1 Shirtless Ron MacLean?: Circulating this week is one of the more random photos ever: A shirtless Hockey Night in Canada host Ron MacLean is seen in a bar, wearing white pants and air-guitaring while holding a beer. Now people are split as to whether this photo was Photoshopped or not. Let’s see Don Cherry’s shirtless beer-air-guitar moves!
2 Rathika Sitsabaiesan cleavage: Still with Photoshop, Ontario NDP MP Rathika Sitsabaiesan attracted international attention this week when it was revealed on the website Contrarian.ca that her (by no means risqué amount of) cleavage was Photoshopped out of an image that appears on her page on the Parliament of Canada website. Wow, talk about political correctness.
3 BC Place reno: The $563-million reno’ed retractable BC Place stadium in Vancouver is by all accounts stupendous, right down to the transparent facade that runs the circumference of the stadium and allows spectators to take in mountain vistas. It opens Friday when the B.C. Lions take on the Edmonton Eskimos.
4 The Leap: Calgary’s Chris Turner, author of the 2007 national bestseller The Geography of Hope, has a new book out this week. It’s called The Leap: How to Survive and Thrive in the Sustainable Economy. It covers German green energy, Danish urban design genius, Toledo solar panels and so much more.
5 The Onion in T.O.: The brilliant news parody empire that reports wryly hilarious fake news now has a local edition in Toronto, where it’s available free in newspaper boxes starting this week. Nothing in this item was made up.
6 YouTube TV shows: YouTube really is vying to be your new TV set. Word is the video giant is finalizing contracts with a bunch of “channels” to feature regularly scheduled programs on themes like sports, entertainment and fashion by 2012.My grandchildren someday will be like, “What’s that flatscreen in your mancave for, grandpa?”
7 Queen: Queen’s Roger Taylor is creating a live touring show to begin next year that will pay tribute to the band. He’s launched a talent search to find people to star in the show. One of the audition tapes makes it seem as if Freddie Mercury has risen from the grave.
8 Emotional bag check: If you’re looking for somewhere to unload your emotions, a new site called EmotionalBagCheck.com might come to your emotional rescue. You can vent there, and some kind stranger will suggest a pick-me-up song in reply so as to get you going again. And everything will be all right. Well, for five minutes at least — the time it takes to play, say, Coldplay’s Fix You(it’s the No. 3 recommended song).
9 Message in a Bottle: Since 1996, P.E.I.’s Harold Hackett has sent out more than 4,800 messages in a bottle. Dude’s hobby has an amazing batting average, as he’s received more than 3,100 responses from all over the world. So if your Internet’s ever down and you’re jonesing for social media, just go old school and use this method of reaching out.
