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There's Two Ways We Could Do This…
Benjamin Franklin's Daily Schedule: Or… Thomas Edison's approach: "I usually failed my way to success."...
Lazy Sunday # 175: Football Cops
Last week, BellMedia, owner of CTV, TSN and 26 other Canadian broadcasters, turned up at the CRTC hearings on vertical integration in the media. They spent most of their time making themselves giddy over how all-powerful they were becoming and at how holding onto exclusive control of all their content over all manner of media platforms was the only way to achieve world domination -- er -- a bright future for Canadian culture....
Knowing Where The Bodies Aren't Buried
Television networks have an uncanny ability to make us believe things which aren't true. At least twice in my own lifetime, powerful media conglomerates have whipped up patriotic frenzies surrounding non-existent threats like the Gulf of Tonkin incident and Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, assisting both Democratic and Republic Presidents in getting the United States into a war. Closer to home, entire broadcast entities...
Lazy Sunday # 174: Release The Hounds
I really like Sheepdogs. I've owned a few, befriended several more. And they all seem to match my own basic world view. Have fun. Try to get along. Don't take what people think of you too seriously. I'm not exactly sure what first attracted me to them. But I have a theory that they remind me of my first favorite toy, a kind of rocking horse thing of a character named "Punkinhead", whose copyright clearly lapsed sometime before...
The Infamous Writers Hockey Pool: Winners & Losers
And so it ends… Vancouver crashes and burns. Literally. Boston wins the Stanley Cup. Deservedly. And for the record -- what happened in Vancouver last night doesn't have anything to do with hockey. Of course, I'm talking about the aftermath of the game. But I could be talking about the game itself. Vancouver should have won. Could have won. But it was clear that Boston wanted it more. For all the skill and finesse...
The Rise and Fall of "KvonFinckyCRTC"
Gallows humor, making fun of the people who control your life and Satire have been around about as long as there've been those whose circumstances dictated they laugh to avoid losing either hope or their minds. The literary version of Satire -- the word comes from the Latin "lanx satura" and literally means "a full dish of various fruits" -- has long been recognized as a more or less respectable way to ridicule the vices,...
Lazy Sunday # 173: The Chase Film
The chase has always been a staple of dramatic entertainment. From "The Perils of Pauline" to "Stagecoach" to "Bullitt" and "The Bourne (whichever)" there's been no better way to exhibit the visceral impact of the media than with a chase. It’s been kinda busy around the Legion of late. Lots of deadlines and distractions combined with the all-encompassing Stanley Cup Hockey Pool. Made even more encompassing this season by...
Infamous Writers Hockey Pool: Week Nine Ends
Was there ever any doubt? I mean seriously. These are two spectacular teams playing absolutely out of their minds. It's the kind of stuff that makes the Hockey Gods recall why they wanted to become Gods in the first place. They're gonna make this last as long as they can. And that means no matter which side you're rooting for, you need to get out and enjoy it. This is the Hockey Gods gift to you. Last night, with the sun...
Pool Report: Wk9 Begins
You know how everybody develops Stanley Cup superstitions this time of year? Two decades after the fact, Will Dixon and I still blame ourselves for the Leafs losing their 1993 Cup ticket to the LA Kings because we simultaneously broke our cardinal rules of watching the games on the same TV sets to venture out to a Sports bar. It wasn't an uncalled high stick that cost the Buds their spot. It was a beckoning plate of chicken...
Lazy Sunday # 172: Interpretation
I'm gonna try not to take a side here. But I probably will… After Canada's Federal election last month, there was a lot of whining from the losing parties. That's to be expected. Losing hurts. It's never pleasant to discover that a lot of your friends and neighbors don't share your particular beliefs and values, especially those which you hold passionately. That's life. It takes all kinds to make a world. And sometimes a...
The Infamous Writers Hockey Pool: Week 8
AAaaawwwww, is this fun or what!?!! Just by a fluke, I had to be in Vancouver on Wednesday. And the minute I took my first breath of that clean Pacific air, I picked up the scent of something I remembered from Toronto in 1992 and 1993 when the Blue Jays were in the World Series. I love the smell of anticipation in the morning. It smells like -- Victory! Now don't get all envious or bent out of shape. I didn't manage to score...
