In the otherwise forgettable movie Betsy’s Wedding, the chichi event planner swoons over a cake sample: “It’s so subtle you can’t even taste it!” That line sprang to mind this week after CNN’s Christiane Amanpour wished Robert Mugabe a happy birthday on ...
I didn’t go to college, let alone law school. So when I started joking a few years back"in response to my own legal troubles"that “libel is what we got when we abolished dueling,” I had no idea that’s exactly what happened. “The offence originated in England ...
The Japanese: nuked too much, or not enough? Exhibit A: Their epidemic affection for a century-old B-list children's book set in Canada's teeniest province and starring the original "red-headed stepchild," a decidedly un-Japanese heroine named Anne Shirley"better known as Anne of Green ...
What's the female equivalent of "I"ll never get an erection again"? That happened to me when I found out actor Alan Rickman"upon whose lap I’d often fantasized sitting while he read aloud from the Manhattan telephone directory"was directing a hagiographic play about ...
At the height of its power"it was called “Canada’s natural governing party” for generations"the Liberals made no secret of their desire to make the Great White North more “European.” (Hence Pat Buchanan’s famous nickname for the smug, spayed, ...
The only two books that permanently reside on my dinky desk are Roget's Thesaurus and a smelly, brittle copy of The Boy Looked At Johnny: The Obituary of Rock and Roll. I bought Julie Burchill's book (cowritten with her future husband Tony Parsons) when I was in 11th grade. As one of my hometown's ...
Those stopped clocks who run Canada's state broadcaster aren"t even right twice a day. The best they can manage is once a week. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) says taxpayers must keep funding this great unwatched billion-dollar behemoth because the network has a ...
I get called a “racist” a lot, but one offhand remark I made during Obama’s 2008 campaign drew more flak than usual. I had simply wondered why the candidate’s admirers held up his parentage"a (ditzy) white woman and a (promiscuous) black man"as a resume bullet ...
Does anyone still watch CNN, or as I call it, That Irritating Background Noise at the Airport? When news breaks, most folks hurry to the Drudge Report or FOX News (if ten years’ worth of ratings are any indication). Last week was arguably CNN’s most embarrassing since that time last ...
I blame the Burning Schoolhouse. Canadians are perversely proud that our most popular backyard firework is unavailable in the United States. More like a science-fair volcano than a proper pyrotechnic, the homely Burning Schoolhouse merely spews a two-foot flame that lasts half a minute if ...
