On an overall gloomy day in Saskatchewan, when lawyers were in court getting the $50,000 interim payments approved for families of the Humboldt Broncos‘ crash victims, I notice audio has been posted of the Broncos’ last game before the collision. The audio is from the April 4 playoff game with the Broncos hosting the Nipawin…
Wildfire smoke update: the bad air is back
(Pictured: smoky downtown North Battleford SK.) Well, here we are at midweek and I can tell you, the smoky air is back. All that wildfire smoke from BC (now under a state of emergency) and Alberta has infiltrated Saskatchewan and has smoked us right out. To be quite honest with you, this is getting depressing….
Lots of bad news from Genoa, London, Fredericton etc.
This week’s edition of Bad News Roundup has lots of bad news to tell you about today: Today, a motorway collapsed in Genoa, Italy and the latest report is that it has killed 35 people. Also, a vehicle ran into people in London outside Parliament in what is described as a terrorist attack. People in…
North America is fed up with getting smoked out by wildfires
Today, I am finally getting around to ranting about wildfires. This has been a particularly tough week of suffering for yours truly. All the smoke from fires that have been blazing in BC and Alberta made its way to my area and choked us all out (cough, cough). While this was going on, we were…
Tiger Woods finishes two back at PGA Championship; no one cares who won
All of Twitter today was abuzz about Tiger Woods‘ charge up the leaderboard at the PGA Championship. It was all “Tiger, Tiger, Tiger!” In the end, Woods’ score of 64 was good (his lowest final round ever at a major), but not good enough to stop Brooks Koepka (who??) from winning his second major of…
Still No. 1 is Mission: Impossible – Fallout; too bad, Winnie the Pooh.
Box office update, it was the second weekend in a row that Mission: Impossible – Fallout finished first at the box office, with a haul of $35 million. It finished ahead of new Disney release Christopher Robin, which is news that will surely disappoint longtime fans of Winnie the Pooh. In other news, I notice…
This week’s Cairns on Cinema is about my trip to the drive-in in Enderby, BC!
Hi, folks. My latest Cairns on Cinema column is now up, and it is about the night I spent with my family going to a drive-in movie at the Starlight Drive-In in Enderby, British Columbia. As you know, there are very few drive-ins left in North America, with economic pressures driving most of them out…
Johnny Manziel’s CFL debut was a complete, effing debacle!
No matter how hard I tried, I simply could not turn away from that total train wreck of a Canadian Football League game tonight in Montreal. It was the much-overhyped debut of ex-NFLer Johnny Manziel, aka “Johnny Football,” as quarterback with the Montreal Alouettes. But Manziel was garbage with his four interceptions, the rest of…
In Rider Nation the call-in shows are always more entertaining than the game
OMG are the knives ever out from callers to the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ postgame shows after a 26-19 defeat to Edmonton, dropping the team to 3-4! Over on CKOM/CJME the first caller declared head coach Chris Jones an idiot, and then the second caller wanted the fans to stop buying Riders’ tickets and merchandise! The callers…
Trump Derangement Syndrome dominates the News from Nowhere
Welcome to a long-awaited (and long) News from Nowhere, which is once again dominated by the happenings of the White House of Pres. Donald Trump and all his opponents. Aren’t you fed up with Trump and everyone else yet? I sure am. Tonight, I am going to skewer Trump’s opponents. Honestly, I am getting completely…
Mission: Impossible franchise shows no sign of slowing down
As expected, it was a big box office weekend for Mission: Impossible – Fallout. $61.5 million domestic, and $153.5 million globally. Clearly, this franchise, which I like to refer to as “Mission: Ridiculous” (because of all of Tom Cruise’s ridiculous and bone-breaking stunts) shows no sign of fatigue.
Premier Doug Ford slashes Toronto city council from 47 to 25; chaos ensues!
Welcome back to my live, ongoing coverage this week of Toronto. Today, pure chaos was the order of the day as new Ontario Premier Doug Ford suddenly announced legislation would be introduced to reduce Toronto city council from 47 members to 25. And here’s the big story — this would take effect with this fall’s…
Tonight is NASCAR Velocity Prairie Thunder night again in Saskatoon!
Well, tonight is the night for the two NASCAR Pinty’s Series races in Saskatoon, the Velocity Prairie Thunder Twin 125s. This is the tenth year the NASCAR series has come to Saskatoon, but unfortunately this marks the first year that I am not going to be in attendance at the race (due to family commitments)….
Upset alert: Mamma Mia 2 LOSES at the weekend box office!
The movie box office surprises just keep on coming. This weekend, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again was defeated, yes, defeated by Equalizer 2, starring Denzel Washington, $35.8 million to $34.4 million. While I am surprised by this turn of events, the truth is I am actually quite delighted. This latest retread sequel is straight…
Tragedy in Toronto: mass shooting in the Danforth
There have been way too many stories lately about violence in the city of Toronto. Last night, more tragedy: a gunman, now deceased, went on a shooting rampage in the Greektown area of the Danforth where two people were killed and 13 more injured. This news comes right after the city of Toronto had deployed…
Now, the last word on the whole DeRozan-Leonard deal
Now that the dust has settled on the big NBA trade which saw DeMar DeRozan shipped off to San Antonio with Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green coming to the Toronto Raptors, much to the consternation of all these Raptors fans, all I have to say is: it had to be done. I know there has…
Trump throws US intelligence community under the bus at Helsinki summit!
Well, this lousy summit meeting Pres. Donald Trump had with Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin in Helsinki was a big success, all right — for Putin. President Trump declines to side with US intelligence that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. Instead, Trump repeatedly asked about the Democratic National Committee's email server and Hillary Clinton's…
Dwayne Johnson falls off the Skyscraper in this weekend’s Box Office
The movie box office results are in for this weekend and I am quite surprised to learn that the new Dwayne Johnson action movie Skyscraper landed with a thud. It finished not second but third, behind Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation and the second weekend of Ant-Man and the Wasp. Skyscraper opened with a lousy…
France-Croatia final caps a thrilling World Cup from Russia
Once again, yet another soccer World Cup went by so fast. The final goes in Moscow between France and Croatia. The games Croatia have been involved in have been particularly thrilling, with Croatia going to penalties with Denmark, and then going to penalties against Russia, and then beating England in extra time to advance to…
Marvel wins yet again! Ant-Man and the Wasp win the weekend
Long-awaited movie 🎥 box office news: Ant-Man and the Wasp opened to $76 million domestic which makes this the 20th consecutive No.1 opening for a Marvel Studios movie. Eventually, the public will tire of Marvel superhero movies. I don’t know when, but they will one day.
Trump nominates Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court
Before tuning in all this poker nonsense from Las Vegas I took a look at the announcement by Pres. Donald Trump that he was nominating federal appeals court Judge Brett Cavanaugh to the US Supreme Court. And the tension has clearly boiled over down there in the “Upset States”, with all the “upset” people out…
Sorry, folks, I’m preoccupied watching the World Series of Poker tonight
Normally, Monday night would see me posting the movie 🎥 🍿 Box Office results, but not tonight. I am too engrossed watching the World Series of Poker coverage from ESPN. The $10,000 Main Event is now down to 126 or so players and here I am tuning in, trying to get inspired so that I…
Soccer dominates headlines in this week’s News from Nowhere
Welcome to News from Nowhere for this Sunday, and the news is totally dominated by soccer. Of course, there is the World Cup of Soccer, but there is other soccer team news. Namely, those kids from the soccer team in Thailand who need to be rescued from that cave they are trapped in. This story…
Free agent Sunday: LeBron to Lakers, Tavares to Leafs
This has been a massive day for news about free agents in the NBA and NHL. The big news from the NBA was that LeBron James has left Cleveland and signed with the Los Angeles Lakers. Four year deal, $153.3 million. Not a surprise; for days, all the talk on sports talk radio in the…
Happy Canada Day, I am tuning in Mexico election results
I am spending this Canada Day evening tuned in to live coverage of the Mexico election, watching Presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and his party clean up. Whether this character will be any good as President remains to be seen, he has been described as the “Trump” of Mexico — except he would be…
Oh, what the heck, who can resist Arianny Celeste cheering for 🇲🇽 Mexico?
I’m trying to get my mind off of serious news. So, with the World Cup on the brain, here is UFC ring girl Arianny Celeste showing her support for Mexico. (She is half-Mexican descent.) May I also add that there is a presidential election on in Mexico at the moment, so expect lots of Mexico…
Yet another senseless shooting tragedy, this time at the Capital Gazette
Tonight, while on a reporting assignment, someone asked me what I thought about the shooting incident down south. I responded “what do you think I think?” I think it is pretty obvious that things are out of control in the USA, with this mass murder of five people at the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis….
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom opens to $150 million!
Here is the story on the opening of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the latest in the Jurassic franchise, which hauled in $150 million at the domestic box office. The worldwide haul is over $700 million. This haul is in spite of some very pronounced non-enthusiasm expressed by some critics, who are getting tired of all…
It’s official: Trump admin reverses itself on breaking up families
The last few days really have been a brouhaha for President Donald Trump, with all the reports about his inhumane family separation policy, with children being ripped away from their parents seeking asylum in the USA and placed in separate detention facilities. This really was hard for even the family-values crowd to defend. So today,…
Big news for Pixar fans: Incredibles 2 is biggest animated opening ever!
Here is some huge news for all of you Incredibles fans. Incredibles 2 has just opened to a $180 million weekend which is the biggest domestic animated opening box office of all time! This tops the previous animation record by 2016’s Finding Dory by some $45 million. It is also the eighth biggest domestic opening…
Happy Father’s Day, enjoy watching the US Open!
The US Open final round is here. Hopefully, your weekend has been far better than Phil Mickelson’s. "At that time I didn't feel like going back-and-forth and hitting the same shot over. I took the two-shot penalty and moved on… I don't mean any disrespect." Phil Mickelson on why he hit a moving ball on…
We can hardly wait for the start of the World Cup of Soccer… in 2026!
On the eve of Russia 2018, the news today is that FIFA awarded the 2026 World Cup to the “United” bid of the USA, Mexico and Canada! The United bid beat Morocco by a 2-1 margin. Shown here are the cities still in the running to host the World Cup — I understand not all…
Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un are meeting in Singapore!
Yes, it’s happened. The summit is on! I tuned in the South Korean news channels to see their coverage live, just for fun. Maybe I should learn how to speak Korean one of these days.
G7 implodes thanks to Pres. Donald Trump, and other News from Nowhere
Welcome to a long-awaited News from Nowhere, with most of the news in this edition emanating from the Upset States of America — and in particular, its upset President, Donald Trump. This man really is the one-man wrecking crew of the G7. These last few weeks have been proof of that! First, this guy Trump…
Thoughts on Ford Nation taking over the government of Ontario
Ontario voters have put Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservatives into power in the province by a wide margin over Andrea Horwath’s NDP, 76 seats to 40. That’s right, after all those months of chaos in Ontario politics, with the gong show of Patrick Brown and all the rest of the craziness, the Tories managed…
Week two box office for Solo is still going down, down, down!
Box office update. Solo: A Star Wars Story keeps on going down and down and down! Yes, they did take first place again at the domestic box office for the second weekend in a row. You would think this achievement would be fantastic news. Folks, it is not fantastic when your weekend domestic haul is…
Now, belated thoughts on the UFC deal with ESPN
I had planned to spout off on this topic earlier, but now that I feel up to it, I will post about the UFC’s $1.5 billion TV deal with ESPN. From what I can tell, it looks to me like this is partly motivated by incumbent rightsholder FOX acquiring rights to the WWE. So ESPN…
Now my thoughts about the exciting NHL, and the deathly dull NBA
I just wanted to air out a few random thoughts about the NHL and NBA games last night. Honestly, I don’t know why ratings down in the Upset States are so much better for the NBA, because every other league has them beat for entertainment, especially the NHL. Last night’s Vegas-vs-Washington Stanley Cup Finals game…
Roseanne gets herself cancelled from ABC with her racist tirade on Twitter
Well, that was quick. Roseanne has been yanked off the air from ABC after she self-destructed with her lunatic racist tirade on Twitter. Her talent agency just dropped her, too. This was actually the top story on both CNN and Fox News today — ahead of President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again, on-again Korea summit, ahead…
Box office for Solo: A Star Wars Story keeps going down, down, down!
The four-day Memorial Day weekend opening box office numbers are in for Solo: A Star Wars Story. Oh boy, this has been kind of ugly. The predictions for the box office have kept on going down and down. It was going to be $155 million, then $130 million, and now the word is the opening…
