DEGRASSI: THE NEXT GENERATION: EPISODE REVIEW

The main plot of last Sunday's episode of Degrassi: The Next Generation revolved around Connor. At the beginning of the episode, he has a lamp on his desk because the fluorescent lights bother him. He is right to do this. Fluorescent lights are bad for people, especially kids. Principal Shephard comes in and says Connor can't have a desk lamp. In support of Connor, the other students all get desk lamps. Shephard gives them all a detention. During the detention, Ali tells Connor to stop tapping his pencil. He doesn't so Ali tries to take it away from him. Connor pushes her and is expelled by Principal Shephard. Ali goes over to Connor's house to say she's sorry he got expelled. She notices that all the clothes in Connor's closet are the same. Ali points this out to him and he tells her to leave. It is at this time that Ali really begins to suspect there's something wrong with Connor. The next day, Mr. Simpson tells Ali and Claire of the results of tests that have been run on Connor. It turns out he has Asperger's syndrome, a syndrome which makes him unable to follow certain social rules. First of all, you want to be careful when they call anything a syndrome. Second, that doesn't sound like the description of a disease, it sounds like most of the people I went to the W. Ross Macdonald School with. For the most part, this is probably one of these new afflictions invented by drug companies. Claire And Ali go into Principal Shephard's office as he is being filmed for The Principal Of The Year Award. They tell him that Connor deserves to come back and that people with Asperger's syndrome can do well in the gifted program of a regular school. Shephard calls Claire a little bitch. The students filming Shephard decide to show this exchange at the awards ceremony. Shephard ends up going for sensitivity training. As Claire says, "My dad says it's almost impossible for a teacher to get fired." Yeah, they can be like cockroaches. You think you've gotten rid of them, but they just show up somewhere else, rather like Catholic priests. 

 The subplot involved Sav wanting to get back together with Onya. He asks his father if Onya can come over for dinner and his father approves. Sav thinks this is the seed of a relationship but at dinner Sav's father tells Onya that Sav is eventually going to have to marry an Indian girl. If the roles were reversed and Onya's father said one day Onya was going to marry a white man, everyone would be calling that racist. However, in this situation, nobody calls it racist except in Canada where lefties are too dumb to understand how the game works. Personally, I think Sav's parents are perfectly all right to say that he eventually has to marry an Indian girl. Haven't you liberals figured it out yet? Interracial dating is a bad idea. Black people don't want there's with ours, Arabs don't want there's with ours, Indians don't want there's with ours, and Chinese people don't want there's with ours. In addition, I don't want mine with there's. There is nothing wrong with all these groups feeling this way, it's natural.

RICHARD SYRETT SHOW CANCELLED

Richard Syrett has been fired from Cfrb.

First of all, let me say I do not believe this was part of a conspiracy against the Canadian alternative media. Astral Media, the company that owns Cfrb has fired several people recently, due to the economic slowdown. Syrett worked the late evening shift and was therefore dispensable. You don't generally fire your afternoon drive guy or morning show host when you have to make cutbacks.

Second, by cancelling The Richard Syrett show, Cfrb has signed it's own death warrant. They now have nothing worth listening to. (Well, maybe on the weekends but nothing ever stays in one time slot long enough for me to check it out.)

DEGRASSI: THE NEXT GENERATION: EPISODE REVIEW

The main plot of last night's episode of Degrassi: The Next Generation involved Riley taking steroids. Predictably, he gets roid rage, doing things like throwing erasers at people and punching Sav in the nose. He also takes Onya out on a picnic. At the end, we find out Riley was taking the steroids to try to make him straight because "I don't want to be this way." Riley has every right to feel that way. He should be ashamed of his homosexuality.

The subplot involved Danny trying to convince a girl named Laya to go on a date with Derek. It was not at all very interesting.

HARPER REMINDED ABOUT PROMISE CONCERNING TOBACO PRODUCTS

A group of doctors has reminded Prime Minister Harper about his promise concerning flavoured tobaco products and cigarette packages that look like things like cell phones and ipods.

"Buck, I put the stick in the USB port but I can't download any songs."

REPLY AWL

In the Winter 2008-2009 Travel Issue of Canadian Geographic, there is an article entitled "Hut-spa" about a rustic, family-friendly resort in Quebec. It is written by a woman whose name is Gregroire but whom I suspect is Jewish. She is "partners" with a guy named Rubenstine, and the article has a very Jewish tone to it. She at first presents the resort as a wonderful place, but complains about her time there for most of the article.

In the December issue of Canadian Geographic, there is an itim about how churches are renting space on their steeples for cell phone towers, and the concerns this causes for local residents. The reason these churches are struggling is because nobody believes the feel-good message they put forth. People would rather go to a church that preaches the truth, or not go to church at all. If these churches are loosing membership, they should just shut down and not look to corporations to put up the money for operating expenses. Ither that, or they could preech the Word.

REPLY AWL

The December issue of Reader's Digest has an article called Home Not Alone, originally published in Today's Parent. It was written by a man whose wife and himself work at home. He talks about what life is like for him, and says that he likes working at home. This article was the coolest. I work at home, and I hope to continue doing that. The Lord didn't intend to have people commuting for long periods of time everyday like they do now. It's a nice feeling, being able to follow your own schedule. The author's children were five and three when he and his wife decided to work at home. I would think it would be a little less easy for people whose children were a bit older. You would have to be sure to explain that just because you are home during the day doesn't mean you and the kids can play all day. You still have certain things you have to get done at certain times.

The December 1 issue of Maclean's has an article about Ian Tyson. It talks about his new CD and the fact he's destroyed his vocal cords. I have twelve of his records. I enjoy his music. It's kind of sad to think his vocal cords are shot.

The December 8 issue of Maclean's has an article entitled "The Economy Excuse." It talks about how people are using the economic crisis to get out of things like holiday plans. If people really don't want to do something, they should just be straight with people. It's also good that people are being more frugal in this way.

REPLY AWL

In the November 3 issue of Maclean's, there is an article about wildculture, the harvesting of foods that grow in the wild. This is neat. I haven't tried much wild food. I've had some wild game. I've had caribou chops, and I think I've had moose and seal. I used to eat wild game to celebrate Canada Day. 

 In the November 10 issue of Maclean's, there is an article about how indoor clotheslines are becoming more popular. People aren't just buying drying racks, there buying big, metal indoor clotheslines. This is good. It is good to dry your clothes on a clothesline. I plan to move into an apartment eventually and I want to dry my clothes on an indoor clothesline. 

 The November 24 issue of Maclean's was the annual university rankings issue. In the cover package they had an article written by a freshman university student (Is This Heaven?) in which he talks about how much he loves university. He cites reasons such as the lack of social pressures, the accepting nature of the students, the maturity level of the students, the fast pace of teaching, and the freedom. I quite agree. I enjoyed college. Nobody cares much about the way you act (not that there was much of that at my high school, either), professors can teach subjects better in one semester than high school teachers can in two years, people just accept who you are and just associate with whomever they want to instead of constantly bugging others that they need to change something about themselves, and you have freedom. They don't make you go to class, if you're late you can just sneak into class without having to get a late slip and you can go to the washroom whenever you want. 

 In the November issue of Chatelaine, former talk show host Gill Deacon wrote an article about alternative menstrual products, such as organic tampons, cloth pads and the menstrual cup. This is super cool. With all the coverage of the green movement that's been in the media over the past few years, I have not heard anything about this. I hope to see more media coverage of this in the future. Alternative menstral products can be purchased from a