The Most Canadian Possible Highway Wreck: Hockey Game Breaks Out Amid Stopped Traffic

Cars on Highway 40 northeast of Montreal were caught for hours
behind a highway wreck. This being Canada, the obvious thing
that happened was a hockey game broke out on the
icy highway while people waited for the wreck to be cleared.

A couple days ago, Highway 40  in Quebec was terribly icy. Not surprisingly, a 40 to 50 car pileup occurred on the icy road about 25 miles northeast of Montreal.

Of course, I won't make light of that. Several people were hurt, thankfully none seriously. And hundreds of cars were trapped on the highway for hours, until the wrecks were cleaned up.

However, I do have to make light of one aspect of this crash.

This being Canada, people made the best of the situation in the most Canadian way possible. The highway really did resemble a skating rink, so people trapped in their cars dragged out their hockey sticks and play began on the rink, er, Highway 40. 

They tell us to have an emergency kit in our car during the winter. You know, things like blankets, a shovel, snacks, a weather radio, that kind of thing. If this is any indication, a Canadian car winter emergency kit consists of hockey sticks and a couple of pucks.

Here's a quick recap video of the game.

Classic Florida Crime, Classic Canada Crime

This advice should be obvious, but a Florida man learned you should
never bake cookies on a George Foreman grill indoors while
drunk, high and naked. 

Both Florida and Canada have reputations for seeing some of rthe world's most unique crimes and police incidents.

The two locations have crimes that are totally different from one another, but they can be entertaining.

The following two incidents perfectly tell us the difference between Florida and Canada. Let's start with Florida.

The headline in nwfdailynews.com gets us started perfectly: "Naked man starts house fire while baking cookies on George Foreman grill."

Boy, you want to read more after seeing that headline and nwfdailynews.com delivers. Here's an excerpt:

"When firefighters got to the home around 5:30 p.m., they could see smoke coming from inside. A naked man opened the front door, said, 'I'm sorry' and closed the door. Police arrived shortly after to assist. The man came to the door again, left it open and went back into the house."

Police said since the man showed no signs that he cared for his safety, they removed him from the house.

It turns out the guy drank two liters of vodka and smoked marijuana for three hours when he decided to bake cookies indoors on his George Foreman grill. That started a fire. The moron put dry towels on the grill in a failed (obviously!) attempt to put out the fire. The towels caught fire, naturally.

Somehow, the man was not hurt.

Yes, this is classic Florida: It's bizarre, and to most people there, the bizarre seems routine

Meanwhile,  Canada had its own quintessential crime caper. This one involves bear spray, a glass bong, inept robbers and an intrepid pot shop owner.

In this still from security camera footage, the guy on the right
wields a glass bong to ward off the guy on the left, who
is trying to rob the pot store with bear spray as a weapon. 

According to the CBC, a clerk at a Shannonville, Ontario cannabis dispensary used a glass bong to fight off thieves who were attacking him and another clerk with bear spray.

No, we don't have armed robberies in Canada. No guns. They use bear spray, apparently.

Says the CBC: "A security video shows the suspects approaching a man and woman standing behing the counter, then squirting them with what appears to be bear spray. The male clerk came from behind the counter and found the men off, swinging the bong at them until they fled the store."

I think of people who are involved with pot to be pretty mellow, but watch the security camera video below. Look at the store clerk's face towards the end. This guy is fierce!

Update: Awful Pit Bull Ban In Montreal Has Been Ditched

Izzy, pictured here, and other pit bulls are once again
welcome in Montreal, after a new mayor overturned
a bad breed-specific ordinance enacted last year. 

Sometimes, elections bring welcome changes.

Montreal has a new mayor, and that new mayor's administration has lifted a year-old stupid municipal ordinance banning pit bulls.

The ordinance was put in place after an understandable outrage: a woman was mauled to death by a dog that happened to be a pit bull.

Rather than tightening restrictions on all dogs deemed dangerous, the city passed a law that pretty much banned all pit bulls from the city. This raised the threat of euthanizing perfect good, safe pit bulls were part of peoples' families, and exiling others away from their forever homes.

The new mayoral administration just pulled the plug on the pit bull ban, saying Montreal should be a welcoming city for all pet owners. The city still has tight restrictions on dogs deemed dangerous, which makes perfect sense. Breed-specific laws don't, though, so I'm glad Montreal listened to the SPCA on this one.

Some Countries Have Much Cooler Leaders Than Others

Once again, I am jealous of Canada.

Here is a photo of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over the weekend, at a Pride parade, wearing rainbow socks, high-fiving a little girl dressed as Wonder Woman.

Bet you won't see Donald Trump doing anything like this, or even doing anything fun, the damn sourpuss.

Races With Wolves: Canadian Woman Has An Interesting Commute

Rhonda Miller in northern Canada spotted this fellow commuter
on a highway during her commute to work. That's an
enormous wolf you see there. 

I can literally see Canada from my house, I kid you not.

And the more I hear about the way things happen in Canada, the more I want to live there.

One example: Here in America, the people are wild and the animals tend to be more normal. In Canada, the people are tame and it's the animals that tend to put on a show.

So it was when a teacher Rhonda Miller commuted down wintry Highway 3 in Canada's Arctic Northwest Territories when she unexpectedly encountered some traffic.

Miller was in the middle of nowhere, so it wasn't other cars that complicated the commute. It was wolves, notes the CBC.

Big, bad, huge, wolves.

Luckily, she was safe in her car, but these two enormous wolves were blasting down Highway 3 just as Miller was. She was trying to get to work in time. I'm not sure what the wolves were up to.

Miller said she was traveling at 40 to 50 mph and the wolves were going almost as fast.

Below is the excellent video she shot on her smart phone. The music playing on her car radio made it all seem even better. Bet your next commute to work won't be this interesting:

Seems Like Trump Administration Doesn't Want Anybody Who's Not White Into The Country

Manpreet Kooner with her fiance. She recently wanted to take
a one-day trip from Canada to a Vermont spa, but was turned
away at the border, possibly because of her race.

I keep hearing all these disturbing reports of border patrol agents not letting people in this country based just on the color of their skin.  

And that's no matter how safe or unsafe or legal they might be.

Some of this is happening close to home, as I live near the Canadian border in Vermont.

One of the more disturbing incidents occured at the Highgate Springs, Vermont border crossing, which is just a 10 minute drive up the road from my house.

Recently, a Canadian woman from the Montreal area with a Canadian passport tried to get across the border into the United States via Highgate Springs because she was taking a day trip to go to a Vermont spa.

Manpreet Kooner, 30, was born in Canada to Indian parents who had become Canadian citizens. Kooner has always lived in Canada. She has a good job in a science lab at a local college and has no criminal history.

So what's the harm in letting Kooner into Vermont to get her nails done or whatever.?

Kooner, with her Indian heritage, has darker skin than the two white friends she was with when she tried to cross the border into Vermont Sunday, says the Canadian broadcaster CBC.

U.S. Border Patrol was going to let her white friends through, but they held Kooner for six hours. She got no explanation why, and the border patrol isn't talking. Border agents said they don't about individual cases.

A statement from the Border Patrol adopted a policy in 2014 that "prohibits the consideration of race or ethnicity in law enforcement, investigation, and screening activities, in all but the most exceptional circumstances."

Looks like that policy is out the window. CBC said Kooner told them one of the border agents told her, 'I know you may feel like you've been Trumped,' in reference to the current occupant of the Oval Office.

Kooner said the problems started in December when she tried to enter to the United States, and was subject to a random check, which happens to all of us sometimes.

This time the border agents noted Kooner was stopped in December, though there were no red flags in her file, CBC said. 

On Sunday, in addition to being detained for six hours, Kooner was photographed, fingerprinted and told to sign a document withdrawing her application to go into the United States.

She was also given confusing advice to go to the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa to get a visa to enter the United States in the future, but she was told by them to go to U.S Customs and Border Patrol.'

In other words, Kooner has dark skin. Stay the hell out of the United States.

At least it seems that way.

So, if Kooner, a Canadian citizen, born in Canada, with no criminal record, with a good job, no red flags, wants to enter the United States briefly as a tourist and is barred, what about other people?

What if, unlike Kooner, somebody is a Muslim with no criminal record who wants to enter the United States from Canada? There area already plenty of reports of that kind of thing going on.

Draw it to its logical conclusion, do the Trumpsters want only white English speaking people to enter the United States, even as tourists? That seems pretty limiting doesn't it?

I guess there's a crowd of Trumpsters out there who really want to turn us into a whites-only Fortress America.

Canadian Sikhs Make Snow Shoveling Awfully Fun

The Maritime Bhangra Group in Canada found
a way to actually make snow shoveling fun. 

I confess to grumbling a bit Thursday when I had to shovel about two and a half inches of new snow from my driveway.

Not a big deal, but still. vaguely annoying.

Maybe I should take a lesson from these three Sikh guys in Nova Scotia, Canada, who made a viral video that put the fun back in snow shoveling.

They're part of the Maritime Bhangra Group. 

The video is at the bottom of this post and is totally worth the watch.

Bonus: The video raises funds for the ALS Foundation of Nova Scotia, and that's always a good thing

Here's the video:

Angry Trump/Pence Supporters Attack Theater In Hamilton, Ontario Because "Hamilton"

The Hamilton Theatre in Onatrio is getting a lot of flack
from Trumpeters because their name has the word
"Hamilton" in it and the Trumpeters don't like the
way Mike Pence was treated during the real
production of "Hamilton" on Broadway.  

UPDATE: 

There's yet another theater companh in the sights of Trumpeters besides the one in Ontario.

According to NPR the small community theater group, Hamilton Players in Hamilton, Montana also got TONS of abuse over the Pence incident at the Broadway production of "Hamilton."

Denise Rose, executive Director of Hamilton Players Inc. said, "My phone would go crazy in clumps of 10 to 15, then an hour later all teh re-tweets started again.....We were getting tweets calling us racist, untalented, disrespecful or more."

Some people later apologized to the Hamilton, Montana players for the mistake, but others kept at it.

Dummies.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION:

In yet more evidence that internet trolls can be incredibly stupid, a theater company in Hamilton, Ontario is getting trash on line from some of these internet trolls.

You see where this is going.

As you've surely heard, Vice-President elect Mike Pence went to see the Broadway hit "Hamilton" the other day, and the cast gave him a pointed message about tolerance and respect. Some audience members booed Pence.

Our childish president-elect, Donald Trump, took to Twitter like he always does and complained about how the annoyed he was that this happened at the Hamilton show.

Trump called "Hamilton" "overrated" during his rant, which is interesting, given the Tonys it won and the fact that it's nearly impossible to get tickets to this show.

His followers, who I call Trumpeters, took to social media, too, to whine and howl about how disrespect this was, or something.

The Hamilton Theatre Co. in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada took a lot of this grief, says CBC in Canada.

No, their current production is not "Hamilton" but "The Toxic Avenger."

Never mind, though. The name of the theater company is Hamilton, and anything named Hamilton now is considered anti-Trump.

Apparently, says the CBC, the internet trolls were too apoplectic to pay attention to Twitter handles, and which way to direct their ignorant ire.

The Twitter account of the theater company in Hamilton, Ontario is @HamiltonTheatre. The Broadway show's Twitter handle is @HamiltonMusical 

I do love the irony in that the angry, unhinged Trump supporters are mistakenly and stupidly attacking a theatre whose current production is called "The Toxic Avenger."

By the way, the only adult in the room in this whole bruhaha over the Mike Pence incident at Hamilton is Mike Pence himself.

Pence told Fox News he wasn't offended by the incident and does not want an apology.

Pence said he, his daughter and her cousins "enjoyed the show" and he reminded his daughter and the cousins that the boos, cheers and words "is what freedom sounds like."

Angry Trump/Pence Supporters Attack Theater In Hamilton, Ontario Because "Hamilton"

The Hamilton Theatre in Onatrio is getting a lot of flack
from Trumpeters because their name has the word
"Hamilton" in it and the Trumpeters don't like the
way Mike Pence was treated during the real
production of "Hamilton" on Broadway.  

UPDATE: 

There's yet another theater companh in the sights of Trumpeters besides the one in Ontario.

According to NPR the small community theater group, Hamilton Players in Hamilton, Montana also got TONS of abuse over the Pence incident at the Broadway production of "Hamilton."

Denise Rose, executive Director of Hamilton Players Inc. said, "My phone would go crazy in clumps of 10 to 15, then an hour later all teh re-tweets started again.....We were getting tweets calling us racist, untalented, disrespecful or more."

Some people later apologized to the Hamilton, Montana players for the mistake, but others kept at it.

Dummies.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION:

In yet more evidence that internet trolls can be incredibly stupid, a theater company in Hamilton, Ontario is getting trash on line from some of these internet trolls.

You see where this is going.

As you've surely heard, Vice-President elect Mike Pence went to see the Broadway hit "Hamilton" the other day, and the cast gave him a pointed message about tolerance and respect. Some audience members booed Pence.

Our childish president-elect, Donald Trump, took to Twitter like he always does and complained about how the annoyed he was that this happened at the Hamilton show.

Trump called "Hamilton" "overrated" during his rant, which is interesting, given the Tonys it won and the fact that it's nearly impossible to get tickets to this show.

His followers, who I call Trumpeters, took to social media, too, to whine and howl about how disrespect this was, or something.

The Hamilton Theatre Co. in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada took a lot of this grief, says CBC in Canada.

No, their current production is not "Hamilton" but "The Toxic Avenger."

Never mind, though. The name of the theater company is Hamilton, and anything named Hamilton now is considered anti-Trump.

Apparently, says the CBC, the internet trolls were too apoplectic to pay attention to Twitter handles, and which way to direct their ignorant ire.

The Twitter account of the theater company in Hamilton, Ontario is @HamiltonTheatre. The Broadway show's Twitter handle is @HamiltonMusical 

I do love the irony in that the angry, unhinged Trump supporters are mistakenly and stupidly attacking a theatre whose current production is called "The Toxic Avenger."

By the way, the only adult in the room in this whole bruhaha over the Mike Pence incident at Hamilton is Mike Pence himself.

Pence told Fox News he wasn't offended by the incident and does not want an apology.

Pence said he, his daughter and her cousins "enjoyed the show" and he reminded his daughter and the cousins that the boos, cheers and words "is what freedom sounds like."

Billboard From "Funeral Home" Brilliantly Goes After People Who Text And Drive

This billboard from the "Wathan Funeral Home" in
Toronto is causing a stir.  

I guess the Wathan Funeral Home in the Toronto area needs to drum up business.

They have a giant billboard on a major highway there that says "Text And Drive."

Texting and driving is one of the best ways to get you, or somebody else killed, so there's that.

Actually, the Wathan Funeral Home doesn't really exist. The "Text and Drive" billboard is a clever, if dark PSA  to tell all those idiots out there to stop friggin texting and driving, dammit!

It's one of my pet peeves. Maybe my biggest. All the time, on the road, their heads are down, they're swerving all over the road, or not stopping at red lights, or not going at green lights, because of the all important texts they have to send.

In my darkest moments, I think people who text and drive deserve to die, as long as they don't hurt anybody else.

After all, if you text and drive, that means you don't give a crap about anybody else. "Who cares if somebody dies. This text to my girlfriend is more important than your life,"  seems to be the thought process of those who text and drive.

Maybe if texters and drivers were brought up on murder or attempted murder charges when they cause a crash, that would teach them a lesson.

Anyway, my hostile view of texters and drivers is the same one that inspired the "Text and Drive" billboard from the fictitious Wathan Funeral Home.

The funeral home, as noted, doesn't exist, but it does have a website. 

If you go to it, you get this message:

"If you're here, you've probably seen our "Text and Drive" billboard. And if you have, you probably came to this website to tell us what horrible people we are for running an ad like that. And you'd be right.

It's a horrible thing for a funeral home to do. But we're not a funeral home.

We're just trying to get Canadians to stop texting and driving, which is projected to kill more people in Ontario this year than drinking and driving. That's right. More. And while most people wouldn't even think about drinking and driving, over half of Ontario's drivers admit to reading texts behind the wheel.

That's more than half of the drivers on the road today risking their lives, their passengers' lives and the lives of fellow motorists and pedestrians.

Which should make you even madder than our billboard did."

It sure does!

The PSA is from the Montreal ad agency St. John St., in partnership with Cieslok Media, says AdWeek.  

Buzz, The Honey Nut Cheerios Mascot Disappears In Canada. A Very Noble Reason Why

Buzz, the Honey Nut Cheerios mascot, has gone
missing from Canadian cereal boxes for a very
good cause.  

If you've ever eaten Honey Nut Cheerios, or at least seen their ads, you're familar with Buzz.

Depending on your perspective, he's either cute or a bit obnoxious. Buzz if the cartoon bee who banters with celebrity endorsers about how wonderful the cereal is. He's also a big fixture on boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios.

In Canada, however, Buzz has gone missing from the cereal boxes. There's just a white outline where Buzz is supposed to be on the packages.

Buzz's disappearance is for a great cause.

Bees -honeybees, not the cartoon versions - are disappearing from our ecosystem, brought down by insecticides, environmental degradation, development and other factors, mostly caused by humans.

You want lots and lots of bees buzzing around everywhere, because they pollinate crops, which means they actually grow and we can eat them. No bees, no food for us, basically.

People are thus trying to save the bees.

As AdWeek reports:

"'This is the first time in the brand's history we've taken Buzz off the box,' said Emma Eriksson, director of Marketing for General Mills Canada. 'One-third of the foods we depend on for our survival are made possible by natural pollination work that bees provide. '

With ongoing losses in bee populations being reported across Canada, we wanted to leverage our packaging to draw attention to this important cause and issue a call to action to Canadians to help lant 35 million wildflowers - one for every person in Canada.'"

The effort, details of which you should check out at BringBackThe Bees.ca, has a very good video explaining it more. It's at the bottom of this post.

The video begins with several clips of people rescuing various animals from a series of dire straights. The words, "Helping Is In Our Nature," appears in the clip. In the background, a chorus sings the 1980s Mr. Mister song "Broken Wings," with the lyrics, "Take, these broken wings, and learn to fly again...."

Then we get information about the bee population decline. "The bees need us. Join us in planting 35 million wildflowers."

The Canadian company  Vesey's Seeds, is helping with the effort to distribute flower seeds. I've dealt with Vesey's seeds by the way. Definitely a very good company. It's worth checking out their product line.

The site, BringBackTheBees.ca  has a lot of great information on the bee population, and how to help pollinators. The advice it offers doesn't apply to  just Canada. It's great stuff for us Americans, too.

By the way, you really should plant flowers, wildflowers or any perennial or even annual that attracts honeybees. This isn't just a Canadian problem, but a worldwide one.

Buzz the Honey Nut Cheerios mascot, hasn't disappeared from American cereal boxes yet. But millions of honey bees have disappeared from the American landscape.

It's time we all help to bring them back. We rescue them, and in turn, they'll rescue us by ensuring we continue to have a full and rich food supply.

Here's the BringBackTheBees video:

Best Drywall Contractor Makes Beautiful Art Out Of Joint Compound

Artwork created by drywall contractor Bernie Mitchell
He uses joint compound to create these detailed images. 

If you ever need the wall inside your house fixed, you could do no better than to hire drywall contractor Bernie Mitchell of Ontario, Canada.  

The guy uses joint compound to make beautiful artistic murals on walls.

He turns clumps of the drywall into finely detailed images of landcapes and forests or meadows populated with blue herons, osprey, loons, horses, wolves, dogs and many other images, says twistedsifter.com

The artwork is best shown off by aiming lights in such a way where to emphasize the bumps and shadows in the drywall artwork. He uses spackles, spoons, brushes and other small tools to create the artwork.

He began by using wheat and barley stalks to leave impressions in wet joint compound, but graduated to making the detailed artwork, as you can see by scrowling through his website and the twistedsifter post.

Here's a video of Mitchell at work:

Silly Political Ad Season Arrives Early Cruz And Bacon, Plus A Canadian Super Hero

If this guy wins the Presidency, we'll all learn how
to properly cook bacon. Oh joy!  

It's already time for bizarre political ads in both the United States and Canada, and we're off to a STUNNING start.

Here in the good old U.S of A, crazy Texas Republican Senator "Government Shut Down" Ted Cruz is running for President, as we all know, and like the rest of them, he's trying to get attention.

Say what you want about the climate denying, Obama hating, religious kook Cruz, he's sure got a flair for style, at least in ads and videos.

Earlier this month, he demonstrated how they cook bacon in Texas. He wraps bacon on the barrel of a   machine gun and fires away, probably to demonstrate his gung ho guns and red meat style of conservative bonafides to a willing audience.

Or, as Roxanne Roberts couldn't resist saying on last week's NPR news quiz show, "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!" Cruz engaged in classic pork barrel politics. Ha!

I dunno, though. It's a little chilling watching the end of the video, in which Cruz says, MMMmm! Machine gun bacon!  Would he have that smirk on his face if he goes to a NATO diplomatic summit as president.

Anyway, here's the video.




Next we move on to Canada. O Canada!

A gentleman named Wyatt Scott is running for the  Canadian Parliament. 

In is ad, he does a number of incredible things, like ride a giant Canada goose, slay a dragon and send death rays out of his eyes to slay a giant robot thing. A real superhero to save Canada!

If Scott wins, and his performance is anything like what we see in his campaign ad, I think we will all then be able to agree that Canada is NOT, in fact, boring.

Watch:

Officer In Trouble For NOT Summarily Executing Two Bear Cubs

A conservation officer in Canada was
 suspended from his job for not
killing these two bear cubs.  

A female bear kept getting into the freezer of a remote camp in British Columbia recently.

When bears become a problem like that, they sometimes have to be put down, and that, sadly was the case with this bear.

Even worse, this bear had two cubs. Conservation officer Bryce Casavant was ordered by his supervisors to kill the bear cubs, too.

He refused and took them to the North Island Wildlife Recovery Association near Vancouver, British Columbia.

For Casavant was suspended for his job without pay, says the Canadian broadcaster CBC. 

The situation, first reported in the North Island Gazette in British Columbia, set off a HUGE erupton on social media, especially in Canada erupted at the news of the conservation officer's suspension.

Nothing like an order to kill two cute little black bear cubs to get people riled up.

It's true if bear cubs are conditioned to cause trouble, they, too have to be put down, say wildlife experts. But the CBC quoted the recovery center's manager as saying he is perplexed by the order to kill the cubs.

"(The mother bear) was a problem, but these cubs did nothing," said the manager, Robin Campbell.

Campbell said the cubs were not habituated to humans and could be successful re-introduced to the wild. Casavant, the conservation officer, did the right thing by bringing the cubs to the wildlive recovery center, Campbell said.

"In 30 years, this is the first time we've ever had an issue like this," Campbell said, as quoted by the CBC. "There has to be some kind of misunderstanding... hopefully somebody will come to their senses." 

It's unclear if that will happen. Certainly the shoot to kill the cubs order sounds sadistic, but we haven't heard yet from the guy who ordered the deaths. British Columbian environmental authorities haven't decided what to do about the cubs yet.

Casavant is still suspended from his job, but now it's with pay, because of the public outcry over this.

Even if more information comes out and it turns out the cubs were misbehaving and habituated to humans, why the rush to kill them? And why the rush to suspend Casavant? As one commenter pointed out on the North Island Gazette Facebook page, let's let animals be innocent until proven guilty, too.

Others point out that Casavant's job title is Conservation Officer, so let him conserve, in this case the life of these bears, if at all possible.

Still others took a big picture look at this and said it is humans invading the habitat of bears, and not bears invading the habitat of humans that's the real problem here.

Of course, when you look at the big picture, that's when things really get sticky. Us humans are ruining the habitat of countless species, and we're spawning a great wildlife extinction.

The simple solution to the bear cubs in British Columbia is to reinstate Casavant, release the cubs to the wild if possible and move on.

As far as the big picture goes, I don't think anybody has a good solution to us humans and our environmentally dangerous ways. We're all guilty, this writer included.

It's fine and absolutely correct to be upset over the callousness some people had toward these bear cubs. But this makes me wonder how many innocent wild animals I might have unwittingly harmed.

World's Worst Attempt To Get Out Of A Parking Lot

"Calgary's Worst Driver" backs into a red car
during an epic struggle to get out of what should
be an easy parking lot.  

OK, I get it. Some people don't have a good spatial sense, so getting out of tight spots with their cars can be a challenge.

But really? REALLY??

Watch the video, below, of some moron trying to get out of a snowy parking lot in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Yeah, it's snowy, there's other cars around, but you can't manage this. And you get a driver's license, HOW?!?

Police are investigating this, says the Calgary Sun, because the driver backed into a red car. Plus, the driver is clearly stupid.

Authorities later caught up with the woman driving the SUV and gave her a $115 ticket for unsafe backing. I think they should just take her license away ---- forever.

Homeless Guy Sees Piano On Sidewalk; Plays It: Result: Beauty

Maybe he doesn't look like he belongs in
Symphony Hall, but this guy can sure play the piano.  

There's been a mini-trend, especially in Canada, of arts groups placing old pianos in public places in cities and inviting people to stop and play them.

Such is the case in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, where a homeless guy named Ryan stumbled upon one of the pianos in a park and started playing.

An organization called #OpenPianoYeg put the pianos in the streets. Founder David Rauch told the CBC: "I want really great people to play. I want really bad people to play,"

I do like the idea of putting random pianos in public places. I think they can be soothing, given the right circumstances.

Ryan apparently never had piano lessons, he's just able to play.

He also proves that you never know where you'll find talent.

See and hear for yourself:

Scary Shooting At Canada's Parliament Building

A street being cordoned off in Ottawa this morning.  

In a story now unfolding, shots were fired in and around Canada's Parliament building in Ottawa.   

I don't picture Canada as a hot spot for this kind of crime or even possibly a terror attack, but these things can happen anywhere, unfortunately.

People in Ottawa near Parliament Hill have been told to stay off the streets and away from windows.

This is just two days after a soldier in Quebec was killed and another injured in a hit and run incident that the government says was a terror attack perpetrated by a jerk who had embraced radical Islam.   

Here's a scary video, taken by a Globe and Mail reporter, of an exchange of gunfire in the Parliament building:

O Canada! Hockey, National Anthem And Skating Hazards Don't Mix

Not the best moment in the history of people
singing "O Canada."  

You have to expect this to happen all the time in Canada: A hockey game and a rendition of "O, Canada," the national anthem at the start of a hockey game.  

Some moron decided that it would be cool to have the guy who sings "O Canada" skate around the arena before the hockey game as he sings.

Bad idea, but it wasn't totally the singer's fault. Some moron, there were a lot of morons in this incident, apparently, put out a ceremonial carpet. The singer, Mark Donnelly, didn't see the carpet and fell flat on his face as he was singing.

Decent recovery though.

Watch the disaster in this video:

Cat Probably Used Eight Of Nine Lives in Canadian Building Fire

A woman tried to retrieve Sylvester
after he escaped a raging fire and building collapse

An arson fire in Dauphin, Manitoba, Canada left 25 people homeless and destroyed the building.

A totally sad story, but I love one glimmer of good news that literally emerged from the collapsing
wreckage of the destroyed building.

The fire had gone on for hours. Finally, the whole building collapsed.

At the end of the cacaphony of the collapse, a cat ran out of the destroyed building. It has apparently been trapped in the building, and somehow survived the fire.

The collapse miraculously didn't kill the cat, but instead creating an opening for the cat to run. It was all caught on the amazing video at the bottom of the post.

The cat, named Sylvester, was taken to a veterinarian and treated for smoke inhalation, but is recovering and has been reunited with his owner.

Sylvester will probably be avoiding fires and loud noises for awhile.

Here's the video:

Toronto Mayor Has Best Excuse For Smoking Crack: Was In Drunken Stupor

A big shoutout this morning to Toronto Mayor Rob Ford for offering the best excuses for misbehavior.

Crack and booze: Toronto Mayor Rob Ford
LOVES to party. 

After months of allegations, you might have heard that he finally admitted that he smoked crack.  His excuse was precious: "I was in a drunken stupor."

Oh, that makes it OK, then.

Residents of most cities probably wouldn't like it if their mayor was in a "drunken stupor" but in Toronto, at least for Ford, the drunken stupor is a good thing, because it excuses him for the crack smoking.

Pretty much everybody in Toronto wants Ford to resign, because no city likes to have a laughing stock as mayor. But good ol' Ford says he's going to stay on and run for re-election in 2014. Hey, booze and crack is expensive, you need a job to pay for it all, right?

According to the Associated Press, the crack smoking isn't the only example of Fords, um, colorful behavior:

"Ford apologized over the weekend for excessive drinking. He said he should not have been "hammered" drunk in public when he appeared at a street festival in August, calling it "pure stupidity."

He also said he got "a little out of control" after St. Patrick's Day in 2012, when city hall security guards said they witnessed a "very intoxicated' Ford having trouble walking and swearing at aides.

The mayor has also been accused of making an obscene gesture from his car and texting while driving. In 2011, Ford angered the city's gay community by declining to attend Toronto's gay pride parade, breaking with tradition observed by three previous mayors.

Earlier this year, the mayor was fired from his cherished side-job as a volunteer high school football coach after he made disparaging remarks to a TV network about parents and their kids."

 I'm not sure sure Ford will win the 2014 election, but he does sound like the life of a frat party, no?

On the bright side, if you're looking for a job, head to Toronto and run for mayor. You don't even have to be qualified. If you don't stumble around in public in a drunken stupor, and are not a fan of crack cocaine, that's an improvement over Ford. 

Your lack of drunkenness and drug abuse might just get you elected.