Maybe McDavid leaving the bench with an apparent ankle injury will wake up the #Oilers

Thank you NCC!

The #NHL needs to take a look at automatic slashing penalties that snap an opponent’s stick. These graphite twigs break too easily. Routine hockey plays are getting penalized.

Who Is Blake Whiting? - The American Scholar The most astonishingly productive historian in recent times is someone you’ll never meet

theamericanscholar.org/who-is-blake...

Iran War Live Updates: Two Ships Are Fired On As Iran Says the Strait of Hormuz is Closed

Pity the poor columnists whose Saturday columns are rendered passe by 3 pm.

ITwo Ships Are Fired On As Iran Says the Strait of Hormuz is Closed www.nytimes.com/live/2026/04...

IMF sees Canada's fiscal position as strongest in G7 The International Monetary Fund lauded Canada’s fiscal position as Mark Carney prepares to give an update on government’s finances. Read now

financialpost.com/news/economy...

White House investigating wave of missing or dead scientists A number of scientists with ties to advanced research have died or disappeared in recent years, sparking speculation online.

This is a very strange story, in multiple ways.

www.newsweek.com/white-house-...

“Crazed” seems like understatement.

I can only imagine the exploding heads of career State Department officials:

NYT: Shortly after Iran’s announcement, President Trump responded in a social media post: “IRAN HAS JUST ANNOUNCED THAT THE *STRAIT OF IRAN* IS FULLY OPEN AND READY FOR FULL PASSAGE. THANK YOU!”

You can’t quit, you’re fired!

CBC’s Scott Oake was a great help and welcoming presence when I was a young CP transplant to Manitoba’s sports beat. Tonight is his last NHL regular season show before retirement and he deserves every kudo coming his way.

I have listened to Jack Michaels call out LA giveaways at least 3 times so far this game, yet somehow he failed to describe the game’s only give-away of consequence (so far) as such.

Have the words “bad give-away” and “Evan Bouchard” ever appeared in the same utterance by #Oilers play-by-play announcer Jack Michaels?

One Angry Man

Photos of planet Earth from space always make me think about our collective failed stewardship.

I seldom dump on the #CBC but why, oh why, is CBC TV advertising the JUNO Awards … during the CBC TV broadcast of the JUNO Awards??

He’s going for a strait flush.

Suggested viewing for career public servants at the municipal, county, state and federal levels in the United States: The Swedish Connection, streaming on Netflix.

A Phone-Free Childhood? One Irish Village Is Making It Happen.

“With social media, it’s a collective thing,” said Jennifer Whitmore, a member of Irish parliament and a Greystones mother of four. “Addressing it in a clustered manner is the way to go.”

Phone-Free Childhood? One Irish Village Is Making It Happen. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/25/r...

How have I never heard this before? And why isn’t it everywhere?

Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, and Amy Winehouse would like a word.

Opinion | Get an Electric Vehicle and You Can Stop Worrying About $5 Gas

Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/23/o...

I have stage four cancer – there will be no cure, but death isn’t necessarily imminent: this is how it feels to live in the long middle When you are cured, the world cheers; when you are dying, it mourns. But when you are simply maintaining, the world is at a loss

What a powerful piece of writing.

I have stage four cancer – there will be no cure, but death isn’t necessarily imminent: this is how it feels to live in the long middle www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Robert S. Mueller III, 81, Dies; Rebuilt F.B.I. and Led Trump Inquiry

What a terrific obit and a sobering reminder of how we arrived at this moment in March 2026. Read to the end. No words are wasted.

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/21/u...

The Growing Shadow of Autocracy Global freedom declined for the 20th consecutive year in 2025. But even in this especially challenging moment, there are reasons for optimism.

Seems like this report should be getting a wee bit more attention. HT Dan Gardner’s Substack, PastPresentFuture

freedomhouse.org/report/freed...

So entirely unbidden, the Righteous Brothers crooning You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling popped into my head. With the substitute lyric “enshitification.”

All 23 People Rescued Near Owen Sound After Ice Drifts for Kilometres Into Georgian Bay A massive rescue operation on Sunday involving marine, ground, and aviation units and collaboration by regional fire, medical, and police resulted in the successful retrieval of 23 anglers set adrift.

More here for those interested.

open.substack.com/pub/owensoun...

First, They Were Just Fishing. Then the Ice Started Moving.

When your hometown makes the New York Times! Face. Plant.

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/w...

When I began my journalism career with The Canadian Press wire service in 1986 these things were still clacking away in the Toronto newsroom. CP and the AP were and remain affiliated.

Opinion | Trump’s Fantasy Is Crashing Down

Brilliant. Trenchant.

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/o...