The (Toronto) Globe & Mail’s weekend cryptic by Fraser Simpson isn’t as challenging as the toughest UK setters, thankfully, but I rather enjoyed this pair of clues from yesterday: 5D Repeat Old Man River and make a stink (6) 13D. Antiseptic fluid from a 5-Down (10)

Even if you're not an Apple fan, the promo movie for the newly announced MacBook Neo is well worth watching for the production values alone: watch for how they show their "Liquid Retina" display at 0:25, for a start! www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3SI...

Obviously this looks like it needs more research but “working with ICE to “build trust”” doesn’t feel like a good look for Hootsuite. www.theglobeandmail.com/business/art...

Another retried, high ranking member of the US military Paul Eaton did an interview with the Guardian today, so I'm guessing the wretched Hesgeth will be writing to him too... www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Doing a bit of clean up and decided it was time to recycle this 28 year old piece of technology... it works, amazingly enough, but only if it's plugged in since the battery won't take a charge. But... it still works!

As an inveterate "letter to the editor" type person, I responded to a questionnaire from The Globe & Mail some weeks ago about 2025 New Year’s resolutions… and they published my response, among others! Happy am I! www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/07a18f9...

Favourite way to spend Boxing Day, doing one of Wentworth’s madly different jigsaw puzzles! Made of wood, laser cut and with all kinds of random pieces… like two pieces needed to make a corner. Definitely recommended. 🙂

So I had a letter published in the Toronto Globe & Mail today. According to the 2021 census, there are about 1148 people in Canada called Nigel. So what are the chances that two of them would write to the same paper, on the same subject and get their letters published, on the same day?

Took a cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam on the Danube / Rhine, and then made a photo-book of the trip using Mixbook’s online service. Turned out really well - such a great memento - and I really recommend their service

Just saw the prospectus in the Washington Post for the so-called "Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation" or GREAT. www.washingtonpost.com/documents/f8... What an appalling plan, with its charts, graphs, architectural renderings and its billion of $$$.

So, is Trump's "Golden Dome" defence system modelled on the Israelis' Iron Dome or on his own head? Isn't iron hard and gold really soft? If it's modelled after his head then it will be impenetrable: nothing ever gets through if it doesn't make sense to him. www.theguardian.com/us-news/live...

Saw this Cybertruck in the neighbourhood on the weekend and since it already had a dark green wrap, I figured I'd update it... in Photoshop only, of course...🫣

Sign seen at a TESLA protest in London: PORSCHE: FAST FERRARI: FASTER TESLA: FASCIST

When we made our mini library, I knew we’d see donated books (and some of them are pretty awful 😳)… but proselytizing? Bibles? Thinly disguised sermons in children’s books? Really? So we politely asked them to stop.

Watching/reading the White House's response to the security debacle of the past few days has been both fascinating and appalling (hard to believe how Karoline Leavitt just makes me so mad). Anyhoo, the First Dog on the Moon summed up their PR process perfectly: "next media cycle begins". Sigh.

According to the chief economist at the Business Development Bank of Canada, if Canadian households spent $25/week on Canadian instead of foreign goods, it would create 60,000 jobs & boost GDP by 0.7%, with a similar effect if we cut international travel by 10 per cent and spent that money here.

Australia’s First Dog on the Moon is always worth a look, and his latest cartoon - with ICE firmly in his sights - is no exception. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

@muheggs.bsky.social These eggs (from a local - Alberta - Hutterite farm), taste amazing and come from well cared for chickens. $10.49 Cdn. for 18 eggs, or $7.31 US… or $4.87 US a dozen. If I understand tariffs, His Trumpiness can’t slap one on eggs that don’t cross a border. Just as well.

My dad did cryptic crosswords, and years ago he taught me all sorts of conventions about how clues are written for cryptic... and all sorts of tools for solving them. The Globe & Mail's Saturday cryptic is a must-do around here… here’s a clue from last weekend.

30A Quiet, fast plane over here! (4) (the ! suggests some sort of witty answer… The answer is PSST. P, as is piano, meaning quiet in musical notation + SST as in supersonic transport (or fast plane). Together they make PSST, as in “Hey, psst, over here!”
😎

Always amazes me when Apple-centric sites like Cult of Mac say that a product that Apple has not announced will be "significantly delayed"... especially when the rumour comes from Mark Gurman at Bloomberg (sigh) www.cultofmac.com/news/apple-s...

Treated myself to a LEGO Ferrari yesterday since the new Formula 1 season is just one week away and Hamilton is in the red car. Can hardly wait!

I’m not religious at all - and this is traditionally a piece for Lent - but it’s a sublime demonstration, in these dark times, of what we humans are capable of. m.youtube.com/watch?v=H3v9...

The front page of the Toronto Globe & Mail today. Brilliant work. And not just STRONG AND FREE, but BLOODY ANGRY too.

Elissa Slotkin’s rebuttal on behalf of the Democrats Well worth nine minutes of your time. Aspirational, at least, in these dark times. I totally got the way she never took her eyes off the camera. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNR9...

So egg prices in the US have almost quadrupled since Trump's election? Guess there's something wrong with this thinking then...

What a disgusting performance that staged Oval Office meeting between Trump, Vance and Zelenskyy was. Surely a new low for this presidency, if such a thing is possible. What is wrong with these people that they think the world is their play thing? Ukraine didn't start this!!!

Jony Ive on Desert Island Disks Always fascinating to hear someone you "know" answering DID's questions... a happily mad selection of music, and Wodehouse for books. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Looking at Apple Maps from Canada and Trump's favourite gulf is called the Gulf of Mexico. In Google Maps it's called Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)... just in case there's any Americans here, I guess.

That profile pic is the mini library we build last fall; the snow is Edmonton, Alberta in January 🙂 Based on the famous British K6 "phone kiosk", it's our way of moving some of the all too many books we have. So far it's getting a fair bit of traffic!