I went to bed last night depressed about shirking weeks of Burning Ears updates, only to wake up this morning and realize it was all a terrible dream. I’ve actually been a faithful correspondent, every day trolling a whole cyberuniverse to find you lots of Metro mentions. That made me feel a lot better. Then I heard an annoying repetitive noise. Was is cheering crowds? Music being played in my honour? Oh no. It was the alarm buzzer. I’d been dreaming that I’d been dreaming. So on this damp summer morning, I woke up for real and decided to start trolling again. And the internet was waiting. Check below to see what I fount.
THE STROKES
from Toronto
A cheery story in the Globe and Mail explains that more women die of strokes than men, and it describes a female stroke survivor—none other than the queen of the Il Mercato/Bish empire:
Stephanie Bertossi, a Halifax restaurateur, was trying to book an airline ticket when she found herself suddenly confused and unable to dial the number. She also had trouble speaking, but convinced her husband to dial her sister’s cellphone number. (story here)
The piece says researchers don’t know exactly why strokes are more fatal to women, but offers a few possible explanations. A diet high in Italian food is not on the list.
RICH’S LIFE PAGEANT
from Calgary
Rich Aucoin, the local musician and Coast blogger, got a nice plug from the Calgary Herald, which recommends people go to his show when he plays there tomorrow night. The write-up says:
While the Grinch had a heart that was two sizes too small, Rich Aucoin’s is bursting with goodwill. The Halifax-based musician, who has created an EP that syncs up entirely with Dr. Seuss’ 1966 cartoon classic How The Grinch Stole Christmas, is riding his bike across Canada, performing in major cities along the way, in a bid to raise money for The Childhood Cancer Foundation, an organization that raises funding for cancer research. (story here)
If you’re in town, catch his at Velvet Underground, 10pm.
RACE TO JUSTICE
from Texas and New York
Like many locals, folks in Texas and New York are keeping an eye on Glen Race’s progress through the justice system. He’s the 26-year-old Haligonian accused of murdering two guys in Halifax and a man in upstate New York, who was picked up near the Mexico border. Texas NBC affiliate KTEN is following his progress from Texas to face the murder charge in New York. (story here) And in upstate New York, the Press Republican newspaper is awaiting his arrival:
Accused murderer Glen D. Race is due in Clinton County on Thursday.
According to State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation Capt. Robert LaFountain, a team of State Police investigators left Tuesday for Texas, where the Nova Scotia man is being held in a Brownsville jail.
Race, 26, is charged with second-degree murder in the May 10 shooting death of Mooers father of two Darcy Manor. He is also accused of the homicides of two men in the Halifax, Nova Scotia, area. (story here)
The paper doesn’t speculated about New York letting him go back to Halifax to answer to the two murder charges here. Then again, everyone knows America has the best justice system in the world, so it’s natural that the needs of Canadian justice aren’t in the picture.
MYSTERY SNAKE
from Edmonton
Edmonton Sun readers aren’t having their preconceptions about quaint, sleepy Halifax tested by this story:
Nearly a week after a mysterious black snake chomped through a local man’s shoe, a zoologist says it’s impossible to say whether it was a harmless garter snake or a more dangerous species.
“Could it have been an exotic snake? The answer is that possibility always exists,” says Andrew Hebda, curator of zoology at the Museum of Natural History in nearby Halifax. (story here)
You’re one of the most violent cities in Canada, nobody cares. You have a random shoe-eating reptile, you’ve got friends.
Snake sightings: dial 911. Halifax sightings: send links here.
This article appears in Jun 7-13, 2007.