PIZZA. Nature's perfect food!

Well, something I have long suspected has, in fact, turned out to be true.
Pizza, long recognized as nature's perfect food, has now been proven to save lives.

Face it, regardless of what you may have heard, it is indeed, the perfect food.
All the major food groups are represented.
No animals were used in testing
and no rainforest was destroyed to produce it
(discounting the takeout box which I never eat although I have been known to lick off the excess cheese).

And now it seems that pizza can save lives; at least one so far.
Apparently, there is an elderly lady right here in my home province who has, for the last few years, ordered a pizza to be delivered from the same establishment every single night at the same time.
A few weeks ago, she did not put in her regular telephone order.
An erstwhile employee, recognizing that her usual phone order had not yet come in, contacted the authorities.
Upon investigating they found that the woman had taken a fall at home and was unable to call for help.
Thanks to pizza, she was found in time and rescued.
Thanks to pizza she is alive and well today.

I am overwhelmed by a sense of vindication.
All you diet fiends and naysayers move aside.
Like red wine, the double short espresso and dark chocolate before it
pizza has finally joined the ranks of true health foods.

Bev Oda Scandal "finally" being brought to light.

Once upon a time Canadian Conservative MP named Bev Oda signed a document saying "YES" to funding for an ecumenical charitable organization. A couple of other people signed it too.
A few months later, this document turns up saying "NO" (or, more precisely, "NOT") instead.

Changes like this are made in legal documentation all the time.
Any one who has ever negotiated a contract (New Car? New Mortgage?) knows this.
What stood out for me was that the changes were neither initialed nor dated.
I will not debate the merits of the decision.
I don't know enough about the agency in question or the reason for the change and nobody seems forthcoming.
It does warrant mentioning that the agency in question, Kairos, has been a regular recipient of this funding for charitable work that it does on the international stage.


What is obvious is that somebody changed their mind; not the end of the world.
The problem is that somebody changed their mind and did not want anybody to know about it.
That is a big deal.
There is something else I find equally unnerving.
This situation was brought to light last April (at the latest). That's almost a year ago.
So why are we just beginning to see this barrage of media attention now?

Let's see...
How many people on Parliament Hill have an agenda?
Go figger!

PARDONS CANADA AND THE CONSERVATIVE PLAN TO RAISE THE COST

WHO WILL REALLY PAY?

coming soon

Halton Ontario Catholic School Board Bans Gay-Straight Alliance Groups

Allow me to introduce Alice Anne LeMay, chair of the Halton Catholic School Board just outside of Toronto (Canada).  She was interviewed recently by several media groups regarding the Board's ban of Gay-Straight alliance groups on campus at their schools.  

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, Gay-Straight Alliance groups are springing up on university, college and high school campuses all over in direct response to bullying and intolerance.  It is a show of support for diversity in our schools and a means of offering protection and support for those who might (would) otherwise become targets of verbal and physical abuse.  

It stands to reason that any school not allowed to have a such group is essentially sanctioning violence against gay or lesbian students.  Whether directly or implicitly, the result is the same.  There is no excuse, ecclesiastical or otherwise for allowing violence in our schools.

I went through the Catholic School system right through to the old grade 13 back in the ’70s and my school, staffed in part by clergy, was openly supportive of gay rights in general and gay individuals in particular.

I remember one priest telling my grade twelve religion class that the editor of “The Body Politic” (now known as “Extra”) was a graduate of the school and that the staff were very proud of him. He actually said he hoped that, in some way, this graduate’s experience at the school had helped instill the courage and self esteem that allowed him to “be himself” (The expression ‘coming out’ was not yet in common parlance in them days).

Alice Anne LeMay and her gang at the Halton board have been called brave.  They are not brave. They are lazy. They lack empathy and understanding. They are usurping archaic traditions and using them as an excuse to bury their heads in the sand. The Bible and the Catholic Church are not something to hide behind blindly. Positive change takes time and only happens when people expect and demand it from within.

The Catholic School boards of Ontario are fully funded by the Province and have an obligation, regardless of the religious implications to uphold the same standard of tolerance and acceptance as any other government organization.

By openly banning GSA groups for the reasons given the Halton Board is in direct contravention of Provincial Policies on equity. Want to see the facts Anne? Maybe you better leaf through this document again. I’m sure there must be a copy of it somewhere in your building: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/policyfunding/inclusiveguide.pdf

Public Rest Rooms, A Few Short Notes

I have a fairly long commute.

The same distance that takes 40-45 minutes each morning at 6 AM

can take as long as two hours in the throes of rush hour.

Especially in winter.

Unfortunately, I was not blessed with a bladder built for the long haul.

Each night on the way home

I find myself wrestling with the imminent threat of sudden onset narcolepsy

or a painfully overinflated water balloon down south screaming

"NOW!NOW!NOW!HAFTA GO NOW!"

On those really special evenings I'm juggling both.

So it goes without saying that one thing I don't like

is finding myself without access to a place to stop

or, more important and more frequent,

a place to "go".

So tonight, on my way home, I got a double whammy.

A worst case scenario if you will.

I have this new credit card (Yes. This all fits. It is all going to come together. I promise.).

If I use this new credit card at a particular gas station chain, which shall remain nameless, I get ten cents off the regular price of every litre of gas I buy for the first month. Needless to say, I have purchased fuel at no other gas station marquis but this one for the last 30 days without fail.

On this particular occasion I found myself in stop-and-go traffic and in a very precarious situation. I was half-way between my usual two gas bars with no way to know how long the journey home would take. I knew darn well I was not going to make it home without a pit-stop.

Luckily, traffic being as slow as it was allowed me to test just how smart my smart-phone is

(I never do this while driving ... as a rule)

and I quickly located another gas bar bearing the logo of choice not too far out of my way.

It still took another 15 uncomfortable minutes to get there.

I pulled in, politely and precariously fuelled up first before going to the attendant, paying for the fuel and only then asking for the location of the rest room.

"We don't have public washrooms," said the attendant who appeared to have slightly less concern for his personal appearance and hygiene that the average homeless person.

"Yikes! Now what?"

Part of me is appalled that any gas station, especially one situated just off an inter-urban expressway, would not extend the courtesy of a restroom to its customers. Another part of me was glad I didn't have to touch the same bathroom door handle this individual had in all probability made contact with repeatedly throughout the day.

Yes.

It was that bad.

Do you ever think of the perfect thing to say 5 minutes after you wish you had said it? This was one of those times. I found myself cursing under my breath clenching more than my teeth as I made my way to the next rest stop wondering if I should have commented aloud on the attendant's sloppy hygiene or at least threatened to lift my leg on the door of his booth.

He couldn't possibly have exited that claustrophobic cubicle of his

fast enough to beat my bladder to the finish line.

But my aching bladder was not my only cross to bear on that particular journey home.

It turns out that the last day I was eligible 

for the 10 cent per litre discount on gas 

was yesterday.

Washerless Faucets

OK.  So what is the deal with washerless faucets?
To start with, open one up and the first thing you will notice is that they are far from washerless.  As a matter of fact, the last one I replaced had not one, not two but three washers I was immediately able to see.  And, get this, when the sales clerk at my local big box store showed me how to disassemble it, there were two more washers, for a grand total of (are you keeping track?) five washers lurking in the innards of my washerless faucet.

Now these things are supposed to come with a lifetime guarantee.
So why is it that every time I've owned one, either by installing it myself or having it come with a property, they leak.  I would have thought that this was what they weren't supposed to do.  Apparently, the guarantee means that you will never have to pay for parts to replace a leaking washerless faucet.  Whether or not they will ever leak, for all intents and purposes, appears to be irrelevant.
Terrific.
But wouldn't you, like me, assume that a guarantee on a product means that the product will always do what it is supposed to do?  In this particular case, keep all the water on one side of it until you want it on the other side?  Sounds reasonable.  Ya think?
As it turns out, this must not be what companies that manufacture these miracle faucets were thinking when they designed their products.  Apparently, they wanted to encourage that 'feel good' sense when you go through all the frustration of knowing you paid big bucks for a fool proof faucet only to find it leaks eventually just like the cheapie you could have bought in its place.
Four or five years after building a fort of drywall and tile around this monster of a mechanism you're ranting and raving while you tug at now seized fittings to expose the complex and unrecognizable innards of your leaking technological marvel, wondering all the while if you maybe should have called in a professional.  Then you troop doggedly on down to your nearest big box store to pick up the part you think you need only to be told at the checkout that there is no charge.
"No charge?" you say.
"No charge," you are told.
"No charge," you repeat.
Of course!
There is a lifetime guarantee.
Suddenly your heart is full.
You are no longer the raving lunatic who entered the plumbing section ready for a fight.
On the contrary, you feel so wonderful as you bask in your good fortune that daisies could sprout from your ears for all to enjoy.
This is how they keep you coming back folks.
Trust me.
I've purchased and installed AND repaired virtually every make and model of these washerless beasties and its always the same story.
Oh yes.
Eventually, it's gonna leak.
But boy-oh-boy are you ever gonna feel good when you get to fix it with new parts that are all free.