It's the Award Show Season!

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Nomination forms are now up for the 2004 Weblog Awards, otherwise known as the Bloggies. If you have a favourite blog or blogs, feel free to nominate them! I have a few I can hand the nominating committee...


Chalk One Up For The Good Guys

According to Blogs Canada, the PMO (Paul Martin's Office) appears to have backed down on threats to sue the parody site PaulMartinTime for copyright infringement. Says the website:

It was never the intent of Martin and his pawns to actually sue us. From beginning to apparent end, their clear goal has been to intimidate us. It may be possible to determine whether our use of the 'look' of Paul Martin's web site breaks Canadian laws, but this has never been the goal of the people who have contacted us.

The fact that this story broke into the mainstream media probably helped no end, but I'd also like to think that the bloggers who highlighted this story helped to spread the word a little.

A person who commented on Blogs Canada's website suggests that all who wrote to Paul Martin to condemn this act of intimidation write back to thank him for seeing sense. "Such recognition adds to the legitimacy of the original complaint and strengthens the justifications for the decision to back off." Good advice.


An Object Lesson on Why You Should Never Aim a Champagne Cork at Anybody

During our New Year's Eve party, we opened a bottle of champaigne, which my parents kindly bought for us. Or, rather, I tried to open it. I did everything that I'd done on champaigne bottles, unwrapping the opening, unscrewing the wire mesh, and tried to lever up the cork with my thumb, all the while keeping a hand over the cork.

I'm not stupid; I've read the Guinness Book of World Records entries on the altitude that champaigne corks have reached, and I made extra sure that this bottle wasn't aimed at anybody. However, this champaigne cork wasn't moving, no matter how hard I tried to lift it. So, as I gently set the champaigne bottle down to look for something that could help, I hear a tremendous explosion and the sound of the cork banging off our ceiling and then smacking the floor -- we have, incidentally, 13-foot ceilings -- and I turn back to see champaigne gushing out of the bottle like Old Faithful, soaking the carpet and my pants.

Just one second turning away, and I'd made a dent in my stucco ceiling.

So, be careful with your champaigne corks, my friends. You could, literally, shoot your eye out.

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