I drove over to pick up a package today and the guy on my satellite radio's Fox News feed was reeling off the monumental casualty list from the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918, angry at his government for not completely sealing the border to Mexico, something I've heard him rant about in other contexts many times in the past. It was the current state of American journalism at its finest. Sensationalism mixed with dubious research...

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The first time I was in a hit show, the playwright walked in one day with a newspaper review panning a play opening across the street. He was thrilled, uttering a Broadway adage I was hearing for the first time -- "Nothing makes success sweeter than the failure of a friend." I know he was only repeating a much repeated phrase, but I lost all respect for him that night.I've never understood celebrating the failure of somebody else....

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I honestly can't remember the last time so many teams were swept in the first round of the playoffs. And it could just as easily have been an even higher number. You get the feeling some true powerhouses are in the running this year. And all of them will inevitably have to go head to head in the coming rounds. Does it get much better than that?I had the good fortune to be in Vancouver the night the Canucks swept St. Louis, in...

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The thing that sets the inner tubes apart from virtually all other forms of media, maybe except for talk radio, is its ability to be interactive. Oh, you could always write a letter to the editor, that might or might not get printed, maybe or maybe not in an unedited form, sometime sooner or later – and often well after your point or the issue that prompted it had dropped from the Public consciousness...

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Okay, so there's only been one game in each series and the numbers don't mean much yet. But it's Friday report time and who knows if Dixon will be in any shape to post anything Monday after his big weekend in the big smoke. Fittingly, the first guy who entered the pool is leading. I'm not sure if that means Michael Foster really handicapped this thing and couldn't wait to get started or simply has a better flutter kick than the...

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For the most part, I’m still a shit-kicker from the poorest area of Saskatchewan. A red-neck. A Hillbilly from a land without hills. “Hill William” as we would re-coin the term at the University of Saskatchewan since we were now “edumacated”. Life, luck and perhaps some talent led me to work in the Canadian Arts, travel the world to hone my skills and receive validation at my craft through success in America. Also for the most...

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Just hours until the first puck drops to start this season's Stanley Cup Playoffs and still plenty of time to get your picks in for the "3rd Annual Infamous Writers Hockey Pool". Details down the page. Just scroll down until you see a hockey player...>>>>>>>>>>A male hockey player...

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There must be something in the water in Kansas City. I long ago learned that if I wanted an intelligent take on any major issue in the sports world, my first stop was Jason Whitlock, the Kansas City Star sports columnist who writes with more grace and integrity than almost anyone else in that genre. When it comes to television and thoughtful insight into the TV trade, one of the most reliable sources...

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THEEEEY'RE HEEEE-RE!!!The Stanley Cup Playoffs, the greatest spectacle and the toughest trophy to win in all of professional sport!This is where we separate the men from the boys, the wheat from the chaff, the real heroes from the wannabes and poseurs. This is where those with hockey smarts and the courage of their convictions can also shine. Because next to getting stitched up on the bench and playing with a broken leg, the most...

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When I was in high school, my youngest brother was addicted to “Thunderbirds”, the British kids series filmed in “Supermarionation” a fancy way of saying “We’re not even trying to hide the puppet strings”.  “Thunderbirds” achieved and maintains a special cult status among kid shows. It was bigger and more ambitious than almost anything else on offer at the time – and yet – some of its strongest appeal lay in the impression...

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This Blog got it’s first job offer last week. Two years of blood and sweat and primary career sacrifice finally paid off with the arrival of a nice letter from an obviously just as nice woman in England, very generous writing contract already drawn and attached. The British just do this stuff right, don’t they? No need for multiple meetings and mulling of other options. They simply sense Quality and have the Solicitor pop a letter...

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I once asked a female friend, who has a macho husband and two testosterone stoked teenage boys, how she seemed to so easily manage her male dominated household. She had a two word answer.Ground beef.She said she always had a pound of hamburger ready to go in the fridge. Whether somebody was grumpy, hyper-active or sulking, her prescription was always the same -- cook 'em a hamburger. A little rare...

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I was never a fan of “Star Trek” because I always felt the people making it cheated. Somewhere in Act 1, the crew of the “Enterprise” would get in some kind of bind and there’d be this inevitable scene where Scotty would go to work on the damaged Thrusters or Shields, making it clear that they weren’t designed to take whatever abuse was being meted out or they needed to operate at some capacity beyond scientific possibility...

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