IN LIKE A LION: It's St. David's Day and the start of meteorological spring. Welcome to March in what has become, due to global warming, the Niagara Riviera. Tender fruit farmers across the peninsula are justifiably trembling at the early budding likely to result from this crazy warm weather, with the predictably late killer freeze coming in April. Surely I’m not the only one who watches these bobblehead Kens and Barbies delivering TV weather reports and waxing enthusiastic about how wonderful it is to “enjoy” such warm temperatures in the middle of a Canadian winter. No, it’s not something to enjoy. It’s something to lament, something that should continue to scare the bejesus out of everyone for the future it portends for our kids and grandkids. With its massive layoffs, by the way, Bell Media has killed off actual weather forecasting, with radar, on CP24, which was the only reason to watch CP24, its hilariously typo-ridden news crawl notwithstanding. Here's one from this morning:
OUT LIKE A LAMB: Here’s some news. At the end of March our Fonthill office will be closing. We’ve come to the end of the lease originally signed by the Voice, and the good folks at Village Media have opted not to renew it for PelhamToday. In reality, even before the pandemic hit many of us media-types worked from home, and then Covid well and truly killed-off media office space. I’m aware of just a single remaining physical news office in Niagara, and that’s in Niagara-on-the-Lake, belonging to one of that town’s two weeklies. Did I say two? It’s the office of the one remaining weekly. The second paper, The Local, ceased publication last week in the face of the inescapable economic realities facing print journalism. Luckily for NOTL residents, The Local’s reporting will continue online, in our Village Media network. Its editor, Penny Coles, is a pal, and I hope to have an informative interview with her for you soon, after she’s taken some deserved time off.
But back to Fonthill. No office means no need for office equipment, and that means that Everything Must Go! May I interest you in a portable room air conditioner? A couple of sturdy 1980s-style metal desks? An absolutely enormous table that would be great in someone’s workshop? A solid hutch? Seriously, here are some mug shots:
We’ll need to hold on to one of the desks, anyway, for another couple of weeks, but everything else is ready to move to its new home ASAP. Hit me up by email if anything catches your fancy. There’s also an enormous table, aircraft-carrier size (no photo above), which weighs merely a ton and will take a small army to move, and that, my friends, is free to the first taker! (And just to be clear, PelhamToday isn’t going anywhere. It’s just the office that’s closing.)
IMPORTANT NOTE: No office drop-ins, please. Contact me through the email link above if you are interested in any item. Pickup only in Fonthill.
UPDATE: As of Saturday, the cabinet, shredder, and envelopes are gone.
THE ANTIOXIDANT MYTH: If you missed it yesterday, be sure to check out another excellent wellness column by John Swart, this week addressing what can almost be called the massive hoax perpetrated by an unregulated health supplements industry, namely that antioxidant supplements are beneficial, when, in fact, they could very well be harmful to many who take them. And it all started with an article in that pinnacle publication of infallible medical research, Ladies Home Journal. In 1954. It’s really astonishing how we have all been bamboozled for so long. Take a look.
Like a lot of Boomers belatedly forced to acknowledge the reality of life, or more accurately, the reality of death, on the one-hopes-still-distant horizon, I’ve lately become more vigilant about diet and exercise. (A couple of PTSD-inducing hospital stays were particularly inspirational.) This comes decades later than it should have, though in my defense, and owing in large part to my Asian spouse’s Asian cuisine, I’ve never really eaten fast food or prepared foods in great amounts, and our diet has been low in the usual suspects—red meat, bad fats, high-sodium processed foods—over those decades.
Still, as research mounts that plant-based foods are the healthiest options for the gut microbiome and overall wellness, we’ve been increasingly focused on getting those recommended 30 plant-based foods per week, which in fact turns out to be pretty easy given the broad definition of “plant-based”—seasonings count, for example, like thyme, oregano, basil. That’s 10 percent of your weekly 30 right there. This Guardian article lays it out well. And note, by the way, that this isn’t a vegetarian or vegan diet. We’re quite happy to roast a chicken or whip up the occasional turkey meatloaf. And bacon, oh yes, bacon please.
On that delicious note, see you next time. And don’t forget about those office desks!
