Ack! TMI!

Pope has high fever, urinary tract infection

Comedian I've never heard of....

I hadn't heard of Mitch Hedberg until Crash over at twenty something mentioned him and some of his best lines (I'm against picketing...). Now that he has passed on, I'll never see him perform... but I may seek more of his work. It's funny.

Canadian Tire 'Money'

Everything you ever wanted to know about Canadian Tire 'Money' but couldn't be bothered to ask.

I had no idea it has been in circulation since 1958. I currenlty have about $2.60 at home in a bundle. I always forget to take it with me unless I know I am going to Canadian Tire for something specific. I think the largest denomination I have ever received was a 50 cent "bill."

Is Canada the new Netherlands?

For decades, the Netherlands (in particular, Amsterdam) has been thought of as the place to go for a laissez-faire attitude toward drug use. It now appears that Canada is the place to be. Sure, the left coast has always been known for producing good product and even selling it cafe-style... but with safe injection sites and needle exchanges in Vancouver and now the news that Ottawa is going to distribute free crack pipe kits, it seems like harder drugs are being legitimized.

Of course, officials insist it is to stop the spread of disease (HIV, Hep.C and other blood-bourne diseases). Will it work? Maybe. Should it? I'm not sure. The only thing I have ever been truly addicted to is caffeine so I can't really understand the levels of addiction at play with hard drugs -- there would never be a time when I would need caffeine so desperately that I would risk my own life or the lives of those around me. Even when I was drinking ridiculously large amounts of alcohol (the year I was in England) there was never a time I did anything other than pay money in order to get booze.

I just question the sense in prolonging the lives of people who are miserably addicted to hard drugs without making any apparent effort to wean them of the addiction (to be fair, the SIS does make some effort, but needle exchanges and distributing drug paraphanalia does not). It generates the same uneasiness I feel whenever government or medical sciences step into the life-saving arena in a way that goes above and beyond what the gods might actually do. (Dare I mention the current maelstrom in Florida?)

I wonder what will happen if the Conservatives win the next Federal election. Or for that matter if a greater percentage of NDP members were elected... Hmm.

Didn't Supersize Me teach you anything?

Now according to AllHipHop.com McDonalds [is] Hungry For Hip-Hop -- they are offering "money to rappers who include the sandwich’s name in a hit record by summer."

But Mickey Dees won't pay any cash up front -- just $1 to $5 per airplay of the song (400 downloads? no dice.) but as a result, they are "willing to allow the artists to determine how to incorporate the sandwich into their songs." CEO of Maven Strategies (the marketing company McD's has hired) says “We’re letting them creatively bring to life the product in their song.”

Umm, sorry guys but if my Big Mac came to life, I'd want my money back.