Canadians Now Sharing the Beach with Americans

The media buzz this morning: With help from Canada and Pope Francis, the U.S. and Cuba will be resuming diplomatic relations. 50 years of great spots for Canadians on Cuban beaches and blowing  Havana cigar smoke on Americans is over. Such is the price of the good old-fashioned Canadian diplomatic help we've given to the U.S.

All dogs go to heaven? Bark if you love mass media fables.

Pope Francis said no such thing. But the more tall the tale, to more likely it is to get media wagging their tails. And you can follow their trail all the way to the front page of the New York Times. The Huffington Post also picked up the scent of this theological fable, too. In their confused weaving of the story, St. Paul, the Apostle is mixed up with Pope Paul VI, the Roman Catholic pontiff-- though the two are separated by twenty millennia. And then something Pope Francis did not say somehow makes this fable into a news story.

In the midst of this massive media mess-up, ReligionNews.com has set the record straight. It's going to disappoint millions of people. But think about this as it relates to your dog.  Of course you want Fido to go to heaven.  But what about that incessantly barking beast of your neighbour's that you're tempted to shoot. Do you really want to meet him (the dog, not necessarily the neighbour) there, assuming that you'll reach heaven?  If so, is that heaven? And what about cockroaches and mosquitos?  These are theological questions too deep for NYT and  Huffington Post. Perhaps another news hound, the National Enquirer, will pick up the ball... or the bone.

Calgary's Worst Driver or Pong? Choose Your Video Poison.

Why am I edified by interesting, mindless videos only after they've been viewed 4 million times? Why am I so hopelessly out of the loop? I'm sure I'm the last person in the internet world to view Calgary's Worst Driver and now, apparently, Canada's Worst Driver.

Until recently. I was very close to a video virgin.  But damn you Facebook, with your latest tempting video format and to all my "friends" who love and share mindless videos. To be honest, I resisted the first couple of times but finally caved like the front bumper of that car that was hit on the video. 

 In a related pondering, why do people who claim there's "never enough hours in the day" watch 4.5 minutes of something as slow as Pong and even more painful-- and that involved no kittens or high speed crashes. (By the way, this new 12-minute Pong video should take our lives to the next level.)

It's "Quote Richard Branson" Friday

What? You didn't know? It's not on your calendar? Get a new calendar. 

In related personal news, I've discovered that the best way to get some serious "likes" for my Linkedin photo is to make sure it's Richard Branson's photo saying something really smart.


I was so hoping I had suddenly and miraculously become a candidate for "Am I Hot or Am I Not." I'm 56-years-old and told I look older. I'm also overweight. In other related news, last night I dreamt I was skateboarding. 

Lost youth. Lost looks. Lost dreams. Damn you, Richard Branson. Damn you, Tony Hawk.

To everyone else: Happy Friday!

Vancouver on Under $10 Million a Day

Those who say it can't be done will probably no be interested in my second book idea: "Make $100 before 10 AM."  I'm a man of diverse ideas and experience.  Sooner or later one of these book ideas is going to roar-- but then I'd have to get past the catchy title and actually write the book.  This is from a man who prefers blogettes to blogs and lives his thought life in half-tweets.

Happy Friday!

Today I invented the Blogette

"Blogette." What is it?  Of course there's nothing new under the sun but I'd like to believe I invented this word.  How's this for a Graham-ipedia definition? "Not quite a blog but bigger than a tweet and of more substance than a Facebook post."  

I "invented" this word whilst strolling in the rain with random half-blogs and tweets running through my cold, dripping head. Then, something stopped me in my tracks-- the sound of rushing water underneath the bridge. I stopped instinctively because normally this little creek is just a gurgling baby and I long ago learned to ignore a gurgling baby.

How refreshing that a sudden awareness of rushing water made me stop and even take a video. Woohoo! (Excuse my Facebook language.) Here it is:

I'm not totally out of touch with nature! In times past I might have driven into a lake and after five or ten minutes realized I had left the road.  But today was different and I celebrate the victory. 

I don't commune with nature but sometimes she yells at me and today I heard her. And, like Al Gore so easily invented the internet, I invented the blogette. It's is a fine day indeed on the "wet" coast.