Year: 2008

Here’s nature’s answer to gummi lighthouses — I saw this yesterday at the High Park organic farmer’s market:

What do they label the aisle with the adult diapers? I guess I should go check the next time I’m in the drug store…

Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

If they were still making chips with Olestra, the “chips” and “incontinents” aisle would be the same.

I was at the corner of Queen and Sherbourne early Friday morning to drop my car off for maintenance (it’s at the 100,000km mark, which isn’t bad considering it’s ten years old and still looking good) and saw this mural:

Here’s a slightly wider shot:

Every year around Canada Day, the Rotary Club of Etobicoke holds the Toronto Ribfest, a festival attended by tens of thousands and featuring about a dozen different barbecue places Ontario and the U.S. and held at Centennial Park.

Barbecue places at festivals like these traditionally set up stands with giant facades festooned with signed boasting about how good their barbecue is and the awards they’ve won:

Many of them set up tables showing off the trophies they’ve won at various ribfests:

And the ribs themselves? Really, really good. Wendy and I might have to say that some of the ribs we had there were better than those at Cincinnati’s Montgomery Inn, a place known for them, and where we’d eaten just a couple of days prior:

Perhaps it’s because with the crowds and the rate at which they have to make the ribs, everything you get was just on the grill moments before:

Since a lot of barbecuers from the U.S. like to come up here for Canadian ribfests, they’re the best opportunities for those of us here in Accordion City to get our hands on real American barbecue. It’s amazing that while you can get cuisine from the most distant lands here, we really fall down when it comes to certain dishes from the States, our neighbour and biggest trading partner. The local places that purport to serve American-style barbecue — Phil’s Original BBQ and Cluck Grunt and Low, I’m lookin’ right at you — are poor facsimiles next to barbecue places from Boston (Blue Ribbon and Uncle Pete’s come to mind), never mind the American cities that are actually known for their barbecue.

I’ve taken my photos from Toronto Ribfest 2008 and put them into a Flickr photoset, which you can see on Flickr or in the slideshow below:

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Upcoming Local Ribfests

“K-Chan” of the blog I Can’t Believe I’m Back in Toronto has put together a calendar of upcoming local ribfests. I might have to add the one in Burlington happening around Labour Day to my calendar…

Not only does my tech blog, Global Nerdy, cover programming, it also covers other aspects of geek life, including nerd culture favourites like The Office and Xena: Warriror Princess…and what happens when you mash the two together. Consider this photo featuring Rainn “Dwight K. Schrute” Wilson dressed up as Xena:

Click the photo to see a larger version.
Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

Check out the article at Global Nerdy for more details.

The blog Firedoglake covers a new Declaration of Independence written in the spirit of the original. Just as the original addressed some problems with a ruler named George, so does this new version, which was posted as an ad in yesterday’s New York Times. I’ve reproduced this new Declaration below in both its video and text form.

INDEPENDENCE DAY: July 4, 1776 – 2008

When in the course of human events the government becomes destructive of the ends for which it was established, it is the Right of the People to alter it and demand restoration of those Constitutional Principles that have so long assured their Liberty, Safety, and Happiness. Therefore, on the anniversary of our Independence, we offer this new declaration for our times.

The history of this president is one of arbitrary usurpations of power, the effect of which is to establish tyranny through false promises of greater security.

He has created a multitude of secret programs and sent swarms of petty officers to spy on Americans in a misguided effort to combat foreign terrorism. He has invested these agents with sweeping new powers to monitor our conversations and ransack our personal papers and effects without judicial supervision or any reason to believe — as the Constitution requires — that a crime has been committed.

He has further claimed the power to disregard legislation that Congress has passed.

He has suspended the laws and treaties against torture, authorized the kidnapping of mere suspects, and transported hundreds of prisoners beyond seas so that no independent judiciary could question the legality of their mistreatment.

He and his supporters in Congress have granted amnesty to the officials who unleashed torture and humiliation upon helpless prisoners, to the disgrace of our nation.

He has denied these prisoners access to attorneys, family, and friends and has claimed the right to try them before military tribunals specifically designed to disregard the most basic principles of law.

He has imprisoned thousands of lawful immigrants for months without charges, under brutal conditions, until his agents, rather than independent courts, decide that they posed no threat.

He has wrapped his usurpations of power and his deprivations of liberty in thick cloaks of secrecy, thereby showing contempt for the rule of law and the proper functions of Congress, the courts, and the press.

At every stage of these oppressions we have sought redress, but our petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.

We, therefore, resolve to resist these usurpations by all lawful means at our disposal. We insist that the powers of our national government be shared by all branches of that government and not concentrated in one alone. And we call upon Congress, the courts, and the press to reassert their constitutional functions and restore the promise that is America.

To these ends, we mutually pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

To my American readers and especially my American friends and relatives — who on any given day make up about two-thirds of my readership — have a safe and happy Independence Day!

In honour of the day as well as one of the best things about America, the First Amendment, here’s a great feature off one of the American Dad DVDs — the featurette on the show’s political humour: