Consolation Champs

It started with a well-meaning post from Joe Thornley, of Thornley-Fallis Public Relations, one of the savviest PR companies around. Their embrace of social media cheers me up immensely, and Joe writes interestingly and often about how blogging and other social media tools can be used as part of an overall public relations strategy. But […]

[Read more →]

Just browsing around this morning, I came across a great example of word of mouth marketing. Michael McDerment is a successful Toronto entrepreneur behind the innovative FreshBooks.com online invoicing service. In a 2005 entry on his own blog, he recommends a company called Landmark Merchant Solutions as a “great business partner” for small companies looking […]

[Read more →]

Flipping through the Canadian Oxford Dictionary this morning, I discovered that a liger (favourite animal of Napoleon Dynamite) is not only a real animal, but that it is specifically the offspring of a male lion and a female tiger. The corresponding offspring of a lioness and a male tiger is called a tigon.
Good to know.

[Read more →]

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

[Read more →]

For someone who considers himself a seasoned traveler and informed citizen of the world, I’ve always been a bit embarrassed that New York City wasn’t really on my list of places visited. My parents had taken me a few times when I was a young sprog, but I have no memories of the city, only […]

[Read more →]

Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life, by Steve Martin

Brooke picked this book up for me a few weeks ago, knowing I’d been a huge fan of Steve Martin during his standup years. You could even say that as a teenager, I idolized Martin. To this day, I’m in awe of people (including myself!) who can […]

[Read more →]

Lloyd Cole and the Commotions – Rattlesnakes (1984)

I’d met Goldie through my friend Colin around 1983, I think. With his thinning hair and permanent scowl, he looked like a perennially pissed off old man. We shared a love for punk, even though he was somehow affiliated with the strange evangelical subculture I’d recently become part […]

[Read more →]

In the custom of the season, I wanted to take a look back before taking a look forward. 2007 was a year of many changes for me, and it’s probably a good idea to take stock at this time of year.

March: We lost Brooke’s dad to cancer, which has been tough on both of us. […]

[Read more →]