Tuesday, October 23, 2007

The news in brief:

Yard work is kicking my ass. I am kicking back. Take that, tomato plants!

Miss Lucy continues to take honours by being beautiful and communicative and hilarious. Also by faking us out with sounds that could be words. (My favourite? "Yick!")

Goin' camping in Algonquin.

I love the Pipettes. Once again, Jen is ahead of the curve.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

suckerpunched by biscuits

Peek Freans, I am so angry at you right now. More specifically I am angry at someone or a group of someones in your marketing department.

Okay, perhaps you've seen the noisome ads for their new line of "better-for-you" cookies, where they tell you you'll have to "find a new way to be bad." I don't think I could possibly rant enough about how much I hate the equation of eating with badness. I hate it when desserts are called "sinful," I hate it when people talk about "being bad" when they have a piece of cake, and I especially hate it in smarmily self-satisfied ads that feature adult women making use of whoopee cushions. If you want to talk about the morality of food, there is a perfectly legitimate discussion to be had about food production, animal treatment, and the environmental impact of transporting foods over long distances. Go to it, people. I will not be joining you, but it is a conversation I can respect.

There are a million and one things going on in the world that can be described as "bad," but calories are not among them. I suppose, however, that judging ourselves and each other about what we eat is a nice distraction from worrying about, say, genocide. So that's a plus.

I will admit, however, that I had brushed off the advertising with no more than a withering glare at the TV, and the application of my mute button. No, the thing that pushed me over the edge was today's cookie promo party in the mall. It wasn't the annoying dance music. (Not even when they played "Bad Girls.") It wasn't the perkiness of their spokespeople repeating the slogans into the microphone. It was that they were handing out packages of sample cookies labelled "for women only."

Let's just take a minute to absorb that one, folks.

If there had been even one person there I could reasonably have screamed at, I would have done it. Instead, I'll have to exercise my bad girl muscles by writing a furious letter. So much more rewarding than either eating a whole bag of cookies or agonizing about it.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

this just in: Liberals least evil

I thank the people of Ontario for not electing John Tory. I'm not sure Dalton McGuinty is a prize of any description, but at least I don't have to endure four years of leadership by someone who looks like the Playdoh Mop Top Hair Shop does his styling. I don't trust that man to dress himself, let alone run my province. (I was going to make a Ken doll joke here, but seriously...did you see his hair during his concession speech? It defies description.)

The good folks on the teevee punctuated their election coverage by reading viewer email as it scrolled up the screen. One of the notes, and I wish I could quote directly, said something like: "Ontario voters have not said that the Liberals are the best choice. They have said that the Liberals are the LEAST EVIL choice." We looked at the screen, chorused "LEAST EVIL!" with accompanying hand gestures, and dissolved into fits of giggles. A graphic demonstration of why your caps lock button is your enemy, especially if you're trying to make a point.

Monday, October 08, 2007

waiting room



I appear to be having a lull. Talk amongst yourselves, perhaps about this fuzzy caterpillar who we encountered while hiking up at Boyne River.