Date registered: January 6, 2016
Jan 01
|
Vital Statistics |
2010 |
2009 |
2008 |
2007 |
| A Canadian dollar is worth | $ 1.00US | $ 0.95US | $ 0.82US | $ 0.96US |
| A domestic postage stamp costs | $ 0.57 | $ 0.54 | $ 0.52 | $ 0.51 |
| A local call on a Bell pay phone | $ 0.50 | $ 0.50 | $ 0.50 | $ 0.50 |
| A liter of Pepsi costs | $ 2.29 | $ 2.29 | $ 1.99 | $ 1.79 |
| A liter of water costs | $ 1.99 | $ 1.89 | $ 1.79 | $ 1.69 |
| a liter of milk costs (purchased in a four liter bag) | $ 1.32 | $ 1.25 | $ 1.29 | $ 1.19 |
| a liter of gasoline costs | $ 1.13 | $ 0.95 | $ 0.66 | $ 1.04 |
| a loaf of bread costs | $ 2.99 | $ 1.99 | $ 2.69 | $ 1.67 |
| a paperback novel costs | $10.99 | $12.99 | $11.99 | $12.99 |
| a weekly (Time) magazine costs | $ 6.99 | $ 6.99 | $ 4.95 | $ 5.95 |
| a comic book costs | $ 2.99 | $ 2.99 | $ 2.99 | $ 3.99 |
| a daily newspaper costs | $ 1.19 | $ 1.19 | $ 0.94 | $ 0.94 |
| a regular bus ride costs | $ 3.25 | $ 2.30 | $ 2.00 | $ 1.90 |
| a medium cup of coffee costs | $ 1.27 | $ 1.27 | $ 1.22 | $ 1.17 |
| a basic cable television package | $31.49 | $29.99 | $28.49 | $27.49 |
| a first run movie rental costs | $ 4.99 | $ 5.99 | $ 4.79 | $ 4.39 |
| an adult movie theatre ticket costs | $10.75 | $10.50 | $ 9.95 | $ 9.95 |
| a children’s movie theatre ticket costs | $ 7.99 | $ 7.99 | $ 7.95 | $ 7.95 |
| Minimum wage (Ontario) | $10.25/hr | $ 9.50/hr | $ 8.75/hr | $ 8.00/hr |
| an adult men’s haircut | $ 17.00 | $ 15.75 | $ 15.50 | $ 14.25 |
| a medium combination pizza | $ 15.50 | $ 15.50 | $ 15.45 | $ 14.35 |
| a new home computer | $999.99 | $ 914.00 | $ 905.00 |
Jan 01
Ma will remember 2010 as the year Thing 1 almost died (without telling anyone).
Pa will remember 2010 as the year Thing 1 almost died (without telling anyone).
Thing 1 remembers 2010 as a year of highs in Disneyland and at rock concerts that would bottom out when he landed his ass (and other derivatives) in the hospital over Christmas.
Most Memorable News Event: The Gulf Oil Spill
Favorite TV Show: Supernatural
Favorite Movie: Ironman 2
Favorite Music: Remnants/Asylum by Disturbed
Thing 2 remembers 2010 as the year he went to Disneyland and enjoyed his first T-Bone steak. He also scored his brown belt in Jiu Jitsu and won Silver in a city-wide Junior Mixed Martial Arts Grappling Championship.
Most Memorable News Event: …
Favorite TV Show: Chuck
Favorite Movie: Avatar
Favorite Music: …
Jan 01
Pa will attend his first NFL football game in 2011.
Ma will get a new kitchen or stop telling everyone else that they need to change, do something, stop dreaming, start dreaming, talk less/act more, and so on, and on and on…
Thing 1 will stop worrying.
Thing 2 will (try again to) learn to adapt to eat, sleep, and life cycles other than his own.
Jan 01
And that’s pretty much all I can (or care to) remember. 2010 will go down the drain as a maternal struggle of global proportion that was punctuated with the mother of all oil spills, a spillion wikileaks and bailouts, one blown top that led to the mother of all groundings, some pretty big sinkholes and even bigger earthquakes plus a few other miner catastrophes.
Jan 01
The Chinese called it the Year of the Ox. The United Nations dubbed 2009 the International Year of Astronomy (and the International Year of the Natural Fibres). It was the year that Barbie turned 50. The Montreal Canadiens hockey team turned 100 years old (and they acted their age) last year. 2009 also marked the 100th anniversary of:
All in all it was a good year if you believe in the old adage that “no news is good news”. The little Dutch girl didn’t get to sail around the world. The little American Balloon boy didn’t really disappear in a weather balloon. Michael Jackson didn’t deliver on his comeback tour. The Canadian reenactment of the Battle of Plains of Abraham didn’t happen and Obama didn’t end any wars, famine or global warming (but did win a Nobel Peace prize for what he could conceivably do given the opportunity …maybe). Is it any wonder all the news and media giants found themselves in hock to the point of closing stations and selling off their newspaper holdings?
Jan 01
U.S. Congress slaps 90% Tax on bailout bonuses
After the CEO of troubled Insurance Giant AIG responded to public outrage and a U.S. Congressional Hearing with little more than a shrug and the assurance that he would do his best to encourage his executives to give back half of their $165 million in bonus money, it took Congress just 40 minutes to vote decisively in favour of imposing a 90% tax on the millions of dollars in employee bonuses paid by AIG and any other companies that were bailed out by the American taxpayer. In a statement issued by the White House, President Obama said the House vote “rightly reflects the outrage that so many feel over the lavish bonuses that AIG provided its employees at the expense of the taxpayers who have kept this failed company afloat.” AIG received $182.5 billion in federal bailout money and is now 80 per cent government-owned.
Jan 01
After tangling with a rogue flock of Canada Geese, Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger saved the lives of all 155 passengers and crew of US Airways Flight 1549 when he successfully crash landed on the Hudson River. The entire crew of Flight 1549 was later awarded the Master’s Medal of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators. The award citation read, “This emergency ditching and evacuation, with the loss of no lives, is a heroic and unique aviation achievement.”
Jan 01
Photo finish at the Supreme Court of Canada
A divided Supreme Court of Canada ruled that a group of Alberta Hutterites do not have a “religious right” to obtain drivers licenses without photographs. The Hutterites believe that photos are “graven images” and therefore must be prohibited under the Second Commandment. The Court ruled that “Freedom of Religion is a right. Driving is a privilege – one trumped in this case by the security needs of the larger society.” Hard to say where this one is going. On surface it sounds like it might have possibilities (yet some of my brain cells are wondering if another drink is really in order).
Jan 01
The Lung Flute
There was lots of ink in the area of breakthroughs (with potential) of the green kind that I can only pretend to understand (when I am pickled), but I have to give the nod this year to a quasi-medicinal invention that has an immediate and affordable household application. A couple of puffs on the Lung Flute promise to clear the lungs of all of that pesky mucus that is quite often the most annoying part of your common cold and countless other more chronic and debilitating conditions.
Honourable mention: X-Flex a new, blast proof wallpaper that is possibly stronger than the wall it is designed to protect. Unfortunately, given the nature of things today, I suspect this might be the most game-ready and immediate of all of the potential life saving innovations that were introduced in 2009.
Canadian Runner Up: The Province of Ontario announces that it will begin teaching students in Grades 4 through 12 the basics of managing their money.