Our latest Wine Tidings magazine has a long and highly entertaining piece on LCBO wines from less-expected locales, and has accompanied it with some highly entertaining reviews. The article is unfortunately not online, but here’s an excerpt: 86: Monte Cheval Vranac 2007Montenegro, $8.35This is an unapologetically rough red that puts the rust back in rustic.continue reading
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Baby, meet bathwater
At first glance this makes a good deal of sense: Bill would protect kids from drug endangerment The bill would make it a separate offence to “drug endanger” a child. It would establish drug-endangered children as a category in need of protection. It would also add drug endangerment as a form of child abuse undercontinue reading
The Feedback Tour, Europe edition
At first I thought someone was pranking the press when I saw this item: Lou Reed is back with experimental music of 1970s LONDON (Reuters) – It was dismissed as “career suicide” and a joke, and some fans returned the record thinking it was faulty, but rocker Lou Reed is re-releasing a digitally remastered versioncontinue reading
The poignant, poignant pain of eating on $225 a month
Apparently OSAP allows $7.50 a day, or roughly $225 a month, for a student food allowance. The Star is reporting on the extreme hardship this produces, and four intrepid students, risking starvation and perhaps even the odd foray into their own kitchens, are blogging their attempt to comply with this limit for three agonizing weeks.continue reading
Ah, science.
The BMJ’s Christmas issue is full of goodness as usual. Ingested foreign bodies and societal wealth: three year observational study of swallowed coins Objective: To examine the relation between coins ingested by children and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. But sadly, for it would’ve made a fine headline had the results been different, Conclusion: Therecontinue reading
Apparently forethought isn’t one of the skills they should plan to share
Ah, woe. Carol Goar reports that retiring baby boomers plan to spend time volunteering, but: But for the most part, the non-profit sector is not waiting with open arms for retired baby boomers with skills to share and time to spare. “Logically, it should be a great opportunity,” says Michael Hall, vice-president of Imagine Canada,continue reading
Well, THAT’ll fix the recession
Funding one (1) 26-week internship is now worthy of a Federal press release: Government of Canada helps post-secondary graduate gain work experience in aquatic research The Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute will receive $14,189 for its Aquatic Health Researcher project through the Career Focus program of the Government of Canada’s Youth Employment Strategy. This funding willcontinue reading
Bruce gets his rocket launcher
This amuses me greatly: KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Bruce Cockburn got his rocket launcher – briefly, in Afghanistan. The singer-songwriter was among a group of entertainers visiting Canadian troops serving in the war-torn country. He drew wild applause when he sang one of his hits, “If I Had a Rocket Launcher,” which prompted the commander ofcontinue reading
We < heart > our libraries
From the Fans of Toronto Public Library’s blog post on the renovated Bloor-Gladstone branch: Realization I have finally been able to put my finger on a thought that has half-occurred to me on my now-numerous visits to renovated libraries. Here’s a slogan to get you started: “Your tax dollars at work!” TPL keeps getting awardedcontinue reading
I love Toronto, pt. 4835
I love this. After 48 hours of constant Tamil protests, in this TPS release we still have carefully neutral language, gentle concern for safety, “the co-operation of most of the protestors”, and a metaphorical shrugging of shoulders about the inevitable traffic tie-ups. I didn’t check this morning to see if anyone was petting the horses,continue reading