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Opinion

JONESIE: The irony and comedy of the anti-spam law

A few years ago, I was lured by the Call of Duty to create an Xbox Live account where I could pay for the privilege of knifing, shooting or blowing up live avatars from around the world through this video game. I used my credit card and bought a one year membership on my birthday...

PROSKIW: Nature should inspire curiosity, not fear

Have you ever been baited into an animal story, something you thought could be interesting or fascinating or even cute and cuddly only to find the creature paid the ultimate price for our ignorance? I hate those stories. I concede the cougar found inside a woman’s home chewing on a dog toy had to be killed. The...

ARCHER: Hey Boonstock, just tell us what’s going on

Hey kids! Boonstock is only three weeks away! Nothing but fun and sun and music and culture and stuff! It’s all good all the time! Just please don’t look behind the curtain. I know I’ll be accused of being the grumpy old parent shushing the teenagers on their three-day sleepover, but I wish I didn’t...

GOG: On the finer points of wine and cheese (burgers)

This week I was invited to a wine tasting and dinner at a trendy restaurant, one that has received rave reviews in those self-important “lifestyle” journals with pictures of gold-lined swimming pools and advertisements for vulgar German cars. It was disappointingly plain. In fact the décor reminded me of a school cafeteria. It also had...

LOEWEN: A B.C. view of what Canada is and should be

Where did you spend Canada Day? If you spent the holiday somewhere in British Columbia, chances are you spent it amidst a remarkable confluence of Mother Earth and Human Industry, in a place where our forebears forged a pact with the dizzying wealth of Nature and plotted out a tract to settle into. It’s about...

PARKER: The recipe for an Andria Parker Original

Over the past two weeks I’ve been experimenting in the kitchen. Not because it was requested of me, but because I currently have nothing else on the go. Also, I’ve been watching a lot of Chopped and, like, how hard can it be? If you can make a dessert out of squid, artichoke and licorice,...

JONESIE: New perspective from the seat of a pickup truck

I can already feel the transformation, the metamorphosis nearly complete. I’ve been in larval stage for years, making my way in this big, crazy world, unaware of my own potential with nothing but a sense something better awaited me if only I could shed this tight, tiny cocoon and spread my wings and drive. That’s...

BOBBITT HEARING: Witness told to calm down during testimony

PENTICTON - Justice Peter Rogers had to intervene between defence counsel and a witness who became increasingly defensive answering questions in a dangerous offender and sentencing hearing in Penticton Supreme Court. Earlier this week, a witness in the hearing for David Bobbitt said she is the victim of a sexual assault incident that took place...

GOG: Hey doc, you know what’s really bugging me?

One of the worst things about getting on in life is that bits of you start falling apart. Recently I lost the use of a rather important part, one that I quite enjoy employing on a regular basis. I am referring, of course, to my arm. In particular the essential right arm. This is the...

LOEWEN: Woe Canada, what has he done to you?

“You won’t recognize Canada when I get through with it.” Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s 2006 election boast continues to echo in my head, more than eight long years after he uttered it. I can’t shake it, folks. His promise has become the political earworm that returns on the path of an ill-wind blowing in daily...

PARKER: A good walk rescued by beer and new shoes

My boyfriend turned to me and asked why I was crying. “I always cry before I play sports,” I sniffed at him. This is actually quite standard behaviour for me. It’s not like the temper tantrums I throw when I’m too poor to buy that doggy in the window, it’s more like a quiet, blubbering...

JONESIE: Bring on the World Cup, just not the games

I’m trying with this World Cup soccer, er, football thing, really I’m trying. I only care because I have a few English friends and this seems somehow important to them. Or, well, it was important to them. And because, well, the same way the world ignores soccer when Canadians play it on ice with sticks...