Gas In Saskatoon, January 24, 2020.

A small bit of price relief to report this week.  Gas in Saskatoon is 110.9 cents a litre at most locations. 

Missed One.

It would be a full time job to try to keep up with all the conspiracy theories out there.  It probably wouldn't be possible.  But I'm surprised I missed this one.  I overheard some kid on the bus ranting about Justin Trudeau, and one of the things he mentioned was claims Fidel Castro is Trudeau's father.

That was a conspiracy theory I'd never heard before, but some research shows it's been floating around since at least 2016.  The claim is that Margaret Trudeau had an affair with Fidel Castro, and Justin resulted.  Supposedly Castro's eldest son Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart, commonly referred to as Fidelito, referred to Justin Trudeau as his half-brother in his 2018 suicide note.  Believers think Justin Trudeau looks a lot like Fidel.

Unfortunately for the conspiracy crowd there's no evidence Margaret Trudeau met Fidel Castro before 1976, when Justin was 4 and a half.  He was conceived in April of 1971, shortly after the Trudeaus were married in March of 1971, being born on Christmas Day of  1971.  So somehow Margaret Trudeau was able to meet Fidel Castro with no one knowing about it.  Yeah, no, didn't happen

But in the end the real question should  be "So what?"  It would be an issue for the Trudeau family, but not really for anyone else.  Being Fidel Castro's son would not legally disqualify Justin Trudeau from being Prime Minister.  Unlike the US there is no provision in the Canadian Constitution requiring a PM candidate being a "natural born citizen,"  and his mother was Canadian anyways.  The last Prime Minister not born in Canada, John Turner, is still alive.  He was born in England, and became PM under the 1982 Constitution.

Of course we did see this with the Obama birther theories.  Deviating from the standard "Obama was born in Kenya, so he can't be President!" nonsense some birthers decided his real father was either African America journalist, activist, and poet Frank Marshall Davis, or Malcolm X.  Since both men were born in the United States I'm not sure how they figured this was useful in their crusade to get Obama out of office.

It would be interesting to know what this kid has been reading, because he mentioned a couple of other crank ideas.  Something from some Wexit idiot seems likely.

Gas In Saskatoon, January 10, 2020.

After a period of stability we see a price increase.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 112.9 cents a litre at most stations.  Given the events of the past week I'm sure this is no surprise to anyone.

The Last Walk Off.

Rush drummer Neil Peart has died.  He was 67.  He had been fighting brain cancer for the past three years, which he managed to keep quiet about.  For those familiar with him that's probably not a surprise.  Despite being drummer for one of Canada's most successful rock bands Peart was a fairly private man.  He tended to let Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson do most of the PR side of things, and that tendency became even stronger after the horrifying double blow of losing his daughter Selena in a 1997 car accident, following the death from cancer 10 months later of his common-law wife Jacqueline Taylor.  The song "Limelight," from Rush's 1981 album Moving Pictures, reflected that introverted side of Peart.  He is survived by his second wife, photographer Carrie Nuttall, and their daughter Olivia.

Did Someone Keep The Receipt?

As crappy as 2019 was for so many people I'm starting to think we should go get it out of the trash and send this 2020 back to the manufacturer.  I think it's defective.

Welcome To 2020.

We made it.  So many didn't because of the events of 2019.  Hopefully things will go better for all of us this year.  That includes a whole bunch of people getting a clue and stopping their foolish behaviours.

Where did all the time go?  It just went.

White Christmas After All.

The ground in Saskatoon wasn't bare of snow.  But there were brown patches in places, and a lot of what was on the ground looked more like spring melt snow than winter snow.  That changed over night, so if you wished for a white Christmas things are probably more to your liking now.  Just don't complain about the snow you're going to shovel.

I hope you're having a nice Christmas day, even if all it is for you is a day off.

Gas In Saskatoon, December 20, 2019.

A drop is always better than an increase, even if it's a tiny one.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 105.9 cents a litre at most locations.  Hopefully there won't be an increase for Christmas week.

Almost Done.

My Christmas shopping is, as it is ever year. limited and simple.  So I only have one more piece to buy.  However I have to wait until Sunday to pick up that last piece.  Fortunately it's easy to find.  Hopefully whatever you've got left to do is equally easy.

Today's Cassette, Friday December 13, 2019.

It was time to listen to something on cassette again after not doing so for a good while.  Tonight it's Phaedra, Tangerine Dream's first release on Virgin Records in 1974.  The album proved a success for both TD and Virgin, reaching 15 on the UK Album Chart that year.  It was also the debut of the sequencer driven sound that the group would become famous for.

Gas In Saskatoon, December 6, 2019.

Prices have wandered around quite a bit this week.  The week started with prices rising to 112.9 cents a litre.  But by today they'd dropped back down to 107.9 cents a litre at most stations.  With Federated Co Op having locked out their workers at the Regina refinery, and replacing them with replacement workers, I suspect we're going to see some price instability over the next few weeks.

No Cyber Monday Either.

No, I didn't do any Cyber Monday shopping either.  Which I'm sure will disappoint whoever it is at Amazon that gave me a bunch of hits today. 

No Black Friday For Me.

Nope, I wasn't sitting in the cold freezing my rear off waiting to get into someplace at 6 AM.  I had to work.  I didn't go out after work for Black Friday shopping.  The only things I bought were things I normally buy.  Most of the stuff on sale was stuff I didn't want, and the stuff I did want was out of my price range right now.  Boxing Day is a much likely shopping day for me than Black Friday ever will be.

Gas In Saskatoon, November 29, 2019.

We actually managed to go below the buck a litre barrier, just barely.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 99.9 cents a litre at most locations.  I would expect the price is probably on its way back up soon with Christmas approaching.

XP Lives.

Microsoft may be about to end support for Windows 7.  Internet traffic is increasingly driven by smart phones.  Yet Windows XP isn't dead yet.  Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 10 have all come along, yet I still get the occasionally hit from machines using XP.  I guess if it works, why change it?

Gas In Saskatoon, November 15, 2019.

Another one cent drop to report.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 100.9 cents a litre at most stations.  I can't see it dropping much more, but I have been wrong before.

They Fight On.

Back in June I wrote about advertising for a local mixed martial arts promotion, Modern Fighting Championship  Today's flyer delivery once again featured advertising for MFC.  Modern Fighting Championship IV will be held November 29 at the Manhattan Ballroom.  Besides MMA this show will also feature 6 amateur boxing matches, and a Brazilian jiu jutsu "superfight" between Eric Wilson and Myke Lee.  The main event will be a lightweight bout between current MFC champ Jesse Boldt from Saskatoon against Winnipeg's Travis Gervais.

Compared to MFCIII the MFCIV card has several fighters with winning records.  And only one fighter will be making his MMA debut.  On the other hand one of the fighters, Josh Ladouceur, has a kind of disturbing 2-6 record.  That unfortunately sounds like a fighter who may be already in the "professional punching bag" category.  Interestingly 3 of the fighters come all the way from London, Ontario.  That's quite the trip to take to fight for a small promotion.

It would seem that the previous event did pretty well given that there's a sequel.  Good luck to the fighters. 

Gas In Saskatoon, November 8, 2019

One cent isn't much of a drop, but it's still a drop.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 101.9 cents a litre at most stations.  I doubt it will go much below the buck a litre mark, if at all.

Gas In Saskatoon, November 1, 2019.

Not much of a treat this week, but better than a trick at least.  Gas in Saskatoon has dropped to 102.9 cents a litre at most stations.

Very Slow.

We had almost no one knock on the door this Halloween.  And of the handful of people that turned up a couple were high school students doing a canned goods drive.  Very strange.  So I ended up buying some "just in case" candy we didn't actually need.  Maybe it's just that parents took their kids to safer venues like shopping malls to trick or treat this year.