Sambal

You may have noticed that Colby Cosh and Damian Penny and Kathy Shaidle are missing in action.

They’re all filing their taxes.

Welcome to 51% marginal land, suckas!

So the Dixie Chicks will be appearing nude on the cover of Entertainment Weekly.

Thank God, that they didn’t ask Michael Moore to do that, you’re probably thinking.

So go read this. (Safe for work.)

Colby Cosh reports on the competition for Edmonton’s new slogan.

Why not, I wonder, take advantage of Toronto’s problems with “It’s Still Safe to Come to Edmonton”.

If the epidemic reaches us, we can do “Dying to Be In Edmonton”.

Besides the oil ministry, that is. Hospitals? Water storage facilities? Orphanages? Can’t we have some press releases about how the library burned because the coalition forces were busy guarding Iraqi orphanages?

No, we can’t, because our P.R. is just that bad.

So I’m back, or at least back in Edmonton. Don’t yet know how “back” I can be in my writing.

I liked this article via the Calgary Herald, which describes the report on Canada’s response to 9/11 — mainly in the speed of humanitarian aid to air passengers stranded in Canada during the four or so days that North American aviation was shut down.

The report claims that response was poor because of poor central planning, and recommends that more funding be given to OCIPEP, Canada’s emergency planning bureaucracy. (The report was prepared by — surprise! — staffers from OCIPEP.) Oh, and all the logistical problems surrounding the delivery of blankets on 9/11? They were the fault of the army (sorry, CF) and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador — not, of course, OCIPEP.

Is it just me, or does “OCIPEP” sound like the trade name of an antacid?

I’m doing a little poking around, trying to find out if there’s an online version of the report that’s being described in the news article. No luck, but I did find this page, where you can read about OCIPEP’s Canada’s plans for major urban area evacuation and seal-off. Check it out:

The primary purpose of this Guide is to demonstrate the need to be adequately prepared and equipped to make a decision about whether to evacuate — or possibly seal off –, in whole or in part, a sector that is threatened by a disaster or that has already been hit by a disaster.

So if you want to know what criteria the government of Canada will likely use to quarantine you in case SARS reaches epidemic status, read on.

Only a few years ago I remember being frustrated by the lack of a good online flight-tracking site. All were either too slow, too complicated, too in love with their graphics, or too full of ads.

So now I am happy that I found FlyteComm. The interface allows you to select an airline and input a flight number, or jump straight to your flight via the flight code (e.g., “UAL1020″). All useful information is presented as text, and if the plane is in flight there’s a pretty picture — but fast to load. And there are no ads.

A site to remember.

I don’t know exactly why, but now when I have very little time to waste on reading web stuff, I’m still reading Colby Cosh. If I have time, I check e-mail, Google News, den Beste, and Colby Cosh. If there’s more time left over I spread it around more-or-less at random.

I suppose it’s a mix of the local news (the Whyte Ave. fire) and the sharp Canadian commentary. Somehow that outbalances his empire fixation.

So I’ve decided to do my part to help subsidize the font of Colby Coshery: when we get home, whenever that is, we’re going to subscribe to Citizens Centre Report (aka Alberta Report). Actually, it’s mainly because I enjoyed the re-federation issue that came out a while back (remember the Switzerland bleg?) I read it off the newsstand in Border’s-I-mean-Chapter’s, and I feel vaguely guilty about that.

Speaking of (something) Report magazine, I have a funny story about it. The charity where we volunteer has a left-wing shell, but is secretly run by conservative small business owners. There are probably some left-wing true believers at the meetings, but there are a lot the other kind in the elected positions — like us, for instance.

Anyway, a couple meetings ago, someone was talking about belly-casting, and someone else said, “Oh yes, there was an article about it in The Alberta Report.” Silence reigned. Then this person started to backpedal: “Of course I don’t read it, my husband read it — er, they get it at his work….”

I’m trying to find the name of a song which contains the lines:

Check check
Double-check
Check Check
Reject

Probably 80’s, probably pretty up-tempo.

Anyway, in searching for that, I found this site which I may someday use to satisfy my deep craving for more 80’s pop. I’m just saying, wife, that if someone wanted to give me a birthday present, I wouldn’t mind.

Also, on the plane there was a “punk” channel, with a song by The Church (I liked it) several Joe Strummer songs (in memoriam, I guess). That tells you something about Air Canada — Joe dies in December 2002, and there’s a tribute to his music on the Air Canada flying muzak by April 2003. I’m not sure if that’s too soon or too late, but somehow it’s connected in my mind with Air Canada’s bankruptcy.

What sort of a Catholic doesn’t go to confession for ten years?

The kind of Catholic I was until about an hour ago.

It feels good. I should remember to re-read The Screwtape Letters when I get home so I have a context for it.

“Return and live!” by the way, is the last sentence of Ezekiel 18.

So things are maybe already getting better.