If I Ran the World – July 11, 2006
Any body hair shaved off at least 3 times would never grow back. Â …
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General
Out of the Loop
Back in the day, you know, the 70s in my case, when a TV show was a hit it was a hit with virtually everyone. Heck, we only had 3 channels so if you were watching TV at all, you couldn’t help but catch a popular show. …
Belated Valentine for Family Day
Because every family has a Rob Ford, doesn’t it? Â …
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Hallmark Holiday
Call Valentine’s Day what you will but I think anything that spreads a little more love in the world isn’t a bad thing. …
Real-Life Howard Wolowitz in London
Fascinating news came out of Western University late last week. A PhD student there was honoured by NASA with a prestigious award because of his work operating the Mars rover Curiosity from his lab at the school. …
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The War on the Apostrophe
It’s well established on these pages that the misuse of the apostrophe is what’s going to finally push me over the edge! Of all of the grammatical errors, putting an apostrophe into a simple plural is the one I can’t tolerate or even understand. How did so many people come to believe it’s right to write it’s every time you use the word? Â I tell students to think about whether they’re trying to say “it is” and if not, leave the ‘ out. …
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Spice Earns His Keep
By now you might be aware that we are completely owned by this cat we adopted 16 months ago. And until recently he didn’t have a job. …
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Rights Can be Wrong
This is a sticky story that gets me a little fired up. It’s about accommodating for someone’s special situation, such as a disability, and it seems to me it’s getting out of control. Â A Hamilton mom is proving it with her human rights complaint. Â …
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Dry Your Swoobs
First there was cleavage. Then came side-boob. I’ve also heard of top-boob. But did you know there’s now a thing called swoobs?  It’s sweat on your boobs. …
Missed Target
I like Target stores. I’m unashamed to admit that! And as soon as they opened in Canada, I stopped making treks to Port Huron to visit them. But you have to wonder why major retailers can’t keep customer information safe. …
Suspended Coffee
I love, love, love this idea that started locally in a Windsor coffee shop. Â Instead of buying for the person behind you, who can obviously afford their own coffee, you pay it forward for someone who can’t. Â …
Blow up That Bridge
NOTE: I have learned that this is a hoax. Or at least, it started that way. It was meant to inspire exactly the kind of discussion I’ve started here. So life imitates art. Read on: Perhaps you’ve heard of the thigh gap. It’s the determination to be so thin that your thighs don’t rub together. It’s ridiculous and in many cases, unsafe to pursue this stupid fad. But that’s not stopping some teen girls from making it their goal. And it gets even better. Or in this case, worse. …
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Out of This World
This week I discovered that a former colleague from CHML Hamilton is in the final 1,000 who want to travel to and settle Mars. Â The trip taking four semi-pro astronauts one way is scheduled to leave in 2023. Â More than 200,000 people applied to take the ride. Â …
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Brandt’s Randt – Hiding and Tossing Darts
This week’s randt has nothing to do with this website and everything to do with those that specialize in news coverage. Â As one of the administrators of our site at work I am privy to the unapproved comments and they make you give your head a shake. Â …
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Honour Among Thieves
A robber in southern Spain got a shock this week when he went through the loot he took from a home burglary. …
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Tough Advice
Occasionally I’m asked to read the writing of someone I don’t know very well. Â They occasionally approach me to ask for my opinion and I’m loathe to say no because it’s difficult for them to do. This isn’t a problem if they have talent but there’s no way to know at the start. Â And it’s just awful when the writing is terrible. Â By terrible I mean an inability to tell a story, not just bad grammar – an editor can fix that. Â …
Professor School
I spent most of last weekend at Fanshawe College taking in a series of seminars and presentations designed to teach me how to teach.  There were a few dozen of us, some with teaching experience and some without, and it really astonished me in hindsight that a couple of other colleges unleashed me, and many others, on unsuspecting students with no training whatsoever! …
A Cold Shot
Late last year the Ontario Nurses Association started a campaign against health care facilities forcing them to get the flu shot. This is a problem on several levels. …