three things to get excited about

1. Rick Mercer, baby. You know, talking to Americans? He tricked George W. into calling Chretien "Crouton"? And Monday Night Report, which CBC then moved to Tuesday? Well, he had a blog, and it used to be at blogspot, but then he moved it to a glorified CBC site here. Suddenly it was less about rants, and more about photo challenges, which were actually really irritating for those of us not obsessed with photoshop or similar software. How many times can you look at a spoofed pic of Paul Martin giddily clapping his hands in women's clothing before the whole exercise is just boring? ANYWAY, for most people, the best of Rick Mercer is in his rants. This weekend the Globe excerpted parts of his new book which is -- surprise, surprise -- all rants, all the time!
2. Parity! Okay, so I'm actually not that excited about parity with the American dollar.... this is going to sound surprisingly right-wing, I know, but aside from all the rah-rah our-dollar's-as-big-as-yours stuff, this isn't technically good for the economy. But you don't need a woman who pulled woeful grades in Econ 100 to tell you about that. Let's talk about books.... This in from today's Journal: "(Audrey's Books co-owner Steve) Budnarchuk was quick to point out the store can't start selling all its inventory at American prices.... "Be aware that we buy in Canadian dollars from Canadian sources based on the Canadian price, not the American price." Some publishing companies have started pasting lower sticker prices on books distributed north of the border, but prices can't change overnight, said Budnarchuk. He expects customers will start to see charges dip on the winter price lists in December and January."
3. Sir John A. Macdonald. What? You can't name all the prime ministers since Confederation, forwards and backwards? What kind of Canadian are you? (Oh, right. Not a geeky one. Makes sense. And technically I can't name them all. There were four in five years between John A's second round and Sir Wilfrid Laurier's first who were all old and Tory. One of them served for even less time than Joe Clark, and I'm fairly certain one died in office. Their names all sound the same Britishy-Scottishy and I can't for the life of me remember who they were. I hope you, dear reader, are not their great-great-grandchild, because I would hate to offend you.) Getting back on track.... (eh? a little CPR joke for you there).... a new faction book all about him is coming out soon. I love fictionalized biographies. They are so much more fun than the truth....

*How'd I dig up Tupper's name, you ask? No, no, no use of Wikipedia here. I used one of my all-time favourite Canadian history books. Yes, I have favourite Canadian history books. Whatever.

The author, Gordon Donaldson, hilariously titles the fourth chapter of his book -- detailing the short-lived reigns of Sir John Abbott (1891-1892), Sir John Thompson (1892-1894), Sir Mackenzie Bowell (1894-1896) and Sir Charles Tupper (1896) -- "The Pall Bearers."