http://gregmercer.ca Newspapering and other adventures Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:14:25 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Guelph Mercury, 03/03/10 It’s a real shame you can’t pick the clothes you wear when you get immortalized. If you could, I might have chosen something a little more impressive than, say, a ratty yellow T-shirt two sizes two small and an old pair of dirty shorts. And I wouldn’t have been ... http://gregmercer.ca/2010/03/03/google-street-view-waits-for-no-man/ Sorry for the lack of columns, folks.  I'm in Haiti with the Waterloo Region Record until Feb. 25. You can follow the stories down there at Dispatches from Haiti Here's the latest story: Life starts loudly, ends quietly at Haitian hospital TheRecord.com - Local - Life starts loudly, ends quietly at Haitian ... http://gregmercer.ca/2010/02/20/im-on-haiti-time/ Guelph Mercury, 03-02/10 Look up, look way up. See those lights blinking on in the second- and third-storey windows above Wyndham and Macdonell streets? Yeah, those ones. Turns out, people live up there. Who knew? On Wednesday, a new group is gathering to celebrate those people turning on those upper-floor lights. For the ... http://gregmercer.ca/2010/02/04/downtown-dwellers-get-a-voice/ Guelph Mercury, 01/20/10 Guelph has given the world a lot of things. The Biltmore hat, Sleeman beer and John McCrae, the man who wrote In Flanders Fields. But one of the coolest things this fair city may have ever done was to produce a young man by the name of Tommy Ryan. Ryan ... http://gregmercer.ca/2010/01/20/bowling-for-canada%e2%80%99s-game/ Guelph Mercury, 13/01/10 We spend most of our time trampling over them, taking for granted that they’ll always be there, underfoot, when we need them. And sure, they’re not much to look at. Flat, heavy slabs of concrete that are about as unsexy as it gets. But sidewalks are as big a part ... http://gregmercer.ca/2010/01/13/trampled-under-foot/ Guelph Mercury, 06/01/10 Abraham Lincoln had one. ZZ top had ’em. Heck, Jesus practically invented them. So, the thinking goes, having one would put a man in good company, right? I’m talking, of course, about beards. Those fuzzy jaw warmers that grow right out of your face like some kind of prickly ... http://gregmercer.ca/2010/01/07/the-bearded-wonder-strikes-again/ Guelph Mercury, 30/12/09 These are confusing times. But relax, dear readers. If poorly-paid newspaper columnists are good at anything, it’s telling you exactly what will happen before it happens. So get out your notepads. Without further delay, here are the Mercer Retort’s predictions for 2010. 1) The young woman who tackled Olympic torchbearer Cortney ... http://gregmercer.ca/2009/12/30/2010-you-read-it-here-first/ Guelph Mercury, 12/16/2009 Somewhere deep inside a frozen mountain near Whistler, B.C., lays a list hidden in a dark cave guarded by heavily-armed figure skaters and other lugers. It's not just any list. In fact, it's The List. And the paranoid people running Canada's Olympic celebration don't want you to see ... http://gregmercer.ca/2009/12/16/free-the-olympic-torchbearers/ Guelph Mercury, 09/12/09 If you squint just right, you can almost see this place the way Tom Bradburn remembers it. You’d believe the street that runs past his tiny vintage car shop at a fork in the road in Guelph’s old Ward neighbourhood used to be one happening stretch of asphalt. From a ... http://gregmercer.ca/2009/12/09/let%e2%80%99s-bring-the-stores-back-to-the-ward/ Guelph Mercury, 02/12/09 Why is everybody suddenly driving with their heads down, staring at their crotches? No reason, officer. But I can tell you this much. We are not hiding the fact we are still texting. No sir. Ontario’s new handheld device law for drivers is well-intentioned. It’s for our safety, and who ... http://gregmercer.ca/2009/12/02/they-banned-handheld-devices-but-are-we-safer/