Countdown...

Damhnait Doyle, who with fellow East Coast ex-pats Kim Stockwood and Tara MacLean form harmony-driven Canadian sorta-supergroup Shaye, runs a sound check at the main stage on Parliament Hill, 1:00 p.m. Saturday, setting up levels for Sunday's celebration. One of 'em was missing, so they called themselves "Two-Shaye". Y'all know by now about certain coyotes' affinity for lousy puns... I like these people!

A restful pre-Canada-Day interlude...

This restful pre-Canada-Day interlude brought to you by Canada's latest UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Elgin Street Irregulars and me. The coyote. I figure if that silly putz, John Baird, can take credit for it, then so can I. As a semi-mythological coyote from a certain foothilled region of the prairies, I have, after all, had some previous experience (2), (3), (4), (5) with UNESCO heritage designations...

Don't Say I Didn't Warn You

Those tricky Fenians are on the move. Not content with only naming important Ottawa sites, they've started buying up the city:

Historic church to become Irish centre after sale
Last Updated: Friday, June 29, 2007 11:47 AM ET
CBC News

A historic Ottawa church that parishioners tried to keep open by suing the local Catholic archdiocese has found a buyer.

St. Brigid's Church and Rectory in Ottawa's Lowertown district will be bought by a group of individuals in the local Irish community with their own money, said the group's spokesman Patrick McDonald on Friday.

It will become known as the Irish Canadian Cultural Centre after its deal is complete in September, he said....

Just so you know

I created a more accessible testing instrument: Are You Addicted?

Uses for a Coyote

Just returned from a family reunion and received the following email from a cousin who is having Canada Geese problems --- or, should I say Canada Geese poop problems. The attempted solution is a Coyote blow-up doll:

Do you or does anyone you know have tried and true advice-cum-experience re. making one's pond un-appealing to geese? For the first time in 30 plus years, a family of Canada geese -- as in Make Way for Goslings (yet to be written) -- has decided to summer-over and poop copiously on our turf rather than flying on to Canada.

One non-violent antidote suggested by Google but summarily rejected by me was to spread powdered grape kool-aid mix (sic !) (stomach-ache stuff for geese) around the pond's periphery.

Another suggestion was to rent a border collie for the summer. Good grief....
A friend said she tried flying at them, flapping her poncho wings like a mega-alpha-goose, to no avail.

Other friends said that either some resident snapping turtles or a target coyote worked like a charm; the pond there is now free of the poop-bags (geese).

So we've followed suit and ordered a life-size foam rubber coyote by overnight mail to stand guard on the bank. Whether this wily "predator" with a dangerous-looking, flapping bandana around its neck will end up deterring and dislodging the messy geese or delighting them, is yet to be determined.