Hydro crews work behind Sand Bay Camp on South Kamaniskeg Lake Rd
Monday, August 07, 2006
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Combermere tornado
Combermere is about 30 miles southeast of Algonquin Park on highway 62 ... additional storm damage views of Combermere and Kamaniskeg Lake area in next 25 photos.
A summer storm....
A summer storm can be beautiful... frightening ... awesome ... powerful ... amazing ... destructive....
Some would have you believe bears prowl rural Ontario garbage dumps. Since the dumps are now gated, cottagers can no longer take their Young Ones to the nightly Bear Show, so there is no proof.
There has not been a photo of a kid sitting on a bear's shoulders since 1995.
Today, the better-tended Ontario garbage pits are under the firm and direct control of The Dump Monkey, an all-powerful figure who has seized power from the bears.
Obey your Dump Monkey.
Or feel his wrath.
There has not been a photo of a kid sitting on a bear's shoulders since 1995.
Today, the better-tended Ontario garbage pits are under the firm and direct control of The Dump Monkey, an all-powerful figure who has seized power from the bears.
Obey your Dump Monkey.
Or feel his wrath.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Blog this
Okay, quit yer barking.
This is not a newspaper column,
it's a blog.
If I don't show up for a couple of weeks, it probably means I'm having fun.
(Yeah, like typing is fun? Grow up.)
Anyway, some info on my month of travels appears above.
I did not miss the bugs, the big hydro outage or the latest purge at the Sun.
Isn't it time to re-design the paper again?
Only 50,000 readers disappeared the last time that happened.
Unfortunately, another 50,000 seem to have followed them.
Half price has nothing to do with it.
This is not a newspaper column,
it's a blog.
If I don't show up for a couple of weeks, it probably means I'm having fun.
(Yeah, like typing is fun? Grow up.)
Anyway, some info on my month of travels appears above.
I did not miss the bugs, the big hydro outage or the latest purge at the Sun.
Isn't it time to re-design the paper again?
Only 50,000 readers disappeared the last time that happened.
Unfortunately, another 50,000 seem to have followed them.
Half price has nothing to do with it.
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Questions & Answers
Q.
"A thousand miles from anywhere! What would you do?"
--Warner Brothers' ad campaign for Poseidon,
their doomed upside-down boat flick
A.
Not spend $200 million remaking a crumby movie?
"A thousand miles from anywhere! What would you do?"
--Warner Brothers' ad campaign for Poseidon,
their doomed upside-down boat flick
A.
Not spend $200 million remaking a crumby movie?
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Aylen Lake Railroad
Come ride the Aylen Lake Railroad.
Of course, since the tracks are long gone and there are no trains, you will need a bike.
Stations...
- Frog croak holler & peepers festival site
- Snowmobile refuse dump
- Bear crossing
- Iron bridge
The baby bugs are just now being born.
Friday, April 28, 2006
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
A child is born
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have popped the kid.
Shhhh. Complete Silence. Oh Holy Night.
What's for dinner? Placenta.
This just in: boy or girl, they're naming it ... Carnival.
And only 20 days to the opening weekend for Tom's Mission Impossible 3. Go figure. Quelle surprise.
Hey, just walked in the door after a surprise week in Minneapolis, Minnesota and the dells of Wisconsin....
Hope the Easter Bunny showed for you blog pals and the cats didn't kill it. I hate when that happens.
One moment Peter Cottontail is delighting the children with candy eggs and marshmallow chickies....
Next thing you know some Black Calico Satan has poor Petie by the ears, another dead trophy for the mistress.
Anyway, did you know that Wisconsin is "America's Water Parks Capital?"
Me neither. They are on every corner, like jug milk stores here.
I could be very happy in The Badger State.
I am certainly half badger.
I believe it is probably the better half.
Later, dudes.
Shhhh. Complete Silence. Oh Holy Night.
What's for dinner? Placenta.
This just in: boy or girl, they're naming it ... Carnival.
And only 20 days to the opening weekend for Tom's Mission Impossible 3. Go figure. Quelle surprise.
Hey, just walked in the door after a surprise week in Minneapolis, Minnesota and the dells of Wisconsin....
Hope the Easter Bunny showed for you blog pals and the cats didn't kill it. I hate when that happens.
One moment Peter Cottontail is delighting the children with candy eggs and marshmallow chickies....
Next thing you know some Black Calico Satan has poor Petie by the ears, another dead trophy for the mistress.
Anyway, did you know that Wisconsin is "America's Water Parks Capital?"
Me neither. They are on every corner, like jug milk stores here.
I could be very happy in The Badger State.
I am certainly half badger.
I believe it is probably the better half.
Later, dudes.
Monday, April 03, 2006
Let's go to ... Algonquin Park
MOOOOOOSE!
The snow's still deep in the Algonquin woods, so where to ride a mountain bike on a glorious blue sky day?
Only the tips of the park's bike and hike trailheads show. But the 9 km road north to Opeongo Lake has been plowed ... so happy as a clam, you can glide past frozen beaver ponds, tinkly thawing streams and retreating snowdrifts.
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Another day, another tempest
I guess from his 62% approval rating, most Canadians are comforted by Prime Minister Harper's waist measurement rather than alarmed. Media become hysterical over the darndest things.
And honestly, why should the PM have to rush to Dr. Bernstein's Weight Loss Clinics for an anti-Pringles lecture and a round of B-vitamin injections?
With the Ottawa press gallery already on your behind, do you really need another needle in your butt?
I think not.
As to the manufactured "controversy" surrounding the PM taking his kids to grade school and shaking their hands as they went off to class ...
... did your dad ever take you to school?
Ever?
Mine neither.
And honestly, why should the PM have to rush to Dr. Bernstein's Weight Loss Clinics for an anti-Pringles lecture and a round of B-vitamin injections?
With the Ottawa press gallery already on your behind, do you really need another needle in your butt?
I think not.
As to the manufactured "controversy" surrounding the PM taking his kids to grade school and shaking their hands as they went off to class ...
... did your dad ever take you to school?
Ever?
Mine neither.
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Monday, February 27, 2006
Catching the giant muskey
Be vewwy, vewwy quiet.
A giant muskey lives just below this hole.
Keep your baseball bat handy.
Did you bring the frozen peas?
Excellent.
I'll place a circle of peas around the hole.
Soon the muskey will come up to take a pea.
Hit him with the baseball bat.
But if you have to take a pee, give me the bat.
Tweedledumb and Tweedlesmartass
President George Bush on port security:
"It sends a terrible signal around the world that it's okay for a company from one country (Great Britain) to manage the ports but not a country that has a good track record from another part of the world (United Arab Emirates)... "
Comedian Bill Maher:
"What happened to everything changed after 9/11?
"What happened to they only have to be right once but we have to be right all the time?
"If this is such a good idea, how would Bush would feel if we said Okay--let's have your Secret Service detail be taken over by the United Arab Emirates?
"If it's okay for all the rest of us, lets have the Arabs protect you ... and just hope that ticking sound is Dick Cheney's pace maker.
"Who's kidding who?"
"It sends a terrible signal around the world that it's okay for a company from one country (Great Britain) to manage the ports but not a country that has a good track record from another part of the world (United Arab Emirates)... "
Comedian Bill Maher:
"What happened to everything changed after 9/11?
"What happened to they only have to be right once but we have to be right all the time?
"If this is such a good idea, how would Bush would feel if we said Okay--let's have your Secret Service detail be taken over by the United Arab Emirates?
"If it's okay for all the rest of us, lets have the Arabs protect you ... and just hope that ticking sound is Dick Cheney's pace maker.
"Who's kidding who?"
Mr. Maher for the prosecution
Back for another limited run on HBO Friday nights, the only TV show worth recording.... Bill Maher's Real Time... Bill?
"The President has arranged for al-qaeda to guard our ports.... this is his new plan to fight them here so we don't have to fight them there. Apparently, a complete turn around...
"And Bush is not backing down... he says if this deal doesn't go thru, it's gonna be a slap in the face to the Arabs. Which is ironic, because we have four guys in Guantanamo Bay whose specific job is to slap Arabs in the face...
"A civil war has broken out in Iraq and of course the Bush administration is furious. They said, how dare you start a war in the middle of our war...
"When Bush heard that sectarian militias had killed hundreds of Iraquis, he called for an immediate invasion of Sectaria...
"The news from Iraq is so bad that today, Bush asked Cheney to go hunting again."
"The President has arranged for al-qaeda to guard our ports.... this is his new plan to fight them here so we don't have to fight them there. Apparently, a complete turn around...
"And Bush is not backing down... he says if this deal doesn't go thru, it's gonna be a slap in the face to the Arabs. Which is ironic, because we have four guys in Guantanamo Bay whose specific job is to slap Arabs in the face...
"A civil war has broken out in Iraq and of course the Bush administration is furious. They said, how dare you start a war in the middle of our war...
"When Bush heard that sectarian militias had killed hundreds of Iraquis, he called for an immediate invasion of Sectaria...
"The news from Iraq is so bad that today, Bush asked Cheney to go hunting again."
Monday, February 20, 2006
Freedom of the yadda yadda yadda
That no mainstream Canadian newspaper dares publish the controversial cartoons of the prophet Mohammed is clear evidence publishers value their lobby plate glass windows more than freedom of the press.
Well, duh!
Grow up!
When has this not been the case?
Do you think any of the soul-less corporations that operate the dwindling number of newspapers gives a diddlydamn about anything other than how fast they can make them resemble supermarket flyers?
Replacing the lobby windows would cost thousands of dollars.
It is so bloody obvious nobody would even bring it up at a budget meeting.
You want to what? Sit down. Shut up. You're fired.
Why would you publish ANYTHING that might break the lobby windows?
And they don't.
This is why ...
(a) personalities dominate elections rather than anything anybody actually feels strongly about
(b) entire nations are taken over by religious loonies. No, not Iran: look south, to the Religion Liason Office in the White House.
(c) celebrity sightings, addictions and fartings are passed off as "news"
(d) less editors and staff are required to process the tsunami of publicity handouts that separate the ads, and
(e) things are not just unlikely, but UNABLE to change.
Cartoonists think the cartoons should have been published?
That's today's front page news?
Months after the cartoons first appeared?
Weeks after every publishing drone considered what the corporate tower suits would make of replacing the lobby windows?
What's the old expression about being a day late and a dollar short?
Months late. Decades short. No guts. No glory.
This was hardly the hill to die on.
That hill was bulldozed in the 1990s by bottom-line guys.
Maybe earlier.
By the way--do you remember yesterday's editorial cartoon in any newspaper?
No? Me neither.
You take my point?
Well, duh!
Grow up!
When has this not been the case?
Do you think any of the soul-less corporations that operate the dwindling number of newspapers gives a diddlydamn about anything other than how fast they can make them resemble supermarket flyers?
Replacing the lobby windows would cost thousands of dollars.
It is so bloody obvious nobody would even bring it up at a budget meeting.
You want to what? Sit down. Shut up. You're fired.
Why would you publish ANYTHING that might break the lobby windows?
And they don't.
This is why ...
(a) personalities dominate elections rather than anything anybody actually feels strongly about
(b) entire nations are taken over by religious loonies. No, not Iran: look south, to the Religion Liason Office in the White House.
(c) celebrity sightings, addictions and fartings are passed off as "news"
(d) less editors and staff are required to process the tsunami of publicity handouts that separate the ads, and
(e) things are not just unlikely, but UNABLE to change.
Cartoonists think the cartoons should have been published?
That's today's front page news?
Months after the cartoons first appeared?
Weeks after every publishing drone considered what the corporate tower suits would make of replacing the lobby windows?
What's the old expression about being a day late and a dollar short?
Months late. Decades short. No guts. No glory.
This was hardly the hill to die on.
That hill was bulldozed in the 1990s by bottom-line guys.
Maybe earlier.
By the way--do you remember yesterday's editorial cartoon in any newspaper?
No? Me neither.
You take my point?
Saturday, February 11, 2006
"It's all about me!"
How great to see financial beardo Garth Turner providing some much-needed comic relief to the Tories' opening week kick at the can.
MP Garth's barking is apparently designed to make him the easy call of choice when Lib-turned-Tory David Emerson is driven from cabinet kennel, yelping.
As fans of the noisy one-time Toronto Sun money guru and PC finance minister may remember, Turner's predictive powers can be a little iffy.
Hold your bets.
MP Garth's barking is apparently designed to make him the easy call of choice when Lib-turned-Tory David Emerson is driven from cabinet kennel, yelping.
As fans of the noisy one-time Toronto Sun money guru and PC finance minister may remember, Turner's predictive powers can be a little iffy.
Hold your bets.
Friday, February 03, 2006
Power babes
"You heard it here first," reads a two-line e-mail from a politics-smart pal, wise beyond cynicism and time.
"Canada's next Liberal leader and Prime Minister ... Carole Taylor."
Taylor is currently BC's Minister of Finance.
The former chair of the CBC and TV journalist has the smarts and communications skills to be an attractive new face in the race. She has connects all thru the party, a power base.
Harper vs. Taylor. West vs. West.
And to hell with Ontario.
With Da Boys--soiled Chretien/Martin cabinet rats and worse--jumping the good ship Grit hourly, it's time for Da Girls to do what Da Boys can't or won't.
Steer.
And could chicks do any worse than Prime Minister Dithers' recent election face plant? Bummer, man.
1. A femme take-over of the party might finally give Ken "Give-Me-Daycare-Or-Give-Me-Death" Dryden his exit papers. And day care in the bargain.
2. Social issues would be front and centre, displacing tired white guys.
3. Scrums would be 42% more watchable.
4. Media weasels would celebrate a new candidate who Wasn't Crazy. At least they could include Ms. Taylor's name in that shrinking paragraph of Other Possible Contenders.
Hey, anything to make Scott Brison go away.
"Canada's next Liberal leader and Prime Minister ... Carole Taylor."
Taylor is currently BC's Minister of Finance.
The former chair of the CBC and TV journalist has the smarts and communications skills to be an attractive new face in the race. She has connects all thru the party, a power base.
Harper vs. Taylor. West vs. West.
And to hell with Ontario.
With Da Boys--soiled Chretien/Martin cabinet rats and worse--jumping the good ship Grit hourly, it's time for Da Girls to do what Da Boys can't or won't.
Steer.
And could chicks do any worse than Prime Minister Dithers' recent election face plant? Bummer, man.
1. A femme take-over of the party might finally give Ken "Give-Me-Daycare-Or-Give-Me-Death" Dryden his exit papers. And day care in the bargain.
2. Social issues would be front and centre, displacing tired white guys.
3. Scrums would be 42% more watchable.
4. Media weasels would celebrate a new candidate who Wasn't Crazy. At least they could include Ms. Taylor's name in that shrinking paragraph of Other Possible Contenders.
Hey, anything to make Scott Brison go away.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Martian doing weird experiment
Where do they come from?
What do they want of us?
Is theirs a waterless planet?
Are they mystified by liquid that is hard and soft at the same time?
Baffled. As always, scientists are baffled.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Shoot the smug off
How terrific to read that US troops are now shooting at speeding cars filled with Canadian diplomats. Way to go, I say. A little less smugness. Clear the decks.
Why are these high-paid suits pounding around Iraq anyway?
What good could smug SOBs from third tier nations conceivably do?
Next time, aim for their Filofaxes, not the car hood.
Yes, my tongue is a little in cheek.
But not much.
Why are these high-paid suits pounding around Iraq anyway?
What good could smug SOBs from third tier nations conceivably do?
Next time, aim for their Filofaxes, not the car hood.
Yes, my tongue is a little in cheek.
But not much.
Second guessing
"Second guessing is not a strategy."
(Half smirk and eye squint)
To watch President Bush lumber thru a State of the Union speech he could not possibly have written--and indeed, can barely read--is to etch permanent scowl lines in your forehead.
To have the subliminal Cheshire cat TV smile of Dick Cheney over the big guy's shoulder for more than an hour is salt in the wound.
So what a relief to find Mark Morford--the only sane man in the cosmos-- delivering a few words of hope so sadly missing last night. By the time I got to his rap about "paranoid ferrets" I was rolling on the floor.
Morford is the dead-on columnist/libertine for the San Francisco Gate:
The Real State Of The Union
How to address a bitter, war-torn
but still somehow giddy and deeply horny nation
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2006/02/01/notes020106.DTL&nl=fix
(Half smirk and eye squint)
To watch President Bush lumber thru a State of the Union speech he could not possibly have written--and indeed, can barely read--is to etch permanent scowl lines in your forehead.
To have the subliminal Cheshire cat TV smile of Dick Cheney over the big guy's shoulder for more than an hour is salt in the wound.
So what a relief to find Mark Morford--the only sane man in the cosmos-- delivering a few words of hope so sadly missing last night. By the time I got to his rap about "paranoid ferrets" I was rolling on the floor.
Morford is the dead-on columnist/libertine for the San Francisco Gate:
The Real State Of The Union
How to address a bitter, war-torn
but still somehow giddy and deeply horny nation
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2006/02/01/notes020106.DTL&nl=fix
Return of the Stern
In case there was some lunkhead who actually believed Sirius Canada would not quickly add Howard Stern to its maple syrup satellite line-up, heart-stopping news this morning...
Sirius Canada says it will add Howard Stern's talk radio show to its 100-channel line-up next Monday (Feb. 6) Stern's show debuted on Sirius in the U.S. on Jan. 9 but was not included on the Canadian network.
Stern's absence made a good excuse why the sales of Canuck satellite radio units over the Christmas season was so lame. We shall see.
Sirius Canada says it will add Howard Stern's talk radio show to its 100-channel line-up next Monday (Feb. 6) Stern's show debuted on Sirius in the U.S. on Jan. 9 but was not included on the Canadian network.
Stern's absence made a good excuse why the sales of Canuck satellite radio units over the Christmas season was so lame. We shall see.
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