New stats ....
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Canada co-vid vaccine doses given per 100,000 population
Northwest Territories 29,134 doses given p/100,000
Yukon 27,110 doses given
Nunavut 15,795 doses given
Prince Edward Island 5,722 doses given
Saskatchewan 3,972 doses given
Manitoba 3,817 doses given
Quebec 3,272 doses given
Alberta 3,170 doses
British Columbia 3,167 doses
Ontario 3,003 doses p/100,000
Newfoundland 2,819 doses
New Brunswick 2,386 doses
The CBC's Covid Tracker is newly updated....
If the Superbowl were as entertaining as the gang at Bad Lip Reading, it would last eight minutes.
Here, Sunday's game highlights with new dialogue and voices.
The longer it goes on, the more inspired it gets....
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Postscript: Facebook claims the clip above has drawn objections. You can imagine your own reasons why that might be....
Every troll and mean tweeter has something to say about Bruce Springsteen's Jeep ad.
At the moment, there are nearly 7,000 "comments" on--apparently--the most notable thing to happen yesterday.
The most pertinent: "It is very brave of Jeep to leave the YouTube comments open on this."
The predictable negative response is running about to 10-to-1. "Virtue signalling" is the kindest of these screeds.
But sad music and Springsteen's unity homilies do provoke some inspired backlash:
"Is this from his new album, Born to Vomit?"
"Rich celebrities and corporations need to shut up."
"When did we reunite? Did I miss it?"
"Let's pretend we like Republicans..."
"This is worse than the Kylie Jenner Pepsi ad."
"I wonder how Jeep dealerships feel today?"
"Jeep? You're a car company."
"I'm still buying a Bronco..."
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About 9 p.m. last night, a bud texted me: "What did you think of The Weeknd's halftime show?"
"What is this Bowl you speak of?" I sent back.
* * *
Where is The Middle copywriter this afternoon?
In hiding? Certainly not in ... The Middle.
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Postscript: This Jeep ad was promptly removed from YouTube three days after the Super Bowl. By that point, there were more than 12,000 negative comments that mocked it.
"If it's not Celtic, we don't want to hear it
If you don't play bagpipe, shut your gob ..."
* * *
There was a time in this fair land, when the railroads did not run.
And after that, a period where much of the Canuck music scene was run by the Mc-somethings and the Mac-talented.
Only our official national diarist of the damned wrote and sang a song about it.
Nancy White apparently plays bagpipe.
Who knew?
--above, BBC 2020 Grand Final
Jeopardy is hosted by wannabees.
The beloved I.Q. is now four failed British comics and someone who is not Stephen Fry.
But days ago, I discover BBC's University Challenge on YouTube and have now gobbled down more than a dozen of them.
I am addicted to University Challenge.
This despite ...
. I not only don't know the answers, I usually don't even understand the questions. This is a game show for viewer dimwits.
. It's only accidentally amusing. But a studio audience laughs in all the right places.
. I have dream fantasies about Jeremy Paxman, the quizmaster, who is 70. This can't be good. He is dour, direct, unflinching. (I double-checked dour.)
A longtime BBC news presenter, British tabs and the Guardian call him "Paxo."
Dunf and Paxo. I like it.
(I typed "theorums" in that sentence, probably to show off. There is no such word. Google: what is the plural of theory? Theories. Changed.)
Aside from the young brains at work, it's how the whizkids cunningly eliminate the possible wrong answers, and like Sherlock Holmes, track down the best possibility.
And if you don't know, say "Beethoven."
(I just looked up whiz kid. More than one whiz kid is just one word: whizkids. See how stupid? I thought it was two words. Fixed.)
And I think one piece of the UC set is part of the set from IQ in what looks like the same studio. The ghost of Stephen Fry.
A friend signed up for Netflix two weeks ago and has just cancelled. "There's nothing there for me," she decided. I watched Malcolm and Marie last night. I'm not sure why.
If there weren't a pandemic that has exhausted so many options, would I be watching University Challenge?
I hope so.
I don't want to be this stupid.
Right, Paxo?
So we meet again, my long-lost friend
Once again we get to start anew
And it's feelin' like a thousand years
I been lovin' you
Girl, if you've been waiting here for someone near
Searchin' the world for fame
Come on in, I've been expecting you
Sweet reunion, welcome home again
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An obscure song on an obscure album...
Mark Russo is the sax player, before he joined the Doobie Brothers and Yellowjackets.
==========
Whatever happens, nothing's ever gonna be the same
Now you're finally here at last
Your love's released me from the past
My heart and soul have always remembered your name...
Air Canada put a Boeing 737 MAX back in the sky on Monday... with cheery air traffic control.
"He'll loathe me for having a cavity...
"I've taken a job in a leper colony... "
Mike Nichols. Elaine May.
As good as it gets.
And before "improv" became a dirty word.
Gauze, please. Scalpel. Clamp. More gauze.
"But doctor! This patient will die!"
Doesn't every robot dog want to play in the snow?
It takes a while to open that door, tho.
How many research millions teach Spot to scoop dirty laundry and put it on his butt?
It's weird how Philip Glass' repetitive drones have turned out to be my pandemic soundtrack.
Every time my classical music feed
lobs another micro earworm at me, I turn it up.
It's mental wallpaper.
Oh, the Lay-dees. They love hair goo.
A bud's blog post about '50s haircuts reveals women's deep attraction to head grease.
Smart laydees bring a butter knife to bed. You know, as the spot claims, "even after nine..."
Phil Harris' novelty tune was also a hit for Andy Griffith, the Jubalaires, Jerry Reed, the Big Bopper.
The tune is actually over 100 years old...
LINK: Snow pics in Washington Post
Lead photo above: Alex Brandon/AP
Due to a difference in data source, the percentage of Canadians vaccinated will appear higher in the world charts below than it does in our detailed Canadian data... This means that individuals in the following dataset are likely being double-counted when they receive their second dose, which could cause an exaggeration in the total percentage of people being vaccinated. --ctvnews.ca
Great Big Sea hits Jacksonville, FL in 2002.
The 30-minute set is from the Marquee Theater soundboard.
It went up on YouTube yesterday.
LINK: Alan Doyle interview w/Peter Howell
Aunt Peg's old 78s included this Kay Kyser tune, still my go-to party piece if I forget the words to The Nightmare Song from Iolanthe.
(When you're lying awake with a dismal headache and repose is taboo'd by anxieties ...)
If Canada Post delivered less than 1% of your mail, would you you be a happy camper?
Only about a quarter of ONE per cent of Canadians have received a covid vaccine dose.
Ditto for Ontarians.
Of the 411,650 vaccine doses in stock, Ontario has delivered 317,240. Only 96,459 of our 15 million got the required two shots.
That's a slow roll, even before vaccine makers warn they can't deliver previous promises.
At a rate of 1% a month, that would take EIGHT YEARS to vaccinate 30 million. At 2%, four years. At 4%, two years.
I see on cbcnews.ca this morning, a plaintive line:
Every Canadian politician no doubt understands the political and human importance of this country seeming to do well in this multinational competition.
"Seeming to do well?"
Seeming?
Doug Ford wants to plant a firecracker up a Pfizer's boss's ass. Get a second one for Doug.
The feds are having an "emergency debate."
We're going thru the motions.
Of seeming.
Lots of good ideas here, and only one new one.
The device at 7.50 is called a Snowpeeler.
"On Tinder, vaccine mentions in user bios rose 258 percent between September and December," the N.Y. Times reports.
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Jab me, hug me, kiss me ... make me do bad things.
I have my eye on a very cheesy-looking six-foot-long plastic cheetah, a steal at $325 bid.
If you've never known any Australians, you've missed a s--tload of laughs and late nights.
On this, their national day, raise a Coopers Brewery Original Pale Ale.
And now, please stand... and party.