I grew up in Scarborough during the eighties and nineties. In my twenties, after graduating, I moved downtown. My wife and I went on to live in the west end for a number of years, and earlier this year we bought a house just east of the Danforth. With that kind of background in mind, […]

John Cleese of Monty Python was supposedly the first person ever to say “shit” on British television. That’s the story, at least, that he told as part of his notorious eulogy for Graham Chapman, during which he supposedly also became the first person ever at a British memorial service to say “fuck.” Obviously, I was […]

Here’s a brief election night Twitter conversation between Don Tapscott, author of such vital books as Wikinomics and Growing Up Digital, and Q host Jian Ghomeshi: Tapscott: Unbelievable. Toronto elects a moron as Mayor. I wish I were only embarrassed for my hometown, but it’s worse… Ghomeshi: Toronto is a vibrant artistic & cultural city […]

My wife – yes, I’ve been saying that frequently and deliberately lately because it hasn’t stopped being fun – was about as unhappy about the Ford victory as I was. But she had a really interesting idea this morning, and I’d like to share it with you. “You know,” my wife said in an email, […]

What a difference a day makes! “I can’t picture any of the candidates earning more than fifty percent of the vote,” I said yesterday, “and I really don’t want to picture it, because I think the only one who could possibly do it is Ford.” Well, although he ultimately seems to have fallen just short […]

Apparently, if you’re a young woman these days, it’s no longer enough just to wear jogging pants with “juicy” written across the ass in varsity letters. If the woman I saw on the subway this morning is any indication, you’re also supposed to roll the waistband over itself so the tag sticks out like a […]

I recently promised to try and write a little more about some of the candidates in today’s election before the big day finally came, and I had hoped to do so this weekend. But I didn’t, partly because I didn’t know what more to say, and partly because I didn’t just want to add to […]

By the way, for those of you who are wondering, my brother did indeed defend his title at Gong the Show last night at Comedy Bar. The competition was intense, but he proved himself the star of the final round. Nice work, Jon! I had never been to Gong the Show before, and I’ve got […]

The problem with headlines like this is that people like me read them and get the excited impression that Toronto’s about to host a kick-ass progressive rock show in honour of the Dalai Lama. It’s only when we catch our breath and read the actual story that we discover, to our dismay, that we’re not […]

Tonight, the good people at Comedy Bar will host the fourth edition of Gong the Show, their offbeat and unpredictable comedy competition. Kate and I will be there with bells on, and if you’ve got five bucks and you like to laugh, then you ought to be there too. My brother Jon, seen here in […]