But… we’ve all been there, haven’t we?  How many of you have been simply sick and tired of the bullshit and bottled it up, pushed it down, or drank it away?  “Take This Job and Shove It”, “Working for the Weekend”, “We’re Not Gonna Take It”… these and many more songs had become anthems for the average schmo longing to get off the dreadmill (<== intentional typo), speak our minds, and set the world straight.  Steven Slater did what many fantasize about doing.  He didn’t snap and climb a water tower with a rifle.  He delivered a pointed EffYou to the self-centered sumbitch that disrespected him and everyone around him because the world revolves around his whims.

In any event… Steven Slater.  Here’s your song:  (Warning… contains explicit support for Steven’s behaviour and even more explicit language in support of Steven’s behaviour.)

From CBC.ca:

“According to the New York Times, one of the 100 or so passengers on board stood up to retrieve baggage from the overhead compartment before the plane had reached a complete stop and did not heed Slater’s request to remain seated.

Slater, a career flight attendant, then approached the passenger, who continued to pull the baggage from the compartment, striking Slater on the head with it in the process.

When the passenger refused to apologize, the paper reported, Slater unleashed a string of expletives via the public-address system, deployed the inflatable evacuation chute, grabbed a beer from the beverage cart, yelled "It’s been great!" and slid down and went to his car.”

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/08/10/us-jet-blue-flight-attendant.html

Anyhooo… at the end of her article, she posts a sampling of those blogs and OhMeNerves.com ended up on that list.  I’d like to think that this wasn’t just a random sampling of the most recently updated blogs.  I prefer to think that Ms. Breen spent hours/days/weeks perusing the interwebs in search of the most interesting, well-written weblogs that will most effectively decorate and punctuate her very well written article.

That’s it.  Just trying to point you to an online presence that will point you right back to this online presence.  Try not to get dizzy.

“A Labrador City teenager who taught herself how to play the ukulele has won an international prize with a song about her hometown she recorded in her bedroom closet.

Kelsey Butt, 18, picked up the ukulele for the first time last December.

She did that after she saw a website announcing a Washington State ukulele maker was holding a songwriting competition called the Mya-Moe Ukulele contest. The top prize was a top-end ukulele worth $1,500.”

Well, a couple of months ago there was some major flooding in Warwick, Rhode Island.  I can tell some of you are already piecing it together now.  I was in Rhode Island the week before those floods.  Yes… you guessed it.  I ate at several restaurants and two of those restaurants, On The Border in Warwick and Chelo’s in the Warwick Mall, were destroyed in the floods! 

Here’s a vid of the flood ravaging the Warwick Mall.

Uhm… so… Jungle Jim’s and Maverick’s Restaurants in Moncton… I’ve enjoyed your food this past week.  I hope the curse is broken.

The fossilized trails, each about 17 centimetres in length, are about 565 million years old.

In the meantime across the continent, Arnold Schwarzenegger is still hopeful he can beat both records.

In honour of him, or more honestly an excuse to push a post up on my blog, I’ll share with you a quote from a very funny Canadian, Stewart Francis.

Goodbye Walter, and thanks Stewart!

From the Weather Canada website this morning:

Warnings

St. John’s and vicinity
8:41 AM NST Friday 05 February 2010
Blizzard warning for
St. John’s and vicinity continued

An intense low pressure system east of the Grand Banks will spread strong northerly winds and snow to most of Newfoundland today and tonight giving blizzard conditions. This is a warning that blizzard conditions with near-zero visibilities are expected in these regions. Monitor weather conditions..Listen for updated statements. Snow at times heavy and blowing snow presently over the Avalon will move westward today and tonight. Total snowfall amounts between 35 and 45 centimetres are forecast for the Northern Avalon Peninsula and east coast. 15 to 25 centimetres can be expected for the Southern Avalon and Burin peninsulas with lesser amounts expected over the remainder of the island. As well strong northerly winds gusting up to 90 km/h are forecast for Eastern Newfoundland and combined with the fresh snow will give blowing snow and blizzard conditions.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Last Tuesday, my wife and I had dinner at Le Château à Pape with the city manager, Jacques Dube, and his wife, Nancy. We don’t regularly rub elbows with the city’s senior staff members, but my wife bought some tickets at work in support for charity and won the top prize. They were charming, down-to-earth people and the food was great. We had a genuinely nice time. In the days leading up to our night out, we got increasingly anxious about what the heck we would talk about. I mean, this was the city manager and his wife, both of whom we had never met, and we were about to sit in a fancy restaurant with them for 3+ hours. While I resisted the urge to start the conversation with “So… how about them roads?”, at one point I did make a comment which, in retrospect, seems a little eerie. Mr. Dube had removed a lamp from the centre of the table and placed in on the floor. It was tall and was blocking the view for each of us looking directly across at each other. As he went to lay it on the floor, he realized that it wasn’t an electrical appliance, it was a lit candle. I made a joke something like, “Ha! That was close! This building has been here for more than a hundred years and one dinner with the city manager and the place burns to the ground.” Hardy-har-har!

Little did we know that three evenings later…