Pope adopts stricter sex-abuse rules

By macleans.ca - Thursday, July 15, 2010 at 12:03 PM - 0 Comments

The Pope has revised sexual abuse rules by streamlining Vatican procedures for prosecuting and disciplining priests accused of sexual abuse. The revisions were made to a 2001 papal decree issued by Pope John Paul II in 2001 and will double the statute of limitations on accused priests to 20 years from the alleged victim’s 18th birthday. The changes will increase the ability of Vatican authorities to take action against priests accused of abuse. The revisions were a monumental step for the Pope, who has been criticized for not moving fast enough to address the church’s sex abuse scandals.

Wall Street Journal

The grab bag

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, July 15, 2010 at 11:53 AM - 0 Comments

Ned Franks takes on the blight of omnibus legislation.

In far too short a period, the House and Senate finance committees examining C-9 had to inform themselves and vote on changes and innovations to taxation and other financial measures. They had to consider amendments to the laws governing pensions and the Federal-Provincial Arrangements Act. They had to examine a Canada-Poland agreement on social security, a proposal to eliminate Canada Post’s monopoly over mail to be delivered outside Canada, provisions to permit credit unions to act as banks, and legislation permitting to sell off much of AECL. Other provisions of C-9 permit fundamental changes to the environmental review process.

This is only a few of the topics in C-9. Many of these sections have little if any relationship to the budget – they should have been presented to Parliament as stand-alone bills and examined by the appropriate specialist committees.

This could all be dismissed as somehow arcane, but, as noted a couple months ago, a suggestion from the Liberal leader at an event here in Ottawa that Parliament cease with the practice of omnibus legislation won fairly substantial applause from the brothers and sisters of Canada’s trade unions. Note too, roughly along these same lines, that when Mr. Ignatieff took questions yesterday, two Kingstonites rose with questions about relatively obscure bits of legislation.

U.S. home repossessions hit record high

By macleans.ca - Thursday, July 15, 2010 at 11:51 AM - 0 Comments

U.S. banks repossessed more homes in the second quarter of 2010 than any other quarter on record, despite efforts to delay homes from entering foreclosure, reports the LA Times. The number of homes repossessed—269,952—is 38% higher than the same quarter last year. However, the number of homes that received foreclosure notices last quarter is only 1% higher year over year. While some are calling the flood of repossessed houses a “set back” for the resale market, experts say the record numbers are simply a sign that banks are reaching the repossession stage in lengthy foreclosure processes that began months ago.

LA Times

The Old Spice Guy

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, July 15, 2010 at 11:47 AM - 0 Comments

Christopher Bird has a post about this week’s big viral video event, the many direct-to-YouTube sequels to the Old Spice commercial starring former football player Isaiah Mustafa. In most of the videos, he responds to a question asked on social media (including one question he asked himself), while maintaining his deadpan demeanor and super-deep voice, and frequently holding up props to make a comedic point.

One thing about this campaign is that it’s taking advantage of the fact that, with today’s technology, it’s possible to make a super-quick commercial that looks just as good as a real commercial — maybe not a real current commercial, but the commercials many viewers still recall seeing on TV. Remember that George Steinbrenner/Billy Martin commercial? It was done in one take, with a static camera, and obviously little time for retakes (Martin slurs his speech at a couple of points). That’s the baseline for a successful commercial, as long as the material is reasonably funny and the pitchman doesn’t choke on-camera. So using the comic persona from the original commercial, Mustafa and Old Spice can spin off dozens of mini-commercials that still have a professional feel to them.

The original ad also reminds me of something George Cukor said about technique: he said that if you want dazzling displays of cinema technique you should look not to movies, but “to some of the commercials, which are real humdingers.” This ad uses technology(tm) to seamlessly change Mustafa’s clothes and location, and jump him off a cliff and into a hot tub, all without an apparent cut. Why should the surrounding TV programs even try competing with that kind of gimmickry?

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Vehicle of missing Alberta couple seen in Prince George

By macleans.ca - Thursday, July 15, 2010 at 11:47 AM - 0 Comments

A Hyundai Tucson belonging to Lyle and Marie McCann, a missing Alberta couple, has been spotted in the Prince George, B.C. area. RCMP are now requesting to speak for a second time to the couple who reported seeing the vehicle. The McCanns left St. Albert, Alberta on July 3, heading for B.C. They were supposed to meet their daughter at the airport in Abbotsford on July 10, but never arrived. Later, the motorhome they had been driving with the Tucson in tow was found burned at the Minnow Lake campground near Edson, Alta.

BC Local News

New Canadians at greater risk of drowning

By macleans.ca - Thursday, July 15, 2010 at 11:43 AM - 0 Comments

It may be because many new Canadians don’t have access to pools or lakes back home, or because of the lack of time and money for swimming lessons, but a new study shows that immigrants to Canada are at least four times more likely to be unable to swim than people born here. As a result, they are at a greater risk for drowning, according to a new Ipsos Reid Public Affairs study, which was commissioned by the Lifesaving Society. These findings confirm what drowning-prevention experts have suspected for nearly a decade, says Barbara Byers, the public education director of the Lifesaving Society: “For the first time, we have scientific, evidence-based data to support what our hypothesis was: that new Canadians have a higher drowning rate.”

Globe and Mail

Microsoft’s COO calls iPhone 4 flaw Apple’s “Vista moment”

By macleans.ca - Thursday, July 15, 2010 at 11:36 AM - 0 Comments

“It looks like the iPhone 4 might be [Apple’s] Vista, and I’m okay with that,” Kevin Turner, Microsoft’s chief operating officer told an audience in Washington, D.C. yesterday. Apple stock started falling after buyers of the much-anticipated new smartphone discovered that touching the external antenna causes dropped calls. The highly influential Consumer Reports magazine decided it would not recommend the iPhone 4 on Monday. Apple stock has declined 8 per cent since the June 24 launch. Microsoft faced similar financial damage after its much-anticipated Vista operating system received bad reviews when launched in January 2007. Microsoft stock fell about 10 per cent in one month.

Computer World

Wall St.

Wired

Women with big hips have worse memory: study

By macleans.ca - Thursday, July 15, 2010 at 11:13 AM - 0 Comments

Excess weight seems to impair women’s brains, but carrying it on the hips makes it worse, according to researchers at the Northwestern Medicine team. The researchers found that “apple-shaped” women do better than “pears” on cognitive tests, the BBC reports. Weight around the waist ups the risk of cancer, diabetes and heart disease, said experts who noted that findings highlighted the importance of maintaining healthy weight for body and mind. Risks associated with obesity, like vascular disease and inflammation, could help explain why overweight people are at higher risk of dementia, but this new study suggests extra fat around the waist could protect brain functioning. Belly fat seems to make more of the female hormone estrogen, which lowers after menopause. In the study which looked at 8,745 post-menopausal women aged 65 to 79, researchers gave women a test used to judge brain function, as well as weighing and measuring them. Over two-thirds of the women were overweight or obese. For every one point increase in their BMI, the memory score dropped by one point, and pear-shaped women scored particularly badly.

BBC News

How healthy are couch potatoes who work out?

By macleans.ca - Thursday, July 15, 2010 at 10:51 AM - 0 Comments

In a new study published in May, U.S. researchers reported that men who sit the most have the greatest risk of heart problems: those who spend over 23 hours per week watching TV and sitting in their cars have a 64 per cent greater chance of dying from heart disease than those who sat for 11 hour per week or less. While these results were unsurprising, many men who suffered health problems after being sedentary for long hours also exercised, and reported leading active lifestyles, the New York Times reports. On average, adults now spend more than nine hours a day being sedentary. Before computers and TVs became widespread, people spent more time on “light-intensity activities,” like mopping, cooking and changing lightbulbs, hours that have been replaced with sitting. In a number of recent studies, animals who kept still in their cages developed unhealthy cellular changes in their muscles, showing signs of insulin resistance and higher levels of fatty acid in the blood. Muscles change when unused, upping the risk for heart disease and diabetes.

New York Times

Czech MPs pose for risqué calendar

By macleans.ca - Thursday, July 15, 2010 at 10:39 AM - 0 Comments

Female MPs in Czech Republic are getting noticed with a racy new calendar. Women from the Public Affairs party posed in skirts and bras for black-and-white pin-up style portraits during a May election that saw a record 44 women elected to the 200-person Czech parliament. “Why not show we are women who aren’t afraid of being sexy?” said Prague politician Marketa Reedova, who appeared in the calendar. MP Lenka Andrysova told the Wall Street Journal that she got into politics after being inspired by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but wouldn’t necessarily look to her for style tips.

Wall Street Journal

Bestsellers

By Brian Bethune - Thursday, July 15, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Top-selling fiction and non-fiction titles (week of July 12th, 2010)

Fiction

Non-fiction

LAST WEEK (WEEKS ON LIST)

NBZ 836

By Colby Cosh - Thursday, July 15, 2010 at 7:21 AM - 0 Comments

While Toronto’s police board tries to untangle a messy outcome of “Integrated Security Unit” policing, a story from Alberta raises questions about just how “integrated” our existing police forces are within themselves—indeed, within individual divisions of themselves. You have to put the tale of the missing Lyle and Marie Ann McCann in chronological order, and assemble several news stories, to get the weird effect here. The elderly McCanns left St. Albert on a camping trip July 3, intending to meet their daughter in Abbotsford, B.C., on the 10th. As is increasingly common with retired travellers, they were towing an SUV behind a spacious motor home. On July 5, the motor home was found unoccupied and burning in a forest clearing near Edson, about three-quarters of the way along the Yellowhead from Edmonton to the Rockies. The registration card was retrieved and handed over to the RCMP.

This event apparently didn’t raise any urgent concerns about the whereabouts of the couple. The Mounties originally told the media that the Edson cops had passed along the information to the St. Albert detachment, and that officers there had knocked on the door at the McCanns’ address. This information, as the saying goes, now appears to be inoperative. Tuesday’s rather critical story from the Globe says “…officers from the Edson detachment tried calling the McCanns. When they received no answer, they asked St. Albert RCMP to knock on the door of the McCann home. RCMP supervisors don’t yet know if anyone did that…”.

The police, at that point, arguably had no way of knowing they were dealing with a potential double-homicide case rather than a run-of-the-mill stolen-vehicle matter. But on the 10th, the McCanns missed their rendezvous with daughter Trudy, who then reported them missing, and the Mounted leapt into action—putting out an all-points bulletin for both the SUV, which is still AWOL, and the RV, which had already been in RCMP possession for five days at that point. The initial news story about the missing couple actually notes that “Edson RCMP have been searching the area”…for the same motor home the Edson RCMP had found nearly a week before! How could such a thing happen? One hopes there will eventually be a better answer than “Nobody is perfect”.

You will have Jean Charest to kick around

By Martin Patriquin - Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 5:47 PM - 0 Comments

Jean Charest says the exact opposite of what everybody has been thinking, swears up and down that he’s going to stick around these fine parts for a fourth mandate.

I’ll let CBC set up his dramatic [sic] declaration, which he made in a one-on-one interview with the network’s Tim Duboyce:

Many political observers have been predicting Charest will try to return to Ottawa after more than 12 years on the provincial scene, given his public appeal and recognition factor nationally.

But when asked whether he still had his sights set on 24 Sussex Drive, Charest was blunt.

“No,” he replied without hesitation. “I have a great job that I enjoy. … It took me a long while to get to where I am, so I’m very happy where I am.”

Charest has won the last three general elections in Quebec, including the most recent vote in 2008, which returned him to majority power after 18 months running a precarious minority government — the first in the province in more than 100 years.

The premier said that not only does he intend to remain in provincial politics, but that he’ll also seek another term.

“I’ve done four elections in Quebec, including the one in ’98,” he said, referrring to his only provincewide loss as Quebec Liberal leader. “In all four elections, I won a plurality of the votes. Four consecutive elections.

“I think five is a good number.”

With all due respect, Mr. Premier, you speak an untruth. Five is a great number. Jackson 5 Jurassic 5. MC5. Need I say more?

But I digress. I’m sure being Pauline Marois’ pinata is a dream job, as is having to spend roughly a third of  your only long form English-language interview in years assuring the world that “there is no scandal.” Quebec, as Charest rightly points out, is doing quite well, economically-speaking.Why depart for friggin’ Ottawa when the view is so nice in Quebec City? Not him, he makes it clear.

Now, I have no doubt about Mr. Charest’s sincerity. What I’ve said about the tenacity of Pauline Marois at the helm of the PQ is true for Jean Charest and Quebec in general. Leading this province is a very difficult job, particularly if you are a federalist, and the fact that he’s remained boss for long says as much about his instincts as it does about his hide.

Except that he’s sounded just as sincere 12 years ago, when everybody and their cat was begging Charest to leave the Progressive Conservative Party (R.I.P.) to head up the recently decapitated Quebec Liberal Party. ”We should never put ourselves in the position where the future of the country depends on one individual,” Charest said in a warmly received speech to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. “This country is a lot more resilient than that. It will survive Jean Charest. It will even survive Jean Chretien.”

Here’s another:

“Of all the questions I have been asked the last few days . . . I am reminded why I made that choice in 1993,” Charest said in March 1998. “It’s because we in this country need a national political party able to include every part of Canada.”

A month later, was leader of the Quebec Liberal Party.

Given the precedent, I wonder: is Mr. Charest’s current “I’ll-be-in-Quebec-City-forever” routine another head fake? Is he fishing for some sort of offer/exit strategy from Ottawa?

Tony Clement needs you

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 5:07 PM - 0 Comments

To defend its position on the census, and respond to the former chief statistician at Statistics Canada, the government put up Dean Del Mastro on CBC’s The Current this morning. Mr. Del Mastro claims to have taken a “number” of statistics courses in his life. Make of his effort what you will.

Mind you, with all the respect Mr. Del Mastro’s expertise in this regard is obviously due, things do not appear to be going well for the government side so far in this debate and it would perhaps be helpful to Tony Clement’s cause if a professional statistician, economist, social scientist or city planner would step forward to express support for the government’s decision. So consider this a call to all. If you toil in any of those aforementioned fields—or have any other kind of professional interest in the census—and are supportive of the government’s position, please drop me a note at aaron.wherry@macleans.rogers.com.

Please give generously.

All things to all people

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 3:55 PM - 0 Comments

Justice Frank Iacobucci, as noted, has been tabbed as one of the eminent jurists who will arbitrate for the committee reviewing Afghan detainee documents. The NDP says the presence of Justice Iacobucci taints the process because he was previously under contract to the government to review documents on their behalf. The Liberals say transparency is ensured because they were assured Justice Iacobucci’s retainer has been terminated.

Justice Iacobucci was also previously tabbed by this government to conduct an inquiry into the torture of three Canadians overseas. In that case, Mr. Iacobucci’s findings were endorsed by the NDP public safety and national security critic Don Davies—”One of the most eminent jurists in our country,” he said—but are presently being contested by this government.

Victims of Earl Jones allowed to sue Royal Bank

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 3:05 PM - 0 Comments

Victims of Montreal swindler Earl Jones will be allowed to file a class-action lawsuit against the Royal Bank of Canada, a Quebec Superior Court judge decided Wednesday. The claimants want $40 million in damages from the bank, which they say carelessly allowed him to use personal cheques for business purposes, making it easier for him to steal their money. Jones, 67, is serving an 11-year jail sentence for defrauding more than 150 people out of $50 million.

Montreal Gazette

Behold, the outrage

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 2:52 PM - 0 Comments

The last two editions of the census generated precisely three complaints to the privacy commissioner, one of which was resolved without an investigation, another of which was not found to constitute a breach of the Privacy Act.

The census collection process is “inherently privacy-invasive” and the information highly personal, so her office understands why some people find the questions intrusive, she said, but they also see the value and importance of the census. ”We’ve always put forward that the questions must be kept to what is strictly necessary for good government and that the information gathered must be protected with the appropriate safeguard,” she said, adding that they were satisfied with the measures Statistics Canada had in place.

Charest appears in court for defamation lawsuit

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 2:37 PM - 0 Comments

Quebec Premier Jean Charest appeared in court Wednesday morning as a defamation lawsuit against his former justice minister Marc Bellemare enters its preliminary stage. Charest is suing Bellemare for $700,000, alleging that Bellemare slandered his reputation when he went public with accusations of influence-peddling in connection with the alleged nomination of Liberal-friendly judges. Bellemare claims he was pressured by high-ranking Liberal organizers to name certain lawyers to the bench while he served in Charest’s cabinet and that the premier was aware of irregularities. When Bellemare went public with his accusations in April, it set off a firestorm at the National Assembly. Charest denied the claims and threatened a lawsuit before announcing a provincial commission to investigate Quebec’s judicial nomination process. Bellemare has until Sept. 3 to present his arguments, and will be counter-questioned by Charest’s lawyer, André Ryan, in the fall. Both parties have until Dec. 15 to provide the courts with necessary documents.

CBC

18 dead, 57 missing after tropical storm hits Philippines

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 2:35 PM - 0 Comments

The Philippines’ National Disaster Coordinating Council has reported 18 people are dead and another 57 missing as Tropical Storm Conson moved over the Philippines on Wednesday. The council said the storm, known locally as “Basyang,” had weakened slightly. Conson made landfall on the island of Luzon late Tuesday, about 66 kilometers east of the capital, Manila. It was back over the South China Sea, about 180 kilometers west of Iba, as of Wednesday afternoon. The council reported that four people died when a warehouse under construction collapsed, while others were hit by falling debris or drowned. Twelve people were injured by falling debris, and 25 fisherman are among those still missing. Nearly 500 houses were damaged, and many are still without power. The storm is expected to move into southern China on Friday, but the Joint Typhoon Warning Center is predicting little or no intensification before landfall there.

CNN

New delays push back fixing BP spill

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 2:31 PM - 0 Comments

BP has stopped drilling on a relief well that is believed to be the only permanent fix available for the spill the Gulf of Mexico for at least 48 hours, delaying its completion by a few days. BP also announced that it would be delaying the integrity testing of a new cap designed to be fitted on top of the well. Government officials and BP say they need more time for analysis before testing can proceed. No date has been set for when testing will begin.

Wall Street Journal

Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston announce engagement

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 2:27 PM - 0 Comments

Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston are getting married—and they told US Weekly about their plans even before notifying their parents. The celebrity magazine reports Bristol and Levi got engaged two weeks ago without the blessing of their parents. In fact, Bristol says she finds the prospect of telling her mother, 2008 vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, “intimidating and scary.” The younger Palin is featured on the cover of the magazine with Johnston, along with their 18-month-old son Tripp. The couple says they reconnected while working out a custody plan and hope to get married within six weeks in Alaska.

Toronto Star

What year is it again?

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 2:04 PM - 0 Comments

Four scantily-clad female MPs from the Czech Republic’s Public Affairs party have posed for a 2011 calendar to celebrate the May elections which saw a record 44 women elected to into the lower house of parliament. Two other women, one the party’s candidate for the mayor of Prague, make up the numbers, with each politician photographed twice for the calendar, which will be sold for charity. “We want to draw attention to the fact that we have women in politics,” said MP Lenka Andrysova, who appears in one shot in a thigh-high dress kneeling on a shelf. Deputy speaker Katerina Klasnova is photographed lying on a bed wearing a loose-fitting robe. “Women’s political influence is growing. Why not show we are women who aren’t afraid of being sexy?” said Marketa Reedova, the mayoral candidate. It isn’t the first time the party has used glamour to highlight its strong female presence. During the election campaign, four of the women who appear in the calendar posed for a billboard poster wearing black swimsuits.

The Telegraph

Drunk Russians drowning in record heat wave

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 2:02 PM - 0 Comments

A three-week heat-wave expected to hit a record high of 37 C this weekend is being blamed for hundreds of drowning deaths in Russia. More than 1,200 people have drowned this year, 233 of them between July 5 and 12. Yesterday, 49 people drowned. Alcohol was a factor in most of these deaths, a spokesman for Russia’s Emergency ministry said in a news conference. “The majority of those drowned were drunk. The children died because adults simply did not look after them.” The worst drought in 130 years is also destroying the major ingredient in the vodka beach-goers are imbibing. In response, the government imposed a state of emergency in 16 regions where the heat destroyed grains in an area the size of Portugal.

Toronto Star

TV: Retools Are Out

By Jaime Weinman - Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 1:35 PM - 0 Comments

The news that Betty White will appear in the season premiere of Community is a fun bit of overkill, though I don’t see it boosting the show’s ratings all that much; as a commenter points out, she didn’t boost The Middle — a more popular show than Community — above its normal level. (Guest stars are great, but they rarely goose the show’s viewership levels unless they’re very famous people who rarely appear on scripted TV, e.g. Britney Spears on How I Met Your Mother.) The thing about Community is that gimmicky guest stars appear to be the only big change it’s making for the second season — and since they had Jack Black in season one, that’s not actually a change.

This is one thing that has changed in my TV viewing lifetime: it’s more common than it ever was for a struggling show to get a renewal without being retooled. There have always been shows that got picked up again despite low ratings. But even a decade ago, the normal price for that pickup would have been some obvious changes: new characters, new sets, maybe even a different premise. People who grew up in the ’80s might, for example, remember Perfect Strangers and how after its first full season, several characters were dropped (including one whose actress came back as a different character), and the first episode of the new season introduced a bunch of new characters, a new job for the heroes, a new place for them to work, a better apartment for them to live in. Not to mention an almost completely new title sequence. The retool was the price a “bubble” show paid for being renewed: the idea was that the show had potential, but the ratings demonstrated that it wasn’t living up to that potential, so the network and producers would try a bunch of new things to increase the ratings. Sometimes it would work and make the show better, sometimes it would make it worse, but few shows would return unchanged unless they had a bunch of Emmy awards to back them up.

This is much rarer than it used to be. If you look at the “bubble” shows that are coming back next season — or came back this previous season — most of them have been permitted to go on more or less as they did before. Cougar Town isn’t even changing its title, which almost everybody seems to hate; Chuck always survives intact. These shows may make subtle cosmetic changes, or tonal changes (like the second season of Friday Night Lights tried to take some network notes about making it more melodramatic) or changes that follow naturally from the story arcs the writers have set up, but you rarely see the new season start over with a passel of unfamiliar characters and a fundamentally altered premise.

Like everything else that happens in entertainment, this has its ups and downs. The “up” is that while shows might not hang on as long, they get to be themselves for as long as they survive. Cougar Town might be more popular if they shrunk the cast, brought in a studio audience (something that would probably improve it anyway; except Matthew Perry in Mr. Sunshine I’ve rarely seen someone whose timing was as off as Cox’s in this format), gave Jules a new and funnier job, or the other things that bubble shows used to try in their second seasons. But fans of the show that it has become — and it did end its first season as a smart and entertaining show — would be disappointed. Now it may be doubtful that it will last beyond two seasons, but if it does, those two seasons will be what the show was supposed to be; fans won’t have to talk about it the way they talk about, say, Michael Mann’s Crime Story, where there’s one season of gold and one season of retooled dross.

The “down” is that networks and producers alike sort of let some shows amble on without trying to address their core problems. This may arguably be an “up” as well, since a lot of times retooling just makes things worse. But sometimes it doesn’t, and anyway, it’s not always a bad thing for a show to try something new after doing 22 episodes based on its original premise. But also, the author of the blog Inessentials suggested that in the absence of retooling, networks take more time with the show at the pilot stage, to make sure it fits the network brand. (His example was Burn Notice, where USA retooled it at the script stage to move the location from drab New Jersey to sexy Florida.) I think that’s true, and I don’t think that’s a good thing, really. Pilots are down payments on potential; it sometimes makes sense for a network to pick up a pilot that isn’t perfect, on the basis that it has something that can be developed. This only works if both the executives and writers are prepared to make big changes once they find out what is and isn’t connecting with the audience.

In other words, if Cougar Town fails to get better ratings in its second season, it will be canceled despite having the core of a potentially popular show (including a lead that the audience still likes). Maybe it would make more sense for ABC to keep the core of it and try to build it into something more popular, rather than keeping it on for a year and then replacing it with something else.

But, again, this begs the question of whether it’s better to have seven years of something else, rather than two years of the original. I guess everyone has his or her own personal answer to that question.

Finally, though it’s in no way related to the theme of this post, this is still my favourite Betty White moment, and one that hasn’t been discussed much amidst all the White-mania.

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