I was wondering about that too. Young people develop strange crushes and all, but the political crushes of budding politicians, or would-be politicians, must be about the strangest.

I know what you mean (about the space suits, that is. Though as it proved, and rather to my dismay at the time, the boners were no-one else’s ... well, let’s say concern, either, not until I’d left high school for college).

Well in fairness, that party was maybe six guys and a geriatric dog — which was probably the brains of the operation. Across the Rockies, meanwhile, a few British Columbians over the years have signed on to that “Cascadia” nonsense, an “idea” ballyhooed by the Discovery Institute of Seattle, Wash. Now the Discovery…

If Rule 34 is “if you can think of it, there’s porn of it,” then a logical corollary, Rule 34a, is “no matter how innocent or innocuous it seems, it’s porn to someone”.

Rural Alberta is time-warped in some respects; plain bizarre in others, for my money. To give you an idea, it tends to to sprout political fungi like the Separation Party of Alberta. Their manifesto, ten or fifteen years ago, held that after achieving independence, Alberta — a landlocked province, mark you — should…

If the goal is to “fight terrorism,” I’m OK with zero extra for the the military. No-one’s ever explained to my satisfaction what military spending has to to with either preventing, or responding to, terrorist attacks.

Alas, I’m a bad Canadian, in some respects. Some of the donuts are OK: not so keen on the coffee. (But the real disgrace? I’m not — any longer — a hockey fan).

Prince was great, and no mistake. I had to google “hotdish,” but it certainly rang a bell (in case it was unclear, I’m actually from Canadia, specifically Ontariario, not Minnesota, so I’m not technically part of the “y’all” of whom you speak. I’d responded to someone welcoming Canadian overlords with an approximate…

True enough, alas. Of course, Trump’s only likely to get more unhappy with time, as investigations grind on, legislation goes nowhere, and his popularity keeps eroding. So maybe the best we can hope for is that he forgets all about us.

Like that Slate article said about Al Franken, and Minnesotans in general (hono[u]rary Canadians, as everyone knows): we know how to weaponize niceness. (Personally, I’d rather learn to monetize it, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen).

Maybe. Didn’t stop him phoning the Don, the day after that impulsive, ill-thought-out, basically illegal and certainly dumbass missile strike on Syria, to assure him that Canada supported it. Sure. It recalled that yappy little beta-dog in the old Warner Bros. cartoon, trying to ingratiate himself with the…

A quibble: moose, I’m pretty sure, love swamps. But it still works, because humans in their folly have made a practice of draining swamps, so the moose will still wage a vengeful war. Seeking refuge, the remaining humans will cluster in — as it emerges — a particular swamp that all moosekind holds sacred, until...

It’s Morning In America Again, and Also Do-Over Time?

Geology. Those Mole People need any mountains climbed, to see what’s up there, I’m their man. Tough job but I’m prepared for such privations.

I was mostly riffing on Terry Pratchett’s account of dwarf psychology. Being miners, their leader (really a sort of chief engineer, but never mind) is the Low King. To a dwarf who’s moved to a city, a penthouse apartment is the worst slum they can imagine. Dwarfs who strike it rich there, and choose not to move back…

Thanks. But it may not be so bad, after all. I suspect that the more they try to oppress us -- try to crush us under their tiny, but disproportionately large forepaws — the more they’ll order us to climb trees, hills and eventually mountains. To them, such heights, with their exposure to sun, wind and predators, are…

“From Hell’s heart, I stab at thee!”

I for one welcome our new mole... uh, underlords.

We don’t want him to visit Canada either, though our PM is likely too spineless to say so.

I’m a struggling amateur myself, but luckily found an instructor with much the same view as yours. (If I plotted my progress, the line would have a barely perceptible upward slope, but my ignorance — my awareness of how much I don’t know — increases exponentially. So I’m a frequently-discouraged struggling amateur).