Watch the All-New CSI: Inanimate

In medieval trials, cattle or instruments were brought to justice for inflicting wounds or death on people. In the parish register of St. Mary's at Reading, the burial of one Richard Edwards on July 26, 1602, was accompanied by this note: "This child was killed by a blocke that fell upon him, which blocke was founde by the Corowner's Jury to be guilty of his death."
There was no report of the blocke's punishment.

Gil: How could this rock have fallen on our victim naturally? This type of calcified sandstone erodes at a rate of 3 millimetres per year!

Warrick: Normally, yeah - but check this out. The calcification is unusual around this node of limestone.

Sara: Meaning that it accelerated the erosion at this one point.

Gil: We found the culprit. The limestone was high and the kid got stoned.

(Couldn't resist the obvious pun. But that's OK - William Petersen never can, either.)

One last busy weekend before I can relax? (Tee hee.) I have two more reviews to do for a website contract that I was offered, New City and the Armoury. Then I'll throw down a review of The Goulash Restaurant. This weekend is bookmarked for installing our closet doors (only 16 months after moving in!) and celebrating our second anniversary.

Next week, I'm researching a wi-fi piece for Ed and wandering out to the Red Ox Inn. I've heard much about it, and I'm really looking forward to trying it. I'm waiting for green light from my editor at Vue on a couple of pitches that will fill up my August.

Anyone have any ideas for a Fringe-food type piece that will dazzle my editor? He's a little jaded, a little stressed, and needs the boost. Drop me a note!

At least I'm only Moderately Avaricious

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Very Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Very High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Moderate
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Extreme
Level 7 (Violent)	High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Very High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Very High

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

I actually have a good excuse as to why I haven't written in so long, but "busy with life, work and writing" doesn't hold water for my legions of fans who beat a path to my blog every day... Hi, Mom!

What a thrill on Saturday morning when I crept down to steal someone's newspaper... Believe it or not, my very first piece published in a CanWest Global paper earned a front page nod! The topic was "case modders," people who cut windows into their computers and fill it with lights, etc. Now I've seemingly become the tech person for Ed and they have already approached me to do another piece...

I'm still knockin' them out of the park with Vue, however! We went to Co Co Di to check out a rumour - turns out that bubble pipes can be smoked in separate patio areas so long as no food or drink is served. I wrote about the experience I should have had there. I have two pitches just waiting to be delivered - we'll see what my newly promoted editor-turned-editor-in-chief thinks about them.

My daughter is running and using more words every day. I love the mimicking phase - my wife used to imitate Napoleon Dynamite's "Dang!" until the first time she heard Maeryn pipe up from the back seat, "Dang!" Too cute for words. We're still waiting breathlessly for my bride's acceptance into her Master's program at Athabasca and we have a new couch.

Well, I think that's all the news that is news. To come: commentary on current events, people, places and the deeply depressing lack of anything resembling originality on movie screens this summer.

Forgotten English of the Day
Peninsulated: nearly surrounded with water. I like the sound of it and what it means.

This is why I blog.

This is why I read blogs, and why I write my own: otherwise, I wouldn't learn about (and relay) information on Ezra Levant's Conservative Cruise! Thanks to Rick Mercer for finding it.

http://www.westernstandardcruise.com/

Imagine - a week-long cruise with the brightest lights of conservative thought. OK, now imagine getting hammered with Colby Cosh! I bet that boy can sling it. However, I'm not sure if I want to spend thousands of dollars to drink and sunburn with overweight white men. Even though I'd fit in.

I was part of the University of Alberta Debate Club when Ezra was there, and I have to say that I wasn't crazy about his demagoguery even then. However, I respect the name he has made for himself and wish him the best in his political-slash-publishing ambitions.

Hell. There might even be a job at the Western Standard for me. Does being an Albertan mean I'm qualified? (I voted NDP in the last federal, though - I'll keep that under my hat.)