Two thumbs up.  You would be hard pressed to find any person in North America, or even around the world, who hasn't used that particular iconic image to signify "well done" or "I really liked that."  The second of the two men who created it, film critic Roger Ebert, passed away today after a long, off and on battle with cancer.  He was 70 years old.

For people of my age, Ebert, and his late partner Gene Siskel, represented part of a bygone era when every new film release wasn't dissected ad nauseum by every wannabe film buff, college student, or internet know-it-all.  Back then in dark ages before YouTube, Rotten Tomatoes, and MetaCritic, if you wanted to find out if a film was worth paying your two bits to go see (ok, maybe a little more than 25 cents.  I'm not THAT old), you had basically three options.  You ...

Well, it’s been an interesting start to 2013.  2 very different, yet strangely similar sports stories dominated the headlines this month.

First off, the saga of Lance Armstrong and the “did he or didn’t he cheat” questions were finally answered by, of all people, Lance himself.  Armstrong decided it was time to come clean, and did so…sort of…in a two part interview with Oprah Winfrey.  Unfortunately, because Oprah is not an investigative journalist, most of the softball questions she lobbed his way were easily handled and the real pertinent questions, such as who supplied the money to help him cheat, who knew, and was there a cover-up on the part of the International Cycling Union, the IOC and others, was never answered, and probably never will be.  The saddest part about this whole ridiculous escapade is the trail of wrecked lives that Armstrong left in his wake.  From the people ...

Well, 2012 has come and gone.  When we look back at this year, will it go down as a memorable one, like 1967, 1972 or 2001, or will it be recorded as just another year of triumph, tragedy, and the same old same old?  At first glance, there seems to not be one single event that stands out as being truly significant or life changing.  No 9/11, no Canada/Russia series, no Watergate.  But two events stand out in my mind as being far more significant in the years to come than they may seem right now. 

In July of this year, scientists at the CERN Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland announced they had discovered evidence that a previously only theoretical elementary particle know as the HIGGS-BOSON did in fact exist.  The particle, know to some as the God Particle, is seen as one of the key elements in helping us ...