.And while Wikipedia now insists the "Most Fresh Water" resides in Brazil with Russia, China and Canada close behind, it's hard to find a tourist poster for the country that doesn't still feature pristine lakes,...

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We're gonna do things a little different this Sunday. Video first and then Jim's little sermon. And I can't exactly show the video either. That's because it's not in an embeddable format in the only place I can find it. It's also a commercial as well as technically NSFW and in the spirit of the season, we're trying to stay "family-friendly" as well as fiercely independent here at the Legion.So go here first and then come right...

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Last Spring, a freeway near me was renamed "The Highway of Heroes". It was a special designation recognizing a 100 mile ribbon of asphalt running from Trenton, Ontario to downtown Toronto. This is the route taken when Canadian soldiers who have made the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan are returned home.Military protocol requires the bodies of our fallen be flown to CFB Trenton, where their families have been gathered to receive...

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According to people who study such things, times of great social upheaval give rise to the creation of super-heroes. When we are overwhelmed by world events and personal circumstances we seek escape and look for someone with special powers who might better grapple with what we're facing. What I start to look for when I see the world going to hell in the proverbial hand basket is what wrong turns we made that got us here and how...

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My apologies for the lack of activity around here last week but I've been sicker than a dog. And in my case, that analogy is particularly accurate. Because when I get sick I act exactly like this old dog I used to own. I crawl into a dark little hole until whatever the problem is has worked its way through the system. His spot was under the porch. Mine's somewhere beneath a Duvet with the drapes drawn.Every...

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There are some things embedded in any culture that speak volumes about the places they come from.Once you've experienced Mexico's "Day of the Dead" or stood amid the smoke from pyres along the Ganges, you look at your own mortality much differently.Brits may cringe at "Coronation Street" and Aussies grimace at the suggestion they "put another shrimp on the barbie", but the flavor of "The Rover's Return" still resides in every...

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They didn't have "time outs" when I was a kid. You just got spanked/yelled at/grounded/whatever and life went on.We've been through a pretty rancorous week in this country. Not quite Brother on Brother stuff, but friendships have been strained, trust fractured and feelings definitely hurt. And much as I'm no fan of the Monarchy, I'm kinda glad the Queen had a local BFF who sorted through all the arguments...

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If you need any further evidence that our lives are run by trolls, just watch any newscast out of Ottawa this week. My God people! Maybe the Prime Minister we've got is an ill-tempered, ideological bore and not the best guy to be running this country. But these other guys....Gilles Duceppe -- a man who hates Canada!Jack Layton -- a man who hates the free enterprise system!And Stéphane Dion -- a man...

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In 1885, William R. Travers, prominent New York businessman and builder of Saratoga Race Track, was taken out for lunch by a Wall Street broker anxious to impress him and win his business. The broker took Travers to a nearby marina to show off his yacht and those of the other brokers who worked for his firm. The businessman looked down the line of beautiful craft and asked, "Where are the clients' yachts?".The broker didn't have...

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One of my favorite film moments takes place during the opening titles of the Gilles Adrian scripted French film "Delicatessan". As the camera wends its way through the garbage produced by the small apartment building that is the story's setting, it finds one piece of detritus or another to match each of the film's craft credits. Discarded script pages identify the Screenwriter, a rusty camera acknowledges...

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A Country band named "Alabama" had a hit a few years ago called "Angels Among Us" which proposed the theory that there are -- well -- Angels among us. Angels that guide us in the right direction in times of trouble.For the last three days I've been about an hour away from another of my relentlessly insightful postings about the intricate behind the scenes machinations of the Canadian TV & film industries when the ground has...

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I had the extreme good fortune of seeing each of the "Three Knights" perform onstage. The Knights being Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir John Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson, three of the English language's greatest actors.To many (including the first two on the list) Richardson was considered the best of them all. But I never saw any of the performances that made and established his reputation. Instead...

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I'm not a recognizable figure on the Club scene. Couldn't tell you the difference between "Electro", "Cool" or "House" if my life depended on it. And much as I enjoyed "It's All Gone Pete Tong", I still can't get my head around the concept that guys who play records are Stars. Just what exactly separates them from the dude in the bad tuxedo who does the same thing at weddings anyway? But I went to "Cirque", Toronto's hottest,...

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