Stay Saifu Out There.

As you may be aware, typhoon (Tropical Cyclone sounds like a cocktail) Vongfong , is blasting its way through Japan right now. In my area, it's been raining non-stop since 8pm yet in Tokyo, it has apparently been very LOUD.

So whether you celebrate Columbus Day, Thanksgiving Day or Sports Day (USA, Canada and Japan respectively), be sure to remain safe.

The term saifu that I used above is the Japanese term for wallet or purse, so today, here are several Jack-headed change-purses and wallets for you.

Here's a special Thanksgiving treat from KITH.



I already showed the Titan wallet I won the other day, but in case you missed it, here it is again.

As an added treat, here is a training video that the Titan battlers need to go through to remain safe against their antagonists.



Finally for lunch yesterday, I popped into KFC to see if they have any Halloween treats and this is what they provide. Just a lame-o magnet representative of their fine dining. Eh, better than nothing.

There is a secret one as well and I suspect it is the Colonel as a wizard as shown on the package. This location didn't have Harland dressed up at all but I took this photo in mid Sept. at a different location.

I'm going to pack it in now before the typhoon causes us to lose pow

Hardy Har Har.

I left work early today in order to nurse my head cold and took a three hour nap. Somewhat refreshed and in need of some cheering up, I took a gander at Mark Evanier's blog and ended up spending 2 hours watching an interview with the writers of Sid Caesar's shows. No outright chortling ensued but a few good lines and some wonderful insight. I sent that to my old writing partner, Blair from University ("Ha! Partner", he says. "I wrote 99% of our material, Michael wrote 1%!")



Then I watched a bit more of Sid such as the time when he, as the Professor, visited Big Bird.



I haven't been there in a while but I popped into see what Ken Levine had to say about Halloween. If you go to that link, he has a link to his favourite Cheers Halloween episode so I watched that too.

It brought back some fond memories so a quick peek at Letterman should suffice until I go back to bed. Alas, that wasn't nearly as funny as I'd like even though "vagina" was mentioned many times (I don't like that chick's laugh.)

So I need something amusing before I nod off. Looks like it'll have to be British or maybe Kids in the Hall. Going full-circle, did you know that they coined their name from the young comics who used to hang around outside Sid Caesar's shows hoping to sell a few of their jokes? (I've mentioned before of my childhood friendship with Scott Thompson...none of this ever occurred to me. I guess that's why he became successful and I didn't.)



There, that's better. Good night!

'Ellava Kid!

At 00:15 on 30/06/10, I became an uncle to yet another niece. Not a great-uncle to one of my current niece/nephew progeny but rather an uncle from my younger brother's loins. Apparently the grandmother of this waif is older than me but younger than my eldest bro. That puts Stephen's mother-in-common-law around 51 so I'm guessing the proud mama is about half that age. Since Stephen turns 50 in September, I guess he wanted to sow some oats before that milestone is reached. So welcome to the Jones' clan, Ella! I hope to see you in person someday.

But it's still yet another niece, so it's up to me to carry on the Jones' name with a male heir...any takers?

In other news, the KitH have started up a new series! At least I know that my old High School rival, Scott Thompson won't be rearing any kids in the near future (wait, that doesn't sound quite right.)





For no particular reason, Frankenstein...with CATS!



In honour of Canada's Southern neighbours, Independence Day, here's Frankenstein for President.

Secret Of The Spyglass!

Surprisingly, I had never taken to the main stage prior to Grade 13 in High School when we performed Secret of the Spyglass by William Pendergrast, a one-hit wonder playwright. I auditioned and won the role of Simon Cataract, an evil Squire who got to kill, kidnap and attempt to blow up Fort Henry in Kingston. It was a truly horrid melodramatic comedy with badly-punned character names, wretched writing (best line: "Don't worry Miss Daisy, your Dick will come for you!") and awkwardly contrived subplots. Needless to say, we had a musket ball with it!




The cast included several neophytes to the theatre such as, fellow bridge player and future Priest, Dianne McLean as the head Pirate, my murder victim, Barry Goodwin as Daisy's uncle and the Luscious Liz Hunt as darling Daisy with whom I fell in unrequited love both on and off stage.








We were in competition with the other Peel High Schools including future pouf and Kid in the Hall, Scott Thompson starring in The Boyfriend. (They won it, natch.) I recall the adjudicator singled out my performance as truly over the top (in a good way) and praised my improv skills by yelling out "BANG!" when the sound effects guys miscued the firing of my blunderbuss.

All in all, we had a marvelous time doing the play and it put me on the fast track to a lifetime of performance anxiety!

I don't like Wednesdays. Tell me why...

Well, another shooting incident in an educational facility, this time in Montreal. My heart goes out to the victims and their families, but this isn't the first time this has happened.

We're #1! Canada beat Columbine by several years. Way back in May 1975, Michael Slobodian, 16, kills a teacher and a student and wounds 13 others before turning the gun on himself at Centennial Secondary High School in Brampton, Ont. It just so happens that I was in Grade 11 at the time and the incident occurred at our rival High School (the one where Scott Thompson of Kids in the Hall fame attended...probably no connection). The local radio station CHIC AM, Brampton's home station blared out the news every few minutes, panicking our school by stating that though details are sketchy, the perpetrator may be heading to other schools. We all got to go home and thus catch up on our afternoon cartoons early.

My father who was a Father (Anglican Minister) had to preside over the funerals of the two victims (not the offender) and it was one of the few times I'd ever seen him choked up and at a loss for words.

I suspect these incidents will continue until they enforce stricter gun controls and stop the influx of weapons from our Southern neighbours. Either that or arm the Vice Principal.