From the sublime to the ridiculous

I just looked out the window and let out a bit of a whoop, it's snowing! This is what it looks like out there. Okay, I lie. It looks nothing like that outside my window. Big, soft flakes are now disappointingly turning into a mix of wet snow and rain. The weather this past week has been so violent...high winds, lashings of rain, hail. I'm somewhat surprised that the roof hasn't peeled off the house like the top off a cheap tin can. Pleasantly surprised, that is.

Got up early, dealt with the garbage and recycling, cursed over the fact that our ex-housemate has left no forwarding address and keeps getting heating bills (and if she pops up one day to ask me to pay late fees on the bill, she's gonna get an earful like nobody's business. Okay, calm, calm...breathing deeply...big yoga breaths..letting it go...). Listened to The Current, which rocked as usual. Stories covering disputed parkland in Quebec, a documentary on the symbolism of the bridges of Bosnia/Kosovo and an interview with the widow of a CBC journalist who died a year ago from cancer of the esophagus.

The Crossings piece was excellent, the first of a three part series on the Balkans. Today it discussed the sparking ability of the Mitrovica bridge which lies between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo. Violence is always just a rumour away, and when it starts again, it usually starts on the bridge before spreading to the rest of Kosovo. I believe you can listen to it through this link. Tomorrow, the series takes a look at a Bosnian Serb who made it big in Chicago and came back to build a bridge over the Drina. He then set to work on Slobomir Promo (Freedom and Peace) city in the wasteland near his bridge. Of course, the "city" (only a few buildings to date) features some built in advantages for capitalist gain, such as a little 'free-trade' zone for manufacture. To keep with today's theme, I'll probably spend some time with Ivo Andric's Bridge on the Drina (Na Drini cuprija) when I have a moment for pleasure reading.

Of course, after the high point of The Current, ten oclock rolls around and the Giggler takes over the airwaves. The minute I hear the music for Sounds like Canada, I switch to BBC Radio4 or, really, anything else. There was a time when I could handle listening to Sheilagh Rogers, but those days are over, by gum! It may be slightly hypocritical to muse about someone else's self-involvement on a blog *blush*, but it can't be helped in this case. The topics are boring ("today I'm broadcasting from a quaint fishing village in New Brunswick, where I'll be talking to Joe who runs the corner store and suffers from narcolepsy*") and her interviews are the most execrable, painful nonsense I've ever had the displeasure to listen to. Honestly, Sheil, I don't care what *you* think about being in a quaint village or how *you* feel about narcolepsy. Get out of the way and work on finding the damn story! It didn't used to be this bad, she was trained by Gzowski and was a decent interviewer, which is why they gave her the morning show after his retirement. Then it became "all about Sheila, all the time". Thanks luv, I'll pass**.

*Apologies to quaint villages, New Brunswickers and narcoleptics. All of these are fine topics for the radio, just not every day! And if you see Sheilagh Rogers approaching with a tape-recorder, for the love of god, don't make eye contact!
**Apologies to non-Canadians for an excessively maple-centric posting, I'm sure y'all have no idea what I am talking about (eh?). Please consult the mothercorp for clues. Don't feel bad if you don't care, I'm surprised you've managed to stay with me this far.