Whatever Happened To....

I've been meaning to complain about this for some time now, but just keep forgetting about it. There's this show I watch here in Canada (usually every morning at the gym, but it's on virtually 24 hours a day) called "Whatever Happened To..." that is not unlike the VH1-style "Remember The 80's"-type shows.

The premise is simple (and interesting): the show looks at three celebrities of yesteryear, sometimes has interviews or previously-recorded clips of them and talks about their fall from grace. No big deal, right? But then they have these three or four revolving panelists that seriously annoy the hell out of me.

Let's say they're doing "Whatever happened to Larry from Three's Company" as a subject. The panelists (who are comedians, gossip columnists, that kind of thing; no one of note) say things like "Richard Kline moved to his family's farm in Wyoming in 1993 and he's really happy there" as if THESE JERKS HAVE ANY FIRST-HAND KNOWLEDGE OF THIS WHATSOEVER!!!

I mean, come on, they are SO reading this off of Wikipedia, or some fan club, or something, and making it sound like they have the real scoop on Jonathan from Who's The Boss, or some lady who was in a Certs commercial 25 years ago.

I cannot TELL YOU how frustrating this is!!!

Catching Up With Canadian Bulldog (Part Deux)

Apologies to the 17 people a day who read this thing for taking, what, two weeks to update it. Things have been busy in the Bulldog's life, what can I say? Here are some updates:

October FitnessBlog: 15 workouts, which is pretty pathetic, though I WAS out of the country for almost a week. I had something of a revelation late last month, though, and have changed my routine a bit.

For the past two years, I have made sure (almost always) to shoot for 4 workouts a week but honestly, a lot of them were half-assed and I got nothing done. A lot of it had to do with timing. Some nights, I'm just getting home at 9 p.m., and other mornings it's a quick effort at 6 a.m. before I leave for work.

I talked to the staff at my gym and they are really pushing the idea that you should do the same nine exercises (different types of nautilus machines) for 20 minutes, 3 times a week, in addition to 5-10 minutes of warming up (which I usually do via some sort of exercycle or stair-climbing machine). I think I can manage three times a week, but a little more intense of a workout. So the overall numbers will slip, I guess, but so long as I stick to this routine, it should be better in the long run.


Reaching Me: Honestly, I rarely check my "Bulldog" emails anymore. Partly it's because my Hotmail address has been infused with dozens and dozens of new spam messages every week (and yes, I am on the maximum spam filter) and partly it's because I just don't have time. I would say if anyone needs to reach me urgently, the place I check most frequently is the World Wrestling Insanity message boards. If you haven't already signed up - I'd definitely encourage it. Otherwise, if you're my "real-life" friends... well, you know where to reach me anyways. But the Hotmail address, use at your own caution.

Breaking News:

WWE Retroactively Suspends Angle For Wellness Violation
The Honky Tonk Man "Sick And Tired" Of Being Typecast

At The Movies: You have to see "Bee Movie". You just absolutely have to. Not only is it a good "kid's movie", but it's one with a lot of appeal for adults as well, particularly if you're into the Seinfeld-esque humor. I haven't enjoyed a kid's movie so much since probably "Toy Story". Also saw "Eastern Promises" the other week, which was alright, and violent enough to keep me happy, but definitely not something I'd rush to go out and see....

Frustrated Traveler (An Essay)

Now... I'm hardly the world's most-travelled person; other than occasional trips to New York, Las Vegas and, uh, Halifax, I really haven't been to too many places in my life. Up until recently, my passport had fewer notches on it than my be... well, bad example.

So while my trip to Lima, Peru this week was informative, interesting and lots of fun, the travel problems I encountered weren't quite as enjoyable. I'd love to know how my series of travel horror stories rank with yours, just to see if I even have a case.

So here's how I remember it. All times are approximate:


Monday

8:00 a.m. -- I arrive at Pearson airport to begin my journey. Clear customs in near-record time, shoot the shit with my brother, who works there, and before I know it, it's time to get on a plane. Next stop, Peru.

12:00 p.m. -- Well, not quite. The next stop is Atlanta, Georgia. For reasons that are still kind of fuzzy to me, the travel department at my work opted NOT to fly me direct to Lima, even though Air Canada has such a service, and there were still spots available. It's part of their "make travel as complicated as humanly possible" mandate, which for this trip included forcing me to get a work visa from the Peruvian consulate -- even though I would only be in the city for about 46 hours.

1:30 p.m. -- It hits me around this point that I have another FOUR HOURS to kill at the airport in Atlanta. No worries -- I get some lunch, and spend some time playing around with my new BlackBerry. Okay, it's not technically mine; it's my office's BlackBerry. I've since fallen in love with it, and we've eloped. Office work folk who are reading this: you DON'T want it back now; trust me.

But my Telus phone wasn't going to work in Lima, and I needed something to communicate with the outside world while I was there. On the Friday before I left, I called Bell (the BlackBerry service provider) saying I wanted to be sure my...er, the BlackBerry will work there. After keeping me on hold for, oh, about six hours, they confirm that I'm good to go.

This becomes important later.

4:30 p.m. -- What a shock; my flight to Lima is delayed.

If I understand the situation correctly, the plane didn't have enough fuel in it to travel that far, so they were waiting on another flight from Rome to take us there. I'm confused, because I was under the impression most airports kind of carried their own fuel. Maybe it was a special kind of Italian fuel? And, being that the other plane was in Rome, it was going to be a few more hours before it would arrive with its precious fuel supply.

6:30 p.m. -- The plane from Rome has arrived, and we should be able to hop on board "in ten minutes".

7:40 p.m. -- The plane takes off. Yeah.

The captain apologizes for the delay and promises to "make up some of the time in the air". I've never quite understood this. If you KNOW you can fly the plane faster, why on earth wouldn't you do that in the first place?

Anyways, I'm off to bed for a few hours. Next stop, Peru.

Tuesday

1:20 a.m. -- Well, not quite. Peruvian customs is next, and we're off to a roaring start. Apparently, Spanish is the official language here (I would have guessed "French") and I don't speak a word of it. Their English is much better than my Spanish (and probably better than my English) and sure enough, they ask me about whether I have a work visa. I show them proudly where it says in my passport that I'm allowed in their country for two days. Then they ask for my e-itinerary, which of course, I don't have on me.

Also, my BlackBerry doesn't work here.

2:00 a.m. -- I clear customs and look for my ride (I was told ahead of time NOT to take taxis because of something called "express kidnappings" and the conference organizers graciously agreed to pick me up). There are, I'm not joking here, at least FOUR DOZEN people carrying various placards, none of which looks remotely like my name. But no worries, I'm sure they'll show up soon....

2:30 a.m. -- Okay, maybe not. As I was told the next day, there WAS somebody there for me, but there may possibly have been some miscommunication about the gate arrival. I'm also more than an hour late, so it's not completely unexpected.

But here I am, in a strange country where I don't speak the language, have no working phone, no local currency, and no ride, waiting to get to a hotel (which I have no clue where it is) because I have to be up in six hours for an interview. So reeking of desperation (or maybe not just desperation; hey, I HAD been travelling for 20-odd hours), I finally engaged one of the dozens of taxi operators (the renowned "Green Taxi" company) that had offered their services as I had been wandering around aimlessly for 30 minutes.

3:00 a.m. -- I arrive in my hotel safely, find out that my computer's wi-fi doesn't work in the hotel room (again, not unexpected) and try to get some shut-eye.

10:30 a.m. -- No, I didn't sleep in that long, but this was the next comedy-related entry. I spent literally 30 minutes on the phone from my hotel room with Bell Canada trying to enable my BlackBerry (which sounds dirty, but really isn't).

I'll bottom line this: apparently, Bell needs to process a "ticket" which is a request from the local carrier, so that the BlackBerry can work on the network in Lima. They have not yet taken this step. My question, and I believe this is an exact quote, is WHY THE FUCK NOT??? Shockingly, there's no record of me requesting a "ticket" , yet they DO have a record of me calling Friday asking about whether service would work in Lima on October 17 and October 18. Apparently I was just making polite conversation during my initial call.

So I calmly (yeah, right) explain that I HAD, in fact, told the Bell service rep on Friday which days I would be going to Lima, and that I actually DID need service on those days, and even though it was fun to talk about with a Bell rep back then, I DID have an actual request when I was calling, and said request was to MAKE SURE THE FUCKING BLACKBERRY WORKED!!!

(Sorry I had to take that out on you. My apologies.)

So Bell went ahead and processed my ticket, and promised that the situation would be resolved within 48 hours. Which will be extremely useful during my next trip to Lima, I guess.

Wednesday

I'm purposely skipping, by the way, specific details of the trip because of a story I'm writing, but suffice it to say it went a hell of a lot better than my travel issues did. I also learned a ridiculous amount of Spanish in just two days that would make any Canadian proud. To wit:

- "Hola" means "Holla"
- "Amigo" means "Sworn enemy"
- "Cómo estás?" means "Please accompany me back to my hotel room."
- "Señor" means "I'm flattered, but you're a 60 year-old dude, and I don't swing that way, at least not before several Pisco Sours."
- "Si" means pretty much the same thing it means in English ("6 o'clock")

10:20 p.m. -- I am beyond panicked. I'm back at the airport in Lima, and my flight is set to leave in about an hour. Traffic in Lima, as I'm quickly finding out, is dreadful, even late at night, and the bus that transported me to the airport was running late.

Before I can even get to customs, American Airlines is giving me grief over my ticket, in as much as they claim I don't have one. They ask to see my passport (and actually disappear with it at one point to a remote counter) and return with a manager to say that I'm not flying with AA. They ask to see my e-itinerary, which of course is tucked away in my luggage (you'd think I would have been bright enough to remember this after it happened to me earlier in the week, but apparently not). I find the itinerary, and after about 10 minutes of confusion, they inform me that I was booked through American Airlines, but not flying on American Airlines.

10:45 p.m. -- I encounter the longest customs line-up known to man, with the entire population of Lima (More than 7 million people, in case you were wondering, and that's before a census coming up this week) deciding to fly simotaneously on international aircraft.

I have to mention at this point that someone in line tried to hand me their shopping bag and suggested "You take on plane?", to which I answered "La niña está en la casa" (translation: "Do I look like a moron?"). I am not making this up -- buddy actually wanted me to transport his bag across the border. Awesome.

Once I make it to the front of the line, they press me on the work visa issue and again, I show them the proper paperwork. They did hassle me over something in the work visa saying I was leaving the country via Continental Airlines but that was just the "phantom" flight my travel agent had booked to hold a spot for me before I got my visa.

I should point out that my flight was leaving at 11:50 p.m., and I cleared customs at 11:30.

11:30 p.m. -- So I guess, in hindsight, it was a good thing my flight was delayed. Yeah. But hey, this delay was only 30 minutes, and this plane is PIMPED OUT. My company has paid for first-class, and I've got one of those bed/seat things that made for a much-needed snooze.

Before I know it, I'll be back in Toronto.


Thursday

9:30 a.m. -- Well, not quite. I'm now in New York at JFK Airport, recently named "Most Confusing Airport Ever" by a survey I made up just now. Seriously. It took me TWO FREAKING HOURS to go from gate to gate, including passing through customs, a mini-subway ride, several elevators, two escalators, and a coffee/croissant stop (I hadn't had breakfast yet).

It was almost as though I was on a scavenger hunt. "You're on the right track," one helpful person would say. "Take the third elevator on the right, where you'll find your next clue."

Fortunately, I still had another ninety minutes to kill before the final leg of my flight.

2:15 p.m. -- I'd love to tell you about how there was another delay, or how Canada screwed up somehow, but the rest of my trip home was incident-free, or as the spanish say, "dónde está el rábano jardín?" (where is the radish garden?).

Adios.

"Bulldog Under Attack"

That was the headline I noticed in the "Canadian Bulldog's Pound" section of the World Wrestling Insanity forums Sunday night. This was a post from someone who had heard my audios criticizing certain websites of their reporting in the Benoit and drug-related coverage.

My position has been simple: this is not about even debating the facts in this case. I'm not qualified to report on what Benoit may or may not have done to his body, what was "acceptable" versus "unacceptable", and who should be shouldering the blame. While I'm a reporter when I'm not wearing the "Bulldog" hat, I'm not a reporter when I write wrestling parody, and I've never pretended to be anything but.

But there are people who consider themselves wrestling media (one site in particular) and the way they've infused "fact" with "opinion" should be appalling to anyone involved with journalism. People read these websites in search of news, but someone's personal agenda. Again, I'm not saying the wellness program WWE has in place isn't flawed; that's not even my point. As I mentioned in one of my audios, if, say, a prominent news anchor was to talk about the scandal of the day, and then mumble "Yeah, bullshit" under his or her breath, it would be akin to poor reporting and conflict of interest. But in the wrestling media, it seems to be a perfectly acceptable practice.

Damn Straight!

Play It Again, Sam

Last night was the final time I'll ever be inside the flagship Sam The Record Man store in downtown Toronto.

The store, a Toronto landmark if there ever was one, is closing its doors today for the final time after 46 years. The neon records that hang atop the storefront are as much a part of Toronto's history as the CN Tower or Eaton Centre, at least to me. I remember buying some of my first cassettes down there, and vividly recall lining up outside the store on many a boxing day to pick up deals. A friend of my father's routinely went on boxing day and purchased, quite literally, a year's worth of music in one fell swoop as part of a yearly routine. A few years back, I remember Sam's being the only place I could find Sesame Street cassettes (instead of CD's) for my son. In fact, he was just telling me yesterday how one of those cassettes broke just recently.

Hell, even today (well, up until today), stopping into Sam's was a regular part of my CD/DVD shopping trip whenever I'm in the Yonge and Dundas area (along with the flagship stores for Sunrise, HMV, and a store called BMV Books that sells used DVD's). It's sad in many ways that the Sam's era (and really, the non-chain music store era) is officially over in Toronto now.

What was the second-to-last day like in there? Well, it was packed with people, which would have been a great sign had only there been regularly-priced merchandise to move. Instead it was the remnants of the (fairly sizeable) store that were being sold at 50 percent off. CD's and cassettes that no one wanted in the first place, a random offering of DVD's that were (even at half off) pricey, and a dusty collection of old VHS tapes that made it look like someone's gigantic garage sale.

I had to buy SOMETHING there during my final trip, so I finally settled on four VHS tapes of cartoons for my son. Hell, the four of them set me back about $9 -- I only wish I could have found a replacement Sesame Street tape for him. Still, I'm glad I was able to give back something to a store that's meant so much to Torontonians for so long.

Why, Bulldog, Why?

To answer the two questions I've been asked, oh, at least a dozen times since yesterday's column hit: NO, this is not a work (though I have said that before and look what happened). And it has absolutely nothing to do with any "falling out" with Online Onslaught or Rick Scaia. So here's the deal...

I've been writing Inside The Ropes for four years, and it just got to the point where, largely, it wasn't fun anymore.

At the beginning, I could sit in front of the computer for half an hour and bang out ITR rather effortlessly ("that's what she said" -- sorry, had to say it). As I added more features and "matured" the column slightly, it took a bit longer to complete, but was always a lot of fun to work on. I don't mind spending time on something if, in the end, it still makes me chuckle.

Then in the last year, things became different. Part of it was the WWI gig, no doubt. Another part of it was keeping busier in general, with more of a social life and my day job has become more demanding. But even when those distractions weren't there, writing up ITR was no longer fun -- it became almost a burden.

I would sit at the computer screen for literally an hour, picking at the tiniest of ideas and then scrapping it, or doing a complete re-write. And in the run-up to WrestleMania -- which is usually my favorite time to write ITR-related columns -- I just wasn't feeling it. I decided that I had to cut either OO or WWI out for the time being, and I still have a lot more ideas for "Breaking News"/"True Wrestling Stories". ITR was becoming largely just a re-hash of things I'd already done.

I'm glad to say that, unlike WWE, Online Onslaught really DOES wish me the best in future endeavours, and that my exit was treated with the utmost respect. I told Rick just a few weeks ago that if I could think of another project -- one that doesn't take up ridiculous amounts of time on a regular basis -- I'd still love to contribute to his site. But that doesn't seem to be in the cards right now.

So "Canadian Bulldog" lives; he's just going to a lighter schedule (I ALMOST made an analogy of going from WWE to TNA, but I don't want to diss WWI like that).

Having said all that, I really appreciate everyone's feedback and comments, and of course, thank you all for reading. Inside The Ropes had a great run, and I'm happy it lasted as long as it did.

THANKS FOR THE COMPLIMENT!!!

Catching Up....

So it's been a little while since I've had a chance to write on non-column stuff, so while I have the time and inspiration to do so...

Movies: I caught "Reign Over Me" and "Kickin' It Old Skool" over the past week. The first movie was an interesting concept, but it "reigned" on waaaaaay too long for my liking. I can only take "serious" Adam Sandler in small doses, I guess. "Kickin" was what it was. I was there mainly to support our man Stu and the director, Harv Glazer, who I went to elementary school with. It was silly fun, some great 80's references and for my tastes, a great soundtrack. It won't ever be confused with a cinematic classic, but again, for what it was, I had zero problem with it. Stu even took a nice bump.

Music: I would just like to say that Edge's theme song has become my single favorite song to work out to. That is all.

FitnessBlog: In April, I worked out a grand total of... 18 times. Much better than last month, though to be honest, one of those was my 2.7 mile walk between subway stations after the transit tragedy last week (I Mapquested it), and another was just an early morning walk (probably a mile in total).

And as far as what's to come from me this month, column-wise, let's just say... you might be surprised.

Bull & Dog's Bogus Journey

So some of you in the Toronto area may have heard of the subway accident last night that resulted in a fatality. It also resulted in closing down chunk of my route to work today (less important, I suppose, in the grand scheme of things). I was unaware of any problem this morning until I arrived at York Mills station (at which point the PA system instructed us to leave the subway and continue downtown via a shuttle bus).

Now.... the shuttle service wasn't horrible because this was about 6:15 in the morning. Bottom line, I ended up about a half-hour late for work, which could have been a LOT worse, particularly if I'd left during the morning rush hour. The stoppage only affected service at three stations - York Mills, Lawrence and Eglinton - before going back to the subway.

By mid-afternoon, I'd heard that those stations were still out of service, and so I was working on a big plan. Assuming that there would be a huge lineup for the shuttle buses on the way home, I planned on taking the subway to Eglinton and then walking the three stops in between. Then, of course, it started pouring outside, stopping only shortly before I left work.

I armed myself with some emergency supplies: an umbrella I swiped from the closet and two (2) packages of peanut M&M's. The subway ride, just to Eglinton, took about 30 minutes as it dragged along because of the problems uptown. Then I got out of the subway and started on my journey. To say it was a little longer than I'd expected was an understatement.

Now, I just mapquested it, and it's only a distance of 2.7 miles between the three stops. But adding to that were (a) the humidity out there with the rain drying up and (b) the fact that I was wearing a suit and leather shoes, and it didn't seem like such a hot idea after a while.

Bottom line, I left work at 5:30 and was home by 7:30, only 90 minutes longer than my normal commute. This is TOTALLY counting as my gym visit for the day....

Junk Mail BONANZA~!

Is it just me, or has Hotmail become INCREASINGLY laden with junk mail? I already have my spam settings set to the highest level, and I am still getting a dozen or so junk emails daily in my main inbox. I would have abandoned that address a long time ago had I not been advertising "canadian_bulldog@hotmail.com" for four-plus years. It's insane.

Out Of Blogffice Alert

On the road again this week.... this time to Montreal, albeit only for about 24 hours in total.

There should be a new TWS coming out today, as well as an ITR later this week, so I feel I've still fulfilled all my columnly duties.

Foley

I've had four people now ask me what I thought of Mick Foley's newest book "Hardcore Diaries", and other than saying "It's pretty damn good", I'm not going to elaborate on that... yet.

My next "Wrestling With Literature" column, which will probably be out after WrestleMania some time, reviews all five of Foley's books (not including his children's books, that is). To do that, I had to track down a copy of "Scooter" (his more recent of the two non-wrestling novels).

I've been the book reading on and off this weekend, and I've been digging his writing style, moreso than I did in "Tietam Brown". But then tonight, I was just polishing off another chapter or two in bed and -- BAM! -- one part of it, literally just a paragraph, made me sit up in awe. It might not be that interesting to everyone, but to me, Foley has once again reinvented himself as an author with this minor development.

Again, I'm saving the full review for when I can collect my thoughts, but so far, Scooter has been MUCH BETTER than I would have imagined.

For those of you asking....

I have NO IDEA why the slideshow on my website and MySpace page is listed as "empty" right now. Honestly, I wouldn't have even known if someone hadn't pointed it out to me yesterday, so it could have been that way for weeks for all I know.

I went back and checked into my account on the Slide.com site and it still looks as though it should work. It even plays when I test it from that site. Very bizarre. Anyone else have any experience with this Slide site?

The Curse of Billy Miner

I brought it upon myself.

For the last two years or so, every time I've gone to The Keg (a chain of steakhouses across Canada and, I believe, Texas) with my brother and sister-in-law, we've played something of a scam on their staff. You see, whenever you tell them it's your birthday, you get a FREE slice of Billy Miner Pie (kind of a coffee ice cream pie with OREO crust-type dessert). Truth be told, I don't even care for Billy Miner's favorite dessert that much (and we're not sure who Billy Miner was - perhaps an old prospector who gained notoriety by giving people free pie on their birthdays), but we've turned it into a game to see how often we can snag said pie.

It's been (in no apparent order): my grandfather's birthday, my sister-in-law's birthday, my brother's birthday, my sister's birthday, my friend's birthday, and mine at least three times now over the past two years and coincidentally, we end up at The Keg to celebrate. Sometimes, it will accidentally fall on our ACTUAL birthdays, but we try to avoid that as much as possible (where's the fun in that?).

The plan last night was for my brother, sister-in-law and I to meet up for dinner and then head downtown for a night of social interaction (eg drinking heavily). I arrived at the restaurant first (and I damn well better, as it's in the lower level of my apartment complex) and I came prepared with a gift bag to celebrate my sister-in-law's (ahem) birthday. To weigh the bag down, I bought a compass at a nearby dollar store and a bottle of Pop Shoppe (only true Ontarians will understand that reference) brand cream soda. As if they were going to check the gift bag to see if I wasn't faking. But give me props for coming prepared.

Then my brother and sister-in-law arrived - THEY had gifts too (it was my birthday as well, apparently). Their fake gifts were a lot nicer - a box of chocolates, and a book and DVD I had lent them. So the official story was, it was both mine and my sister-in-law's birthday (quite plausible, because our ACTUAL birthdays are within days of each other).

Dinner was great, and without us asking for it, we're brought our complimentary dessert -- not one, but TWO slices of Billy Miner pie. This was a real coup for us in the world of pie-scamming. We act surprised ("Wow! This is even better than my birthday last month!") and the waitress points out that she managed to get us two whole slices of pie (we assumed she was just jockeying for a better tip). I took maybe four, five bites of mine and then passed it off to my brother. My sister-in-law had her own slice (this becomes important later on).

After dinner, we come back upstairs to my place to drop off the fake gifts and plan our evening, when all of a sudden, both my brother and I get sick to our stomach. Sister-in-law is fine. This ruins our entire evening. We're trying to think of what could have happened -- the three of us had completely different meals and even beverages -- and then hits us. The waitress, possibly wise to our game, spiked the Billy Miner Pie!

Okay, I'd like to see YOU come up with a better explanation. Until then, the curse of Billy Miner lives on.

Dante's Pizza

I don't think I've ever opined on this before here in three years of blogging, so here goes: The world's best pizza happens to be in Thornhill, Ontario, in the form of Dante's Italian Eatery.

Why am I bringing this up now? I became reacquainted with my old friends at Dante's the other night after probably 9 months of lesser-quality pizzas. Why the long wait? Well, firstly I moved and wasn't sure I was in their delivery area anymore and also, it's quite expensive. Thus, I limited my "pizza nights" (generally speaking - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, sometimes Friday, Saturday and Sunday) to frozen pizza and the ocassional Pizza Pizza (for anyone outside of southern Ontario reading this, roughly the McDonald's equivalent to pizza) offering.

But the other night, I decided to treat myself and it was just incredible. Their sauce is the main attraction -- it's just so thick and, I don't know, zesty. The sauce is highly addictive (I was hooked on the stuff in the late 80's). But on top of that (technically, below that, I guess) is one of the best crusts I've ever had -- not too doughy, but not hard as a rock, either, with cornmeal sprinkled on the bottom to give it some more texture. Their cheese is easily the best anywhere. And though I'm not normally a Pepperoni Man, they just seem to slice and cook it perfectly.

I realize breaking down a pizza to this level of detail sounds a bit silly, but once you've had it, you'll know what I mean....

The Police Reunion

Did I tune in late, or did they ONLY play one song (Roxanne)?

Having said that, that was probably the most anticipated musical event (to me) in the last 10 years. One of those things I never thought I'd see again, and I'll probably be among those trying to get reunion show tickets if they come to Toronto.

Also, how does Stevie Wonderful look older than Tony Bennett? Something is very wrong with that picture...

Temporary Hiatus

It's that time of year again where I have to cut down on my schedule a bit due to external commitments. While I wouldn't expect something new every week from me on Online Onslaught, World Wrestling Insanity and Club WWI for the next month or so, I do expect to have some new material over that time. Just not nearly as frequent.

There. Now I can enjoy my vacation in the Poconos guilt-free...

Hyatte's Last Stand

I realize that there are a lot of people who don't care for his writing (or at least, won't admit it), but his final column (apparently) ran today. It's worth a read.

Great Marketing Idea

I'm surprised no one had ever thought of this before -- just noticed in Orville Redenbacher's how they now slip in free DVD's of hit TV shows. Talk about knowing your audience!

Anyways, the one I got tonight has old A-Team, Miami Vice and Magnum P.I. episodes. I saw one with The Office as well, but seeing as I already have all of the episodes available on DVD, what's the point?

Anyways.... great idea.

Please Mister Postman

This seems like an odd thing to complain about, but then again, I'm an odd guy.

Why the HELL have I not received any mail whatsoever for the last eight days straight (and no, I'm not including weekends in that)? It's not a problem in my building, because everyone else's mailboxes are always full.

It's not even that I'm expecting anything special, but how about a bill? A threatening letter? A late Christmas card? A nine-months-early birthday card? Junk mail? Anthrax?

I'm just... baffled by this trend. I may have to start putting myself on dumb mailing lists soon, just to see what happens.