nonamedufus

Da Old Man of Crochety Old Man Yells at Cars , our blogging buddy and mentor over at Humor Bloggers Dot Com , continues to soldier on. Three and-a-half weeks ago DOM was rushed to the hospital with kidney failure. Since then there have been some complications. How do we know all this? Because DOM, trooper that he is, continued to blog about his predicament, beginning as he waited for the ambulance to arrive, through his dialysis, his staph infection, wrongly prescribed meds and mini stroke. And having had to endure all this, you know what his big complaint is? He can't get an internet connection in the hospital! So he's been dictating his posts to his charming wife, Mrs C and she's been posting his hospital humour. Together the two of them have put a new spin on that Reader's Digest maxim: laughter is the best medicine. DOM aka Crochety aka Joe is also a Yankees fan, so I wanted to get his blood boiling by letting him know this woman was a Mets Fan. And I wanted to sen...

In my youth I was an observant child, more so than most perhaps. To the point of aggravation to my parents, I'd often demand "why?" several times over in an effort to understand why (oops, there I go again) things were the way they were. My 3 year old grandson has the same affliction and I guess I know where he gets it from. Many of those childhood memory "snapshots" have stayed with me over the years, being poked loose from time to time from the recesses of my cranium by current day occurrences. One such incident made me hearken back just the other day, forcing me to ask myself "why?". Actually, at middle-age the phrase is another interrogative that starts with a "w": wtf? I was doing the weekly grocery shopping and was zipping up and down the aisles, making good time, when I and my basket came to a screeching halt. As I turned the last corner and headed for the front of the store and the cashiers I encountered the apocalypse. People and the...

You know, there's some weird, wacky and wonderful things going on around us. Sit back, relax, and let's see if I can provide you with an overview of stuff so odd you probably think I'm making it up. But noooo, Mr and Mrs Newshound, this stuff's for real. Last week Canada's media - and the Catholic Church establishment - was aghast that the Prime Minister, a protestant, attending the funeral mass for former Governor General Romeo LeBlanc, appeared to pocket his communion wafer . This story had legs for about a week until the PM dismissed the story as the lowest of the low in journalism in a news conference at Italy's G8. Too bad. It had all the makings of the next Dan Brown blockbuster. The madness that is MJ refuses to quit. In a story titled " Jacko in the Box " The New York Post reported last week that while the Jackson family dithers over Michael's final resting place his body is temporarily parked in Motown record mogul Berry Gordy's crypt...

Michael Jackson's death and funeral and the saturation of media coverage caught the imagination of editorial cartoonists last week. As did Sarah Palin's resignation and Billy Mays' passing into pitchman's heaven. Speaking of heaven, Prime Minister Harper may or may not get there. One cartoonist thinks he has all the bases covered and that a communion wafer may not be the only thing he stuck in his pocket...

Earlier in the week I promised to share with you how I prepared breakfast on our fishing trip. I've kept my promise. Keep in mind: it's a guy thing. If cholesterol be the food of love, stick a fork in me, turn me over and call me Eros. This high caloric, cholesterol-laden concoction is swimming in fat, grease and guilt but, nom nom nom, it is sooo good. Nonamedufus' Specials have become a yearly tradition with me and my fishin’ buddies. Each June 3 or 4 of us traipse into the wilds of the “near North” of Ontario to Lake Temagami once bass season opens. We tell our wives we’re roughin’ it and we kick back at a place called Loon Lodge and watch satellite TV, drink beer, eat huge Lodge-prepared dinners, enjoy the sun and swat at the odd black fly. Oh, yeah, sometimes we actually fish. Provisions for our fishing folly are procured ahead of time at the grocery, liquor and beer stores in North Bay about an hour away from Lake Temagami. The local economy (particularly the beer sto...

The haunting hoopla accorded a certain middle-aged pop star's death recently disturbed me. And it disturbed me on several levels. In terms of a frenzied media it was O.J. on the Los Angeles freeway all over again. Coverage to the point of saturation. Speculation to the point of inanity. Meanwhile, the level of devotion, adoration and idolization amazed me. Thousands were interviewed, millions from his music back-catalogue were sold and BILLIONS tuned in around the world to his memorial. An emotional outpouring on such a level is virtually unprecedented . Who else could have garnered such attention? We can think back to Lady Di's funeral but apart from that nothing comes close. It's odd who we choose to idolize. Why Wacko Jacko ? Why don't we place all our devotional powers in traditional religions and their deities ? Well for Catholics, at least, lapsed and the few remaining, Pope Benny isn't exactly a charismatic figure. Why don't we worship our politicians? He...

For about 8 years now several of us have been hitting Lake Temagami in northern Ontario for a week of fishing in late June/early July as soon as bass season opens. The characters change a bit from year to year: another friend, a brother or two but the two mainstays have been me and my buddy Pierre. Some years we catch a ton of fish and others very few. But at the end of the day the beer's always cold and they have to carry you away from the dinner table 'cause the home-cooked meals at the lodge are to die for. Temagami is about an hour north of North Bay and for us about 6 hours from Ottawa. The first year I ventured forth I didn't know a bass from my ass, had to get Pierre to worm my hook and if I caught a fish, forget it, someone else had to take it off the hook! And clean it? Yeah, good luck with that. I've come a long way since then. I can bait my hook - using rubber worms. I call it the prophylactic approach to fishing. Don't laugh, you'd be surprised at ho...

Well I'm back from a week on the lake; eight days without access to the internet, my Blackberry, Twitter or my blog. We caught and ate plenty of fish - trout, bass, pickeral and pike. But imagine my surprise upon my return yesterday when I discovered that the posts I had set to post automatically - didn't. My apologies dear reader. While the posts are dated as intended I only just posted them manually, yesterday. So, anything since June 28th is a week later than intended. Sometimes technology sucks. There was one thing upon my return that made me very happy. I've won another award while I was away! But what's so special about this award? Well, while the others were for captioning pictures on fellow bloggers sites, this award was given to me on the merits of MY site. Yep, my good blogging buddy, fellow rocknroller and zombie devotee Quirky over at Musings of a Quirkyloon awarded me the creatively-named "I Heart Your Blog" award! Thanks for the blog love, Quir...

What's going on at drive-thrus? You know, those time-saving devices where you can get fast food faster? Nothing says good food like an exhaust fume-laden cheese burger. Yum. Yum. But I digress. A couple of weeks ago the case of a Nova Scotia wheel chair-bound man getting barred from Tim Horton's made the news. He made the news because he was barred from the drive-thru. Now to my mind, a guy on a motorized scooter and a drive-thru is a marriage made in heaven. What a great idea this guy had. Instead of struggling up steps or a ramp, through a pair of doors, down a narrow isle and at great risk of backing into other patrons to get his "double-double" the guy decided to go through the drive-thru. Not so fast physically disabled guy, said Tim Horton's, if you want that double-double you've gotta come in and get it. He's threatening to go to the Human Rights Commission over this and I say "You go, guy!" Meanwhile, last week, at the other end of the co...

Welcome back to the second day of our tour of the capital of Canada, Ottawa. I've lived here for well over 40 years, so I know many of the highlights (and lowlifes) of both Ottawa and Gatineau . For example, when I was much younger I would cross the border to haunt some of the late night bars with other lowlifes on the Quebec side of the border in what, prior to amalgamation , was once known as Hull. Then they razed the bars and built office towers in which I worked in as an adult! Such is progress. For both the landscape and me! HIGHLIGHTS The Ottawa region is truly one of the most beautiful places on earth. The canal, bike paths and greenbelt (a ring of undeveloped land around the city) add to the natural majesty of the region. Museums, art galleries, world-class restaurants, an NHL team, the National Arts Center and blues, jazz and folk festivals provide just some of the options for entertainment. In the region, there’s something for every season. In the spring it’s a magnifice...

Welcome to the latest stop on the Humor Bloggers Dot Com virtual road trip. It’s been a long haul getting here, beginning almost a month ago in the city we Canadians all love to hate – Toronto. Or, as the locals there say “Trawnta”. Check out the right-hand column over there to see where the tour has traveled thus far. and then, sit back, put your feet up. And for the next little while enjoy the sights associated with the jewel of our nation, its capital. The National Capital Region includes Ottawa, Ontario - Canada’s capital - and neighbouring Gatineau on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River. I live in western Gatineau in a community known as Aylmer, a stone’s throw from Parliament Hill, the seat of government. They call it the seat of government after the asses that run our country. And as for throwing stones, I’ve tried but the rocks I heave always fall short. But I digress. Aylmer is a microcosm of our nation where Francophones (60%) and Anglophones (40%) live in peace and harmony...

*Note: Due to a technical glitch this post should have posted June 28th. Sorry for the inconvenience. In a bit of a departure, this week Sunday Funnies takes a look at how the editorial cartoonists, over the years, treated the self-proclaimed King of Pop, Michael Jackson. Here's a bit of a different retrospective of Jackson, who died Thursday at the age of 50.