Thursday, December 8th...

1 - The temperature in the world of Man on Fire has plummeted in recent days due to a supposed 'cold weather system' and that wretched wind chill. This brought to mind CFL Analyst Chris Walby's fond memories of what it was like to win a Grey Cup in below zero weather. He compared a football player's heaving breathing to that of 'livestock.' Long live 'The Walby'.

2 - The Globe and Mail, The CBC, The New York Times. What do they all have in common? They all have a blatant media bias. To be fair, they're not the only news outlets with problems, and all three do have some reporters and editors who act like reporters and editors as opposed to columnists. However, when it comes to national media, separating the wheat from the chaff can be somewhat difficult and time consuming. For that reason we suggest you check out The Black Rod's Blog here. It's written by a group of people in Winnipeg who monitor Canadian media for bias. Unfortunatley, you won't find any info on the New York Times there, but if you're interested, check out www.timeswatch.org. They do a good job.

3 - The Black Rod likes to refer to the 'Peter Kent Challenge'. Kent, a former CTV and CBC news anchor who is running for the Conservatives in Ontario, challenged journalism students at the beginning of the election campaign to observe how the media treats each issue and party with a different set of rules. Here's hoping most journalism students were listening.

4 - The CFL season was over, and all nine teams were lounging around the fireplace after the Grey Cup, basking in the glow of a successful season which saw an increase in advertising revenue, attendance, and TV ratings. Then the CFL's illegitimate child, the aptly named Ottawa Renegade, gets up, grabs his licensed duck hunting rifle from the gun rack, and proceeds to shoot everyone in the foot. "Hey, what was that for?" yells CFL commissioner Tom Wright. "Oh, didn't you hear?" responds the Renegade, "we just signed a LINEBACKER to a five year, MILLION DOLLAR contract!" Then the Renegade proceeds to shoot everyone's other foot. "Hey, what are you doing?" screams Wright. The Renegade turns towards Wright and smiles, "the first two years are guaranteed, plus we gave him a signing bonus."

5 - From the 'Why the World Needs Christians who aren't Shallow' file: "Group Collects Bibles, Passes out Porn" We're wondering if those fives students are actual Christians, or if they just grabbed another persons Bible in order to exchange it for a free magazine.

6 - Witty Comeback of the Year: (Note, this comeback will be referred to as 'The Witty Comeback of the Year' until such time when it is dethroned by another, wittier, comeback, or the year ends.) Pittsburgh's Civic Center, mid-90's. The Winnipeg Jets are in Pittsburgh taking on the Penguins, when Jets defenseman, and career minor-leaguer, Dallas Eakins gets in a shoving match with Mario Lemieux. As the linesman separate the two combatants, Lemieux, hoping to get in the parting shot, shouts, "hey Dallas, how much money do you make?" Eakins replies, "same as you Mario: less than Gretzky."

7 - We are well aware that the 'Witty Comeback of the Year' is ten years old, but it's our blog, and we'll do what we want. On the brighter side, feel free to submit your own suggestions and topple the reigning champ.

8 - Today's Sign of the Apocalypse: "Bear Decides to Hibernate Under Pennsylvania Man's Porch"

Actual Quote: "This is a situation that's not uncommon in the Northeast."
State Game Commission spokesman Jerry Feaser

9 - Funny thing about the Toronto Blue Jays. The Jays go out and sign the top free agent closer in baseball (B.J. Ryan) and then find out he had a ERA of over 6 against the Yankees and Red Sox. The Blue Jays, Red Sox, and Yankees are all in the same division, fighting for the same play-off spot. Sad. (For you non-baseball types, the ERA is the average number of runs a pitcher would give up in a nine inning game. A decent ERA would be 3 or 4, while a sparkling ERA would be 1 or 2. Six is bad. Over six is really bad.)

10 - Tonight the Pittsburgh Penguins lost 5-0 to the Minnesota Wild. Five flipping nothing! The shut-out is understandable, but who gives up five goals to the Minnesota flipping Wild! Alexandre flipping Daigle scored! On the bright side, Mario Lemieux has been released from hospital after being diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat. The injury won't force him to retire, or alter his lifestyle, according to a report by the Associated Press.

11 - Why do the good people at Man on Fire get the impression that no matter what the Conservative Party of Canada does, voters will still find some way to talk themselves out of voting for them. At the beginning of the election campaign columnists everywhere were complaining about how the Tories wouldn't talk about anything but Liberal corruption. So the Tories stopped talking about corruption and started talking about policy. And where has that got them... nowhere! Now the head of one of Canada's major polling firms writes, "the shift in focus from the Advertising Scandal to issues such as daycare and healthcare seems to be playing to the Liberals favour." It gives the crew at Man on Fire the impression that Canadians don't want to be reminded of why they shouldn't vote Liberal.

12 - We talked earlier about media bias. One way to effectively eliminate bias is to read blogs on the Canadian Election written by people who aren't Canadian, don't live in Canada, and have little or no vested interest in the outcome. We present Exhibit A: "David Mader. He's a law student from Texas, and his blog is one of the more insightful pieces of work we've read. Overall though, American bloggers should be avoided because they tend to slant much more than anyone else. They make no apologies for it either. Believe it or not, Americans are actually quite concerned about this election. Think not? Read "this.

13 - Sickening fact: In their brief history, the Minnesota Wild have won five of seven meetings with the Penguins.

14 - Since we're into December, here's some cool facts about Christmas:

1) The real St. Nicholas was born in Turkey around 300 AD. His feast day is in early December, on the day of his death.
2) Charles Dickens wrote several other Christmas novels after he wrote 'A Christmas Carol'. None were anywhere near as popular as his first one.
3) Dickens experimented with several names for Bob Kratchet's son, setteling on Tiny Tim after casting aside Little Larry, Puny Pete and Small Sam.
4) Christmas Trees are edible. (The needles are a good source of vitamin C.)
5) In 1647, English Puritan leaders passed laws banning the celebration of Christmas. The ban was lifted when the Puritans lost power in 1660.

M.O.F.