A Few Quick Notes 593

-Despite the fact that we've had nice weather during the day recently, our nights and mornings have definitely been getting cooler.  I'm constantly surprised in the afternoon that I need to take the sweater off that I'd been wearing all morning.

-This weekend, thanks to a reminder from my mother, I purchased some millet.  Since we fed this stuff to our pet budgie in the early 1990s I've been curious about the stuff.  Maybe I'll manage to get around to cooking some of it tonight.  I'm imagining that it will be comparable to quinoa, but I guess I'll have to wait to find out.

-I realize that I'm likely of a dying breed, but I really love waking up to a freshly delivered newspaper.  While I also check online news sources, there's nothing quite like being able to flip through the newspaper every morning.

-Today, while running an unrelated errand I happened to walk by the parliament buildings and was able to see the remnants of some protest activities.  I guess these protests were timed to coincide with the first day of the House's fall sitting.  I also witnessed a corresponding increase in the number of police officers.

-While out on my aforementioned errand I had the pleasure of walking along Sparks Street.  Despite the fact that the pedestrian-only nature of Sparks Street is one of the things I like most about it, I keep getting the sense that it's perceived as some kind of failure.  Though I don't necessarily head there all that frequently, it always seems like a resounding success to me.

-I suspect that the cooler evening and nighttime temperatures are slowing down the growth rates of our plants.  Presumably in the relatively near future I'll have to start wrapping everything up for the season. It will be strange to see our bare balcony after so many months of relatively rampant plant growth.

-On a related note, I think I spotted someone in an adjoining backyard engaging in some anti-squirrel sling-shotting.  I would guess that this means that I'm not the only one frustrated by their presence.

A Few Quick Notes 581

-At first I was thinking today wouldn't be particularly hot or unpleasant, it seems I may have been a little off.  It's just past noon and it already feels like it's in the low 30s.  Gross.

-It seems that the Ottawa Fringe Festival is taking place in our neighbourhood.  Despite my best efforts I haven't yet been able to convince Jeannette to attend any of the shows with me.  Hopefully sometime between now and the end of the festival I'll manage to talk her into seeing at least of of the shows.

-As another week as passed I thought I would post a few more photos of our container garden progress.

Not surprisingly, the largest portion of our container garden is where we've seen the most growth.  The largest tomato plant keeps pumping out flowers (and immature tomatoes), as do our four pepper plants.  And our runner beans ran right up a line I set up for them.  Maybe most amazingly, our mini-pumpkin plants keep adding new leaves and buds (though only male buds so far) to their pot.  Almost every morning when we head our for the first inspection/watering of the day we find new and exciting developments.

Or, if you were looking for the angle I've posted for the past few weeks.

And if you needed more evidence in support of my claim about the presence of immature tomatoes.

The bathroom wheat continues to grow, but I think the less-than-harsh environment that is our bathroom didn't condition the wheat for some of the wind that we had earlier this week.  To try to overcome the weakness of the plants and fix the damage that was done I installed this new rigging system.  Hopefully this will encourage the growth patterns we are looking for.

We've also had some success with some of the plants I haven't spent as much time documenting.

For instance, a few days I noticed that one of our bean plants had a juvenile bean.  I would guess that we now have at least a dozen or so beans in various stages of not-quite-ready-to-pickness.

And after a slow start our lettuce has finally started to come into its own.  Maybe if we'd used a reasonably sized pot we'd have even more success (but I'm still hopeful that even with this small pot we'll have enough lettuce for a few salads).

And finally, maybe our most exciting garden development is that we finally had our first harvest.  When we went out to check on the plants this morning we noticed that two of our strawberries were ripe.  While even if you combine them these guys won't be much of a meal, it's nice to know that purchasing those plants wasn't all for nought.

-One of the things I've really like about our subscription to the Ottawa Citizen is that it means we're regularly supplied with new crossword puzzles.  Not that either of us is particularly adept at crossword puzzle solving, having the opportunity to spend a few minutes each morning on such a puzzle can be quite pleasurable.

Oh, and maybe the best thing is that on Saturday and Sunday two such puzzles are included.  They seem to know that when we have more breakfast time on our hands we will want more puzzles.

If that's all the re-writting you're going to do why don't you just re-post the press release?

A few minutes ago I noticed an Ottawa Citizen article about an Russell Peters' upcoming appearance in Ottawa.

Not surprisingly, it was noted that the quotes attributed to Peters' came from the press release.  The rest of the 'article' doesn't appear to be so upfront about its origins.

I was a little bit surprised to see that the 'article' mentioned that

The tour will feature ... video cameras and screens for an up-close and intimate show that will capture his signature audience improv in an arena setting.

Did a newspaper article really just include a passage about a modern stadium show having video cameras and screens?  Is the author assuming that the audience hasn't seen such a show in 20 years?

And what about that part about "his signature audience improve," is that the kind of phrasing that would normally appear in a newspaper article about an upcoming show?

Anyway, a few of the passages in the article caught my attention.  They just didn't read like an article - they read like a news release.  In the end I thought I should try to find the news release mentioned in the article and compare it to the Citizen's article.  Turns out they are pretty similar.

Here's a pretty good example of the copy-paste journalism employed in this instance.

As the article puts it:

Peters has given away more than $1 million over the past several years to various charities, from the Brampton Civic Hospital to Heart House Hospice, Gilda’s Club, the MS Society and a scholarship at his former high school (The Russell Peters North Peel Scholarship) to send a deserving student to college. The scholarship is now in its third year.

And as it appears in the original press release:

Peters has given away more than a million dollars over the past several years to various charities, from the Brampton Civic Hospital, to Heart House Hospice, Gilda's Club, the MS Society and a scholarship at his old high-school, TheRussell Peters North Peel Scholarship to send a deserving student to college.  The scholarship is now in its third year.

Similarities like these can be found throughout the article.  Paragraph after paragraph has been basically lifted from the press release.

There are a few aspects of this practice that I don't understand.  First of all, isn't this basically copyright infringement?  If it isn't, does it mean that I could I re-write the Harry Potter books as the Larry Sotter books and sell them for $5 less and make billions? Or maybe just remove all of the Oxford comas?

Secondly, isn't there something of a moral issue here.  The newspaper is presenting the content as though it is a piece of journalism.  I'm sure media studies types have a better way of framing the issue, but to represent something as journalistic output that is really nothing more than a modified press release seems, at the bare minimum, a little misleading.

Thirdly, isn't this just hugely inefficient?  If the paper thinks that the press release content is valuable, but not valuable for independent reporting, why not just re-post the original press release as a press release of interest?  Why spend the time and money to hire someone to make a few minor stylistic changes that can't possibly be significant enough to eliminate any copyright-related issues?  In an era when newsroom cuts are rampant, this seems a particularly strange practice and an area ripe for modernization and reform.

It only took a year

Just over a year ago after reading an editorial I found particularly distasteful I terminated my daily subscription to the Globe and Mail.  For better or worse, for the past year I have been without a daily newspaper subscription.

Now that I am in Ottawa I have a few more newspaper choices.  I decided to give the Ottawa Citizen a shot.

Today was the first day of my subscription.  So far I'm pretty pleased.  The price seems reasonable and they have a pretty good mix of national, international, and local content.  And they also have a real daily crossword puzzle, not one of those lousy cryptic crossword things.

Typo or unfunny joke?

I can't tell if this is a typo or if it is a very unfunny joke.  I guess it seems like it might be the latter.

Something, something Robocalls

This morning I read a very underwhelming column on the developing robocall scandal by the Globe and Mail's John Ibbitson.  Not only does the column include the questionable claim "As a general rule, politicians never openly lie, because the consequences of being caught in one just aren’t worth it," but it also seems to back much of the official Conservative position on the Robocall Scandal somewhat uncritically.


One of the claims of the Conservative party that seems to have been accepted whole-heartedly is that

people who have worked at senior levels on election campaigns, but who prefer not to be identified, say that voter suppression tactics are stupid because they’re inefficient. It is more profitable on election day to mobilize your vote than to try to discourage your opponent’s.

What evidence do these unnamed campaign workers or Mr. Ibbitson have to support this position?  My gut feeling was that it was at least plausible that voter suppression could be very effective in some circumstances - and particularly in circumstances that were not all that dissimilar from those associated with the current Robocall Scandal.

A little time online lead me to a few neat articles about robocalling and voter suppression.  One that dealt more with the regulation of robocalling in the US does detail a few of the ways in which robocalls have been used both legitimately and illegitimately.  I was particularly amused by the following quote, which is quite pertinent to the Super PAC-era politics currently ongoing in the US:

The NRCC spent almost $20,000 to pour hundreds of thousands of robocalls into the district in New Hampshire. Because the calls were independent expenditures, they could not be coordinated with nor ap- proved of by the incumbent Republican candidate. Even after Congressman Bass asked for the calls to stop, the party committee refused, saying that cessation would require illegal coordination.

Another article more explicitly on voter suppression through the distribution of misinformation found that such tactics could suppress voter participation, particularly among those segments of a population with limited political knowledge/education.  Though these findings are preliminary,  they do hint at the potential effectiveness of a widespread campaign of misinformation.

I am not trying to lay the blame for the Robocall Scandal at the feet of any particular entity or absolve other groups, but trying to suggest that when we hear claims about the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of things like voter suppression campaigns that we try to assess the validity of these claims before accepting or rejecting them.  In some cases the validity or inaccuracy of such claims can change the way the whole situation is perceived.

Was something lost in translation at the border

Last night I took a few minutes the results from the Michigan and Arizona primaries come in.  In both cases Romney received a plurality of the votes, though in Michigan the margin was pretty narrow.

Given recent stumbles by Romney and the fact that Michigan is where Romney grew up many suggested that success there would be particularly important.  So now that he has 'won' in Michigan I thought it would be interesting to look at some of the coverage (mainly through their choice of headlines) and see how they have interpreted a similar set of facts.  In the following cases I looked at the most prominent story in these organization's news sections - it's possible that there is additional coverage with a different take on things in a dedicated election coverage wing of the website/organization.

The New York Times' headline was:

Romney Regains Stride With Victories in 2 States

I think it is fair to say that the tone of their article is summed up in the following passage:

His victory over Mr. Santorum here in Michigan was far from commanding, but it was most likely sufficient to dampen the rising clamor from across the Republican Party about his ability to win over conservatives and connect with voters. The tussle with Mr. Santorum highlighted ample concerns about Mr. Romney, but his win spared his campaign from deep turmoil. 

 NPR's leading primary related headline is:

Santorum and Co. Left to Mourn What Might Have Been In Michigan

 Immediately the focus on the significance of the loss for Santorum rather than the significance for the 'winner,' Romney, is apparent.  This emphasis is particularly clear in the first paragraph:

Rick Santorum and his campaign will likely look back on Michigan's 2012 primary not only as a heartbreaking loss in the battle against Mitt Romney but also as a historic lost opportunity.

USA Today's headline isn't too different in tone from the New York Times:

Romney campaign breathes a sigh of relief after Michigan win

A USA Today 'blog' story on the primaries take a slightly different tack, noting the proportionality of delegate distribution in Michigan:

Romney, Santorum to split Michigan delegates

Fox News seems to hedge their prediction bets with the uninspiring:

Romney wins Michigan, Arizona primaries

The seem to be suggesting that Romney's candidacy is still not out of the woods and that this whole Super Tuesday thing might be the real proving ground.

Mitt Romney, after fending off Rick Santorum in his home state of Michigan, is fast-approaching the biggest test so far of his volatile front-runner status: next week’s Super Tuesday contests where 419 delegates are up for grabs.

There seems to be a strange parallel between the Fox News headline and the headline used by the Washington Post:

Mitt Romney wins Arizona, Michigan primaries

The Washington Post also seems less inclined to suggest that success in these two contests have turned around Romney's campaign.

Romney’s victories on Tuesday are unlikely to solve the larger problems that have held back his campaign. Even after months of work and millions of dollars spent, he has not won over a vast swath of Republicans. 

The most surprising headline that I have yet seen comes from the Globe and Mail.  For some reason they seem to have interpreted last night's events as being bad for Romney:

Narrow win in home state of Michigan clouds Romney's chances

And they don't beat around the bushes with this strongly worded first paragraph.

Mitt Romney’s tortuous path to the Republican presidential nomination took another detour into rocky territory on Tuesday with his thin win in a contest he should by rights have owned. 

Obviously these are just a few of the many thousand headlines that have been written as a result of last night's primary results.  But as you can see, depending on your source, things are either looking great for Romney or things are looking bad for Romney or Santorum.  It's impressive that a single event can lead such widely varying news output.

Cameron: 42
Neil:0

Is the web off-limits to reporters?

Today I learned that the Globe and Mail's long-time parliamentary bureau chief, Jane Taber, now heads the paper's Atlantic bureau.  I learned about this change in part by reading what I understand to be her first contribution from her new post.

This first article, which deals with Halifax mayor's Peter Kelly's current political challenges, seems to have been triggered by a recent article in the Coast that deals with Kelly's failings as executor for the estate of a late friend.  The Coast article really goes after Kelly and outlines a number of problems with the way in which the probate process has been handled so far.

As Taber notes

Now Halifax is buzzing over allegations that Mr. Kelly took more than $160,000 from the $500,000 estate of a long-time elderly friend, Mary Thibeault, and with questions of why, seven years after her death, the will has not been settled. 

These questions were first posed last week in The Coast, a free weekly newspaper.

The primary issue I have with the article comes from the final sentence of the previous quote.  As many of us resident in Nova Scotia know, the Coast has been covering the issue of this will for quite some time.  A quick Google search for "peter kelly executor" lead me to a March 2011 story on the topic.

Maybe I should at least be happy that the mainstream media finally picked up on the story, even if it took them almost a year?  And isn't this the kind of story that the mainstream media should be breaking rather than re-reporting from the local alternative/arts weekly?

Cameron: 33
Neil: 0

Life in Halifax, Nofuna Scotia

As part of his continued effort to justify the use of the moniker "Nofuna Scotia" the HRM chief of police has recently blamed bars and alcohol for high crime rate in Halifax.

As the Metro story puts it:

HRM drinks too much and Halifax Regional Police Chief Frank Beazley says he has the assault statistics to prove it.

He told the municipality’s police commission on Monday there’s way too much easy access to liquor in this town. Many people sit at home and drink heavily before going out late to the bar and pounding drinks until 3 a.m.

“If I could take the alcohol out of this, I could plummet the number of assaults in HRM,” he said.  

Beazley added that several of the 3,202 assaults last year involved people getting drunk and going home to beat a family member.

The access, hours the bars are open and the density of liquor establishments downtown combine to cause real problems.

“Why do we need that many bars in that one area of the community that require so many resources to police it?”

While I am sure it is the case that some number of Halifax's crimes were committed by people who had recently been drinking in bars, do we know that access to alcohol really lead to all that many crimes - or do criminals just happen to also be drinkers?   Do other communities with bar districts face similar problems?  If not, why not?

And is the chief of police really suggesting that some number of legally operated small businesses be closed or have their capacity to collect revenue severely restricted?  Might there not be other steps that we can take before this one?

And I am curious if the chief's suggestion that if he "could take the alcohol out of this, I could plummet the number of assaults in HRM" is accurate.  An interesting story from the Guardian today seems to suggest that people will go to great lengths to secure intoxicating substances in the face of prohibitions.  At least in the UK an ever-changing array of legal synthetic drugs seem to be popular at the moment.  And of course not much is know about these synthetic drugs and what kind of long-term impact they might have on their imbibers.  And should one not think about the risk of encouraging such a development be worth by changing alcohol rules?


Cameron: 26
Neil: 0

Does the romance novel have a non-fiction equivalent?

Romance novels are everywhere in North America.  New or used, they are easy to come by.  Obviously they are filling some kind of demand.

But let's say you want something that's accessible, cheap, and easy to read that's also non-fiction what are the options?

My first thought is that the newspaper might be the non-fiction counterpart of the romance novel, but I am not entirely satisfied with that comparison.  Maybe magazines?

In the end magazines and newspapers both have the problem that their articles are much shorter than a romance novel, and I guess I am looking for something that is about as long (a very arbitrary requirement I know).

Is it possible that the romance novel just doesn't have a non-fiction analog?  Is such a thing needed?  Could we create something to fill this void?

Finally, some coverage of an issue close to my heart

For some time I have been concerned about the contemporary mainstream media practice of including content that journalists know to be untrue in their stories.  The situation frequently arises when a public figure says untrue and is then quoted, without a qualifying statement, by the media outlet.  To feign ignorance or simply fail to deal with such untruths, at least to me, seems to undermine the utility of the whole venture of journalism.

For quite a while I have had the sense that this is an issue that has been completely sidestepped by the mainstream medeia.  They just aren't interested in dealing with the issue and challenges that would be sure to crop up if such an approach were to be adopted.

My opinions on the issue aside, it seems that today an editor at the New York Times finally wondered if their readers were interested in having reporters actually try to alert readers of known falsehoods or claims of questionable validity.

Perhaps not surprisingly, at least based on an assessment of the article's highest rated comments, readers do seem to be interested in having their news sources call out politicians when they tell lies.  Most people seem to think that a news source isn't much of a news source if it doesn't accomplish this basic task.

Anyway, though the story was only posted this morning more than 250 comments have been logged and commenting further commenting has now been halted.

I suspect that they have attracted more of a response to this piece than they expected.

Anyway, I am curious to see how the paper responds to this uproar (as the editor's piece leaves the impression that they knowingly include false statements that they make no effort to correct in their paper on a regular basis).  Given the immediate web uproar surely at least a follow-up comment will be made?

On the Media lead me to this response to the original NYT piece.

Different takes on the same announcement

Earlier today the Government of Nova Scotia announced the details of a new MOU with the province's universities.  I gather that in general austerity is the theme of the announcement (with $25 million in funding specifically dedicated to cost cutting - however that is supposed to work).

Of course how the province is presenting this announcement is a little different than some media sources.  To demonstrate the difference I thought it might be fun to provide the first paragraphs from a sources covering this issue.

To start, here is the first paragraph from the government's news release:

A three-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the province and Nova Scotia's 11 universities will ensure tuition remains at, or below, the national average, increases research and development opportunities, and invests $25 million in universities to help them become more sustainable.

 From the Metro's story on the topic:

The Nova Scotia government will allow tuition fees to rise by three per cent a year while reducing its grant to universities.

From the Chronicle Herald's story:

Nova Scotia universities will see a three per cent cut in provincial funding, Labour and Advanced Education Minister Marilyn More announced this afternoon.  

 From the Globe and Mail's story:

The Nova Scotia government will allow tuition fees to rise by three per cent a year while reducing its grant to universities.

(As you may haven noticed, there is a striking similarity between the Metro and Globe and Mail paragraphs.  Though the stories had different headlines it seems that they both just re-issued the Canadian Press story.)

I guess the media wasn't too interested in going with the province's take on things in this case.

You've got to be kidding me

The Chronicle Herald is reporting that several 'deregistered' lobbyists are working for the Conservative campaign and that the Commissioner of Lobbying has suggested that registered lobbyists are prohibited from participating in the campaign. It seems that the latter portion of this story broke a few days ago on the Canadian politics blogs.

The Chronicle Herald quotes Shepherd, in an email to registered lobbyists, as suggesting that

"Working on a political campaign to support the election of a public office holder is, in my opinion, advancing the private interest of that public office holder," she wrote. "A real or apparent conflict of interest can be created when a lobbyist engages in political activities that advance the private interest of a public office holder, while at the same time, or subsequently, seeking to lobby that public office holder."

It seems that the same, if not more, problems are likely present when 'deregistered' lobbyists (particularly those who just don't happen to be lobbying at the moment) participate in political campaigns. It should also be noted that all kinds of people who engage in lobbying activities that don't require reporting could also be participating in various political campaigns - there just isn't a good way of knowing.

That a situation could be created where an MP/Minister/Prime Minister feels that they owe their position to the campaign efforts of a particular lobbyist is scary and seems to completely undermine any attempt that has thus far been implemented to regulate lobbying. This loophole seems to provide a way for 'deregistered' lobbyists to have more access to political actors than they would be able to have if they were registered and thus provides a potential incentive to 'deregister' as a way of gaining more access to politicians.

So not only does this practice provide us with more evidence that the effectiveness of the lobbying regime likely quite limited, it also demonstrates that a number of individuals have figured out ways to get close to politicians that aren't obviously in contravention of the lobbying rules.

I guess we can now wait and see whether or not this becomes a big story or if it just blows over. Given the recent Bruce Carson pseudo-lobbying thing it wouldn't surprise me if this got at least a little traction.

Banned by the CBC

Many of you likely know that over past few days I have been in contact with a Telegram reporter who is doing a story on Doyle Pitches, a site where we make unsolicited episode and character pitches for the CBC show Republic of Doyle.

When I spoke to the reporter yesterday she said the would be contacting the Republic of Doyle people, particularly the star of the show, for a comment on the blog and our pitches.

I have now heard from this reporter that the show's representatives weren't particularly interested in giving a comment. Moreover, apparently the CBC has banned the star from even reading our blog over fears that if ideas similar to those on site eventually appear on the show they might be sued. Really? A free blog has been made verboten?

Firstly, I want to make it clear that I do not, nor does anyone else associated with the site, have any interest in suing a publicly funded local TV show. Hell, I would consider paying them upwards of $5 to use either Phonse Tibbo or Cecil Noseworthy in any of their episodes.

Secondly, it feels really funny to have been banned by the CBC (an institution I have loved for so many years). I mean really, is this anything anyone ever thinks they will have to deal with - especially when the organization doing the banning is also the country's premiere news organization?

Thirdly, it feels strange to have created something that lead to pre-emptive action being taken by another organization. Who knew actions had consequences and stuff?

Fourthly, apparently the story will still be coming out - though I don't know exactly when. If I hear details about the publication date I will be sure to relay them here.

Who knows, I may have more to say on this topic. At the moment the whole thing is a little too fresh for me to fully grasp and articulate.

Score
Cameron 30
Neil 0

Picking up steam?

This afternoon I was interviewed by a Telegram reporter about Doyle Pitches. Two weeks ago, or whenever it was that we started Doyle Pitches, I couldn't have imagined this development. The idea that there would be any media interest in this endeavour would have seemed as crazy as having the Halliday's guy look after a stolen horse being hidden in a house across from the aforementioned meat market.

I guess we now just have to wait and see how this all plays out. I will keep you updated if I hear anything else on this subject.

Oh, and the Doyle Pitches Twitter account now has 31 followers, up from 18 yesterday.

Score
Cameron 27
Neil 0

A Few Quick Notes 473

-We had another great day in Halifax today. For better or worse, I didn't really experience much of it directly and instead had to grasp its beauty through a series of windows.

-Much of my day today was spent reading/studying and grading. Unfortunately, I spent less time doing either of these two activities than I might have like.

-Last night we went to the apartment of some friends for some homemade pizza (mine was cheese and tomato free) and games. I think a good time was had by all in attendance.

-Hopefully I will get a chance to read some of today's paper tomorrow as I didn't get much of a chance to read it today.

-I'm once again incredibly tired. Hopefully I will be able to make it to bed early tonight.

Two news sources, two very different conclusions

A few minutes ago I happened to come across a Reuter's story entitled "Cargo bomb found in UK could have exploded over U.S." This struck me as strange as I recalled recently seeing a similar story, though the competing headline suggested that the bomb would have exploded over Canada. Though I am not sure if this is the story that I saw, the Washington Post presently has such a headline: "Bomb would have exploded over Canada, data show."

I guess the good news is that we can't accuse Reuter's or the Washington Post of just copying the other's work and claiming it as their own.

I guess everything has been cleared up?

Yesterday I drew our readers' attention to a story about an unidentified missile in the Los Angeles area. At the time most of the reports seemed to suggest that precisely what had been captured on film by a local TV station appeared to be some kind of unidentified missile.

Apparently the latest take on the story is that the contrail was nothing more than a jet.

Really? A jet? And no one thought of this scenario yesterday?

What I find strangest about the turn of events is that when first reported upon, military officials seemed to suggest that it was not one of their missiles, not that it was not a missile. Wouldn't it have just been easier to say that you thought it was not a missile but a jet?

And then I would imagine that it should be relatively easy to figure out which jet it was given our modern radar and satellite tracking technologies. That the particular jet has not been identified seems notable.

Anyway, the whole thing continues to not add up. We seem to be dealing with relatively large-scale incompetence or misinformation, I don't see how it can be anything else.

A Few Quick Notes 423

-After several days of sub-par weather today has been quite beautiful. The skies have been quite clear and the temperature almost perfect (meaning the low to mid twenties). Unfortunately, we seem likely to switch back to somewhat overcast/rainy and cooler weather in the coming days. What a bummer.

-On Friday night Peter and I attended the Old Man Luedecke concert at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium. Unfortunately, as both of us were somewhat tired we managed to sleep through portions of most of the songs in the first half of the show. Fortunately, due to an intermission sugar hit, we were able to wake up for the second half of the show.

-Part of the justification for my renewed absence from the blog this past weekend was that I was helping two friends move. On Friday I helped Peter get his things out of residence. We then stashed quite a number of his belongings in my closet for the summer. On Saturday and Sunday I helped another friend move, a move which first required us to do some shopping and cleaning. Anyway, it was definitely a busy weekend as far as moving was concerned.

-Neil and Rebecca will be returning from their trip to Regina this evening. I am hoping to have the apartment in order and food freshly prepared for their return. Hopefully I don't get too lazy between now and then.

-A few days ago I walked into our laundry room to find one of the components of the coin injection part of washing machine on the floor. It was immediately clear that this washing machine was definitely going to be out of order. Unfortunately, several days have passed and the washing machine is still out of order. Though this wouldn't normally be too much of a problem, not having access to two washing machines has definitely slowed down some of my washing attempts. I really hope that they will get around to having this fixed in the very near future. That the machine is out of commission is particularly frustrating as I know that the washing component of the machine is still fully functional (as I have seen it in use over the past few days).

-After a few weeks of failing to read my newspapers very thoroughly, it has been great to finally get back to my daily newspaper habit. I am hoping that in the coming days I might even be able to catch up on a few unread obituaries that piled up over the past year and a half.

Is that what they really meant?

This morning I was checking my RSS feeds when I noticed that the Metro had a story about Darrell Dexter playing in an upcoming charity basketball game. The important sentence in the story is:

The Nova Scotia premier/longtime baller is playing in the Legends of Basketball game Saturday as part of the Premier Basketball League all-star weekend at the Halifax Metro Centre.

What is of note is their use of the word 'baller,' which also means something quite different than what they likely meant.

The Urban Dictionary definition, which is the first Google result for 'baller,' suggests that baller means

A thug that has "made it" to the big time. Originally refered ball players that made it out of the streets to make millions as a pro ball player, but now is used to describe any thug that is living large.

It seems to me that the Metro staff should consider being a little more careful the next time they think about dropping some slang in their articles (unless, of course, this was they effect they were going for).