The Titanic gets Kelly Ripa'd, the mumps meets dog flu and they're wild about local crystal in the land of Oz. It's a promising start to the week. Full links below.
THAT SINKING FEELING
from Pittsburgh
The weekend gathering of Titanic enthusiasts in Halifax has gotten pretty wide play, but the single best line about it comes from Pitt News, a student paper at the University of Pittsburgh. In a "Canadian edition" of the paper's "Headlines in Brief" column, Arun Butcher cracks wise: "Titanic enthusiasts? Um, 1997 called and it wants its 13-year-old girls back." (full story here, but the rest isn't nearly so good)
IN OTHER NEWS FROM THE EARLY 1900s
from Ottawa, Calgary and doubtless others
Oh, Halifax and its mumps outbreak. A Calgary Sun story puts the city's 75 cases in sharp contrast: "That figure wouldn't be unusual for the entire nation over the course of a year." (story here) However, what's got me excited is an Ottawa-based site picking up on the viral pandemonium. The site's name: DogFlu.ca. Its story is about vaccines.
The idea now is that they may need to implement a more wisespread vaccination program in order to curb the virus from expanding any further.Isn't that amazing? A whole site called DogFlu, without the slightest trace of irony. And a big vaccine program would be wild, too.The outbreak began back in February with 69 people around Halifax catching the virus with the majority of the patients being very young, 20 to 25 years-old. The mumps usually occurs in Nova Scotia, but only with about one or two cases per year. This is a huge surge.
Doctors are stating that more than one dose may be needed in order to properly protect people from the mumps in the future. The vaccines would be for people born between 1970 and 1992. Anyone born before that is immune since most children older than that had mumps when they were young. The new vaccine program, if put into action, would be used across Canada. (full story here)
THEY COME FROM A LAND DOWN UNDER
from Adelaide
A paper called The Advertiser gives local tourism a plug with a story called "48 hours in Halifax" by Jessica Hurt. She gives specific recommendations for where to stay (the Halliburton, the Prince George), where to drink (Old Triangle, Seven or head to The Press Gang, "where Hollywood celebrities hand out when they are in town") and what to do:
Hit the shops for local hand-crafted pewter and mouth-blown crystal. When the sun goes down, tap your toes to the Celtic beat of live musicians in one of the city's many pubs.Standard stuff to us, but I suppose if you're coming all the way from Australia for just two days, you'd be so jet-lagged — not to mention kinda soft in the head to begin with — that keeping it simple works.It's also home to the world's longest downtown boardwalk, which runs for more than 4km along the harbour. Cruise the harbour on a tall ship or just relax by the sea and watch the sailboats drift idly by.
Once you have explored the city, hire a car and head to the coast along the scenic eastern shore. (full story here)
Keep an eye out for Halifax as you're fulfilling world wide wanderlust. Send links here.
