Zagat’s recent paean to the Burger Priest, where my kids and I generally go at least once a week, has prompted me to reflect on the gestalt of burger joints.

I am a greasy spoon aficionado.  I do not like fancy restaurants.  They are overpriced, pretentious, and the food often isn’t very good at all. The places I love are little holes-in-the-proverbial, like Shogun in Vancouver, Michael’s Pizza in Calgary, the Wagon Wheel in Winnipeg, Villa du Souvlaki in Montreal and, in Toronto, the Patrician Grill and the Burger Priest.  They’re all family-run operations, they’re well-priced, they make great food, and they treat you nicely.

All of the hype around the Burger Priest worries me.  For starters, I do not want to have to deal with yet more people jamming into the place, which (literally) has less standing room than the back of your average flatbed truck.  I think, too, it will only exacerbate what many Beachers know to be the problems it already has: huge lineups, crap all over the sidewalk on Queen Street East, and nearby businesses (who are also mainly good folks) having to contend with obnoxious Burger Priest patrons.

This guy is doing well, which is great.  So he should take the dough he makes – and, believe me, he makes plenty – and invest in a bigger friggin’ place, with more seating, some parking and a staff person who periodically cleans up out front.

That’s my expert burger dive review.  I will now go back to what I do well, which is, er, not much.

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I’m a dog guy, but even I thought this was the coolest web interactive ever.

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Sun News Network has developed a commercial to promote my appearances. I’m not sure why they did this, but they did. When I showed it to my daughter, she burst out laughing. “Dad, you are such a goof,” said she.

That hurt, deeply. But not as much being regularly called a “bad boy” when you are an old fart who is 51.

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TO: 75 per cent of the Liberal delegates

FROM: Stupid blogger

RE: Your decision

MEMO: Just a few questions.

One, still think it was a good idea to open the party up to special interest takeovers? Starting to see what the leadership selection process is going to look like?

Two, if the anti-choice guy wins, will you now join me in urging everyone in Toronto-Danforth to vote for the NDP candidate?

Three, still think ‘change for change’s sake’ is a good idea?

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After an otherwise sober discussion, I note that this facility closely resembles our accommodations at Carleton U’s residence.

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My apologies for my error (which, I say in my defence, many other writers have made).  I’ve notified my editor.

Dear Warren:

I read your recent piece with interest. Just for information, the World Economic Forum is a not for profit foundation and Professor Schwab is not a billionaire, indeed his salary is below that of Switzerland’s best paid civil servant.

Kind regards,

Adrian Monck

Adrian Monck
Managing Director
World Economic Forum
91-93, Rte de la Capite
CH-1223 Cologny/Geneva

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I’ve dodged this subject on this web site for many years.  Here’s why.

If someone killed someone I love, I’d want to kill them with my bare hands.  If someone kills a child, with malice aforethought, I’d want to see them receive the same treatment. That’s the emotional reality, I guess.

Here’s the non-emotional reality, in the form of a short tale.  In my first year of law school in Calgary, in Criminal Law, our wonderful prof, Chris Levy, asked us who favoured the death penalty.  Most of the hands in the classroom went up.  Being a Democrat of long-standing, I – like Bill Clinton, like Barack Obama – put my hand up for that one, too.

Here’s what Prof. Levy said next:  “I will ask you again in your final year.”

And he did.  In 1987, after three years of trying to learn the law – and, in my case, I had spent a lot of time on the study of criminal law – Prof. Levy asked again for a show of hands.  “Who favours the death penalty, now?”

And not a single hand went up.

What you learn in law school, more than anything else, is how completely flawed our system is.  You learn that it is in need of continual improvement, and that it fundamentally flawed, much like the human beings who created it.

Reason over passion, Trudeau said.  It’s not the world we live in, but it’s the world we should aspire to, I think.

There, I’ve come clean.  Now, what do you think?

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Don’t use loons as your main source.

You’re welcome.

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Viscount Simpson has popped down to the colonies, to warn us to amend the error of our ways! How good of one of our betters to notice us, however briefly!

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Oh, look.

Another file in which Furious George is involved. Another file that has devolved into farce, or worse.

Oh, look.

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