Some wicked dentilation action, eh?

Craig and I have been re-evaluating web based communications. I think it is time, now that blogs have officially stalled and are sliding back into their rightful place in the hobbiest's pantheon of toys, to think about what they lack and what could be. In the good old days ten years ago, topical …

All melting all the time! Don't things look much warmer in Farenheit?  •  Seeing as it is within view, I find the weather forcasts from the next TV south at WWTI Watertown is more reliable for this corner of the lake compared to Ottawa or Toronto generated CBC radio weather. Kind of like the Bar …

Waiting to be green  •  A team of craftsfolk put new copper around the base of the dome, up there half the winter. Stopped the leaks.

Joey, the Accordian Guy has posted about next generation blogging. Blogs have kind of hit a wall and some people I have read over recent months have packed it in. There are some pretty valid reasons for that, some of which I discussed last fall. You place your opinion on the chopping table and …

Two examples of 1800's hand cut stone. The left an 1840s basement arch at City Hall, the second from a later building at Brock and King.

Addictive Game Alert! Addictive Game Alert!  •  And it all about Spidey - via Master Flea Boom Baster.

I am a bit excited...that's all...I will be your king...dum-dee-dum...  •  What a good idea. This is a picture of Chuck looking silly adding hops to a brewing batch of beer... but quite rightly celebrating a local brew pub run as a village co-operative. $4,000 CND gets you into the co-op. It is …

From The Toronto Star this morning comes the news that your Federal tax dollars were spent propping up professional sports:  •  “The Toronto Maple Leafs, Raptors and Blue Jays were all on the receiving end of Ottawa's controversial sponsorship program, which made payments to professional sports …

America is grey line on the horizon beyond Wolfe Island to the south east as viewed from the mouth of the Little Cataraqui River. The highlands, beyond Watertown, in the south-east of Jefferson County, New York, fifty some miles away, rise to 1,500 feet and form the western edge of the Adirondacks.

One of the most radical changes to home ownership in Canadian history was announced two days ago with barely a whimper in the press. According to this press release from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, an agency of the Federal Government, the five percent down-payment for a mortgage …

The Blork Blog has a well-written post on 1970s speeding on highway 101 in the Annapolis Valley. That same summer or perhaps the one before, prior to our move to Truro and Grade 10, I was a passenger in a car doing the same thing on the same stretch. A few years later a pal was stopped by the …

More #*$#*& Buildings  •  A morning shot of the block to facing the back of City Hall across the market. To the very left is the pale red Ontario Savings Bank building next to firmer red of the Whig Building, both undergoing a cleaning this winter; then the unfortunately 1/3 painted face of the …

This news item from CBC Ottawa highlights one thing that drives me nuts. Aside the fact that 5 million is alleged to have gone to political friends is the fact that apparently the contracts are not voidable based on being untendered under a system requiring tendering. Public purchasing systems …

Given all the Nova Scotia snow talk and pictures recently , I thought I would add one more picture received yesterday by email from a friend. For a little while I could not even identify the object, my brain not latching on to its scale.  •  Later: Here is the story of the digging out of the truck.

The Toronto Star has some extraordinary figures from the Delaware  •  headings at the end of last week:  •  “Black's self-humiliation came in waves. His  •  testimony marked the near-culmination of an arcane legal dispute over the  •  beleaguered press baron's right to sell control of …

P4W, King Street, Portsmouth Olympic Harbour and the Kingston Pen  •  Another picturesque setting finds another large jail, the Kingston Pen, built far from the town proper in the 1830s, now surrounded by the nice comfortable streets of Portsmouth Village. The disgraced P4W sits on the hilltop to …

figure that if I spend about 12 hours I will be able to find a full set of uppercase, lower case and numerals from the Gutenburg Bible and revert this into a 15th century blog. Any uncertainties can be resolved though alt tags.  •  Two, Three, Six and Seven  •  How does that look?  •  , I'd say.

I started nosing around the web site for the British Library, which I have mistakenly referred to as part of the British Museum in a recent post. I was going there looking for information about an idea I have dealing with blogs as being similar to a digital form of early pamphlets which floated …

This is an interesting item from the BBC:  •  “In his report, Conspicuous Compassion, author Patrick West said people were trying to feel better about themselves by taking part in "manufactured emotion". Describing extravagant public displays of grief for strangers as 'grief-lite' Mr West said …

Training my children to aspire to industrial park design.

Being the only one in the house not sick or three, I am the only one awake this afternoon. I find myself listening to Acts of Volition Radio show #6, watching the sunny melty day outside moving on, wondering whether it would be so wrong downloading Counterstrike for moments like this, surrounded …

I read a lot of magazines. The inhabitants of my home have subscriptions to Rural Delivery, The New Yorker, Brew Your Own, When Saturday Comes, Canadian Living, Chickadee, Canadian Geographic and a few others. I also buy others on the newsstand from time to time like Wired, Uncut and Walrus. Last …

With all the other news last week, one that may affect the Maritimes as much as the US ban on beef imports is the proposed effective ban on US firms using call centres located in other countries. In the heady 90's many politicians in the East lunched out on the concept that call centres were IT …

Martello towers guard the mouth of the Rideau  •  There are actually three in the picture, the third hidden by the trees to the left. It stands out in the mist better here. Built in the 1840s to protect the then high-tech canal technology of the Rideau accessed between the nearest two towers, the …

You may have noticed that I removed the link to my referral logs to the right. Thanks to some blogspot dorks as well as johnkerry's pals at aol.com, it has become fairly useless as a tool for figuring out how the day was going in terms of reader interest. Once I realized it had become a bit …

Despite the cooing of Dave3, sadly, this gent appears not to realize or perhaps care that he was picked and then flattered and then used:  •  “At the end of our private time with the President he turned a little serious and talked a bit about Iraq and the war on terrorism. I don't recall his exact …

Steve Garrity has put up some photos of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island after the so called "Weather Bomb" that hit. According to CBC radio from Halifax it will be Monday before roads are cleared there. Craig Willson on the North Shore of PEI is running out of smokes after exhausting the last …

Sunset over Collins Bay Pen last night  •  Kingston is a city of jails, a fact which I still notice sometimes. This was the view up the street from the grocery store yesterday as the sun went down.

For some reason, I got to thinking about the stunned things I heard or was taught during my school years. Not like the stuff like getting the strap for laughing in the face of my teacher, a former Sydney Steel worker - bad move.  What I was thinking about were those moments when I learned what was …

How is this not the plea of someone driven to be a backroom boy on his own terms? And is being an A-list blogger like being the greatest tidly-winker in Manitoba?

I was very interested to read in the Toronto Star this morning that:  •  “The icy wall between Paul Martin and Jean Chrétien has opened a tiny crack, with the new and old Liberal governments agreeing to open up cabinet records to scandal-probe scrutiny. Less than a week after the tensions between …

The Canadian Shield dips to the St. Lawrence in one narrow band of red rock east of Gananoque and carries over to Wellesley Island, NY. What do they call these rocks there?

Having a boo at the Jan/Feb issue of Canadian Bar Association's magazine National it was very interesting to read at page 40 the list of areas of law considered "not hot", not the "areas where finding work is currently fruitful". Number one? Technology. The rest of the duds:  •  Securities …

I was told that this is the best booze shack in Watertown, NY. Right next to the Eckerd's Pharmacy...where you can find the best beer selection in the county. And you thought druggists selling ciggies was weird.

The St. Lawrence from the Thousand Islands Bridge  •  In the good news section, winter is over because I could see water in the St. Lawrence. Remember, you read it on a blog so it must be true.

So why is Tod Maffin so smart? I was driving along on Saturday afternoon not really listening to DNTO and - WHAMMO - Sook Yin Lee says Tod's going to tell us that blogs are dead already. Here is the promo for the piece:  •  “And Tod Maffin dives into the world of blogging. Like everything on the …

I am hoping to get into weekend travelling this summer a fair bit and will look south as well as north for stuff to do nearby. So what is there to plan to do this summer across the border in the land of first prize hots?  •  minor league baseball games  •  Black River Kayak Rodeo over at Watertown …

It is a good idea to have a Monday off in February. I would trade one in August anytime. First, there is just the fact that it is an opportunity to snooze. Second, it is a well-placed opportunity to snooze coming after a conventional length weekend not to mention one in February when you feel like …

David's got the  •  ninth tenth Carnival of Canucks up this  •  morning. [Ten...I remember when it was only seven...]  •  He links to an interesting thread over at Damian's blog about the Toronto  •  Star sending an email seeking deletion of pasted text  •  from the paper. As I quote freely from …

So here are some images of the men's hockey game at Appleton Arena at St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York. I can't imagine a more respectful maintenance of a 1950's arena. Seating is original pine varnished benches and the arcing roof is also unpainted wood. The effect is a little like …

So we went over to St. Lawrence County, New York, on Saturday to catch a War of 1812 re-enactment of the Battle of Ogdensburg organized by a local group, Forsyth's Rifles Inc.. We were not disappointed. I had never been to one of these things before - other than being a mock soldier at Citidel …

So we are back from being over the border, having had a great time. I took some movies to be posted later of the Battle of Ogdensburg recreation which are fairly neat - if seeing grown men dressed up funny shooting cannon within town limits is cool to you.  •  But as I was driving through east end …

First it sucks that I have gotten so interested in the user stats for the site and the referral logs and, now, I am really pissed that someone is spamming the referral log making it pretty much worthless. This morning the spammer is this:  •  “blog.johnkerry.com  •  blog.johnkerry.com  •  User …

Some women wake to breakfast in bed, some to at least the words "Happy Valentine's Day". Herself hears "hey - I think I just heard California on am radio". Try saying that with a bit of a nasally voice. Romance. Mr. Love.  •  So at 6 am this morning there I am, listening to 1070 am and Moncton CBC …

Throught a fluke of collective bargaining, history and the need to find something good about February, the City has a holiday Monday this weekend. Not a bad thing at all. I will report Tuesday whether it is recommended for all the nation. There were a couple of Danes on the CBC Ottawa news last …

It is neither a secret or guilty pleasure that am a fan of accordian music - thought it was one of those things that I, as opposed to some others, might not have discussed when dating. If you ever wondered what the background music of this blog might be when the ska is getting a rest, you might …

In all the hub-bub about Don Cherry and his most recent statments, no one checked whether he was right - until today's Toronto Star (check the sports section - the Star is less linky all of a sudden).  It appears that:  •  Visors are worn by only 63 of 313 (20.1 per cent) Canadian players from …

Boing Boing notes a first salvo against RSS overload. The technology that would allow you to know all things at all times not, like 1970's sitcoms, will work in 30 minute increments - if you are pulling full text expect soon to have access to updates once an hour and then, maybe, 10 times a day …

Via David, here is a great site where you can access the living social history audio collections of the British Museum. Tonight, I will be listening to a first person recollection of going to a football match in the 1950's:  •  “Arthur recalls the experience of going to watch Burnley FC in the …

I just noticed this today. Left is President Andrew Jackson on the new $20 bill who was US president from 1829 to 1837. Middle and right is John Kerry, the nominee for Democratic presidential candidate in 2004. The Kerry photo could better show his long face.  •  Later: I added the one now on the …

In all the yappitry about marriage and "tradition" recently, in the back of my mind I had that the tradition in Scotland was incredibly free until very recent times. I found a good reference to the principles today:  •  “A `regular' marriage was one for which the banns had been proclaimed and …

Roaming through .jpg files just now I came across this beer label from 1991 in Poland where semi-attentive readers are aware I lived. Buying beer in Eastern Euope then was hit and miss. Local families, in our district of new suburbs, ran shops out of their bottom floors and the beers for sale were …

Chanting "Osama, Osmama" as you are cleaning the clock of the USA 4-0 in pre-Olympic soccer? Mexico, really. That is rude:  •  “GUADALAJARA, Mexico, Feb. 10 — Few of the young Americans had experienced such grown-up soccer antagonism, with blowing horns creating the sound of a throbbing hive at …

Days like these, when the caffeine does not seem to be pushing me up fully through the surface of consciousness, I think - maybe I have "the yuppie flu". Remember that? Well, I guess it turned out not to be just for yuppies. Not my generation anyway, as was noted in 1999:  •  “Baby boomers at risk …

Because Canada is a confederation of colonies with a fairly recent coming  •  together in theory and much residual cultural division remaining, the place of  •  provincial pride rates perhaps ahead of, say, the North v. South Dakotan  •  question.  •  As part of that tradition, at least for some …

...to be a citizen of a country where this happens. From the Toronto Star's unlinkable report:  •  “The RCMP's 125th anniversary in 1999 turned into an embarrassing waste of taxpayer dollars, Fraser said. Public Works contributed $3 million to a trio of ad agencies - Lafleur, Media/I.D.A. Vision …

Today's column from Damien Cox hits the nail on the head - something big is up:  •  “Those who cling to strains of discredited orthodoxy, suggesting that the NHL doesn't need to change one single thing about its game, are now clearly the minority. The voices calling out for a faster, more …

I found this passage on the sphere of autonomy from a recently reported Ontario Divisional Court appeal ruling from last July called Polewsky v. Home Hardware about court filing fees and poverty:  •  “[50] As noted above, at para. 6, Gillese J. considered s.7 in obiter and found that the …

People moan about February but, as an undergrad pal said every year, it goes like a bat out of hell. Three weeks to March and the weather at a balmy -5 needs no hat or chin-zipped parka. We are closer to leaves coming out than falling and it will be in the twenties here someday within a few weeks …

I watched last night with half my attention elsewhere. Here is what I saw:  •  I like "Hey Ya" and was happy to see how the video was trasformed to a stage performance for live TV. Sooner or later I am going to be able to hire a high school marching band for some purpose in my life, too.  •  If …

This is a thread to place off topic statements by Nay. Akin to Wayne's World. It will son only reside on the Recommended List.

Soccer brings out the pagan in me. Most Sundays there are five or six hours of quality games to watch and today was no different. I watched TV5's broadcast in French of the Nigerian victory over Cameroon in the African Cup of Nations. [There ought to be a TV channel of just soccer from the …

Recent review of postings has pointed out a few trends:  •  spelling mistakes are up  •  the pointing out of spelling mistakes has stopped  •  no one writing here is right  •  opinions and points of view are approaching lucidity  •  you can't misspell a photo  •  news drives posts with comments …

Still the sign of failure to many Maritimers, redemption to others  •  One of my favorite bands is the Grievous Angels. I can't get on the 401 without thinking of their song "Crossing the Causeway" off of One Job Town. I wonder if there is an exit 666.

I was invited by someone I know into the world of orkut the other day and joined to help with his stats. It is a weird parallel way of talking with folk on the internet which, like FOAF, appears to feed off the fear of being contacted by someone you have not met. As if sitting for hours in front …

Why is the CBC web site asking me to become a member?    Customization does not require the idea of "membership".    One way BBC does is by geographic region.

I was very happy when Lennox Lewis was one of Canada's greatest sporting heroes and always wonder what went wrong after 1988 that he did not sick around. He retires today as World heavyweight champion - and British - in an era when that championship no longer means what it did both in terms of …

This is a sad story and, perhaps, an unexpected illustration of the evils of the trade in humans. 18 people have died caught in a tide where the were working picking cockles, a shellfish, in England. From the ever useful BBC:  •  “The accident happened after more than 30 cocklers - thought to be …

Does "intuitive" mean anything other than "hopefully useful"? As marketing speak, much is claimed to be "intuitive" which turns out not to be used, not to trigger interest. Maybe it means usable.

[Ed.: This thread now has its own RSS feed]  •  It turns out that the famous 45 minute capability of Iraq was a reference to the battlefield not an attack on civilian interest. You all knew that. Right? Well it appears that Tony Blair had no idea what it was in reference to either. What really …

Yesterday, after the ruling in Massachusetts, I heard a "family" advocate [meaning an advocate for his form of family: mom and dad and two kids in the suburbs with a two car garage with no freaky neighbours] speaking to the meaning of marriage [no doubt from a a "christian" point of view - meaning …

It would be facinating to watch if the wheels really came off the current US administration. This was slipped in the Toronto Star's article on Kerry's wins yesterday:  •  “One national poll yesterday put Kerry seven percentage points ahead of Bush as the president continued to be battered by the …

That didn't take long. The internet really changed little - maybe jumped up some people who would not have participated, which is good. But it's over.  •  It wasn't the scream. It wasn't the fact that he was a Governor of a state that sends a socialist to the US Congress - a good thing by the way …

We are heading over to beautiful Ogdensburg, 100 km down river on the USA side, for the 14th. Beats the hell out of the Valentine's Day when myself and herself were amazed at the easy access to the coin laundry machines before we remembered the date.  •  It is not the reopening of the cheese plant …

Winter weather colours so much of your mental landscape in Canada. Walking home yesterday it was a balmy -2 and everyone was Gene Kelly singing in the rain. Jackets open, heads bare. It has actually warmed up enough to snow (figure that one out, Ale-fan) and we are set for 15 cm or so - which …

Thirty-five years ago right about now, after supper in jammies, my brothers and I would be breaking out the Major Matt Mason stuff, a line of Mattel space toys from the late 1960s. We don't have any left, unlike the author of this site where I quietly pocketed a copy of the photo above. There was …

Here in Canada we have had ann annual game recently of Formula 1 racing threatening to pull out all activities unless we change our anti-tobacco ad legislation. Now I read they are threatening the EU as well:  •  “"The EU is strangled by unnecessary and excessive regulations," said [F1 head Max …

It always surprises how anniversaries of news can take me right to the place I was when I heard:  •  A year ago, when the Columbia shattered on re-entry I was listening to Vermont NPR driving up Quebec Highway 20 back from the interview for the job I now have. The show was sponsoured by a …

The  •  Toronto Star has a great article today on a recently deceased hero of  •  Dieppe, Romuald Nalecz-Tyminski, a Rear Admiral of the Polish navy, who brought  •  his destroyer so close to shore to save 80 Canadians that the sea bottom was  •  churned up:  •  “"Nobody did more than he did to …

Things seen in Napanee this afternoon. The Square Boy Pizza logo must be one of the last dot matrix brands left. I didn't catch if the restaurant was inferior or superior.

Arsenal, for whom I have this thing, are at halftime in their match with Manchester City, Arsenal up 1-0. OC, to your right in my fav's, is a City fan. City is a team I don't mind much - I like Shawn Wright-Phillips. Not quite as liked as Newcastle and Shearer or loved as Arsenal. We (meaning at …

Just to keep you advised of your activities, January 2004 was a big month. Hits up 55% at 2736 daily or 84830 for the month. Visits averaged 411 daily or 12754 for the month - up 19%. These stats are something of a mugs game with spiders, bots, wacky google mis-searches but the hit to visit ratio …