A mere six or so chapters into The Bloggess' new book (Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir), I find myself dismayed.

Instead of laughing or being mildly grossed out at her father's strange antics, as per the rest of my book club, I found myself nodding in recognition, then kindling back over to 50 Shades of Grey (which, for the ( Read more... )

Once again, it seems that I have failed to win any Oscars. Some would say this is because I failed to appear in a single motion picture. I contend that this is but one more example of Hollywood's deeply entrenched bias against tall female actors of prairie descent. Sure, I may have little to no prior experience, retain all my original facial ( Read more... )

...he had me at "Zatch Galifaphinkakas."

Oh. But then Will Ferrell dropped that cymbal, and...hmmm. This is harder than I thought.

(PS: can I stop watching the interminable Oscars now? Or am I going to win one? Because if so, I can probably stay up another half hour. Just sayin'.)

I always have the best of intentions when it comes to my dad's birthday, but landing as it does right after Christmas, I'm a) never there and b) out of gift-giving inspiration by the time the big day arrives. Thus his birthday gift usually becomes a collection of smaller items that didn't fit into a Christmas package, and I usually present it by ( Read more... )

As I contemplate which of the many over-priced flights I might select to go home for the holidays (and this, on the assumption that my leave will be approved, no less), I find myself allowing the smallest of factors to sway my decision ( Read more... )

It all started because I don't get HBO Canada. Everyone was talking about Game of Thrones. It was all over my twitter, dfm was streaming it, political commentators were making vague reference to it, and I wanted in ( Read more... )

Given my love of (CFL) football and my deep appreciation for the all-purpose utility and evocative nature of the word "y'all," it will come as little surprise to any of you that I am a giant fan of Friday Night Lights. As a point of comparison, the only other show that I own on DVD in its entirety (and will quote without prompting) is The West ( Read more... )

I used to assume that certain things I saw on TV just weren't true, that they were made up for TV-land--like schools with more than one storey, or brick houses, or seasons like "Spring" and "Fall" that seemed to require coats other than a windbreaker or a parka. But then I moved to Nova Scotia, and then to Ontario, and realized that all these made ( Read more... )

I will find it deeply ironic if my name is removed from the voters' list because the enumerators keep comin' 'round to check on me while I am at work. And deeply disappointing, too, given how much I love to vote. I can't let myself be disenfranchised! What if it ruins my chances with Peter Mansbridge ( Read more... )

For all that I roll my eyes at my parents (out of love, people, out of love), and for all that they sigh at me, after watching my fill of TLC over the weekend, I have a whole new sense of perspective ( Read more... )