[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="324"] From ‘The Red Tree’ by Shaun Tan[/caption] Have you ever played Hearts? It’s a card game. For our purposes, the important part is this: every card in the heart suit is worth points, and (just like golf) players want to avoid those points. I played a lot of Hearts as a […]
Don’t Be Those Jerks
By Rachelle Stein-Wotten This week in rape news: Some fine men in Edmonton decided to fight back against all those terrible women who lie about being raped, and take back the innocence and purity of the one night stand. The group Men’s Rights Edmonton plastered posters around the University of Alberta campus in retaliation for […]
It’s a stag, not an orgy
by Jodi A. Shaw William and Kate this, Royal Wedding that. Kate Middleton had a Dirty Dancing themed stagette, while Prince William’s bachelor party is rumoured to have had a water theme: speed boats and wakeboarding and a boat-borne pub crawl. Sounds like fun. But while I doubt Will spent a lot of time worrying […]
The guy’s job
By David Bitonti This morning, as I completed picking up after my Boston Terrier in the back yard, I looked down at my plastic-wrapped hand and thought, “Why am I doing this?” I only had to remember the conversation — more like protest — with my wife the last time pooper-scooping came up to know […]
Imaginary friend time
By Chris Bowman I was driving with my friend the other day to get his tuxedo fitted for his wedding. Naturally, we were talking about all his old girlfriends. He told me he’d done some online dating. A couple years ago he made a profile on plentyoffish.com to see what he could snag, which surprised […]
Manly moustaches v. lego beards
By Chris Bowman I’m doing some research right now which includes a lot of pictures from the 1870s and 1880s. Times were tough in old Canada back then; you had to be pretty rugged if you weren’t some city slicker from Ottawa. She’s an unforgiving country, though fair if you’re willing to work for her […]
Old spice, new approach
By Jodi A. Shaw Either the media gods have been listening to my pleas or there’s a refreshing new trend in advertising these days. Over the last few months, TV commercials have not only been advertising products and services, but have been encouraging something a little more surprising: gender equality. Amazing! I first noticed it […]
Telling me I’m more vulnerable makes me so
By Jodi A. Shaw Today, for the first time in my life, I was concerned for my safety based on my gender. Working in a northwest Calgary neighbourhood, I was informed by a resident that a “perv” had reached inside a woman’s bedroom window (in a house just down the street) and fondled her breasts […]
Alone on Valentine’s day? Boo-frigging-hoo.
By Jodi A. Shaw Most romantic holiday of the year, hey? Valentine’s Day is more like the Paris Hilton of holidays: It’s there, we all observe it, and aside from the potential for an anti-climactic sex tape, it’s pretty much useless. I’m not anti-love, romance or grand gesture. I’m a sucker for all the unrealistic […]
Loonacy
Bev Schellenberg A few weeks ago, I helped an elderly woman at a public lavatory. Her distinguished male companion helped her through the main door but then stood awkwardly, carefully remaining on the outside of the women’s bathroom. I asked him quietly if I might be of assistance, and he agreed. His female partner, her […]
