I think it's probably tempting to think that a democracy ends when elections are cancelled. @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social's writing has been really valuable (for my own thinking) in showing how much more there is to think about and watch out for. www.vox.com/politics/462...

Because it feels right for where the world (read: the downstairs neighbour) is right now, here’s a video of cats puking to techno music. youtu.be/V0qhsUxifVQ?...

This essay unpacks something essential - and vexing - about this moment that I haven’t seen nailed anywhere else. Even if we get our elbows cocked at a stout 90 degrees again, are we just fiddling around the margins?

The most tragic possible manifestation of the leopards eating people's faces party. Some of the sentences and sentiments in this broke my brain. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/o...

This is the best product listing copy I’ve ever read

This is probably the 12th time I’ve reposted it, but I still think @davidjroth.bsky.social explained the entire functioning of Trump back in 2017. I find myself constantly thinking about this piece, including yesterday, and nodding in exhaustion. thebaffler.com/latest/the-p...

Give ‘er, Canada. 💪🇨🇦

This is a riveting story from @dougsaunders.bsky.social and Wazhma Hamidi. Extraordinary journalism.

My editor wants to know if I’ll make my deadline. Me: “There’s no story until there’s a story.”

Talking head on CNN just now, summing up how Trump got played and it wasn’t even hard to do. “You don’t have to be a KGB agent to tell Trump he’s awesome and you agree with everything he said.”

Grotesque and chilling. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/12/a...

That bang you may have heard this afternoon was the end of One Last Time blowing the roof off the NAC. I was genuinely breathless by A.D. Weaver’s final soaring notes. Do yourself a favour if it’s in your budget and go see Hamilton, this touring company is truly spectacular.

Donald Trump climbing willfully into a cannon and Barbra Streisanding himself into the sun is just about perfect. My compliments to the writers of this season of the hellscape in which we live.

Come work with me! 🤠 @theglobeandmail.com is hiring a Calgary-based reporter to cover Alberta on a 12-month contract. Details below.

The cat thermometer functions with perfect accuracy. The fewer bones left in the cat, the hotter it is outside. We are at full void melt.

This is maybe the most delightful broadcast conversation I’ve ever been part of - even though I ended up in tears. Come hear a bunch of word nerds talk with Paul Wells about what we’re reading this summer and our favourite reads from a long-ago summer. paulwells.substack.com/p/the-summer...

I am so bored of this.

Of course, 35 per cent! I read The Art of the Deal and watched a bunch of Apprentice episodes a few months ago because I apparently hate myself, and this is classic, screamingly obvious Trump tactics. www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/opi...

Sometimes I wonder what it was like to be a parent before your phone was constantly reminding you of how small your kids used to be or how fast the time goes. I'm really not sure we're meant to carry memento mori in our pockets.

Me, invoking press conference martial law on the first week of summer holidays: “Last question!”

Also, while I deeply hate the reason for everything being turned up to 11 this year, Canadian Heritage did a stellar job with the daytime family activities and evening show at Lebreton.

Happy Canada Day! No one can take what we have because it’s ours and it’s us. 🍁❤️🇨🇦

I had a great time on The Herle Burly pod this week - long-time listener, first-time caller - chatting with David Herle and Paul Wells. It’s unclear to me how to go back to panels where we can’t swear after this. podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/t...

For all the beyond-the-pale things Donald Trump has said and done, the f-word was a new one, and I think it says something about what he learned about the complicated world today. www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/opi...

A delightful story to bring a ray of joy into your day, especially if you #garden (or try).

When the Globe asked for experts for our Mastering It summer series, I instantly thought of Mary Reid. She owns Green Thumb Garden Centre in Ottawa, and watching her work though plant questions or problems with customers is like watching a magic trick. www.theglobeandmail.com/life/article...

Excellent article @sproudfoot.bsky.social: "...was Mr. Carney talking about the Creamsicle-coloured plasticine volcano sitting just off his left elbow?" www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/97a8322...

New from me: at the G7, everything revolved around Trump the way a funeral revolves around a screaming toddler – it isn’t how anyone wants to spend their time or energy, because there are much heavier things going on, but the noise demands to be accommodated. www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/opi...

“I asked chatgpt” yeah well I saw the sign and it opened up my eyes. I saw the sign.

I mean, does Sunrise even know what they’re supposed to do when they bring out the Cup? The Booing of the Bettman is the most sacred of rituals, it must be enacted with the greatest passion and vigour.

Dear all the teachers who used to say I talked too much in class: I helped kill 40 minutes live on-air tonight when the G7 closing presser was delayed, so I guess that all worked out.

I need everyone on Normal People internet to know that American Girl Doll Instagram is doing doll protests today. There are tiny t-shirts and signs. AND THEN I realized it's a joint protest with the Barbie ppl, where there are EVEN TINIER SIGNS.

I see Trump’s big boy tank-a-rific birthday parade amounted to a $45M Kirk Cameron conference room Subway birthday on the wan, sad scale. www.vulture.com/2011/10/kirk...

At the RNC last summer, there was something strange about Donald Trump’s first public appearance after the assassination attempt. But then it became clear: he was a king on his throne receiving supplicants. www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/9bc9b25...

Hang it in the goddamn Louvre.

I wrote about how Mark Carney wants to help Canada lose that pesky 10 pounds we’re always meaning to drop. That would sure be great for all of us, but hard things are hard for a reason (and usually a whole bunch of them). www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/opi...

Can something this excellent possibly be real? I want to believe.

When the cats look like they have a new album dropping, you know they truly believe themselves to be on the verge of starvation (they last ate four hours ago).

Slinking indeed!

What’s impressive about that “What it takes to win never changes” ad - which is terrific - is that it takes all the hollow, dumbass hockey cliches and turns them into stirring Dead Poets Society material.

When I wrote sports, I used to describe what McDavid just did as passing to his future self. Bonkers.

Husband: “Everyone on Florida is a dickhead.” #Oilers

Free bonus hockey!

Had fun with this one: exclusive interview with the #Oilers most high-profile fan, Mark Carney, on watching playoff games on black-and-white TVs in someone’s long-ago basement, that one-man fantasy camp he attended and why he’s not anxious right now. www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hocke...

Love the summary by @sproudfoot.bsky.social on the juxtaposition of King Charles’s soaring oratory with a side of prosaic policies: “the effect was a bit like hiring a great Shakespeare actor to order for you at the drive-through” www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/8666181...

I don’t recall the national anthem ever choking me up before. But at the start line of Ottawa Race Weekend, where thousands of strangers showed up to cheer for each other, the welcome messages flipped seamlessly from French to English and everyone was glowing, it landed different today. O Canada. 🇨🇦❤️

"This is the President who redecorated the Oval Office with what looks like a can of gold spray paint and some garage sale picture frames...He reveres celebrity and social status, and the Royal Family possesses the rarest and therefore most valuable form of both: birthright."

I wrote about King Charles’s visit to Canada: A branding exercise, a live-action history lesson, a sovereignty manifesto and – maybe most of all – a Commonwealth flex directed at the White House. www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...

I love vintage furniture. I probably have what you might call “a problem.” And I am begging people to stop painting and decoupaging beautiful old wood furniture like frickin’ Easter eggs. A dresser with a life-sized portrait of Frida Kahlo on it (actual item) should not exist.

Pro tip: for any significant news event (true in Canada too), find a YouTube “live” video and there’s an auto-generated transcript. It’s not perfect, but helps you find quotes, and the text is pegged to the video so you can verify exact wording.