It has been a bit of a blur recently. Much of what I do at work boils down to reading, writing and editing. I get up and read and write - and sometimes edit - here. And recently I was asked to write two beer related bits, one 500 words and one 5000, which means I have been pretty much writing for …

Looking for a sign of the endtimes? How about trading the one veteran pitcher you have that is on an upswing?  •  “The Padres have had talks with the Red Sox about the possibility of bringing left-hander David Wells back to San Diego for the remainder of the season before playoff rosters are set …

This is exactly the sort of thing that gets Canadians wringing their hands:  •  “Canada has an image problem south of the border. It's not that Americans have a bad impression of their northern neighbour — it's that they have no impression at all. It's little wonder, then, that U.S. visits to …

It was interesting to read these words in a Martin O'Malley bit hidden on CBC.ca somewhere quoting the Colorado Rockies Manager of all people:  •  “"You look at things that have happened to us this year. You look at some of the moves we made and didn't make. You look at some of the games we're …

That is the name of the Billy Bragg compilation that came out this year: Must I Paint You A Picture?: The Essential Billy Bragg. I bought it the same time I bought the reissued version of Talking to the Taxman about Poetry that we played over and over on the trip to the salty coast last month …

Now that the "Kingston Society for Playing Catch" (KSPC) has been founded and the flood of offers for branches world-wide have begun to pour in, the important question of the cap is rearing its head. There must be a cap. I don't know if this is it. Kingston's traditional sporting colours are black …

Is this it? Is this the actual moment when the Gen X generation of Steve Harper starts to make good on the years of knowing that some time the boomers are going to have to go?  •  “The key move was one of Harper's first: pulling Kevin Lynch back from Washington where he was an executive director …

There is a rumour going around that when he titled his post "So This Is Goodbye" last Friday he might have meant that this is goodbye.  •  Would he take a holiday?Would he leave Canada?Would he quit blogging?  •  It is worse than the Paul is dead rumours leading to the need to sift for clues on …

My heart pains for those present:  •  “But many fans complained of a litany of problems. Tickets were difficult to obtain. Seating arrangements were confused. Bans on smoking were ignored. No food, except for microwave popcorn, was available anywhere in the complex. And the spectators insisted on …

Mucho fried after 17 hours in 48 driving, driving, driving along with the questionable food and the more questionable guest bed arrangements. I could have been to Boston or even farther and back. Not too much to complain about as I dropped by a couple of breweries on the way, including my first …

Who the hell ever thought I would make it to August 25th 2006? Aside from the whole thing in Mexico in '66 (thank you Pepe), I got through the nuclear war along with all of you, got through my teens without being eaten by a backroad ditch along with pals, got though a holiday in Paris as Syria was …

I found one of these in the market:  •  “TYDEMAN'S RED - 'Tydeman's Early'. Early season, ripens a month before McIntosh. A cross made by H.Tydeman between Worcester Pearmain and McIntosh. A medium sized to large McIntosh type scarlet to dark red, juicy, crisp apple. Partially self fertile …

I think this is the Europe a certain class of faith-based North Americans fear. This is Old Europe. This is the communalist who would lay his or her individuality down on the railway track abandoning all fiscal, ethical and political propriety for the glee of being something together. Consider …

I like this:  •  “"He thinks it's a bad cat that made a bad choice," he said. "I honestly don't think he has a whole lot of sense about his own mortality."”  •  I say the same thing when my cat barfs on the carpet.

Every morning I sit here bleary eyed going over the news to figure out what to put here. What is my criteria? Generally not moral or political indignation. And also not to gather information with any particular focus or on a favorite topic. Except perhaps as a long term implicit examination that …

Care of a kind word from a co-worker, I learned that the LCBO Vintages folk released 375 ml bottles of Lustau East India Sherry on Saturday. As I know my mother does not read this blog...or the internet at all ¹...I know I am safe to admit this is her stash for wee cakes and scones and after a …

With the move to long-term contractual indebtedness, there has been a small wave of thing acquisition that canot go unmentioned, and not just the junior gin-soaked popinjay training kit. These are things that have worked and I recommend:  •  My Dolly: I was not aware that what I know as a dolly in …

How could I have missed the news? Caught up in the last bits of summer...looking at boats...finally getting the push mower out for a go after weeks of drought and brown laws. How could I have missed this?  •  “Eventually, after nearly an hour of après-tea negotiating, the Pakistanis were convinced …

A while back I called Google Analytics "the most useless thing I have ever signed up for". That was when it first came out, froze a lot and made a lot of people unhappy.  •  Now, however, Craig has got me playing around with the thing and even though it really does not give me anything of use, it …

There is a detailed account in the Globe today of events over the weekend near Kandahar in which Canadians impressively ambushed a Taliban offensive.

...ghost eraser, ghost eraser..GO!!!  •  Again with the boats. Given that I am in mourning for the Sox, this is all I can do at least until the coffee kicks in.

I should be happy with this match-up but after three hammerings by the Yankees I think the Sox should lobby to have the 6th and 7th innings outlawed from baseball in the way that buildings have no 13th floors. Maybe the need to outlaw triple-A pitching making up most of the bullpen, too. And why …

More connection problems that are making me think that the modem is dying. Do modems die? I dutifully unplug, replug and reset it with a certain percentage of luck getting back on line. It reminds of days in small urban centre Poland when the phone rang, people shouted what sounded like "Tak …

...I want, I want, I want...  •  So this was just cool. It was like being in a Speed Racer cartoon...which for a short time I thought has a theme song called "Ghost Eraser". Anyway, here are four short short movies of the most excellent jersey speed skiff class:  •  #1 [3.9 MB .avi]  •  #2 [8.5 MB …

Off to be boaty in the USA 'cause it is race day. No time to lolly-gag. Photos a plenty I hope later.

So I figured if I was qualified to act as judge and executioner over the life of a  •  cat I was at least qualified to be amateur boy vet. Seems likely from what  •  you read on the internet that the old thing is anxious from the move, creating  •  alkaline pee and over eating. I've been doing …

In around 1998, I played soccer on a team in PEI made up in large part of Bosnian refugees, many of the guys having been soldiers and suffering from knee problems from the concentration camps they had been held in at one point or another. News like this from Srebrenica always makes me pause …

Speaking of constitutions and freedoms and stuff, here is the opinion part of the ruling of the Federal Court on the suspension of the US administration's domestic surveillance program. Great paragraph at page 40:  •  “We must first note that the Office of the Chief Executive has itself been …

Good to read this news out of the Supreme Court of Canada this morning:  •  “HUMAN RIGHTS: "POLITICAL BELIEF" DISCRIMINATION  •  The Respondents were a group of occasional provincial government employees and members of the Provincial Liberal Party, who were either not recalled to work or had their …

As a result of the move, the same service has gone from solidly consistent to patchy.   No high-speed for the last 24 hours.   But maybe I bought the whole life package - so Bell Sympatico high-speed is reminding me there are other things in life.   So, thank you Bell Sympatico high-speed.  •  I …

Even though this place is named after Generation X, I really do not directly yap that much about demographics (as it is all so deeply implicit) but this piece in the BBC caught my attention with its accusations of bad boomery:  •  “Baby boomers like to trumpet their generation's achievements. But …

I am wondering if we are down to the Jr. B ranks:  •  “A female passenger aboard United Flight 923 had Vaseline, a screw driver, matches and a note referencing Al Qaeda, according to Phil Orlandella, spokesman for Boston's Logan International Airport.”  •  Update: OK, I understand getting "give …

Where is Gen. John Cabot Trail of the CBLA when you need him?  •  What are the odds this will actually be a fantastic success and bring a boost of the expected economic development? What are the chances? Less that zero.  •  “The Toronto Star has learned that Nova Scotia has signed a "team …

Ok, picking up from yesterday...  •  rock...My Sharona...van...Cheech and Chong...  •  So now carry on...

Thankfully, I no longer have to worry about what the young kids are listening to as I have reached an age where I am confident that I have experienced throughout the years of my life the very apex of rockdom. Yet it is still disconcerting to read this:  •  “"It’s not trendy enough to do guitar …

Have we fallen out with China without anyone telling us?  •  “There is talk of a possible visit to Beijing next month by International Trade Minister David Emerson, but it remains unconfirmed. Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay has travelled to many countries, including the war-torn streets of …

"Explain myself? I don't have to frikkin' explain myself...I'm a cat!"  •  As far as I can tell, I think there are humans on one side of the line and then there are plants and animals on the other. Our cats were mousers. They were brought in for a job and when we moved three and a half years ago …

My one-sided love affair with digital cameras is told here. The discrete issue of non-downloading images off the memory card of my Canon A410 has got me worried but I think I can save the day with an inexpensive stand alone memory card reader thingie as I have reloaded the software, changed cables …

Twenty-three years ago, Mike and I were rather near each other  •  Interesting to note Mike's reference to the 1982 Gary US Bonds concert at the old Dal rink in Halifax. I remember walking by when the concert was happening heading to a friend's place in a neighbouring street. Having spent a decade …

Sometimes I just write a headline to see what I can make of it. Before I wrote on these things, I used to think that I was missing recording all these great ideas I would make something of. Now I figure they just get out of my head. I have three things to actually write now that are not related to …

It has begun. Tub leaks in at least one circumstance. Digital camera stopped downloading to computer. And I stayed up too late to watch Most Haunted...again.  •  But the Sox won with Boomer on the mound and the Yanks lost and that makes the world a sunny place.

A while ago I wondered about the point when a move is really made as opposed to finished. Turns out it is not the beds or the telephone but the stuff on the walls. As soon as you put the framed stuff up, your interior is yours. Forget about the TV. That just costs you an hour of sleep and night …

Generally I do not get all whipped up over words that are placed in quotation marks...but I'll be bejiggered if I can figure out the euphamism that is supposed to be implied by the word killed in this headline at the BBC's news website. I mean killed is fairly neutral...unless you are involved I …

This is the last post from the old GX40 HQ as I am about to pack up the computer and move it over there about five miles away over in that direction. It moves along with the 1995 Pentium 75 I started surfing on, then yapping at other blogs on, then blogging here and then the beer blog. I did not …

What do you know? I was waiting for my fellow lunchers to arrive today and saw Rob's post about how satellite radio is not going anywhere and he made me think of the following which goes someway to describe my periodic rant that the bloggy world is not really so new but it may still be better …

Oh, that we could always have a minority government:  •  “Prime Minister Stephen Harper has reached across party lines for foreign-policy help, appointing a Liberal MP as his adviser on the Middle East and Afghanistan. The sudden appointment of Mississauga Liberal MP Wajid Khan, a Muslim Canadian …

I was away from the keyboard unexpectedly. The other day I was away, too, but on that morning I was able to take a pad of paper and write something that portland liked. It was a different sort of writing. It took more time and required me to think a bit. I have two other sorts of writing to do …

Interesting to read this lead in an Associated Press story running in the Toronto Star this morning:  •  “BEIRUT (AP) — Battles between Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas raged Tuesday across southern Lebanon as diplomats at the United Nations struggled to keep a peace plan from collapsing …

Last year, we drove down for the game between Syracuse and Rutgers but running late noticed it was about 0-21 for the lads from Jersey after about four minutes and decided to hit the Dinosaur BBQ and the Blue Tusk instead to watch men in orange cry in rib sauce and beer. Here is the schedule for …

This is the sort of thing that gives a contract drafter the yipps:  •  “Language buffs take note — Page 7 of the contract states: The agreement "shall continue in force for a period of five years from the date it is made, and thereafter for successive five year terms, unless and until terminated …

Still we shift the goods we have bought over the course of our lives. Even on this holiday. The least holy holiday at that. It stands for nothing but a day off. Even Boxing Day alleges some Victorianesque tradition - though no one can really agree on it. It is truly just "The August Long Weekend" …

Remortgaging the future on the bet of stability has meant owning a furnace again. There is a lot to be said for living in an apartment building big enough to warrant a super...not to mention a pool. We never seem to move from one sort of place to a similar one. Just as the move from a century old …

What else? Listen in if you like.

First, a short play:  •  “He: "7:58! Why didn't you set the alarm!?!"  •  She: "Because you packed the alarm yesterday!!!"  •  Exeunt  •  [Crowds : applause, ovation, curtain call, many rushed bows]  •  ”  •  You demands will now be met:  •  Ho Hum  •  Sure, just like in Romania.  •  Who argues in …

Some purchases are better than others and the call to buy the gy-normous sports package for something like 25 bucks a month has turned out to be one of the best. I have decided that I truly like watching sports. You must be shocked. I like playing sports, too, but when it is 9 pm, kids in bed and …

Jay Currie makes an observation which is much more interesting decontextualized and expanded upon:  •  “In the comments at RightGirl’s highly entertaining blog Linda from PumpkinWatch provides this rather wonderful quote from the old trickster himself, Malcolm Muggeridge:  •  “Back in 1977 Malcolm …

I was yapping away quite merrily the other day on another blog making fun and being made fun of when a very good fellow and I got into a email discussion in which he indicated some unhappiness about some position I was taking. This quite surprised me and I had to indicate that I was surprised and …

Err...I really hope that is only the storm and not our alien overlords and their inevitable robot attack. All Hail the alien overlords!!!

My Weather Report. Where is that chalk? Where is Percy Saltzman?  •  Apparently I hiked with a 50 pound backpack all night or that is how the orange dawn finds me. We wait for the storm to come. This has been a modest heatwave of only a few days but a real draining one. Once again, the amazingly …

Even though this makes practical sense, it is fun watching how far the Tories are moving from the days of Reform and the grassroots will of the people:  •  “The federal Conservatives have moved to restrict two-time losers from seeking further nominations as party candidates. Tories who have run …

“A single post today as a good friend's mother, the lady I knew as Bronte, has passed away and, as she was a great fan of the web, I have been asked to create her Book of Condolences here. ”  •  Margaret Elizabeth Dawson née Browning  •  July 22, 1932-July 28, 2006  •  Bette died at home with …