Surf's up -
If there's one thing that Newfoundlanders love to do, it's root for their own. Consider Canadian Idol (when in season), various Facebook groups that have the arbitrary purpose of just gathering a bunch of Newfoundlanders and - most recently - a campaign to put St. John's on the next Canadian edition of Monopoly.
Monopoly Canada
www.monopolyvote.ca
You can buy Monopoly editions devoted to everything from the Simpsons to golf to even "I Love Lucy." National editions abound, and for the next Canadian edition, the public has been invited to make the choices.
Through the last couple of weeks, St. John's has done well, but as I write this, has slipped from 6th to 10th place in a matter of a couple of days.
It's not just getting a square on the board, of course, but which square. That is, the highest votes get the royal-blue colours that usually go to Boardwalk and Park Place, the next three get the deep green colours, and so on.
In other words, a motivation for residents and/or supporters of various cities to keep voting (you can do it once a day) is to get or hold onto a prestigious colour. There are still more than three weeks to vote. Let's see where the dice land.
Elsewhere this week:
A History of the World in 100 Objects
www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld
Earlier this month, BBC Radio 4 launched what's already turned out to be a fascinating series: an attempt to tell the history of civilization, through a set of objects. I've been hearing some of the segments live through streaming radio; here, on the companion site, you can not only learn more, but contribute to the project - or, as they put it, "make history" yourself.
You can follow each day's contribution through a podcast, the blog, supplementary information and more, all in collaboration with staff at the British Museum. As host Neil MacGregor put it, the creators are passionate about physical objects, namely "things made by somebody with hands just like ours, for a purpose we can still hope to understand."
My Parents Were Awesome
myparentswereawesome.tumblr.com/
There comes a point when people - the teenage years, as young adults, maybe later - realize their parents are not space aliens but interesting, worthy human beings. My Parents Were Awesome is a collection of photographs that readers submit from years past (many, many years, on occasion) showing their parents. Some of the photos are hilarious, some are depictions of the time that taste forgot and some are quite touching.
Bettween
bettween.com/
It's Bettween, not between, but that's the point: this is a tool in which you can track conversations (i.e., replies) between two particular Twitter users.
Age of Persuasion episodes
www.cbc.ca/ageofpersuasion/
Friends of mine, who have an evidently more pure ideal of what CBC Radio should be, were shocked the network started a half-hour program on advertising. For me, "The Age of Persuasion" with host and marketing guru Terry O'Reilly is one of the smartest, best produced programs on the network, with weekly insights that go well beyond how commercials work. If you miss the show, you can stream it here, plus past episodes; downloads or podcasts, unfortunately, are still off limits because of copyright issues.
Epic Win FTW
epicwinftw.com/
If the title of this site doesn't make immediate sense, we'll catch you up. "Epic win" is one way of saying "astonishingly cool," and FTW stands for "for the win." Which, um, kind of makes the title redundant. But don't worry about that; instead, check in regularly for loads of cool things, especially hilarious pictures, often with a fanboy edge.
John Gushue is a writer in St. John's, on leave from his job at CBC News. Twitter: @johngushue. Blog: johngushue.typepad.com.
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
