We normally take our bottles and cans to Sarcan after we've managed to fill a few bags. The other day the doorbell rang and when I opened it there was a young Scout standing there resplendent in uniform along with his dad collecting, you guessed it, bottles and cans. So, I opened up the garage and gave them what I had...

I read an article the other day that took my mind back. It had to do with Quebec and the separatist Parti Quebecois. Yes, it's still around hoping to someday regain power in La Belle province so it can get back to work convincing Quebecers to split from Canada. In the 2022 provincial election the PQ suffered its wor...

April 22nd, Earth Day, is an annual event to demonstrate support for environmental protection. This year's theme is "Planet versus Plastics". Earth Day was first held in 1970, 54 years ago. The theme that first year was "Give Earth A Chance". Here we are more than 5 decades later and what are...

Our friendly neighbourhood golf courses are getting ready for another season of g,o,l,f which stands for growing old and living fine, or whatever words you can attach to the letters that make any sense. Golf is after all a four- letter word. I take comfort knowing there must be thousands of people who are worse golfer...

How many of us have personal household budgets that we faithfully stick to? How many governments have budgets that they faithfully stick to (cue the laugh track). By provincial decree, Saskatoon is not allowed to run a deficit. The province doesn't apply the same rule to itself, however. And the federal government ...

Coffeetalk, Monday April 15.....2002. You heard me right. April 15 22 years ago today was also a Monday. I talked about computer terminology which held a different meaning for baby boomers and beyond. For example, take mouse, which is a four-legged rodent, and a mouse pad is where the mouse lived. A byte was what ...

In 1987 there was a proposed class of 10 nuclear powered attack submarines to be built for the Canadian Navy. However, the announcement triggered so much criticism.....did I hear politics?..... that the project was cancelled before it could get off the ground. Our navy did have 3 diesel-electric subs that had become...

It was 20 years ago this month, April 2004 the Saskatoon South Downtown Concept Plan held public meetings. Public input forms were also available at city leisure centres, City Hall, Meewasin Valley Authority, and the three Business Improvement Districts, plus the City developed a web page allowing citizens to review t...

When it comes to the "Carbon Tax", it's difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to what we are told by the federal government versus what is said by some provincial governments. Canada has an Emissions Reduction Plan whose target is to be 40% below 2005 emissions levels by 2030 and net-...

When will Saskatoon have a Ring Road like the other four major Prairie cities, Regina, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg? A better question might be WILL Saskatoon ever have a Ring Road? Edmonton's ring road was completed and opened to traffic in 2016. The final segment of Calgary's ring road opened to traffic last D...

Last Wednesday I started Coffeetalk by saying, "We may soon live in a world where it is hard to tell whether the person speaking to us in a video is real or generated by a computer program". It seems every time I peek at the latest news I see some new innovation in Artificial Intelligence. Open AI is now to...

Exactly 20 years ago today Coffeetalk was about April Fools Day. I said its history isn't entirely clear. You can't pinpoint the first April Fools Day on a calendar. The beginning of the tradition may have been the year 1582 in France. Prior to that year the New Year was celebrated for eight days ending on April 1. ...

February was Black History Month, during which people across the country participated in events and festivities that honour the legacy of Black people in Canada and their communities. There were a number of Afro-centric events in Saskatoon including an African and Urban Fashion Show at the Remai Art Gallery that I had...

I saw this headline, "Canada slips to 15th place in annual World Happiness Report". Well, if that didn't just make me want to crawl under the covers and hibernate till June. Only the 15th happiest country on the planet? Parliament should take a break from fighting over the carbon tax to look into this im...

I've said before that I am something of a newshound. I like to keep up on what is going on in my city, province, country and elsewhere in the world. As if the war in Ukraine isn't bad enough, the stories coming out of Gaza in the Middle East night after night on both our Canadian and American TV newscasts is heart w...