Well, our son moved out a few months back, so we have a spare room that will take a couple of you. . . .

I'm Canadian, so with my sociaised medicine I'm obviously next-door to Communism; but really, America, when it comes to health care - WTF?

The suck fairy strikes again!

The Phantom Tollbooth is wonderful; I love it as much now as I did when my grade five teacher read it to our class over the course of a few weeks in 1974. When I spotted it in the Scholastic Books catalogue I immediately bought it, and still have that (now much-battered) paperback, which I read to my own son when he…

My dad was a member (he joined the force in 1959 as an 18-year-old; ah, simpler, more innocent times), and I've never asked him what the application/qualification/reference process was (almost non-existent, I suspect, or at best akin to what someone applying for a job at a department store might have gone through).

I really liked the first series; then I watched the first half of series two, increasingly more out of duty than anything else, and bailed after that. I still read the recaps here, more to find out where the show is going and what's happening with Kim Dickens's character than anything else, and week after week realise…

Wallace? Where I gather people get really friendly with their cousins?

Thanks! He's a pretty good kid, smart and mature. And something I like is how well-respected he was (and still is) in our very small town. He was a volunteer firefighter for 2.5 years until he moved, and did lights and sound for our theatre company's plays. People are always asking me how he's doing, and they usually…

Yeah, the people who got interviewed said the questions were pretty intense. I gather that to work for the RCMP in any capacity - civilian or member - you go through the same interview process as if you were applying to be a Mountie.

Fun fact: the first McDonald's in Canada opened in 1967, in Richmond, British Columbia (just south of Vancouver; if anyone here has flown into YVR, you've been in Richmond). It was about a mile from my house (both are still there, somewhat remarkably, given how much of what was in Richmond at the time has been torn…

My 19-year-old son applied for a position as a dispatcher for the RCMP last year, and had to undergo an extremely intense (and lengthy - six months) application process, including psychiatric evaluation, medical assessments, and numerous interviews. He also had to provide six people as references, each of whom was on…

I saw a production of Cymbeline at the Stratford (Ontario) Festival in 1986 which updated the setting to the mid-1930s, which makes sense: in the play, the child of the King of Britain wants to marry (and does indeed marry) a commoner, against the family's wishes, and Britain is on the brink of war. Future Slings and…

Where's Gary Larson when you need him?

We pronounce it 'soary'. Apparently Americans don't, and find it - odd.

Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a story called 'The New Catacomb', set in Rome, not Paris. It's well worth a read: http://www.eastoftheweb.com…

The first time I saw the Robert Wise version I was 10. My mom loved all things scary; she was reading me Poe stories when I was about seven, and the Wise version came on TV late one night, and as Dad was away (he has never liked horror/spooky films; I guess, as a cop, he saw enough horror daily) we watched it…

I wasn't sure if it was a joke or not. . . .

I think the statute of limitations on spoilers for a 29-year-old movie has expired.

Same here.

I love that scene so much. I saw the movie when it was first out in the theatre, and that reveal at the end was completely unexpected.