Gordon’s Acoustic Living Room will return to the Free Times for our 10th Annual Robbie Burns Day Show. In this case the show will start a bit later than normal, probably around 9:30 (but you are advised to get there early, we get a big crowd for this). There will still be no cover, but there will be lots of bagpipes and other Scottish themed stuff, and in addition to the food and drink you can buy, there will be haggis and it will be free.

Was it only yesterday I stormed the barricades shouting “Free the haggis!” What was I thinking?

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Learning, we are often told, is a life-long endeavour, and I certainly agree. And with smart phones and Wikipedia we are able to keep learning all sorts of stuff, some of which might actually be correct.

If we want to be honest however, most of our learning, at least the important life lessons, happen when we’re younger. When we’re very young we learn things like not touching a hot stove or the converse, putting your tongue on a metal pole in the middle of winter is not a good idea (although I’m not sure why I needed to learn that one more than once – but by the third time, I got it down).

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Special All-Request Night!

Sometimes it’s not really about us, it’s about other folks. It’s not what we want; it’s what other people want. Sure you don’t like Swiss Chalet, but would it really kill you to go there once in a while because your grandmother really likes it (and let me tell you, grandmothers like Swiss Chalet, I think it’s something about the sauce, but I don’t really want to think about it too much),
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I don’t usually pay attention to news stories about big corporations suing each other – generally my attitude is “a plague on both your houses.” Recently however, I was captivated by the lawsuit against Pfizer Canada – the pharmaceutical giant who makes, among other things, Viagra. Pfizer’s patent in Canada on Viagra was successfully challenged by another huge company, Teva Canada, (I don’t think they are the same folks who make Teva sandals but who knows how multi, multi-nationals are, these days).

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We are living in challenging times. There is tension in the Far East, the Middle East and Europe. And here in Ontario the premier resigned but is staying in office and is forcing all the elected officials to take an unspecified vacation while he waits for someone to take his place. But while all of this deserves our attention and concern, the matter that dominates the news day after day, night after night, is the hockey lockout.

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My handwriting sucks. Actually that’s not true; In fact I am totally incapable of what is referred to as cursive writing. Other than being able to make a few loops, a line and a dot, which forms my signature, I never write.

So, let me start again. My printing sucks. Now I know that many people say that their printing/handwriting is bad, but mine goes beyond bad. If I take down a phone number and look at it five minutes later I can’t tell if I’ve written a 6, a 9 or 0 – and I’m also unclear how a ^ can be part of a phone number.

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There’s a rhyme I remember from when I was young that ascribed characteristics to children based on the day they were born. It started “Monday’s child is fair of face/Tuesday’s child is full of grace…”

But this wasn’t one of those modern day kids’ poems or stories where important life lessons of tolerance are learned and we are all encouraged to embrace diversity. This was no “Joanne has two mommies, three daddies and a friend who is transitioning.” No way. This was more “Your life is determined by things that are totally out of your control.”

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There have been two big stories in the news the past little while. One is that it has been really hot out and the other is that I am really stupid. Now admittedly it’s not that Peter Mansbridge (or whoever fills in for him when he’s getting his head waxed) starts the National by saying “Tonight – heat wave continues all over Canada and Jonathan Rudin is really stupid.” It’s just that I am reminded of my lack of intelligence whenever the discussion turns – as it has done a lot lately – to the Higgs boson.

I admit I started a bit behind on this whole thing. You see I thought people were talking about the Higgs bosom and I didn’t know who Higgs was but I figured it was just some amply endowed starlet and I had no need to keep up with the story since I focus my entrainment news on the comings and goings of Justin Bieber – the greatest entertainer in the world.

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Photos and video clips from the latest live performance!

Email from Jonathan Rudin:

I get the sense that it’s tough to be an aging rock star. They face challenges that many of us do not have to worry about. I pause here to note that the term “aging rock star” can be applied to any popular musician who is older than you are and also to any musician younger than you but who has gone through enough drug rehab and/or plastic surgery etc. that that makes them look not only older than you but pretty much anyone on the planet.

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