Author: Dan Dickinson

Jumbo shrimp. Open secret. Deafening silence.

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Awesome dentist.

Some time last night I broke a filling (which isn’t even my fault) and left a tiny jagged piece behind, which scraped the crap out of my tongue all night. This morning I called my dentist. He agreed to squeeze me in at 1:15. By 1:16 I was in his chair. By 1:17 he’d gently ground down the jagged bit. By 1:18 my tooth felt fine and he’d sent me on my way, free of charge.

I know this doesn’t seem like much, but it’s certainly a lot less painful (literally) than a typical trip to the dentist, and cost less than I expected, even for two minutes of work. If any dentist can be classified as awesome (relatively speaking) this guy can.

If you live in Toronto and consider your dentist less-than-awesome, try Dr. Lee at Royal Bank Plaza Dental.

[tags]royal bank plaza dental[/tags]

They're No Here

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Drat and foo. Mogwai has been forced to cancel their remaining US and Canadian tour dates, including this Wednesday’s show in Toronto, for which I had tickets. Apparently drummer Martin Bulloch was having trouble with his pacemaker:

I was taken into hospital last night almost immediately after the show at ATP. I’ve been having some problems with my pacemaker for the duration of the tour and it unfortunately culminated in me being sent to the emergency room. The doctors there initially thought i would have to have corrective surgery at a larger hospital nearer NYC but i have been given the all clear to travel home on the understanding that i go straight to my cardiologist on arrival back in Scotland.

Tbh, i’m really bummed about having to go home and feel for the folk who had bought tickets for our upcoming shows but i can honestly say it would be almost impossible for me to carry on at this point as my pacemaker has broken skin and the surrounding area has become infected.

Blurg! But it’s good news that Marty seems to be ok. Get well, and come back, soon.

Note for ticketholders: TicketMaster says the original tickets will be honored at a rescheduled date, TBD.

[tags]mogwai, phoenix concert theatre, ticketmaster[/tags]

Thick but spritzy-clean palate

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Apparently the summer decided to grant us one last beautiful weekend before fall arrives to spoil the party. Yesterday we took advantage of likely the last lazy, hazy summer Saturday of the year: we slept in, picked up fresh vegetables and some dessert at the market, walked over to the Bay and bought some new bed stuff and cleaned up the balcony. We spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening sitting outside, reading, listening to music, snapping the picture you see up there (note HMCS Charlottetown in the middle-right of the frame…not sure what she’s doing there) and enjoying a Great Lakes Pumpkin Ale until CBGB showed up. Nellie barbecued some rainbow trout, which we ate with maple-glazed carrots, peas, potatoes, two bottles of wine, some Mill Street Belgian Wit beer and the afore-mentioned dessert, an apple strudel. There wasn’t much time left in the evening when they left…just enough for me to pull the trigger on the new computer I’ve been thinking about ordering, and crawl between the comfy new duvet & pillows.

Good day, that.

[tags]last day of summer, great lakes pumpkin ale, mill street belgian wit[/tags]

"If I decide to do it, by definition it's good policy."

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Yesterday on esquire.com Ron Suskind wrote an excellent little piece about the legacy of President Bush the second entitled What Bush Meant. The first problem with his presidency is summed up in one paragraph:

George Walker Bush is not a stupid or a bad man. But in his conduct as president, he behaved stupidly and badly. He was constrained by neither the standards of conduct common to the average professional nor the Constitution. This was not ignorance but a willful rejection on Bush’s part, in the service of streamlining White House decision-making, eliminating complexity, and shutting out dissenting voices. This insular mind-set was and is dangerous. Rigorous thinking and hard-won expertise are both very good things, and our government for the past eight years has routinely debased and mocked these virtues.

The second problem was, essentially, a refusal to acknowledge the first:

President Bush was unmoved by any arguments that challenged his assumptions. Debate was silenced, expertise was punished, and diversity of opinion was anathema, so much so that his political opponents–other earnest Americans who want the best for their country–were, to him and his men, the moral equivalent of the enemy. It is important to note just how different such conduct has been from the conduct of other presidents from both parties.

Anyone who has drawn this sad conclusion has been dismissed as a “Bush hater” by those who defend the president.

It seems overly simplistic to narrow everything down to these two self-reinforcing problems, but I believe this is the basis for what’s befallen America these past eight years.

There’s a George Bernard Shaw quote I’ve always liked: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” This morning it occurred to me that Shaw’s statement is incomplete. Technically all change depends on the unreasonable man. If the change is for the better, then it’s progress; if not, we’re left with the task of repairing the damage he’s done.

[tags]george bush, ron suskind, george bernard shaw, esquire[/tags]

Pop!

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This has been sitting in my starred feed items for a while and I forgot to blog about it. It shows the generic name for soft drinks, broken down by (American) county. Growing up I always called it pop, and I have yet to visit a place in Canada that refers to it otherwise…strange, since all of the northeastern states seem to call it “soda.”

I’m not surprised to see the red…years ago when I was consulting in Texas and going out for lunch with clients, this would be the typical conversation:

Server: “What would y’all like to drink?”

Client: “Coke.”

Server: “What kind?”

Client: “Sprite.”

Server: “Coming up.”

The first few times this happened I was pretty confused. For a while I even thought it was just Chuck — funniest man alive — messing with me. It took me a while to dope out. Honestly, my brain was still busy dealing with the idea that tornadoes happened here. The hotel I was staying in even had “In case of a tornado…” instructions on the door right next to the usual “In case of a fire…” I’m used to seeing.

[via Strange Maps]

[tags]generic names for soft drinks, strange maps, chuck kirby[/tags]

Falling off the wagon. Into a pit of grease.

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I miss chicken. Ever since I stopped eating meat (except fish, which I don’t even really like) last year I’ve found the toughest thing to replace was chicken. Not because I enjoyed it more than any other meat — I believe that distinction would go to sausage — but because it was such a big part of my diet. I ate it in salad, I ate it in burger form, I liked it stir-fried, barbecued and on pizza. So I miss it.

Recently I’ve discovered that veggie faux-chicken burgers taste just like the cheap-ass chicken burgers I used to get from the canteen in my university dorm, which is great for sentimental value, but they’re nothing like the real chicken burgers I used to get.

So I’m both excited and horrified that the new KFC unchicken burger is, apparently, fantastic. Even PETA thinks so, for chrissakes. PETA, by the way, seems to be relatively ok with KFC now that (in Canada, anyway) the chickens are killed much more humanely, but still…I wouldn’t have expected love for any of the greasy crow’s foodstuffs.

I want to try one, but I think the general ambient smell inside a KFC would make me vom. What to do?

[tags]kfc, unchicken burger, peta[/tags]

Miniskirts don't show off legs. People wearing miniskirts show off legs.

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Hey, look everybody. Bans!

From the Globe and Mail: [Ontario Premier Dalton] McGuinty calls for outright ban on handguns. The awful part here is the reader comments. The idiocy displayed in the Globe’s comment section, especially for contentious issues like gun control, is really approaching Speak You’re Branes quality. My favourites so far:

Thank the libbies for young offenders,when I was a kid there was the national anthem then the lords prayer,take out the prayer and you have an unconcious society of kids that dont believe they will ever be accountable,,,ya ya I know Im a christian wingnut and the bible is a fantasy,,,,,well snow white,, is a fantasy too and its not condemned in the schools,the best is if you ever read the bible read revelations,it speaks about all this ,not bad for a book that some say was just written by men 2000 years ago,,,,,,,God Bless

and

When I’m in the back woods, I carry my pistol for defence from bears, rabid animals, or anything else.

My god…imagine the fun when this gentleman actually encounters an angry bear in the woods and thinks a handgun is going to stop it. Unless he’s carrying a .50 caliber or he goes for strolls in the Hundred Acre Wood, he’s in trouble.

.:.

From the BBC: Uganda seeking miniskirt ban.

Uganda’s ethics and integrity minister says miniskirts should be banned – because women wearing them distract drivers and cause traffic accidents. Nsaba Buturo told journalists in Kampala that wearing a miniskirt was like to walking naked in the streets.

“What’s wrong with a miniskirt? You can cause an accident because some of our people are weak mentally,” he said.

Mental weakness? Hard to believe when one of your cabinet ministers shows that kind of stunning insight.

[tags]globe and mail, bbc, dalton mcguinty, handgun ban, uganda, miniskirt ban[/tags]

In which our hero regains an enjoyable bit of his life, post-MBA

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Some friends and I played basketball tonight. It was my first time since…oh, since this happened. Actually, I did hurt my wrist again tonight…jammed it on somebody as he ran by. That’s all it is, though…jam or a minor sprain.

It felt good to play again, even if I was terribly out of sync & shape. Thankfully we all were.

One weird thing: in the schoolyard where we played there was this…I dunno, aerobics class or boot camp thing or something. Twenty girls doing push-ups and wind sprints and being barked at by some instructor while listening to the most horrible dance remixes of disco songs (surely the soundtrack in my personal hell), all right next to where we were playing ball. PC got a little distracted when they did stretches, but we persevered.

[tags]basketball, wrist injury[/tags]

Now what?

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Ummm, yeah. So I’m done blogging about the MBA. And TIFF is over for another year. So what the hell do I talk about now?

Well, last night we got the remnants of a hurricane. Which was fun. And this morning the American financial system fucking melted. Happy trails, Lehman Brothers. You too Merrill Lynch. Say hello to Bear Stearns for us. Here’s hoping AIG can get up off the mat. Me, I spent the day trying to catch up at the office and wondering how the ass balls I can tame my inbox.

And here’s what’s coming up: Canadiens training camp. A Mogwai concert. A Toronto FC game next weekend. Volo’s cask days. Drinks with two friends and a cousin (all at different times…they don’t know each other) that I’ve been putting off for a while. Dinner with T-Bone. Long overdue blog template redesign. The “some day” category on my RTM task list. PVR annihilation, especially the stuff recorded back in December. Listening (finally) to the following:

  • bonnie prince billy . lie down in the light
  • coldplay . viva la vida or death and all his friends
  • frightened rabbit . sing the greys
  • kings of leon . only by the night
  • lightspeed champion . falling of the lavender bridge
  • mates of state . re-arrange us
  • mgmt . oracular spectacular
  • mogwai . the hawk is howling
  • nick + norah’s infinite playlist . original soundtrack
  • okkervil river . the stand-ins
  • spiritualized . songs in a & e
  • tv on the radio . dear science
  • walkmen . you & me
  • witch . paralyzed
  • wolf parade . at mount zoomer

Reviews:

  • I watched a few minutes of J.J. Abrams’ new show Fringe and that was enough. I liked Cloverfield and all but I want nothing to do with the dude’s shows.
  • The jury’s still out on the new HBO show True Blood. Alan Ball: good. Vampires: boring. Anna Paquin: less hot than I expected. Rutina Wesley, who plays her best friend: my new girlfriend du jour.
  • Bon Iver: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

[tags]tiff, lehman brothers, merrill lynch, canadiens, mogwai, toronto fc, volo cask days, fringe, cloverfield, true blood, anna paquin, rutina wesley, bon iver[/tags]