The Simpson Blog

Wow ... and I thought my co-anchor and I had fun during breaks. These folks must've been working together for years.

Toronto broadcasting legend Mark Dailey is marking 30 years with TV station CityTV, and is receiving well-deserved accolades from all over. A story published on the CityNews.ca web site even mentions the story confirmed at cygnals.com and perpetuated here at BigAssSuperstar.com : Our original story mentioned that some thought they'd heard Mark's voice on a Rush song. Andy Deans wondered about that, too. "The story doesn't mention what Rush song he was on," he complains. "My guess is the voice on 'Subdivisions.' After all, he IS everywhere, you know? If someone could please let me know, that would be great. I'm a big Rush and Citytv fan!" Mark hopes his response clears up this mystery once and for all. "That's been an urban myth for years. It's not my voice on 'Subdivisions' by Rush but I continue to get credit. I've tried to dispel it but won't go away. Getty Lee (sic) says he doesn't remember." Althoug

Bruce Pictures 1970's , originally uploaded by quickstone-decorative . Oh ... my ... gosh! Long-time Big Ass readers will remember my as-yet-failed quest to learn the history and whereabouts of Bruce The Moose. I had the original post and this follow-up . All I could determine at that time was that Bruce The Moose existed at Upper Canada Mall in the late 1970s, and Waterloo Town Square in the mid-1990s. Mall staff were unable to fill in any of the blanks, and posts to message boards around the internet turned up no leads. Now, a person who appears to be the creator of Bruce The Moose has commented on my Flickr photos ... and has Flickr photos of his own dating back to 1973, shedding unseen light on the Bruce story. I shall endeavour to contact Howard M. Sandy and Quickstone Decorative in Richmond Hill and learn more about this! Excitement!!!

I don't know what's going on today. At least two people in the office are home sick today. Those of us who are here are flat-out tired like a bag of rocks. Why is that, now? It's a bright, sunny, mild day in Halifax. Four hundred and seventy-eight starlings are chirping madly and flying in dark masses around the window ledges of the office building. Yet, I was rolling my eyes in exhaustion on the bus, and stumbled off to find my toque on the floor of the vehicle. Just....tired. Any other day, I could lose an hour of sleep and not feel like this. But somehow the weekend daylight saving shift has wiped us all out. How are *you* doing today?

With all my bus commuting and lengthy layovers, I've had plenty of time lately to be a regular consumer of the Zencast postcast out of California. I listened to an hour-long one last night that was really, really interesting. It was a long look at a Buddhist perspective on compassion. It was full of quotes that really rang. The first, attributed here to the writings of Philo of Alexandria: "Be kind, for everyone you meet is engaged in a great struggle." Some of us face major and obvious challenges. But even the most outwardly content person has troubles, big and small. None of us is free from suffering. And even the daily disappointments of life can chip away at your soul, as illustrated in this touching poem from David Levine titled "Ordinary Heartbreak": And the little girl who didn't want her hair cut, But long ago learned successfully how not to say What it is she wants, Who, even at this minute cannot quite grasp her shock and grief, I