Saturday May 17, 2008
FOCUS 
VERBATIM: WHAT WAS SAID THIS WEEK, IN PUBLIC AND IN PRINT: BY MICHAEL KESTERTON
SHAKEN WORDS''My wife died in the quake.My house was destroyed. I am going to Chengdu, but I don't know where I'll live.''Zhou Chun, a 70-year-old
Oooh, Irish immigration to Newfoundland - it just screams 'sexy,' doesn't it?
I've been trying to imagine what the Canada Border Services Agency was expecting when, suspicious that it was pornographic, it confiscated undeveloped footage from the Canadian film Love and Savagery on its way from Ireland to Montreal.
White Knight
John Edwards, multimillionaire,May spend a fortune on his hair,Dress quite unlike your average hick,Have no bad habits left to kick,And do his best to take a pass
TALKING PICTURES: IMAGES OF THE WORLD THIS WEEK: FLYING MACHINES
Finally, we get to say it for real: Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Fusion Man!Who, when he's not flying over the Swiss Alps with a jet-fuelled carbon wing strapped to his back, is a Swiss airline pilot named Yves Rossy.
No, Prime Minister
The Prime Minister was in no mood for jokes. Here it was, just two weeks after Elections Canada officials, flanked by RCMP officers in blue flak jackets, had arrived at his party's Ottawa headquarters armed with a search warrant and the Bloc Quebecois had the gall to ask that Parliament give the agency a formal vote of confidence.
Relax, Churchill didn't do it
In the never-ending battles for historical truth, documentary evidence commands the greatest authority.Memories lapse, eyewitnesses are partial, political players have reputations to protect and even the smartest interpreters of the past have a weakness for beautiful theories that can't always be sustained by the dull disorder of facts.
TOM HAYDEN'S CAPTION: RELIEF
So Tom, what is your caption for this photo?The caption I came up with was ''Relief.'' When I look at this picture, I feel two possibilities. One, that there's hands outstretched for food assistance. And two, there's hands outstretched to some religious figure. So this is a cry for relief. It could be a cry to a supreme being, or a cry to an administrator of food relief. I can't tell. The eyes are mostly closed. The hands are more worshipful. So it could be both.
Sam Malone asks Canada to step up to the plate
The following is excerpted from a speech made by Cheers actor and Oceana board member Ted Danson to the Economic Club of Toronto on Tuesday. You may ask why you've invited Sam Malone to talk to you about fish.
Sour Cherie
The secure telephone at 10 Downing Street was on Cherie Blair's side of the bed. After she had cooked dinner, loaded the dishwasher, read the kids their stories, reviewed her legal briefs and climbed into bed, she would sometimes be awoken, in the wee hours, by George W. Bush, who paid little heed to the five-hour time difference. Groggy and not entirely pleased, she would pass the receiver to her husband, and listen to half the conversation.
Blight of the generals: Myanmar's deadly gamble
As soon as you cross the Thai-Myanmar friendship bridge, you have to shift perspective. From driving on the left-hand side in Thailand, you suddenly veer to the right. The sharp zigzag is just the first clue that, in Myanmar, the world looks different.
PRODIGAL RETURNS: CANADA'S LAST LIVING FIRST WAR VET IS A CANADIAN AGAIN
On Feb. 1, 1916, a young man - too young, it turned out - pledged allegiance to King George V and volunteered to fight for Canada. This week, 92 years later, John Henry Foster Babcock pledged allegiance again, this time to the king's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II, and reconnected with the land of his birth. Believed to be Canada's last surviving veteran of the First World War, Mr. Babcock is now 107 - and a Canadian once more. A mere 15 when he enlisted, he never saw action and after the war moved to the United States, eventually becoming a U.S. citizen. But last month, he wrote asking to renew his status, and Ottawa quickly agreed. ''I'm happy to be back,'' he said after the ceremony at his home in Spokane, Wash. ''There are a lot of nice people in Canada - a lot of good-looking ones too.''
