Day 261: Feeding My Sense Of Entitlement Through Behavioral Engineering

originally published September 17, 2012 I like to consider myself a ravenous consumer of technology. I love my toys, my trinkets, my gadgets. When I was a kid, I’d look forward to my dad’s next copy of the Sharper Image catalog showing up in the mail almost as much as his next copy of the […]

Day 260: The Devil Went Down And Pretended To Invade Georgia

originally published September 16, 2012 Studies have shown (and no, I won’t be linking to these studies or adding a footnote, mostly because I’m just making this up) that a disproportionate number of North Americans get their news primarily from either The Daily Show, the “Weekend Update” segments on Saturday Night Live, or the monologues […]

Day 259: A Drive Down 50th Street

originally published September 15, 2012 Today I feel like Sam Beckett from TV’s Quantum Leap might have felt had he finally made the leap home. Wikipedia splashed a familiar landmark on my screen: 50th Street in my hometown of Edmonton. I’ve got some great stories from this street. Sure, it cuts its seam through the […]

Day 258: Saluting The Makers Of Stuff

originally published September 14, 2012 This weekend, as you feverishly work on whatever yard-work needs doing before the weather gets too rotten (I assume most of you liberally scatter pickled goat-eyes around your lawn as I do, to ward off snow-demons), I think we should pay tribute to some of the people who will make […]

Day 257: My 8-Bit Youth – Video Games Of 1985

originally published September 13, 2012 A number of tremendously important, historically significant events took place in 1985: the Night Stalker killer was apprehended in LA, the wreck of the Titanic was discovered, and Dian Fossey was found murdered in Rwanda. I didn’t care about any of that. I was nine, turning ten, and I cared […]

Day 256: — — –• (OMG – The Famous Telegrams)

originally published September 12, 2012 Sure, social media has become a powerful force for communication and social change. Yes, I can use it to stalk ex-girlfriends, tend an electronic farm for hundreds of hours with no palpable rewards, or follow the thoughts and musings of some guy who writes for The Big Bang Theory. But […]

Day 255: Toasting The Globe – The World Of Liquor, Part 2

originally published September 11, 2012 Yesterday I examined the history of beverage distillation for the purposes of intoxication and rendering members of the opposite (or same, whatever) sex more attractive. But I never really got my palette wet. Many nations possess a ‘national drink’, an alcoholic beverage that distinctly defines their collective palette. It’s not […]

Day 254: Skimming The Still – The World Of Liquor, Part 1

originally published September 10, 2012 Nothing kicks a Monday into the right frame of mind like a stiff drink, or at least reading about a stiff drink. I have written about beers, both good and bad, but today I’m going to be less specific. Today I’m pouring myself a tall glass of distilled beverage, and […]

Day 253: Carnett’s Sign, And Other Ways I’ll Predict My Own Demise

originally published September 9, 2012 Today’s article is a public service, written at great sacrifice by the author. I’m no hypochondriac, and I’ve been fortunate enough to have avoided any particularly serious medical concerns in my lifetime. But reading about stuff like this makes me cringe a little with sympathy aches. Writing about it is […]

Day 252: The Rough Wooing, Or As I Like To Call It, Avenging The Penis!

originally published September 8, 2012 If you were a male in mid-16th century England or Scotland, and you lacked any royal affiliations, chances are you would die because two people you’d never met had an argument with each other. Take this exchange, transcribed verbatim from historical records, between King Henry VIII of England and his […]