Wednesday, November 13, 2024

BIG Chuckle

This year, I want a resolution to change the world

If you are like me and you have finally taken down the Christmas lights and have a back-to-school week under your belt, you might just now be thinking about new year’s resolutions. If you are like me, this thinking might happen while scrolling through social media posts when you should be at the gym, knowing you have a piece to write about new year’s resolutions but choosing instead to eat the last three brownies, fold...

Baby, It’s Christmas Outside

(Warning: content may be deemed discriminatory) In October, I was shocked to read that the Canadian Human Rights Commission had declared Christmas to be discriminatory. Like many thoughtful consumers of the news today, I read the three-word headline, let my emotions run wild, and cursed the idiocy of “them” before moving to the next piece of click-bait. But now, a month into the Christmas season and having had some time to reflect on Christmases past, I...

Top 3 Incredible Black Friday Savings

I have never been one to get caught up in consumerism, but the lure of participating in the ever-growing phenomenon that is Black Friday was too much for me this year. With that in mind, I bring you my Top 3 Incredible Black Friday Savings that you receive when you purchase any of our products at BIG Media. 3.  80% off arguments with friends and family members over the big issues! 2.  90% savings on being fooled by...

‘That doesn’t make any sense’ and other truths about Paint Nite

Sometimes I get a birthday gift right. Like the time I found an ink-drawn Dr. Gonzo, clutching a briefcase full of drugs in one hand and a pencil-thin cigarette holder in the other, tiptoeing across a plain white canvas in a Calgary movie-poster shop. “Perfect!” I proclaimed, thinking of my sister who loves Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and whose birthday was five months away, leaving me time to get it framed. Birthday gift...

An exciting new game for the entire family – Trick or Treat!

Let's play another game. Last week's game "Fact or Fiction" was a big hit, generating constructive discussion of critical issues among many people in various regions. In the spirit of Halloween, today's game will be called "Trick or Treat". Rules of the game: If you have been TRICKed into believing any of the following statements, please comment below, and I will TREAT you to cogent analysis, supported with verifiable data and logical interpretation on that topic. The tricks: 1. A...

LOGIC: proprietary solution kills trolls dead

Over the last 2.5 years, my team of scientists and I have been working diligently to come up with a product to get rid of those pesky trolls that have been littering our social media feeds. Well, I am proud to announce, we have devised a concoction that will exterminate those annoying pests. In Stage 1 and Stage 2 clinical trials, our solution has been 100% effective in making trolls disappear. Simply spray the trolls with our...

I might as well admit it – I am a speciesist

My niece recently commented that we should not consider ourselves superior to other animals. I immediately imagined the kitchen in which we were sitting being on fire, and me being able to only save her or my cat, Dash. My hunch was that she would want to be considered the “superior” choice, but we moved on to other topics and I lost my chance to confirm that with her (I will go with my...

Flight of fancy — taking the ‘class’ out of business class

As a father of 7 in the media industry (but, sigh, not Google, Meta, or Amazon), I do not fly on airplanes often. And when I do, it is generally the randomly chosen middle seat — perfect for my long legs — in row 32. However, last week, through a stroke of luck and a very generous person, I was given the opportunity to fly business class. What a treat! My opulent experience started well before...

Masks? Hell, no!

Remember the 1970s? Okay, maybe you are too young. How about the 1980s? 1990s? Early 2000s? I ask because back in the 1970s, or any one of the decades to follow, starting in the fall, and continuing into winter, a lot of people got colds. Some got the flu. I remember one difficult week in November of 2014 when both of my sons were home for five days straight, refusing homemade carrot soup at the...

Is it remote work or (not) remotely working?

Now that Zoom – the company that started it all – has folded its hand on the remote-work gamble, requiring its employees to return to the office, it feels like the party is over. We are three years into the work-from-home experiment thrust upon us by government-imposed lockdowns, and you would think from the posts dominating my social media feed that the work-life balance has never been better. “No more commuting!” “More time with my kids!” “Look at...