Hairspray: 6.5 out of 10.

I don't think Hairspray was made for dudes like me. They sing an awful lot, and I'm not really a musical kind of guy. By the time Travolta and Walken were singing to each other, I had had enough. Don't get me wrong, some of the songs are okay and it's a pretty likable flick, but my favourite thing about Hairspray had nothing to do with the story.

Hairspray has awesome shots of West Toronto. That opening sequence showing a Baltimore neighbourhood gave us a great glance at Roncesvalles. We played a great Baltimore.

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I read an article at NowPublic.com this afternoon that really spoke to me. It was entitled "Mike Boon blogs his way to the 5th Paper Champions Award" and it was about an entry I wrote about George Bell hitting 3 homers on opening day in Kansas City.

Here's a taste of what I read at NowPublic.com this afternoon...

This weeks paper champion comes from way out in left-field at the old Exhibition Stadium on the CNE ground along the Toronto lakeshore. Toronto Mike has been "blogging up a storm since 2002" and managed to help squelch a heated office debate regarding the performance of a certain Blue Jay’s left-fielder, George Bell, who swore he would not forego fielding to be the team’s Designated Hitter. These facts were not up for debate, three completely different generations of Blue Jay’s fans made up the debaters but one thing was unanimous, George Bell didn’t want to be a DH.

I don't know what a Paper Champions Award is, but it's an honour to receive such recognition.

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The American Family Association’s OneNewsNow site uses auto-replace when running AP stories. For example, they automatically replace the word "gay" with the word "homosexual".

As you'll see below, that can produce unintentionally hilarious results.

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The Google universe effects us all in different ways. I feel a great responsibility to be an authority on subject matter I rank #1 for in Google. Tomorrow is Canada's 141st birthday, so many are Googling best Canadian songs and finding my Top 100 Canadian Songs List. That makes me a key ambassador of Canadian music, whether I like it or not.

Nick publishes a free paper in Fukuoka, Japan which he calls Fukuoka Now. He's been organizing Canada Day parties in Fukuoka City, which has a pop of 1.5 million, and is in southern Japan, for the last 6 years. Although Nick has been there for 18 years, he's originally from right here in Toronto.

So Nick did that search so he could play Canada's finest music at his Canada Day party in Fukuoka, Japan, and he came across my list and liked what he saw. I spent some time this weekend setting Fukuoka, Japan up with this supreme Canadian playlist so they have a super fantastic Canada Day.

If you're in Fukuoka tomorrow, drop by and say hi to Nick. He's got some great tunes for ya.

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"99 Problems" is my favourite Jay-Z song. I hear Jay-Z stole the show at Glastonbury this year and prior to busting into a "Back In Black" backed "99 Problems" he covered a little Oasis tune you might be familiar with.

You see, guys like Noel Gallagher didn't think an American rapper belonged at England's most famous rock festival, especially as the headliner. It was a ballsy move, but it seems to have paid off.

Here's that great moment at Glastonbury.

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It looks like Andrew Raycroft has played his last game as a Toronto Maple Leaf. So has Scott Clemmensen. That leaves Vesa Toskala as the only goaltender in the organization with NHL experience.

We're all still hoping Justin Pogge will become a bonafide NHL goalie, but it looks like he'll need another year in the AHL playing for the Marlies. That means the Leafs need a backup to Tosky. Tosky will likely play about 60 games, but who will start the other 22?

I'm endorsing Curtis Joseph to fill that role. Why the hell not? He won't break the bank, he'd love to come back and retire a Maple Leaf and he's still got 22 games left in his 41-year old body.

It's already going to be a long and painful season, at least having Cujo back will give us something to get excited about.

Speaking of next season, http://www.torontomike.com/countdown.html is once again online and counting down the seconds. There are only 102 days, 4 hours, 1 minutes, and 22 seconds left until the Maple Leafs opener against Detroit.

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Yesterday afternoon, before heading over to East Side Mario's to celebrate a couple of birthdays, I asked for help finding three Canadian songs in MP3 format. These are three songs I adore but have never had in my collection. That fact alone tells you're they're a little obscure.

By the time I got home, I saw a comment from Jason on that entry required my approval before being published. To combat comment spammers, I moderate all comments with 3 or more links in them. Jason was linking to his blog and two music blogs that he thought might be able to help me in my search.

I manually approved Jason's comment and, as people clicked through my site to the music blogs he linked, those blog owners saw traffic to their blogs from TorontoMike.com. As any good webmaster would do, they clicked over to see who was linking to them. I do this as well when I check my referral logs.

Miss Parker from Rave and Roll saw what I was looking for and was able to share with me the Demics and Diodes tracks. Shortly thereafter, at about 12:19am, the 3rd and final track came through thanks to Brian. In less than 12 hours I had the three songs I was unable to find on my own.

This is a great example of how the blogosphere works. It takes a great big world and connects it digitally via search engines and referral logs. It's much clearer in the chart below I just threw together.

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In no particular order, here's a list of guys I'm glad are still doing their thing.

• Nelson Mandela
• Neil Young
• Roger Ebert
• Pete Seeger
• Gary Roberts
• Andy Rooney
• Bob Cole
• Andy Barrie
• Stan Lee
• Mike Wallace

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Pete Seeger will be playing Hugh'S Room here in Toronto on July 6 and 7. I'm very happy to see Pete Seeger still plucking away at the age of 89.

I'm a documentary fan and a music fan, so I've seen a number of extensive interviews with Seeger in docs about Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and protest music in general. He's always very insightful and positive. For those of us too young to remember folk protests over Vietnam, Seeger is best known as the author of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?", "If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)", and "Turn, Turn, Turn!".

The anthem of the US civil rights movement was "We Shall Overcome", which Seeger popularized by folk-ifying the gospel song. In my humble opinion, this very well may be Seeger's greatest contribution to the world we live in today.

Here's Joan Baez singing "We Shall Overcome".

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Shrek the Third: 6.5 out of 10.

Shrek has followed the lead of Spider-Man, producing third installments unworthy of the previous two.

As you might have guessed, I watched this one with the kids, and they loved it. I didn't mind it, I've seen many worse cartoon movies, but it's by far the weakest link in the Shrek chain. Throw this one to the shorties.

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I'm looking for a few MP3s. It's a little project I'm working on to spread my love of Canada to Fukuoka, Japan. I'll explain more on Monday, but for now I need...

• The Diodes - Tired of Waking Up Tired
• The Demics - New York City
• Rheostatics - Record Body Count

Yeah, I'm surprised I don't have that Rheostatics track too. The other two are sorta obscure, but I'm sure somebody out there has them digitized.

Let me know if you can help a brother out.

Update: You guys are awesome. Thanks to Jason for dropping the links and Miss Parker for checking her referral log and clicking over to see where the hits were coming from. In less than 12 hours I received the Diodes and Demics tracks form Miss Parker and the Rheostatics track from Brian. Rob had the Diodes track, too. Miss Parker's great blog can be found here.

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I haven't thought much about Johnny 5 lately. I was 12 years old when I first saw "Short Circuit" and I loved it. The Stonecutters were right to make Steve Guttenberg a star.

The best part of "Short Circuit" was Johnny 5. Johnny 5 was number 5 of a group of experimental robots in a lab who was electrocuted, suddenly became intelligent, and escaped.

There was a sequel, which wasn't as good even though it was shot in Toronto, but it's been about 20 years since I spent any time with Johnny 5. Thanks to Pixar, that's all changing this summer.

Johnny 5 is everywhere, only now they're calling him WALL-E. Trust me, "WALL-E" is simply a cleverly marketed "Short Circuit 3". Here's Johnny 5...

And here's WALL-E...

Johnny 5 is alive!

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Bryan McCabe was great on the powerplay during the first half of the 2005 season. His play during that period earned him a spot on the 2006 Olympic team, made him a Norris trophy candidate and had many Leafs fans touting him as the next Al MacInnis or Scott Niedermayer. That play also earned him a massive five-year, US$28.75-million contract with a no-move clause from John Ferguson, Jr.

These past few days we've been reading about how Bryan McCabe will never play another game for the Leafs. The Leafs desperately want to trade him, but he won't waive his no-trade clause. He might live on Long Island, but he knows the Leafs are screwed and have to buy him out to get rid of him. The Leafs would have to pay McCabe two-thirds of what he is owed - almost $3-million per season - plus a reported $2-million bonus due on September 15. Uncle Cliffy and the gang don't like the sounds of that.

As a result, it looks like we're in for some hardball. Some reports suggest Uncle Cliffy will order McCabe to stay away from training camp. In essence we'll be paying McCabe not to play in the hopes he'll agree to a trade in the best interest of his career. All of this has Leafs fans burning their McCabe jerseys and begging him to accept a trade. McCabe must be selfish because he's actually asking MLSE to own up to the contract they approved in good faith. JFJ dug this hole but MLSE blessed the transaction. A deal is a deal, right?

As this gets uglier with a guy who covered his defensive lapses with a scoring touch for half a season the blogosphere and fan base will label McCabe a selfish jerk who shouldn't want to play where he's not wanted. This might be true, but we can't blame McCabe. This is the doing of JFJ and MLSE.

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My all-time favourite songs with "birthday" in the title

1. Birthday - The Beatles
2. Happy Birthday, Lisa - Michael Jackson and Bart
3. 7th Birthday - The Lowest of the Low
4. Sunday (The Day Before My Birthday) - Moby
5. Happy Birthday Mr. Burns - The Ramones

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Jim's Child of the '60s is a podcast of 60s tunes you don't hear that often. He recently asked me for a digital copy of Jayson King's "Heartaches", Bobby Kris & the Imperials' "Walk On By" and Grant Smith & the Power's "Her Own Life". I was happy to share.

He put that Grant Smith and the Power tune in his 85th podcast. You can download it at the links below. Thanks Jim for mentioning the site!

• http://rapidshare.com/files/125170984/Jim_s_Child_Of_The__60s___85.mp3.html
• http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HPQWJYEF
• http://www.zshare.net/audio/142473392bdcdb26/

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If bloggage is a little slow today it's because I'm busy accepting well wishes. It started when my wife brought me a steaming hot cup of coffee in bed, continued when the kids buried me in kisses and hugs and then I logged on to find this email from my mom in my inbox.

Just wanted to be the first outside of the household to wish you a very Happy Birthday. I love you very much. If I could go back to 10 o'clock on Thurs. June 27th 1974 I would in a heartbeat. Just a young girl who had virtually never held a newborn before. It changed my whole world. You were beautiful and so much fun and never ever cried. Dorothy said you were the happiest baby she had ever taken care of when she helped me out the following summer so I could take a course at U of T.

Happy Birthday to me!

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I just got back from the Piranhas first win in franchise history. That's right, my horrible recreational softball team won 24-15 tonight. I went 6 for 6 with 6 runs scored, but who's counting...

This isn't about me and it isn't about the Piranhas'. This is about a ball girl who made the best damn catch this side of Reed Johnson. You have to see this to believe it. It's awesome.

Update: She's a fake. A viral marketing nugget that slipped past the radar.

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Most bloggers give up on their blogs after a handful of entries. This is my 7815th entry, making me a rare example of a blogger who stuck with it. I enjoy it immensely, and while it's fun I don't intend to quit.

One Post Wonder is a blog about the blogs that will never make it to #7815. In fact, these blogs don't make it to #7. For example, there's ron.blogspot.com with one post back in 2000.

Sunday, November 12, 2000
Just a meandering series of observations by a guy living in San Francisco. Most of the posts will probably come after each Sunday afternoon, since that's my big social thing for the week - beer bust at the Eagle and Lone Star, south of market. The Lone Star, especially, is a really cool bar. Easy to get laid there.....
posted by Ron at 12:59 PM

Ron had a good thing going there and he started before everyone and his grandma had heard of blogs. I really enjoyed his description of The Lone Star. If I'm ever in San Francisco and looking to get laid, I now know where to go.

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Let's see. My name is Mike, I discovered the Toronto Maple Leafs in the very early 80s and by the time Wendel was leading us to a first round sweep of the Blackhawks in 1986, I was infatuated. I survived the Ballard years, was rewarded with a competitive team in the early 90s before living through another dip and a few more good years under Pat Quinn. I've been through a lot with this team over the past three decades.

I've seen some horrible teams, I remember finishing last in the Norris Division, I remember when Tom Fergus was our best player. I believe the worst is yet to come. I believe our 2008/2009 season is as bad as it seems. I think we're about to witness the worst Maple Leafs season in franchise history.

Let's assume Mats Sundin moves on and Cliff Fletcher continues to trim the fat. Everything is aligned to give us maximum ping pong balls in the John Tavares lottery. Our best centres will be Antropov and Stajan. That's all you need to know about this team. Nik freakin' Antropov and Matt flippin' Stajan. That, my friends, is a last place team.

And get this! I'm okay with sucking large for one more year. Having endured decades without playing in a cup final, I'm happy just knowing competitive seasons lie ahead, even if it means tasting pain in 2008/2009.

Fellow Leaf fans, it's as bad as it seems.

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The gang at GelaSkins are sending Toronto Mike to BOMB IT!, the explosive new International graffiti documentary. GelaSkins, who make and sell removable vinyl skins for protecting and customizing portable devices, is putting on the Toronto premiere of Bomb It on Friday, July 11th at 7:00pm at the Bloor Cinema (506 Bloor St. W.)

I ain't no hipster, so I had to Google this graffiti doc before deciding whether I wanted to see it. I found this review from Culture Now.

Jon Reiss’ global graffiti documentary hard hits a vital contemporary nerve. Where is the public space? Who owns it? And why do advertisers have the right to control our visual landscape with images that are often vulgar and disturbing? A consumer culture (that we all very readily accept) tells us that money buys these rights of control and access. Bomb It challenges this. The film suggests that there is nothing natural, neutral, or normal about this relationship. I’m not saying this is a Socialist film; it’s a beautifully shot and edited documentary that asks us to re-think the borders of public space and art. Interviews with graffiti artists and writers from Los Angeles, New York, Sao Paulo, Paris, Barcelona, London, Capetown, and Tokyo re-situate graffiti outside the prison gates and inside a riveting dialogue about how we as humans negotiate a place for ourselves in controlled environments. Chaz Bojorquez, Cornbread, Revs, Os Gemeos, KRS One, Blek Le Rat, and Shepard Fairey deconstruct commonplace notions that graffiti is thoughtless and ugly and always gang-related. The film gives graffiti back its history and philosophical and social virility as an outsider art movement. The international perspective reveals graffiti culture as something innately human, dating back to the earliest days in caves - a mixed drive to say: “Hello world, I’m here,” and to use art as a weapon to fight and express the alienation and ugliness of modern cities.

It sounds kinda cool. I'll post a review here after the T.Dot premiere.

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The rumours are true. We're shipping off T. J. Ford, Rasho Nesterovic, our 17th pick in tonight's NBA draft and a player to be named later to Indiana for Pacers forward Jermaine O'Neal.

O'Neal is a six time all-star who will greatly improve our frontcourt as he plays alongside Chris Bosh. Of course, he has to stay healthy, which is something he hasn't been able to do the past two seasons. We all know Ford had to go anyway, and although Nesterovic had a decent year last season, we need to get better at center and O'Neal should still have some gas in the tank.

The deal will be final as soon as O'Neal passes his physical. Although there are risks, it's a good move for the Raps.

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I'm submitting a song for SLS19 consideration. I'm submitting "Hammerhead" by The Offspring.

I used to have a lot of respect for The Offspring. I must have spun their disc "Smash" a billion times. "Ixnay On The Hombre" was pretty good too, and then they released the song that killed The Offspring in my eyes. "Pretty Fly For A White Guy". Argh, thinking about that sell-out of a garbage tune makes me want to puke.

This latest track from The Offspring is actually pretty good. It's on ultra high rotation on all rock stations so if you want to hear it just tune in for 20 minutes and you might hear it twice!

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Hamlet 2: 7 out of 10.

We were invited to a special advance screening of this new comedy film by the co-writer of South Park and Team America: World Police. I loved Team America: World Police, so I thought this would be a fun way to celebrate T's birthday.

I knew nothing about the film going in, except that it starred Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, David Arquette, Amy Poehler and Elisabeth Shue. All I knew Steve Coogan as was as Larry David's therapist in Curb Your Enthusiasm, but he was charming as all hell in this flick, and super funny. I can't tell if I was just in a good mood and enjoying a night out at a free flick, but I laughed my ass off.

The deal with these test screenings is that you have to complete a survey after the film. I suggested they tighten up the first third which tended to lag a little and pad the actual production which included some great musical numbers. It will be interesting to see how much editing happens between now and the film's release.

Oh yeah, I recommended one more change. The Shakespearian title is libel to scare away their target South Parkian demo. Trust me, this film is more Borat than Shakespeare.

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My sweets is celebrating a birthday today. Happy Birthday, Taryn!

This woman is a saint. She's lived and breathed me for 13 years now. Heck, that ain't sainthood, that's a miracle unto itself! I love ya, babe.

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Rogers Cable has told Ed the Sock creator Steven Kerzner that his last show on CITY-TV will air August 31. Ed the Sock joins Amber Mac, Silverman Helps and Speakers Corner in the Rogers CITY-TV graveyard.

My brothers and I used to watch Ed the Sock on Cable 10 before CITY-TV picked up the broadcast rights. At the time, it was co-hosted by Harland Williams and we thought he was pretty damn funny. A couple of hosts later, on CITY-TV, my good friend Humble Howard Glassman co-hosted with Ed.

In an interview I did with Humble Howard a couple of years ago I asked him about working with Ed the Sock. Here's what he had to say about Ed.

Q: I hear things didn't end well with you and the sock on Ed's Night Party? Care to dish the deets?

A: I don't want to say anything about ED or the midget that has his hand up his ass that hasn't already been said by just about everyone that's met him.

Karma can sometimes be a bitch.

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When you wear your favourite team's jersey with the name and number of a current player on the back, you risk seeing that player traded, signed elsewhere, or worse, bought out. My brother Steve owns a Darcy Tucker #16 Leafs jersey. Darcy Tucker has been bought out by the Toronto Maple Leafs.

When Steve IM'd me to let me know Tucker was gonzo, he opened with "anyone wanna buy a Tucker jersey?" I proudly wore a Doug Gilmour #93 in the early 90s and I remember when he was traded to New Jersey. It's tough when your jersey player leaves your team.

After the Gilmour incident, I got smart. My new jersey is a Bill Barilko #5. By going classic I don't run the risk that my player will leave. Barilko is a legend. Barilko is forever.

Steve has learnt a valuable lesson. My other brother owns a Bryan McCabe #24. Let's hope he learns a similar lesson.

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The Toronto Maple Leafs placed Kyle Wellwood and Andrew Raycroft on waivers today. One of these moves was a no-brainer and the other is a little surprising but probably a good thing. Let's start with the no-brainer.

Two years ago tomorrow, I wrote about the trading of Tuukka Rask for Andrew Raycroft. Here's what I wrote that day in 2006.

When I first read about the deal, I hated it. Rask is only twenty years old and was named the top goaltender of last year's World Junior Championship. Raycroft, on the other hand, had a dismal .879 save percentage last year with a 3.71 goals against average and just eight wins in 30 starts. Yuck.

Can we call a mulligan and get Rask back? Although Raycroft set a franchise record with 37 wins in 72 games two seasons ago, I never felt comfortable with him between the pipes and pleaded with Maurice to start Vesa Toskala on opening night last October. Raycroft had a brutal year, going 2-9-5 the past season with a 3.92 goal-against average and .876 save percentage, last winning a game in November. He had to go and now he's gone.

Wellwood, on the other hand, was supposed to be one of the few bright young lights on this team. He actually had a little skill and showed a great deal of promise, but then his stock plummeted quickly. There were plenty of injuries and a lack of desire on his part. I thought they'd give him another year to turn things around but Uncle Cliffy must be getting emails from Bryan Burke because this is a bold move that actually makes sense.

We need to shake things up around, make drastic changes, and it's nice to see we're not coming back with the same pathetic players. We'll come back with different pathetic players and make a serious run at Tavares.

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Vanilla Ice's To The Extreme is not a very good album. It was released in 1990 and was the most successful rap album by a white artist since The Beastie Boys' Licensed to Ill in 1987.

Thanks to the monster hit "Ice Ice Baby", based on the baseline from Queen and David Bowie's "Under Pressure," a lot of well meaning people like me ended up with To The Extreme in their CD collections. I don't know how it happened but it did. You had to be there in 1990... it was a strange time.

The final single from To The Extreme was a song called "I Love You" and I believe it's the worst song I've ever heard in my life. I remember it being cringe-worthy bad in 1990 and revisiting it now it's even worse than I thought. "I Love You" is the worst song I've ever heard and it somehow managed to reach #52 on The Billboard Hot 100. It's the worst, hear for yourself.

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I've never listened to Roger, Rick & Marilyn on 104.5 CHUM-FM, but my mom loves that show. That's her morning show. While I was waking up to Humble & Fred on CFNY, she was waking up to Roger, Rick & Marilyn on 104.5 CHUM-FM.

My mom will be upset when I tell her there is no Roger, Rick & Marilyn anymore. Rick Hodge, host of "Sunday Night Funnies", has left CHUM-FM. Roger, Rick and Marilyn have been a morning team here in Toronto for over twenty years and they've been quite successful. If, like me, you've ever asked yourself who the heck is listening to such stuff, it's people like my mom.

I sense there will be more significant Toronto radio changes in the coming weeks. Stay tuned...

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We lost our second game of the season 17-0. I believe that's the worst defeat in the history of this team we now call Storm. We sure didn't forget it.

Tonight we had our rematch and we brought it. We mercied them 19-2. Now we're even.

For more on our first slo-pitch season in comp, visit http://www.torontomike.com/softball.html.

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Fred Patterson frequently appears on CHCH News to discuss issues of the day. Today, for example, he debated whether there's anything wrong with Crime Stoppers in Toronto handing out condoms at the Gay Pride Parade. You can see that appearance here.

Not only did he mention the Humble & Fred condoms, but when he's on the air they reference him as Fred Patterson from CanadianThinker.com. I thought that was pretty cool, and here's why.

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Dody Goodman was 93. She was the delightfully daffy comedian known for her television appearances on Jack Paar's late-night talk show and as the mother on the soap-opera parody "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman."

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I love a good cover. I also despise a bad cover. A Total Guitar magazine survey has named the best and worst covers of all time, and Celine Dion's cover of the AC/DC track "You Shook Me All Night Long" finished at the bottom of the heap as the worst of the worst.

Here are their worst five:

1. Celine Dion - You Shook Me All Night Long
2. Sugababes and Girls Aloud - Walk This Way
3. Westlife - More Than Words
4. Will Young - Light My Fire
5. The Mike Flowers Pops - Wonderwall

Here are their best five:

1. Jimi Hendrix - All Along the Watchtower
2. The Beatles - Twist and Shout
3. Guns N' Roses - Live and Let Die
4. Nirvana - The Man Who Sold the World
5. Muse - Feeling Good

In defense of The Mike Flowers Pops, I think we know it was a tongue in cheek cover and a pretty damn good one at that. It shouldn't be on this list. And in Celine Dion's defense, she had the wisdom not to release the song as a single. She performed it once at a Las Vegas concert six years ago.

How bad was it? Hear for yourself. Sacrebleu!

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Let's pretend for a moment that you never saw George Carlin perform stand up. Even if you never saw one of his HBO specials or never heard his "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television," it's highly likely you know George Carlin. My son knows George Carlin, only he knows him as Mr. Conductor. From Rufus to Cardinal Ignatius Glick, here are some Carlin characters beyond the stand up.

Rufus in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

I loved "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" and "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey" and George Carlin played Rufus in both films. Rufus was the guitar-playing guru who guided Bill and Ted and he was great.

Mr. Conductor in Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends

If you have kids, you know Thomas the Tank Engine. George Carlin played Mr. Conductor who narrated these stories. Other narrators include Ringo Starr and Alec Baldwin, but Carlin was the best.

Munchie in The Simpsons

In D'oh-in in the Wind, George Carlin and Martin Mull played a couple of hippies who knew Homer's mom back in the '60s. This is the episode where we learn Homer's middle name. It was great Carlin who was previous lampooned by The Simpsons in The Last Temptation of Krust.

Cardinal Ignatius Glick in Dogma

The Buddy Christ is hilarious. Carlin is also great as the hitchhiker in "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back". Here's the text of Carlin's Dogma speech for those who can't watch the video below.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Now we all know how the majority and the media in this country view the Catholic church. They think of us as a passe, archaic institution. People find the Bible obtuse... even hokey. Now in an effort to disprove all that the church has appointed this year as a time of renewal... both of faith and of style. For example, the crucifix. While it has been a time honored symbol of our faith, Holy Mother Church has decided to retire this highly recognizable, yet wholly depressing image of our Lord crucified. Christ didn't come to Earth to give us the willies... He came to help us out. He was a booster. And it is with that take on our Lord in mind that we've come up with a new, more inspiring sigil. So it is with great pleasure that I present you with the first of many revamps the "Catholicism WOW. " campaign will unveil over the next year. I give you... The Buddy Christ. Now that's not the sanctioned term we're using for the symbol, just something we've been kicking around the office, but look at it. Doesn't it... pop? Buddy Christ...

Carlin was smart and funny and he had that great voice. Even if you've never seen him perform, you knew George Carlin.

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I awoke to hear the news that George Carlin is gone. He was one funny sonufabitch. His edgy humour always struck a chord with me and he'll be missed.

I could bury you in YouTubery but I thought I'd stick with three Carlin gems. He really was more than just "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television," but you can't ignore that slice of brilliance. You have to hear his thoughts on religion and the planet to truly appreciate him.

Seven Words

Religion is Bullshit

Saving the Planet

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George Carlin was 71. He was a counter-culture hero famed for his routines about drugs, dirty words and the demise of humanity.

I'll have more from one of my favourite comedians throughout the day.

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I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry: 5 out of 10.

I now pronounce you mediocre. And get this... you were way better than I thought you'd be. That should give you an idea of what I've come to accept from Adam Sandler comedies.

To be fair, one line made me smile.

Well, then, by the power vested in me by the Commonwealth of Canada and the Province of Ontario, which has always been very pro-gay, unlike that uptight country to the south, it's my pleasure to now pronounce you husband and husband, partners for life.

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