CROWD 3

Passport, Password, Pass By

I view our vaccination certificates the way I do my computer password. It’s the key to an infinitely magical kingdom. With one I can get on my e-mail; with the other I can have dinner out with friends. Since convenience has always trumped values when it comes to privacy, health and welfare, I still don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t get their vaccine with its dizzying array of social benefits. It’s too bad only 97.5% of Torontonians agree.

But I digress…Here’s this weekend’s Omnium-Gatherum.

1. “We can’t wait for our universities to fix themselves. So we’re starting a new one.” Some of the world’s top academics have had enough with Woke culture and universities that fail to defend “the right to think the unthinkable, discuss the unmentionable, and challenge the unchallengeable.”

2. Ain’t no ocean high enough. If you’ve ever wondered how deep the oceans really are, here’s the infographic to set your curiosity straight. Hint: much deeper than the 29,031.7 feet Mt. Everest is high.

3. The latest Harari. Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari, who’s sold over 20 million copies of Sapiens, believes this simple story can save the planet.

4. The world’s best commercials. Here are three of them, for Audi, for a British bank, and for the disabled.

5. How to deal with an evasive witness. A lawyers’ guide to extracting information from obstructive witnesses. At 12,000+ words, it’s a treasure trove for your fantasies on how to finally and magnificently nail the sucker.

6. What are our tennis players and classical artists drinking? Just as Canadian tennis players have oddly (it’s cold here!) and suddenly become world champions, so too are our young classical musicians storming the concert halls of the world. Last month, Montreal’s Bruce Liu became the first Canadian to win the world’s most prestigious piano competition, the Chopin Prize in Warsaw. Then Toronto mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo released her first album with the prestigious recording label, Deutsche Grammophon. And let’s not forget that grizzled veteran at the age of 26, the pianist phenom Jan Lisiecki, who still lives with his parents in Calgary.

7. Do you need another dictionary? These aren’t just sad times; they’re uniquely sad times. So if you just can’t find the exact right words to describe your dolorousness right now, why not get The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows? You’ll find wonderful words like “aftersome” and “ringlorn” and “agnosthesia.”

8. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. And what more politically incorrect way to acknowledge it than with Britain’s Menkind Christmas Catalogue?

9. Wild women swimmers. Margaret Mead was right: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.” Or at least their part of the world. Here’s a bracing example of that.

10. Lest we forget. Here are three wonderful Remembrance Day vignettes – from Britain, the US and Canada.

11. Bookmark this music nostalgia database. Pick any year and listen to your favourite song.

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To order a copy of my book Love or Die Tryingclick here for Canadian orders, click here for US orders, or visit your favourite bookstore.

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