Let's go to somewhere not so clean

Speaking of leading men, Will Arnett (Let's Go to Prison) was on Late Night with David Letterman the other day. He said, "Yes, I'm from Toronto. Some people say Toronto is like a clean New York. I think of it as a dirty Winnipeg."

As I was riding to work this morning, I looked out the window and thought, "Yeah, we're pretty damn clean in Winnipeg. All our garbage is hidden away until it's ready to pick up. Even then, it's usually in a tidy back lane."

Anyway, I won't be in Winnipeg or Toronto for the next few days. I'll be in Montreal and I'll try to post photos of that lovely city.

Fred is in charge of our house until we return. He'll answer all your questions.

Have fun, kids.

For your consideration...

Leading Men

Cary Grant made a career out of it. Many have stepped forth to don the mantle; most have failed. Where are the leading men that can capture the hearts and imagination of the movie-going public? I submit a few possibles of various ages.

Things to care about this weekend

“Tomcat” and “Katie” Holmes will be renewing their marriage vows again and this time it’s in Italy. If memory serves me, the first was on the Eiffel Tower and the second was on the Oprah show. Congrats to them and everybody involved. I’m sure there is a significance to this that eludes me.

It’s the Grey Cup weekend in Winnipeg and the fans are gathering in anticipation of that. Apparently, there is a team from the west and a team from the east who play football with each other until one is declared a winner. Then everybody gets drunk and screams WOOOO! Congrats to everybody involved with that.

Harry Lehotsky from New Life Ministries died of pancreatic cancer last Saturday. The media are abuzz with tributes to the dead minister. “DEATH OF A HERO” proclaimed the front page of the Winnipeg Sun. The Winnipeg Free Press is inviting readers to submit stories so they can publish a full page of tribute on Saturday. Never one to back down from a writing exercise, I submitted this: “I always associated Harry Lehotsky with his protests against gay and lesbian people, assuming he was a hateful, closed-minded religious fanatic. But after he died, I read that he had done some good for the inner city – his life hadn’t been completely devoted to hate and negativity. That just goes to show, if you scratch beyond the surface of any human being, you may find a little good.” I hope the Free Press publishes my tribute but, let’s face it, they probably won’t.

Baby update: I got to visit with little Cooper yesterday. He's just a perfect little guy. His mom, my niece, is still recovering from what was a very painful birth experience. She and Brian had been planning to have three or four kids but the pain of these past two babies has them rethinking all that. Anyway, they are a beautiful family as is.

Travel update: Next week at this time, we will be in Montreal. It's a business trip for my guy, but not for me. I plan to check out the museums, shops and cafes for four glorious days. There is also a GLBT Film Festival while we are there. And a Michel Tremblay English-language play (Assorted Candies) at the Centaur Theatre.

I am taking my Christmas list and a credit card, so if you want anything special, let me know.

NBC intent on pacifying the loony fringe

My blog doesn’t easily fit into any category. Well, let’s just say I haven’t found a category of ‘Puerile Meanderings’. I’ve tried to be political but the blogosphere is really no place for politics, is it?

Whenever I say something of a political bent, there’s that guy who leaves a comment like, “Why are liberals incapable of original thought? Oh yeah, because they are out of ideas and only have rhetoric. Why are you so closed minded?” Yes, conservatives are all about open-mindedness. And diversity is to be celebrated — as long as it’s rich, white, patriarchal, heterosexual diversity, of course.

I am always freaked out by this guy. Like, does he read my blog every day and just speak up when I am being a flaming liberal. Or does he search Blogger for key words like ‘Iraq’, ‘Bush’ and ‘mistakes of epic proportion’ so that he can tell individual commentators to shut up. Either way, he’s a raging loony.

Anyway, here’s my political comment for the month. George W. Bush’s popularity is at 31%. Even Bush himself seems to be turning against the Bush administration and its policies. The 31% of the American population who stick by this administration are, let's face it, not clever people; they have been duped and they still haven’t figured it out. Still, NBC has decided not to run a TV ad promoting the Dixie Chicks documentary film, Shut Up and Sing. I guess the execs think that 31% of Americans don’t like ‘uppity’ women who speak their minds. That might be true but, really, why should the rest of us care? Cut the neo-con loonies loose, already.

It's quiet in here. Everybody's off checking out the new baby. Cooper. Think I'll call him Goober. That should get everybody worked up.

Names can be interesting, can't they? Occasionally you come across a name that tells a story. I was waiting in line for a coffee at Tim Horton's a couple of weeks ago and there was this woman behind the counter — around 50, scrawny, with bleached hair and tattoos. Her name tag said 'Gidget'. I could just imagine her pregnant mother coming home from the movie in 1959 and saying, "That's the kind of daughter I want — all spunky and athletic and cute-as-a-bug like Sandra Dee."

Maybe this Gidget was cute when she was 19 or 22. Nowadays, she looks a bit like she's lived through some things — lived hard, according to those arm tattoos — but there sits that name tag, hinting at a life beyond all this. And if it weren't for that, if her name had been Joanne, for instance, we be blocked from knowing little more than hair, tattoos and a spunky attitude from a gal who serves coffee at Tim Horton's.

Heads up, y'all

A correction. The baby's name is Cooper. My sis was eating Cheezies when she left her first message. I am happy about that because I wasn't happy about my great nephew being named for a root.

It's a Tuber!

Good news — my niece Rachael and her husband Brian had a baby. It's their second — the first is the pink-gown princess from a previous post.

My sister (Rachael's mom) left a phone message yesterday to tell us that it's a boy, his name is Tuber and he weighed 10 lbs. 7 oz at birth. We were a bit stunned at the choice to name him Tuber but we figure it must be in tribute to his great-grandmother, who was a gardener. We ultimately decided, 'Oh well, at least it's not Goober.'

Tuber arrives at the luckiest time of the year according to new theories of human psycho-spiritual phenomena. We know he will do his name proud.

Not this kind