Namaste, Muthaf*ckers
by Jay Smith on February 1, 2013
As far as the “Shit (X demographic) Say” genre goes, “Shit Yogis Say” is a spot-on satire. The blonde-haired protagonist intones with perfect colon-cleansed haughtiness near-nonsensical aphorisms like “You know, carrot sticks are nature’s candy” or “Apples are nature’s toothbrush.” The eponymous “shit” is revealed through rapid cuts of the yogi on the yoga mat, after class, or in concerned conversation with a new yoga convert.
Most disappointing is this …
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On The Politics Of Laughing At Women In Politics
by Jay Smith on March 20, 2012
One of the interweb’s more redeeming features is how, for instance, the photo of the boob-like wheels on Danielle Smith’s tour bus can go from nowhere to everywhere over the course of twenty-four hours. Danielle Smith, for those not submerged in Alberta’s political nuances, is the illustrious leader of Alberta’s righter-than-right Wild Rose party. Reigning over a party that is supported by the backwaters that underwrite Alberta’s misogynistic, 1-in-10-men-would-beat-his-woman stereotype, …
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Bike Kill (for those living in the dark)
by Jay Smith on March 20, 2012
Bike Kill, a festival of “homemade bikes and unbridled hedonism”, is what appears to be an annual event in Brooklyn, NY. It’s been happening for at least the past eight years. (Here in the Albertan hinterland, news doesn’t travel so fast, apparently.) If you’re as new to the crazy DIY bikecapades as me, however, this video will just make your jaw drop. It’s a chick on a double-decker bike that …
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The Discreet Charm of the 1%
by Jay Smith on February 23, 2012
No one ever said keeping up with the Joneses was easy. All that working to consume, all that “driv[ing] to work to pay for this car” (as Metric not entirely convincingly sings). Now, as Toronto Life reveals, being “almost rich” is even harder.
In an excellent perversion of the rhetoric of the Occupy Movement, Jonathan Kay wonders on behalf of TL , “An income of $196,000 places you in the …
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Cold FX, the #1 Placebo for Good Canadians
by Jay Smith on January 28, 2012
Here is a short narrative of nationalism as placebo effect: Canada is cold. Canadians get cold. Canadians get colds! Therefore, Canadians need Cold FX!
Claiming to kickstart a winter-battered immune system and to mitigate the effects and frequency of cold and flus, Cold FX frankly appeals to the Canadian-ness of Canadians. Legions of hockey and sports heroes vouch for it, while Cold FX itself boasts about being “proudly Canadian” and …
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On Beauty, or How to Piss Off Feminists with Plastic Blocks
by Jay Smith on December 31, 2011
In the post-Christmas slurry of newly unwrapped plastic playthings, it’s clear that parents of young girls fall into one of two camps. There are those who attempt to resist the tides of pink princess crap. And somewhere else, there are those who think the whole pink ghetto thing is genius.
Starting tomorrow, parents in North America will have another litmus test for the strategy of their gender indoctrination: whether …
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Bruised Women & the Tasting Public
by Jay Smith on September 1, 2011
Much ink has been spilled about Fluid Salon’s (admittedly appalling) ad campaign featuring a woman with a black eye. Earlier this week, the American advertising blog, Copyranter, posted on the already-a-year-old ads, which depict the woman’s apparent partner holding out a necklace (presumably apologetically); the copy reads “Look good in all you do.”
The story had good legs for the interweb, where commentary correctly pointed out that the campaign glamorized …
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Big-Box Daycare Corp. Tries To Find The Profit In Childcare
by Jay Smith on August 16, 2011
Outrageous waitlists, unaffordable fees (especially, ironically, for middle-class parents who earn too much to be eligible for the meagre subsidies), and poorly qualified (and renumerated) staff are just a handful of the problems with childcare in our country. Now we can add to this list the spreading of “big box childcare” in Canada.
The Vancouver Sun reports that the Edleun Group, Inc. has purchased five existing daycares in British Columbia …
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